That was news to Melody. It must have been in the morning reports she hadn’t seen yet. “How did an outside advocacy group get wind of this?”
“Damned sponsored phones! It should be illegal for anyone working in a hospital to have a sponsored phone. What about patient privacy? For crying out loud, they had drones flying around the hospital room windows a little while ago.”
Mel didn’t respond. There wasn’t anything to say. Paul was right about the phones, but that didn’t mean sponsoring would stop anytime soon. No doubt there were dozens of people inside the hospital who had them.
A free or cheap phone always came with a high price tag, and that cost was privacy. A user didn’t even have to break the law to leak confidential information on a sponsored phone. All a person had to do was make a normal phone call home and say something innocuous, like explain to a spouse that a lot of children had come in and the police needed her to stay late and help them.
That’s it. The A.I. belonging to the sponsor would pick up on it and before you knew it, news drones would be inbound. Information was currency and sponsored phones were one way to mine for it. They were just lucky it was an advocacy group that sponsored the phone and not a news site or shyster lawyer looking to file a lawsuit for a percentage.
Changing topic seemed the wiser move to Mel. “Maybe social services is right. Maybe we shouldn’t rush to match the kids up with family, or even rush to get official identifications.”
Captain Mann frowned. “We can’t have unknown children. If for no other reason than to prosecute, we have to find out where every single one of those girls came from. If they were sold or given away, the ones who did it have to pay just like all the others involved. We leave that half of the equation out too often. Everyone involved has to face justice. All buyers and all sellers have to pay.”
The Captain was right, but also very wrong. Mel understood both sides of this. Now that the girls were news, and likely to be cared for, they didn’t need to have bad mothers popping up on the scene. Especially not ones that lost their child years ago and never bothered to report it. On the other hand, sending those mothers and fathers to jail would be highly satisfying. Going public would cut both ways and unfortunately, the girls were the ones under those knives.
Tapping the thick file with an equally thick finger, the Captain said, “We matched two from the Missing and Endangered Children DNA database, and four from missing persons reports, but that leaves eight. A warrant to run their DNA against the criminal, immigration, and military databanks looking for familial matches is our best bet for finding out who they are. For all we know the parents are dead or deported and had no way to report a missing child. We have to find out.”
The words hung in the air and the three occupants of the room were silent. Beyond the glass walls of the office, the work of their unit continued in noisy spurts. Of course it did. This city, the most populous city of their nation, was still the crime-infested dark warren it had always been. Fourteen young girls didn’t change that. There were still rapes, still child predators, still bad things of all stripes. The work went on.
Mel tore her eyes from the scene beyond the glass, and said, “We’ve still got more interviews. We might find out who they are without the warrant. Or before the warrant is argued.”
The Captain nodded grimly. “True. The Child Identity Act of 2024 may have helped keep identity theft down for kids, but it sure is a pain in the ass for everything else. It will take time to get in front of a judge at the special court. The more IDs you can get before that day comes, the better.”
“What about the suspects?” Mel asked.
Mann’s expression shifted to one of disgust. “All typical dirtbags of the first order. They’re all lawyered up. A few of the sellers are terrified, and asked to be put in solitary, so there’s definitely more to this ring than we know. They wouldn’t be scared if there weren’t higher-ups to be scared of. Hard cases, all of them.”
“What about the clients?” she asked.
“Fucking assholes,” he said. “I’m still debating whether or not I’ll let it leak at the jail that they’re kiddie diddlers.”
Mel gave him a look. “Don’t do it, Captain. It will make convictions harder if they go before the jury looking like they were shoved through a meat grinder.”
He looked angry, like he was barely holding in an urge to buy his own meat grinder and get to work. He drew in a deep breath to calm down, then said, “The DA is already talking deals for those shitwads. Lesser charges in exchange for information on how they book with the group, like web pages and contacts and stuff.” He paused and motioned as if pushing the topic aside. “Right now, we need to focus on the girls. They were inside, so they know more than they probably realize, but they’re fragile. We need information, but we also need to help them. That’s why you two need to be at your best.”
Paul still looked agitated, or more agitated than normal. It wasn’t the right mood for an interview. The agitation would show and would do nothing to help gain the girls’ trust, which they needed. Melody needed them to open up with the information the police so desperately needed.
Paul needed a day away from the living parts of this case. He needed a day of paper and computers and phones. Mel knew it would mean more work
