Isabel's run

“Good.”

“About the case.”

“I assumed.”

“Nancy said if she got something more concrete about Isabel’s whereabouts, she’d move on it. Right?” I said.

“Yeah.” Her voice took on a wary edge. “What’d you have in mind?”

“I think I might have a way of moving things along. No waiting for the FBI.”

“You want to tell me about it?”

“Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 16

“That sucks,” Kenny said. “You mean they won’t do anything?” We were seated around the conference room table. It was 1:15 p.m. I’d just recounted our meeting with Nancy and the FBI.

“The FBI is made up of a bunch of weenies,” I said. “Mostly, anyway. There are some good people there, but they’re all covered up in mountains of political bullshit so high they can’t even come up for air. They won’t move on the NSSB for probably eighteen damn months while they ‘assemble their case.’ Good news-once they’re done, it’ll be ironclad. Bad guys will go to prison for a long time. Bad news-a half-dozen girls will slip through the net between now and then.”

“Isabel being the first,” Toni said.

“Exactly. And worse, dozens more girls will slip through because they’re on either side of the FBI investigation-they don’t exactly fit the type of crime the FBI’s going after, so the FBI ignores them altogether. Meanwhile, the Feds would rather let Isabel get sold to a Vegas pimp so they can use that little transaction as evidence against the NSSB at some point down the road than step in and prevent the crime from happening in the first place. They’d never admit it, but Isabel’s a pawn to them.”

“That’s pretty tunnel-visioned,” Doc said.

I nodded. “Damn straight.”

Richard shifted in his chair. “Does Nancy Stewart feel the same way? Is she somehow compelled to defer to the FBI because of SPD’s participation in the task force?”

“I get the impression that she needs to go along with them in matters directly related to the Innocence Lost task force-in this case, trafficking.”

“That was my impression, too,” Toni said. “I don’t think she has a choice. That’s probably why she talked to them about it in the first place. But at the same time, I left the meeting thinking that she’s definitely in charge when it comes to any other criminal activity-particularly something that’s about to lead to the harm of a minor. She as much as said she wouldn’t stand by and allow Isabel to get hurt-even if it messed up the case the FBI wanted to start on NSSB.”

“Good for her,” Richard said. “In my experience, when the FBI would roll into the middle of a case, they’d try to suck all the air out of the room. In fact, they’d act like they owned the place. Depending to some extent on whom you’re working with, they don’t like to be dealt with as equals-you have to stand up to them. But, then again, they are the eight-hundred-pound gorilla. There’s only so much you can do.”

“That’s right,” I said. “And that’s why Nancy’s not going to pursue an investigation centered around sex trafficking. Period. She can’t. Not without the Feds.”

“So we have to come at the problem from a different angle, then,” Richard said.

“Exactly,” I said. “Look at the title of Nancy’s department. It says ‘Vice and High Risk Victims unit. If Isabel isn’t a potential high-risk victim, I don’t know who is.”

Richard nodded. “It’s for people like Isabel that SPD reorganized that whole department,” Richard said.

“So do you have a plan?” Doc said. Doc’s a pretty direct guy. He grasps concepts very quickly and, after that, doesn’t require much in the way of explanation.

I smiled. “Do I have a plan,” I said. “Of course I have a plan. The way I see it, we’re here to rescue Isabel. We don’t care about legal cases. The issue is, rescuing Isabel can either happen the direct way-we go in and snatch her-or the indirect way: we give the police the evidence they need so that they’ll go in and bust the bad guys and, in the process, rescue Isabel. And if it’s going to happen the indirect way, then we do need to worry about legal cases because the police won’t come out and play any other way. Does this make sense?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good. I think there’s a reasonable chance-I don’t know the exact odds-that Isabel hasn’t been shipped to Las Vegas or wherever just yet. I say that because if they beat her up last week, they might want her to recover a little before they try to sell her.”

“In order to get top dollar?” Kenny asked.

I nodded. “It’s despicable, but it’s logical. And, if that’s the case, that means she’s still around-very possibly at one of the three known NSSB houses. I propose we mount a tactical operation in which I go into each house on a clandestine basis.” This got everyone’s attention. I continued. “Best case-I find Isabel right then and there and bring her out with me. Otherwise, I look for evidence that she was there. If I can’t find either of those, then I look for any other incriminating evidence I can find. I take a few pictures, and I leave.”

“Obviously, evidence obtained like that is most likely of no value in court,” Richard said.

“Assuming I don’t find her outright, you’re probably right. With luck, I will find her.”

“For what we’re doing,” Toni said, “it doesn’t matter if the evidence is legally admissible or not. We’re not trying to convict anyone. And besides, even if the evidence isn’t legally useful, it still gives us some good intel. And that helps us create our next step. If we have solid information as to what we’re looking at, it will be that much easier to be able to develop a plan to obtain evidence that is useful in court-evidence that will motivate the police to get involved.”

“Evidence aside, it might be prudent to consider the fact that breaking and entering is illegal in this state,” Richard said. “Never mind the fact that the idea of breaking into a known gang house poses its own problems, right from the start. Do you think there might be an element of danger involved?” I liked Richard’s sarcasm.

“Your second point addresses your first,” I said.

He tilted his head. “Explain.”

“I don’t think it’s very likely that I’d get caught. But even if I did, I don’t think the gang is likely to call the cops. I think they’d be more inclined to dispense a little cowboy justice, right?”

He nodded. “That’s supposed to be a comfort?” he asked. “Your first point bolsters my second. The danger is doubly high.”

I smiled. “Which is exactly why I’m not asking for volunteers on this mission. I’m doing it myself.”

“I volunteer,” Doc said, raising his hand.

“Me, too,” Kenny said.

“Me, three,” Toni said.

“You guys are all cowboys. I said I’m not asking for volunteers. I’m going in myself-by myself. We’ll set up a good, tight perimeter operation and minimize the danger. I’ll get in, see if Isabel’s there or if there’s any trace of her, snap a couple of photos, then get out. Anything goes wrong, you guys come get me. Maybe we’ll get lucky, who knows. At least we won’t be sitting around twiddling our thumbs, waiting for something to happen.”

At 3:45 p.m., I decided to enter the big house. I was sitting with Kenny in the parking lot of the Bryant Neighborhood Playground-the same place we’d parked the Winnebago last Saturday. We were in our white van with Rainier Valley Water Damage Repair vinyl stickers slapped on the side. Kenny and I had been watching the house on Fortieth Avenue for an hour. We’d seen no signs to indicate it was occupied. The white BMW was gone, as was the red Honda. No one had entered or left the home since we’d been there. We could see no lights on inside.

“There’s no cell phone signals that look to be coming from that direction-at least nothing close,” Kenny said,