going to take X-rays and tests.”
Sonia’s skin crawled. “Her larynx was crushed?”
“My best guess is that the bastard strangled her while he was getting off. The doctor is being very protective, jumped down my throat when he found out I called you. He understands we need to talk to her as soon as possible for a description of her attacker, but it’s obvious she underwent a major trauma. She might not remember any useful details. He doesn’t want her under any unnecessary stress.”
“Who’s the detective in charge?”
“Homicide detective John Black. We were initially told the victim was deceased, so until we got here we didn’t know she was still fighting for her life. John’s good. He’s keeping the case.”
“Great.” Sonia glanced at the closed door and said, “You need a guard on her.”
“Don’t know if I can do that,” Simone said. “You can talk to John. He’s still at the scene.”
“She’s in danger. If they find out she survived, they’ll come after her.”
“Maybe you’d better clue me in on the situation.”
The truth was, Sonia didn’t know what she was dealing with.
“How old is she?”
“Minor. Fifteen or sixteen.”
The right age. “Can I take a look at her?”
“And then you’ll tell me what’s going on?”
“Yes. You need to know what to look for, and I’ll want to talk to Detective Black as well.”
“The memo is about human trafficking. Is that what the tattoos mean?” Simone asked.
“Branding the victim with a tattoo or burn mark is becoming more commonplace. Some of the more high-tech organizations use GPS chips to track their victims, but the permanent markings are for ownership, and GPS is used to ensure their total compliance. Even if the victims are unsupervised for a time, GPS keeps them from escaping. They implant the chips usually in the shoulder or back of the neck.” Sonia hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. “We need to X-ray the victim immediately. I might be able to find it on an external exam, but if it’s been a while it might be harder to locate.”
Simone’s jaw clenched with indignant anger. “I’ll get the doctor.”
A male voice interrupted, “No one can talk to my patient right now.”
Sonia turned and faced the man in a white coat who came out of the victim’s room. His full head of close- cropped silver hair suggested senior citizen, but his face was smooth and youthful. He was closer to forty than sixty, and wore silver-rimmed glasses over blue eyes that defied Sonia to take a step toward his patient.
“Dr.”-she looked at the name embroidered on his white coat-“Miller, I’m Agent Sonia Knight with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I don’t need to talk to her now, but I do need to see her injuries and the tattoo on her arm. And-”
He interrupted. “Ms. Charles has already photo graphed what you need. You can get it from her.”
Sonia appreciated a doctor who protected his patients, but she was not the threat. “Doctor, your patient is in grave danger. We need a guard on this door.”
“I’ll notify security.”
“No. I mean a real cop, twenty-four/seven, at no time can she be left unwatched. If she’s who I think she is, some very bad people will do anything to make sure she can’t talk.”
“She may never talk again. Her larynx is crushed. She’s lucky to be alive.”
“I’m not leaving here until an armed guard is standing outside her door. It can be ICE, it can be Sac P.D., it can even be the FBI, I don’t give a damn, all I want is that girl to be safe.” Sonia pushed aside her windbreaker revealing her gun and badge, and crossed her arms, putting her back to the door. “And I need to inspect her body immediately. She may have a GPS tracking device embedded under her skin, which means the person who did this to her already knows where she is.”
Dr. Miller partly relented. “I’ll put hospital security on alert and have someone at her door until the police arrive.”
“We may need to move her. If she has a-”
He shook his head. “She’s in no condition to be moved. If you are certain she’s in danger, fine. Bring in an officer and we’ll make it work.”
Not good enough, but Sonia needed to confirm the microchip before she pushed to move a critically injured victim to another facility. “I also need the names of the nurses and orderlies who are assigned to this room. They need to be cleared, and then only those who are cleared will be allowed into the room, with an officer present.”
“Isn’t this overkill?”
Sonia had lost too many witnesses to the cutthroat brutality of traffickers. “Hell no. I don’t know if it’ll be enough. Under no circumstances is she to be identified as Jane Doe.”
“We already-”
“Change it-now. Call her, um, Simone, what’s your middle name?”
“Ann. Why?”
“Call her Ann Charles. Change every record in the system. They’ll find a way to get in and search for Jane Does. They will be looking for her, they’ve already started.” Of that, Sonia was certain. She hoped it wasn’t too late to thwart them, or at least stall them.
It was obvious that Dr. Miller was finally taking her seriously. “I’ll get right on it.”
“Doctor,” Sonia asked, “what are her chances?”
“That she regained consciousness, even momentarily, is a good sign, but … there’s extensive damage. She needs surgery, but right now surgery is too dangerous. If it wasn’t summer, she would have died of hypothermia. Even in this heat, her body temperature was far too low. I don’t know the extent of all her injuries. She’s going for a CAT scan in thirty minutes.”
“Do you have a portable X-ray available?” Sonia asked. “We need to know what we’re up against.”
“I’ll have it brought down. Give me a few minutes.” He walked briskly down the hall, pulling a nurse along with him.
Sonia turned to Simone. “Can you get someone from Sac P.D. down here before that?”
“I’ll do my best.” Simone picked up her phone.
Sonia said, “Turn around and man the door. Be alert.”
Sonia slipped into “Ann Charles’s” room before Simone could stop her.
She let the door close.
“You can’t be in here.”
Sonia faced a seasoned nurse who was monitoring several humming, beeping machines while writing on a chart. The victim was the only patient in the 4-bed ICU room. “I’m Agent Sonia Knight with Immigration. Dr. Miller said I could see the patient.” She showed the nurse her badge.
The nurse shook her head. “I doubt that. He allowed the police department to collect evidence, but the patient is in-”
None of the staff’s efforts to protect Ann would matter if her attacker tracked her to Sutter Hospital. These people were ruthless; they would kill anyone who got in their way. While most of the brutal violence associated with trafficking occurred outside U.S. borders, there had been a marked increase over the last few years of “unsolved” murders that ICE believed were a by-product of the more-than-$23-billion-and-growing human trafficking business.
“Five minutes,” she told the nurse as she approached the victim.
The nurse called security and stood sentry at the foot of the bed. “Don’t touch her,” the nurse growled, but made no move to throw Sonia out.
The victim had clearly not been meant to survive. Her skin was bruised, a bandage covered half her head, and numerous cuts had been cleaned, interspersed with bandages over the deeper injuries. Amazingly, her beautiful face was unmarked except for a couple of minor scratches. But her throat was dark purple with a bruise pattern that clearly outlined fingers.
Previous victims flashed through Sonia’s mind. She’d seen similar marks before. In southern Mexico she was
