Bringing All the Bad, стр. 12
Mel tried to make sense of the paper. The legend scribbled at the top showed that each color was one girl, her name and age listed. The timeline was based on age, rather than chronological time. Finally, it began to make sense.
“Oh my god,” she murmured, finally seeing what he had seen.
Each girl went through a remarkably similar process. The three youngest girls ended on the timeline fairly early on, but of the twelve to thirteen-year-old group, there was a starting pattern that matched those younger girls. Only the oldest girls had nothing before the RV park, mostly because they wouldn’t share anything yet.
“They transfer the kids based on ages for different types of perverts,” she said, using the word they weren’t supposed to use when talking about perpetrators.
Mann made no mention of the word. “Lydia, the one with the blue line, is thirteen. She’s been the most talkative of the older group. She verifies that she got the sleeping princess story too. She was held in a large house in a place that was very hot. She had a bedroom that looked like a princess bedroom. There were palm trees and a beach, but she never went beyond the fence of the property. Everyone who tended her spoke a different language. While she was in that house, Papa came daily. No one touched her there. He read her the stories.”
“That’s the indoctrination,” Mel said, breaking his flow.
“Exactly. At some point, she was moved by plane to someplace else where it was winter and into another house. That’s when the men started coming. When she was about ten, she was transferred by plane again to another place, another hot place, but outside was only desert. There was only one man who saw her there and she was kept in a suite of rooms and never allowed outside. She saw people wearing what she thought were black blankets over their bodies through the windows, but the only people who had contact with her were dark-skinned and didn’t speak English. When she was twelve, she was flown back, but not to the ocean place. Instead, she was added to the RV caravan and everyone spoke English again. She’s been there for over a year.”
“If he’s moving them based on age, I wonder why he had young girls at the RV park. I mean, it’s a discontinuity.”
“No, it isn’t. It’s a customer oriented business. This Papa is making sure all his customers get what they want. I hate to say it, but the primary difference in the appearance of the older girls and the younger girls at the RV park is beauty. The younger girls are cute in the way little kids are, but the older ones that fit that timeline are beautiful. They would have been beautiful little girls too. My guess is that the ones who make the cut are sold to private clients. Or leased anyway. When they pass the age for the customer’s preference, Papa gives them a new one and takes the older girl to the RV brothel.”
Mel scanned the lines on the paper as he spoke, recognizing the similarities in the lines for other girls. “So, he’s got a consistent system. Which means this ring is huge, very organized, has been going on for a very long time, and will likely make a lot of very rich men very nervous.”
Captain Mann nodded gravely. “Yeah, women too. Wives and politicians and who knows what else. You can’t have an operation this big without having a lot of protection from authorities or whatever. That’s why I’m trying to get some additional personnel and money for safe houses. If this is a big as it looks, then those girls aren’t safe.”
Mel gave him a sharp glance. “What about involvement here?”
Mann knew what she meant with that enigmatic question. Was there the potential for power players locally to be involved, and if so, how could they keep the girls safe when those same power players had, or could get, access?
“It’s a possibility. I’ve called a friend at the US Attorney’s office. Squeaky clean, and she works these type of cases. Maybe she can help.”
“I’d be willing to lose jurisdiction if we could keep them safe. I really would,” Mel said. The last thing any cop wanted to do was be booted off a case, but sometimes, it was the right thing.
“We’re not there yet,” Mann said, sighing heavily.
Her mind was drawn back to Baby and her story. It wasn’t a fairy tale, but it also wasn’t far off of that. She looked up at her boss, who suddenly looked as old as the streets of this dirty city. “So, you think Baby’s story is just another one Papa cooked up?”
That made Mann pinch the bridge of his nose, obviously uncertain. “It’s not like the others, but it’s bizarre and not something someone her age could have thought of by herself, especially if she believes it. No, there’s something else going on. I…” He trailed off, thinking.
“What?” she prodded.
“What if she really was the caller? What if she really did just arrive at the RV park? The younger girls still seemed to almost believe that fairy tale business, but the older girls? Girls her age? Something is off there, disconnected.” He stopped for a moment, gathering his thoughts. “What if Baby isn’t one of Papa’s original girls? What if she’s a trade? Someone else had her and maybe traded her out of their ring. If so, that might explain why she was so willing to call the police. What if she did believe the story she was given, but realized it was bunk when she got traded?”
“That would mean there’s more than one like Papa.”
“There probably is. Anything complex enough to send a girl on a private plane across the ocean and then back again when she’s too old