Page 19 of Hack
CHAPTER EIGHT
Carter leaned against the kitchen counter as he talked to Matt. "How many women?"
"Six," Matt told him. "From the advertisement, it looks like six adult females and three preteen girls, maybe eleven or twelve years old."
"Captors?" Carter kept his voice low so Archer couldn't hear him from the other room.
"Three that we're aware of. It's a rundown motel just outside of Orange. It's open to the public, but it looks like they keep the females in certain rooms. The invitation my source sent me has photos of each female. It says I'm supposed to go to the desk and ask for my choice by name. Then I have five hours with her once I check in," Matt informed him.
"What do we know about the motel? How populated are we talking?" Carter hated the idea of going into a place where any of the innocent public could be around.
"I'm looking into that now. The place is a dump. I've hacked into the computer on site and it shows thirty rooms, of which half are occupied. If nine of those belong to our victims, then that leaves six that are customers or are being used for other activities."
"Yeah, my bet is they can pay by the hour." Carter sighed. "Does your invitation have an expiration date?"
"No, but it has a password that I'm supposed to use when I show up to let them know I've been vetted," Matt said. "This is from my contact inside that trafficking ring in San Diego we've been following."
"The one run by those border smugglers?"
"Yep, and looking at the photos of the females held at the motel, it looks like most are probably Mexican immigrants. My guess is they paid to have someone escort them into the States and this is where they ended up."
Carter agreed. They were seeing more and more sex trafficking rings appearing in the area and almost all of them were Mexican men and women. "Have you talked to Bryon yet?"
"I mentioned it to him, but he was on his way to an appointment. He said we'd talk more when he got back. I know we can't move on this right away, but I wanted you aware," Matt told him.
"No, I'm glad you did. Talk to Bryon. If he wants a full work-up of the site, do it and get back to me. I'll try to get in later and help, but I'm working on something personal right now. If we get the go-ahead on this, then I'll be in to help you set up. It's not going to happen for a couple of days at best."
"No, it won't, and Trenton found the location where the videos those teens in lingerie are being uploaded from. It's a studio downtown that is known for its casting couch scenes. Up until recently, it's all been adult, but with them moving younger…"
"Yeah, talk to Bryon, but I think that's one to hand over to Noam and the police. There's no proof of anything more than photos of young girls in underwear, but hopefully, Noam's team can put a stop to it before it goes any farther. Keep me posted." Carter hated not being there, but finding his daughter's killer was more important. "I'll be in when I can."
"Everything okay?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, nothing to worry about. I've just got a friend in town visiting. I'll be around, but not as much over the next few days." Truth was, working with Archer was going to take more than a few days, but he wasn't ready to talk about it with the team. They were good not to bring up the past or his daughter. It was something he didn't like talking about, but he would tell them what he was up to when the time was right. First, he needed to see if Archer really had anything new to work through. So far, he hadn't seen enough to know. "If you need anything, call me. I'm home, so I can come in quickly if needed."
"We're okay. Just keeping you in the loop. Do you want us to let you be for a few days?"
"No, keep me up to date on what is going on. It's not a vacation, just some time away," Carter assured him.
"Sounds good. Try and enjoy yourself." Matt ended the call.
Carter sighed. There wouldn't be any enjoying himself. Just reading over the information he had was bringing back emotions he'd tucked so deep he'd hoped they'd never escape. The pain of losing Angel never went away, but working with Archer was going to force him to face it all again as if it had just happened. It was only the hope that he could find a way to stop Lyle that kept him pushing.
He wandered back into the living room and sat down, noticing a bunch of photos of young girls beside Archer. "What's all that?"
"Current missing girls that fit the profile, only this stack is from areas that Lyle hasn't bothered with before. Places like here in California or other western states," Archer told him.
"Mind if I have a look?"
Archer handed him the pile. "I've been trying to track his location through the areas he finds his victims, but so far, all I've been able to piece together is he sticks mostly to the south and the eastern U.S.. There hasn't been a case west of Missouri in all the years we've been tracking him. I'm going to say eighty percent of his victims come from the northeast, and the other twenty percent from the south. It's one of the reasons I think he still has ties with his family, but my gut tells me he lives up east."
"You think he picks up girls while visiting family down south, but tends to take them from the east where it's closer to his home?"
"Exactly." Archer held up a thicker stack of papers. "Look how many more girls are missing from the east, and these are just blonde girls in his age range. Granted, the bigger populations would mean the higher probability of more missing girls, but my gut says that several of these girls are being held by him now."
Carter nodded. "Just waiting to age out."
"Sadly." Archer set the papers down on the coffee table. "The FBI was convinced he was in Virginia, but my gut says he's not. I don't think he's taking girls from close to where he lives, at least not that close. As far as location goes, I think we need to look somewhere he's not kidnapping girls from. The FBI is also convinced Lyle is working alone, but I disagree with this as well."
