Page 4 of Invincible
“Okay, I’ll ask Memphis.It’s his choice after that,” Knox said.
“That’s all I can ask.Thank you.”
“I should probably do it in person.I’ll drive out tonight.We should arrive sometime tomorrow.”
After petting the dog that had moved so he could rest his head on his lap, Dex stood and shook Knox’s hand.He didn’t need an assurance that the man would follow through on what he asked, Knox had already proven to be a man of his word.All Dex could do was return to his office and work his end of the case.
The path he was certain the smugglers were taking south was tenuous at best.Dex poured over the file he had amassed on their movements the next day in his office.
Knowing Knox and Memphis would need all of the information he could provide had spurred him to crawl out of bed early, still exhausted from the trip to Connecticut.If he could just find some hard evidence, it would be worth it.
Dex stood, crossing over to the map of the United States hanging on the wall next to his door.He stared at it for several minutes as if the map itself could tell him where the women were.He would stake his reputation on them being smuggled to the Gulf of Mexico before heading out of the country.But where exactly?
“Sir, you asked for a record of every container shipped south to the Houston area from a hundred-mile radius around the DC area not including rail or ship?”a young agent asked, stepping into Dex’s office.
“I took the liberty of scanning the information into a spreadsheet so you can extrapolate different information easier.I hope that was okay?The number of containers is extensive.”Dex admitted the kid was going to become an excellent agent, though his talents might be better utilized in the cybercrimes division.
“That’s perfect.Thank you.”Dex inserted the flash drive into his laptop, opening the only file on it.True to his word, all of the information Dex had feared he would spend the week trying to find a pattern in was now broken down into easy-to-manipulate cells.
After being bent over his computer for several hours, he finally saw the pattern emerge.There were regularly scheduled containers leaving Maryland from a small independent shipper.For the next hour, he hunted through a quagmire of shell companies that led nowhere.
Printing out the information, Dex spent another hour verifying his hunch.After highlighting the trailers in question, he picked up the papers and headed for his boss’s office.It might not be much, but with luck, he could argue in favor of letting him follow up his lead.
It wouldn’t be easy since most of the girls were taken from impoverished areas of the city, where very little effort would be spent looking for them.Most likely, an overwhelmed police department would write up a report and file it with very little follow-up.The missing girls were usually believed to have taken off on their own free will.
Stopping outside the SAC office, Dex said a small prayer that his reputation would let him continue.His boss was a fair man and rarely blocked an agent from pursuing a lead if he had good evidence.
The fact that this trail went all the way to Texas, however, was not working in Dex’s favor.He really needed to prevent it from being handed over to the Houston office.
Knocking on the door, he waited to be invited in before turning the knob.
“Sir,” Dex began, taking the seat offered across from his boss.“I think we have a problem.”Pulling out his information, Dex launched into an explanation of what he hoped was his newest case.
