“No, not completely. I see her less often, still hear her, and almost always feel like she’s watching me. But we’re working on it. I think I’m managing better. That’s what a lot of this CBT - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - is about, looking at different ways of reacting to things that I think I experience. And yes, I know about the alcohol. And the last thing I want is to have Janice come back or to relapse, but you can’t blame a guy for missing an excellent wine pairing. Maybe someday…”
“I’d just try to put that out of your mind altogether. I’m sure there are a lot of things you’ve had to give up in life. I can name some things from college if you need reminding, but you’ve done just fine without them. Alcohol can be the same. Just start looking at people who drink as addicts who dull their senses and aren’t as smart as they could be.”
“Sometimes a guy can use to have his senses dulled a bit.”
“You know I’m here to help. I won’t be drinking either and if I can do it, so can you. Enough on that subject for now. How’d you feel about your first day back?”
“I must admit to being nervous. Between you and Sam, I now pretty much remember my performance at that last meeting, and I can see my downward spiral that was obvious to everyone but me. Today, I was afraid that no one would take me seriously anymore. But I was surprised to find everyone welcoming. I even had some great architecture discussions with the team. They seem to be welcoming me back almost as if nothing has happened.”
“Mark, you’re the founder of the company. The vast majority of the senior employees and many of the junior ones came on because your career, your leadership, and your management style inspired them. They know you went through a rough patch with the divorce. We all tried to be supportive through the process and a lot of us wish we’d done a better job. Several of us wondered if putting a contract out on Janice would help.
“We’ve all been hoping you’d get back to the Mark we all love and admire. It doesn’t take much to recognize that guy, and everyone saw him today.”
Richard raised his glass of Mosto. “To you Buddy. Welcome back!”
“Right back at you Richard. I couldn’t have done it without you. Now if I can just stay on track.”
“Well, as Dr. Louis said, if you practice good behavior, it will become part of you and you won’t have to work at it so much. You’ve done much harder things in your life and we’ve both gotten up from some bad falls. I think once you know you can be successful, you can do it again. We can do it again.”
“Speaking of bad falls, how’s it going with Mindy? I guess your divorce is final now, too. I’m sorry I was so out of it. I should have been there for you.”
“No. Mine was different. Mindy and I had been growing apart for years. I wasn’t starry-eyed in love with her like you still were with Janice. I knew she was fooling around with her yoga instructor. I thought it was just a phase she was going through. But I was blown away when she announced that she was leaving me for him. How typical is that? Years ago it was men who had midlife crises and left their faithful wives for younger women. Now it seems to have flipped. Middle-aged women are leaving their husbands who’ve worked their asses off to be successful. They take half or more of what we’ve worked so hard for and off they go to have a good time. Well, good riddance. I’m done with that for good. I’ll never get married again.”
“God, you’re in bad shape too. I’ve never heard you so cynical.”
“Nah, don’t worry about me. I’m really fine.
“Hey, this is supposed to be a celebration. Let’s grab a couple more of those pintxos. I can’t stop eating the mini croissant sandwiches, filled with that spicy salted cod.
“And tell me about your sessions with Dr. Louis. What’s this new CBT technique she’s using – if it’s not confidential?”
“No, it’s not confidential. As Sam explained it to me, behavior, feelings, and thoughts all affect each other. My beliefs result in specific consequences, both emotional and behavioral. CBT seeks to help me look at why many of my thoughts and beliefs are not based in reality. If I change them, then my feelings change and my behavior changes as well. If my behavior changes, then so will my thoughts and feelings. Ultimately, I should be able to manage on a daily basis, even if my schizophrenia never goes away.
“I saw a bumper sticker the other day, and while it’s an oversimplification, it said ‘Don’t believe everything you think’. Obviously with my hallucinations, and my paranoid behavior, this is true for me. But not believing everything you think or feel is hard. We’re working on that.”
4
George had spent the last three days chasing the leads about Ryan Hamilton. So far the evidence was pretty damning. InfoEuro’s account balances didn’t match up with their sales. Money seemed to be coming in from another source. When George followed up on the names of the ‘suppliers’, he discovered shell companies that were run by individual ‘procurers’ – people in Eastern Europe with a knack for finding virtually anything, legal or not.
George met with the two young women who had escaped from their ‘owners’ and they gave him details on their stories. He had never imagined how vulnerable people could be. A part of him had thought that trafficking victims were primarily kids with personal problems or people on the fringes of society. The interviews had proven him wrong.
Each of these victims was intelligent and motivated to get ahead in life. Hamilton was a predator who had found a way to take what appeared to be a legitimate, positive tool for those looking to advance, and instead, to use it to trick people into situations from which they had no hope of escape. It was modern slavery. Instead of going to Africa to rip families from their homes, he perverted the Internet, using its extensive reach to find his slaves.
George began what would become continuing research on human trafficking. His first search turned up polarisproject.org which also sponsored the human trafficking hotline. And George was blown away.
He thought he knew about human trafficking, or at least sex trafficking. He knew that minors were at risk. He knew that young people, and especially young women and girls in Europe and Asia were victims. He knew that organized crime profited hugely from these exploited people. He also remembered the backpage.com scandal that had only recently been prosecuted.
Backpage.com was formerly the second largest classified ad website on the internet. Over the years, although they appeared to work with authorities on stopping ads which resulted in human trafficking, in the end, the CEO and several others were indicted on conspiracy and money laundering charges stemming out of the trafficking that occurred on the site. George had gone back through the articles on Backpage to see how it had evolved (or perhaps devolved) and found quite a few similarities to the subterfuge lotsofjobs.com used to recruit victims.
But it was the Polaris Project that really opened his eyes to the extent of trafficking, not just in or from third world countries, but here in the US.
The project had examined tens of thousands of cases of documented trafficking and sorted them into twenty-five categories. Sure, a few were familiar to George: Illicit Massage Parlors, Brothels, Outdoor Solicitation, Strip Clubs, Escort Services, Pornography, Sex Hotlines, but the others were shocking. The Polaris Project identified huge numbers of trafficking cases in what we think of as normal, day-to-day services:
Recreational Facilities
Health Care
Forestry and Logging
Carnivals
Factories and Manufacturing
Commercial Cleaning Services
Arts and Entertainment
Landscaping
Hotels and Hospitality
Construction
Health and Beauty Services
Agriculture
Peddling and Begging
Restaurants and Food Service
Travelling Sales Crews
Domestic Work
In each of these categories, the Project explained the nature of the work, how victims were recruited, and who profi
ted. Human trafficking was everywhere around us. We just didn’t see it and didn’t know how to recognize it. George hoped to change that, revealing the extent of trafficking to all of the Sentinel’s readers.
With interviews and preliminary research done, George started outlining his first article on Ryan Hamilton using the information that the informant had provided. He decided to include the parallels with Backpage. Lotsofjobs wasn’t an isolated case of exploitation.
Next, George laid out a plan for the series of follow-on pieces. The first would begin with sex trafficking. That would get people’s attention, particularly as he emphasized unexplored vulnerabilities.
He’d then continue with subsequent articles following the Polaris Project’s categories, focusing on how to recognize trafficking and its victims in each area.
George attached his plan to an email and sent it to Morris, asking for a meeting the next day to discuss how to proceed. He took a deep breath and dove into the first draft of the exposé on lotsofjobs.com. He lost track of time.
His phone rang.
“George, did you lose track of time?” Janey asked. “It’s almost eight o’clock.”
“Janey, I’m so sorry. It’s the trafficking. I got a bit carried away.”
He glanced at his watch and continued.
“If I race out now, I should be able to catch the eight thirty train. That should get me home before ten.”
“It’s okay George. Did you at least eat something?”
Thinking back on his day, George realized that he hadn’t even had lunch.
“Now that you mention it, I’m starving.”
“Well, if you’re starving, pick something up at the Caltrain station if you have time, and I’ll order a pizza. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve learned!”
George shut down his laptop, and raced to the Caltrain station. He made the 8:30 train and by the time he arrived in Mountain View, he was nearly done with his first draft, except for the details of Hamilton’s impending arrest. He’d review the draft with Janey. This time he was on to something that would really benefit a lot of people and, for a change, shouldn’t have collateral damage. He was even more excited than he was on his first day at the Sentinel.
5
Checking his email before leaving for work, George was only slightly surprised that he’d received a message from Morris timestamped five thirteen am. Hamilton had been arrested at his home in the wee hours of the morning and lotsofjobs.com had been shut down. George tried to access the site and indeed, there was a Department of Justice intercept banner stating that lotsofjobs.com and affiliated websites had been seized as part of a Federal investigation by several agencies. It appeared that the Justice Department moved surgically in situations like this one.
Morris’ email also included details of the arrest, including the fact that it had taken place at just after four am. Along with the arrest, searches of Hamilton’s homes, his offices, and computers were underway and related information, bank accounts, and investments were being seized as evidence.
Morris’ email was surprisingly detailed and for all intents and purposes, he had written the rest of George’s story. In fact, George was only half way to the office when he completed the cut, paste, and edits, and then uploaded the article to the Sentinel server. He sent a copy directly to Morris and dozed for the rest of the ride to the City.
Arriving at the office, Joyce let him know that Morris wanted to see him as soon as he got in. George made his way to his cubicle, dropped his laptop into the docking station, booted it and raced over to see Morris.
Motioning George to the somewhat ratty couch in his office, Morris came around his desk, closed the office door and pulled a chair to face George.
“George, Sterling Rockwell asked me to thank you for the excellent work you’ve done on this story. If you were a rising star before, now corporate has a good sense of what you can do.”
George found himself at a loss for words. Morris just smiled.
“Not so great at accepting compliments, huh?” Morris joked.
“No. It’s not that. It’s just that the last several days have been a whirlwind. I’m glad everyone is pleased, but really, this is all due to the informant, whoever he or she is.”
“Well, he or she chose you and you’ve done a superb job of turning a lead into a great story. This is one of the biggest exposés the Sentinel has seen in a long time. And, as we’ve discussed, this is just the beginning.”
“Yeah, I’m looking forward to continuing to pursue this. I’m not sure if you could tell from my proposal, but trafficking goes much deeper and hits much closer to home than I ever imagined. So, what did you think of my proposal?”
“I’ve discussed it with the Sterling and the editorial staff and we’d like you to do an in-depth article once a week for the foreseeable future. We’re still debating the order, but since you spoke to sex trafficking in the article on Hamilton, we’ll likely save that for later. For next week, we’d like you to get started on indentured servitude and slavery in the tech sector. We’d like you to show people that even highly educated workers can get trapped by these scams. It may not be as sensational as the sex trafficking, but we think it will be a real eye-opener, with particular impact in the Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. We’ll get back to you weekly with what we think should be next.”
“I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but it’s an excellent idea. People need to know that it’s closer than they think. You’re right. This is a better way to kick it off.”
“George, for now, this should be your primary focus. We need to figure out what we’re going to do with the Ashima James story, particularly if there are really more murders.”
“Morris, I know you’ve warned me before about taking on too much, but I can’t let that one go. I feel responsible and I need to be part of helping catch the killer. Please don’t take me off the story.”
Morris thought about it silently for a moment, looking intently at George who felt like he was being examined by a psychiatrist.
“Okay. I’ll tell you what George. I really think this is going to get too big for you. So, if you’re not willing to give up on the murders, we need to get you some help. I’ll be back to you later today after I decide who will be working with you. You’ll take the lead, and I’ll be watching closely for a while to make sure you can delegate some of the work, but that’s my decision. Either choose one or accept some help.”
George asked himself whether he could work with someone else on a story. He wasn’t sure that he could. Thus far, he’d pretty much been on his own. Every story was his. Could he share? Even more challenging was could he lead someone else?
For now, he’d agree. And then he’d talk to Janey about how this could work. She led multiple teams of engineers at her company and claimed that some of them were better engineers than she was. That was hard to believe. But somehow, she made it work. He’d met her team on several occasions and they loved and respected Janey. They really were a team. Maybe George could learn to lead a team too.
“Okay. I’ll do my best. I’m not sure how good I’ll be at leading someone else, but I’ll try. And I’ll be back to you for advice.”
“Of course, George! That’s what I’m here for. And one last thing. What your informant gave us was huge. If he does this again, you’re going to be buried. Delegation and working with a team is something you need to do. I guarantee it will be great for your career.”
George left his office with his head spinning, both excited at the dramatic change his work was taking and terrified.
6
Sam looked out her window as Brittany drove away. Her practice was definitely picking up. How could she have imagined that finishing up with her last patient would be a big letdown? Sure, it may have been the case of a lifetime, but with Mark Johansen and now Brittany, her practice certainly hadn’t become a parade of adolescent eating disorders.
With Mark, they were about to move into another phase of ther
apy. The CBT was working, helping Mark manage his behavior, and he was tolerating the medication well. Now maybe, just maybe, they could get to the root of his problem. More and more, Sam sensed that Mark had been subject to some childhood trauma. As to whether or not it was the cause of his schizophrenia, that was another story. But it was certainly worth pursuing.
As for Brittany Spangler, Borderline Personality Disorder or BPD was always a challenge. In fact in Sam’s opinion, it was the biggest challenge in psychiatry today. Like schizophrenia, a family history of the disorder tended to increase the odds of suffering from it, so it could be genetic, but then again, it could be a question of environment, or a genetic predisposition. Childhood trauma seemed to increase the chances too. These days, that could be said about most psychiatric problems.
But beyond understanding the cause, treatment of BPD was difficult, particularly for very intelligent patients like Brittany. Most BPD patients were master deceivers. And though the Schema-focused Therapy appeared to have started well, it was quite possible that Brittany was just trying to manipulate Sam. Time would tell.
Just as Sam was finishing up her notes on her session with Brittany, her office phone rang.
“This is Doctor Louis. How can I help you?”
“Hi Doctor Louis – ah, Sam. This is Jack Trageser. You took my rowing class a few weeks ago.”
“Hi Jack. How are you?”
“I’m doing well. I understand that you’ve continued your lessons and from what Mary tells me, you’ve made great progress. She said you’d been rowing with her and that you’re a natural.”
“I doubt that I’m a natural, but so far I’m finding I really do enjoy it,” Sam replied, in nervous anticipation of what would come next.
“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to get together sometime. I’d like to get to know you. Maybe we could take a double out on the lake?” But sensing some hesitation on the other end of the line, “Or maybe lunch?”
The Misogynist Page 7