by T. Starnes
All we could do was wait.
After two weeks of trying to pay attention in school, my nerves were totally shot. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I called Carter as soon as I got home from school on Friday.
"Yeah," he said when he answered my call.
"Mr. Talmon, This is Caspian Grey," I said, not sure how many clients he had at a time.
"Yeah," he said again. You had to appreciate a guy who remained consistent.
"You were looking into a couple of cases for me," I supplied, hoping he would offer up information.
"Yeah," he said. This guy really puts new meaning into the word monosyllabic.
"I was hoping for some updates.”
"Not over the phone. I'll bring what I have to you," he said and hung up.
I didn't know whether I was annoyed at the way this guy acted, or if I absolutely loved it; but it's one or the other. I went into the living room and sat down to wait. He didn't say he was headed right over, but that was my impression.
Thankfully, ten minutes later the doorbell rang. I found Carter Talmon standing on the other side of the door. I ushered him into the kitchen so we could sit at the table to talk.
"Which case do you want to talk about first, the dirty security guy, or the creepy church people?" he said with no preamble.
"Let's go with the creepy church people first," I replied using his name for them.
I had decided. I loved this guy's act. I didn't know if it was a put up job, or if this is how he really was, but sometimes you gotta love a character.
He reached into his briefcase and pulled out a series of five pictures and set them in front of me. Each included the same older man but different girls. I say girls because they were all Tina's age or younger. In one he was holding hands with the girl. The others were much more disturbing. There was nothing overtly obscene, but each picture he was being way more affectionate than was appropriate for an adult and a child.
"This is Joseph Taylor," Carter said pointing at the older man. "Each of the girls are his current 'brides' from the previous year.”
"These seem pretty damning. How come the cops can't get this kind of surveillance on him?”
"Because he keeps himself pretty well hidden. I had to sneak well onto their property to take these shots. I can't turn them over to the police, because I was trespassing when I took them. In reality, they are also evidence of me committing a crime. The stronger evidence is the audio recordings.”
"Audio recordings?”
"Yeah. I tapped his phone. That's illegal, which again is why it can't actually be used against him. I have one where he talks about his plans for his 'old brides' to make way for the new ones.”
I felt a tightening in my stomach, "What plans?”
"It seems every year he marries off his previous years brides to people in the church, supporters and what not, so he can bring in the new girls. These aren't legal marriages, mind you. Besides the girls not being old enough, most of these guys already have a wife or three.”
He passed several audio cassettes over to me.
"I also was able to get some of his banking information.”
"That can't possibly be legal," I said.
"I told you that what I was going to get wasn't going to be admissible in court. What did you think that meant?”
"There's a difference between non-admissible and straight out illegal," I said.
"I guess, but if you want a smoking gun this is how you have to do it. You are planning on blackmailing these people with this information, which is also against the law.”
"Not for money or anything," I said, defending my plan.
"No, but to force him to pack up and leave, or at least change the way they operate. Blackmail is blackmail. Not that I am against your plan. These guys are seriously disturbed.”
"Yeah," I said noncommittally. I was trying to do good, but to have the facts of where this was headed put so bluntly made me slightly uneasy. Not that I was giving up on my plan.
"So," I continued, "What did you get with the banking information.”
"Payments from the men who are getting these girls from Taylor," he said looking disgusted. "He's straight up selling these girls to them.”
"Jesus Christ! I can't believe this kind of shit is happening so blatantly," I said. I was truly shocked by what I was hearing.
"You should see some of the stuff that happens down on the border. Slavery is still alive and well in this country. It's just easier for Taylor and his group. These girls are as brainwashed as their parents. From the conversations I have heard, they are all looking forward to their new place in the church. Apparently having been one of Taylor's wives is a huge honor for these wackos.”
"I wish there was something we could do for them, too. It seems cold hearted to get Tami and Judy out, but leave these other girls to the mercy of depraved men.”
"I am not sure there is anything you can do. You would get a lot of push back from the girls. If I had to guess, if they were to be taken away from that 'church', they would find a way to escape and come back to the flock. You have no idea how lucky you are that your friends managed not to become brainwashed.”
"Yeah, I guess," I said still feeling the guilt. "Ok, what about Mapes?”
"This Mapes character is as crafty about what he's doing as these church people are blatant. Except for the alarm code thing, he has really covered his tracks. His IDs are all fake. Every address I can find for him leads to random businesses. I can't find any banking or financial information on him. Except for his dealings with you, this guy may not have even existed. Everything about him points to his being a professional. Where did you get him from?”
"He was a second hand reference from our military contact. I have trouble believing Ron was involved; but then, it wasn't really his reference, either. He got the name from someone else in his office.”
Carter finished jotting down notes and said, "That gives me another angle to look at, but I wouldn't hold onto a lot of hope. This guy knew what he was doing. Tracking him down might not be an option. You guys need to be on the lookout, though. This wasn't a 'one off' thing. This kind of guy works for someone.”
"So this isn't over," I said, more as a statement then a question.
"Not by a long shot," he replied.
I stood and walked Carter to the door, thanking him for his information. The girls had headed out to do some stuff together, which meant Tami was going to be occupied for a few hours. I knew that Judy went with Tina most afternoons, so she was also out of her house.
Putting the information Carter had given me in my backpack and grabbing my bike, I headed for the Smith house. I couldn't get over the weird sense of déjà vu from my trip to Emily's house, just after New Years. I seemed to be making a habit out of coercing my girlfriend's, or at least potential girlfriend's, families. While in both Emily's case and Tami's case I felt justified in my actions, I still felt bad that this seemed to be my go-to move to get things to go my way.
Pulling up to their house, I pushed those thoughts aside. The house itself was so vanilla it was shocking. This would be one of those places that, if the story of what was happening ever got out, the neighbors would all talk about how nice and normal the family seemed.
I knocked on their front door and waited. I wasn't sure if they would recognize me or not. Between dating one of their daughters, and my sister being friends with their other daughter, I couldn't imagine I was an unknown quantity; though I hadn't ever really had a face to face contact with the Smiths.
The door opened showing a woman in her 40's who said, "Ohh … you. What do you want?”
I guess that answered my question.
"I need to speak to you and your husband," I said.
"We are preparing to go out for the evening, and have nothing to say to you," she said, practically snarling.
"You will want to hear what I have to say. Otherwise I can go visit your neighbors and share what I have to say with them, instead. Of
course your preacher friend would not be happy with me, or you, if that happened.”
She glared at me a moment but stepped aside as I walked in. A tall, bean pole of a man stood just inside. It was unusual that her husband would let her do the talking in a situation like this, and I did a quick recalculation in my head of who was really in charge in this house.
I didn't know the layout of their house, but neither of Tami's parents seemed inclined to give me a tour. I could make out what looked like a living room just off the entry way. I walked past Mr. Smith and into that room.
Sitting down I motioned that the couple, who had followed me into the room, should take the love seat opposite the couch I sat on. More glaring ensued, but neither argued. Mrs. Smith motioned with her head for her husband to take a seat. She followed after him.
"I've discovered recently that in this kind of a situation, I am not one to beat around the bush. So I will just lay out what I have to say. I know what you are planning to have Judy marry, or at least how you see it, Mr. Taylor. I am not going to lecture you how amazingly repugnant this idea is. Not so much because I don't think you deserve to have someone tell you what pathetic human beings you are, but more because I don't think you would hear a word I have to say. Anyone willing to sell their daughter off to a serial child molester is so far gone, nothing I could say would make a difference.”
Mrs. Smith started to protest; but I ignored her, and rolled on, forcing her to quiet down.
"No, instead, I am going to rely on how much you two clearly love Mr. Taylor and this 'church' of yours. I am betting there is very little you wouldn't do, to keep it from falling to pieces.”
I pulled a small tape recorder out of my backpack, which I'd already pre-loaded with the tape Carter gave me. I pressed play and let a conversation I had cued up fill the quite room. Two men, both of whom must be known to the Smiths, were speaking about one of the previous years brides being auctioned off. I let the conversation go for just over a minute, so the couple understood how explicit the conversation was, before shutting it off.
"Besides this conversation I have bank records that confirm the exact nature of the conversation you just heard. I am betting your friends and neighbors, and those of the rest of your little church, know nothing about this little ritual you have going on. The cops might have a rough time getting something tangible on Taylor and the rest of your group, but how do you think the community would take this? How long would it be before you had a mob forming up on your doorstep?”
I sat and stared at the couple. Mr. Smith just looked at his feet. Mrs. Smith, however, continued to glare at me.
"What do you want?”
"I know Tami is off the table for your little ceremony, but Judy needs to be off the list, too. She isn't going to become one of Taylor's 'brides'. Neither girl should have to attend your church one moment longer, if they don't want to … and I guarantee they do not want to.”
Mrs. Smith's facade of anger started to crack, and I could see the edges of worry and panic slipping in.
"What are we supposed to do? It's already decided. We can't just tell Joseph she isn't available.”
"Well then, you two better think up something. If I hear one word of Judy being auctioned off to Taylor, or one complaint about their home life from either girl, everything I have will show up in every one of your neighbors' mailboxes, the next morning.”
"How do we know you won't just do that anyway?”
"Because you're a bright woman. You have to be considering your daughters. You know that this is my leverage. Without it, I lose my ability to protect them. So you keep your daughters free and clear of this, and I will refrain from riding your church out of town on a rail.”
She stared at me for a long moment and said, "Fine.”
"See, I knew you were smart," I said standing up. "Well, you two have a nice day, now.”
I excused myself, leaving the couple still sitting on the couch, looking like they had been hit by a freight train. Which I guess they kind of were. Not that I felt bad about that.
I got back home and the girls were still not there yet. I called Ted, Marcus and Jonathan and set up a meeting that evening for all four of us, to go over what I learned about Mapes. It wasn't much, but I still had a bad feeling about where this was going, and I thought a little strategizing wouldn't hurt. Marcus said he would pick me up in an hour.
Luckily, before the hour was up, the girls came home. I greeted them at the door.
"I have news," I said after giving each of the girls a kiss.
"What news?" Vicki asked.
I turned and faced Tami as I said, "I met with your parents today. Judy is safe. They are going to get her out of the thing with Taylor, and find an excuse to make her … and you, just in case … off limits.”
"Really?" Tami said looking a bit stunned. "How did you manage that? They were so happy about it I couldn't imagine anything keeping them from going through with it.”
"I did just what I said I was going to do. I got a bunch of information on the church and blackmailed them. Your parents' allegiance to the church, over you two, was made very clear. So I explained to them how I would make life very difficult for the church, and them, if they didn't cooperate.”
"And you sure they will go along with it?" She asked, still not quite believing the danger to her sister was over.
"Yes. I showed them what I have. It's damning stuff. They realize how bad things will get if I let it get out.”
"What about the other girls," Tami asked.
"I'm afraid there isn't anything I can do for them. The evidence isn't admissible in court, so the police can't use it. And those girls are all brainwashed enough that they would make any kind of intervention difficult. I will try and find something I can use to get the police involved; but for now, my priority was you and Judy.”
"So you make a habit out of blackmailing girls parents?" Emily asked, half smirking.
"Only when I have to," I said. "There is literally nothing I wouldn't do to keep you girls safe.”
Tami gave me a quick kiss and rushed out the door to go to Tina's house to give Judy the good news. I let the other girls lead me into the living room so they could tell me about their afternoon out.
About thirty minutes later Marcus showed up. He and I headed out the door. He looked concerned and wanted to get into it as soon as I was in the car.
"Wait 'till we get to the office," I told him, forestalling the questions that started as soon as I got in. "It saves me from having to do this twice. Ted and Jonathan will have all the same questions.”
"Yeah, I guess," Marcus said. We drove the rest of the way in silence. By the time we arrived both Ted and Jonathan were there waiting for us.
"Hey, guys," I said as I walked into Ted's office where the two were gathered. "Why the long faces.”
Ever since the break-in, everyone had been a little stressed; but the tension I felt when I walked into the room had notched up to a new level. Besides his desk, Ted had a small round table he used for meetings. Ted's men were seated at the table now, and Jonathan was over at Ted's desk talking on the phone. I grabbed a seat that faced the door, so I could be next to Ted. Once Marcus had grabbed a seat, pulled up the remaining chair to prop up my feet. It was probably a bit transparent, but I was trying to seem as casual and nonchalant as possible, hoping my mood would ease the tension in the room.
"We have a problem," Ted said as I sat. "I received an official notice today that the contract is on hold. They already accepted delivery of the test units, so that stays, but the order for the twenty units has been put on hold, indefinitely.”
"What happened?" I said, pulling my feet off the opposite chair.
"We aren't sure. Ron is dodging my calls," Ted replied.
"This is bad," Marcus said.
"Ok," Jonathan said as he hung up the phone, "I finally talked to your guy. He said he couldn't talk at the office, and had to wait 'till he got home. The order to shut us down came from much hig
her than his pay grade. From what he could find, MilTech Limited, one of the sub-contractors who handles much of their current drone productions, has ties to some DOD big wigs. They have been putting pressure on the Air Force to cut us out, and stick with their product.”
"We knew there were some rumblings," Ted said, "but from what I heard, the Air Force wasn't listening to it, since MilTech doesn't have anything comparable to SWEEP.”
"That is true," Jonathan replied, "but apparently there has been a change. MilTech started upping the pressure on their people in the DOD, and they have announced they will be launching a product that sounds very similar to ours, in the next few weeks.”
"Really?" Marcus said. "Everything I had heard suggested they hadn't even started working on a stealth product. How are they going to go from a full stop to production in just a few weeks. They need at least some lead time to do design and testing.”
No one had a good answer for him.
"This makes me even more concerned about the Mapes thing," I said. "I talked to Carter Talmon today. This guy Mapes is a ghost. Carter thinks he is a professional, some kind of corporate spy. Everything he could find on Mapes is fake.”
"Didn't Ron give you Mapes' name?" Jonathan asked Ted.
"Yeah, but he didn't know anyone specific when I asked, so he talked to some other guys in procurement, and got a name," Ted replied.
"Are we sure there wasn't anything taken in the break-in?" I asked. "Mapes being tied to someone at DOD. The break-in. The MilTech announcement. The canceling of our contract. I am having a hard time believing these things aren't all connected somehow.”
"It does feel that way," Ted said, "but no, nothing was taken. The safe wasn't breached and my IT guys swear the computers where we store back-ups of the plans haven't been touched.”
"So, what do we do?" I asked glumly.
No one said anything for a long time. We just looked around, sometimes at each other and other times at the walls around us. There didn't seem much we could do, but no one wanted to say it out loud. No one wanted to acknowledge how bad things were for us. Without this contract we were not 'dead in the water', but things would be a real struggle. Ronald's project would take a good deal of capital, for starters. It was a longer term bet than the drone project seemed to be.