“If you’d give me a chance to answer your questions, counsellor, I’m sure you will see that we have a legitimate reason to make these inquiries. This is a fair and objective investigation based on the evidence we have collected so far.”
“I’m listening. What can you possibly say that makes any sense?”
“J.J., please. Just listen to what we have to say.” Chloe repeated what she had told McGrath. “The DNA results confirmed that the five missing girls have been held in at least two properties owned by MPI, LLC. Additionally, we currently have deputies at the Sistrunk Shelter talking to some of the girls who spoke with the woman in the black Mercedes. They are showing them a photo array, and we should have a positive identification momentarily.” She turned to Dan McGrath. “Did you know, Mr. McGrath, that there are no records of your wife’s existence prior to your marriage in 1994? The birth certificate we located for Anne Marie Harrison was for a child that died at two years of age. We could find no school, health, or credit records prior to 1994. In an interview I came across that Anne Marie gave in Gold Coast magazine she said that she was a Fort Lauderdale native, but there are no records to substantiate that claim.”
J.J. was looking worried now, but he clearly wasn’t convinced. “I can’t believe this after all we went through. I was right about you all along. Is this you being fair and objective, not interfering in people’s personal lives, or is this you being a judgmental, self-righteous, jealous bitch with a tin badge to back it up?”
Chloe gasped. She was sick to her stomach. Could his words be any crueler? “I’d say I had a damn good reason for interfering—five girls whose lives are in danger and one who is already dead.” This was going to be just as bad as she had thought, but she hadn’t expected such a personal attack. “I’m just doing my job, J.J. If you think that your relationship to the suspects didn’t enter my mind you are mistaken. I have a job to do, and those girls are depending on us to find them. We still don’t know if we will find them in time. My God. Mitzi Jones died in a damn shipping container.”
“That cannot have anything to do with the McGraths.”
“We’ll see.” She had to suck it up, tough it out, and do her job.
The uniformed deputies directed by the CSU team searched the house. They found that apparently Anne Marie had left in the middle of the night. Two suitcases from the very expensive Louis Vuitton luggage set in her closet were missing along with clothes, all the cash that had been in the house, and all of her very valuable jewelry. The safe hidden in Anne Marie’s master closet was standing open. The red Miata had been caught on a traffic cam at Broward and Federal. She had also been caught on camera at an ATM at the Bank of America building on Third Avenue where she had withdrawn the maximum amount of cash. She had also filled the tank at a gas station on Broward Boulevard. Anne Marie was obviously heading for I-95. Her husband was shocked. Apparently, he couldn’t come up with a good reason for this turn of events.
Simultaneously, teams of uniformed deputies and CSIs were combing through the various McGrath properties and had entered the law firm’s offices where computer hard drives and the McGrath’s personal files had been seized. It was going to take weeks to go through all of the evidence. On Monday the law offices would be virtually shut down with no computers.
McGrath and J.J. went into McGrath’s home office and shut the door to have a private conversation. Raised voices could be heard through the door, and then it got quiet again. Finally, they came out and J.J. said, “Dan wants to help. He knows nothing about any of this. However, in the spirit of cooperation, he wants to offer you the names of two other companies which were formed by the firm. They hold title to more properties in the port area. He was putting together a portfolio in advance of anticipated airport and port expansion projects. The addresses for those properties are not on the warrants.”
Del stepped forward. Apparently he could see how upset she was by J.J.’s attack on her. “Give me the list. I’ll get deputies to check them out immediately. This will go a long way toward helping your client if it comes down to a prosecution.”
“Dan knows nothing about any of this. He does not believe Anne Marie could be involved in anything of this nature. She is a mother with two teens of her own.”
“Maybe she didn’t want her teens to have to give up their privileged lifestyle, private school, the whole nine yards. Who knows what motivates people and what they can be driven to do. It will all come out in the end. Count on that,” Del said with a frown.
Chloe had stepped away from the group. She couldn’t face J.J. She was going to let her task force partners handle the interviews from now on. She planned to slip into the background and do what she did best—computer work. Anne Marie had to be heading somewhere. She may have had another identity ready in case she needed to make a run for it. This was going to take some deep digging, but people always seemed to go back to what they knew—the familiar. Anne Marie had a soft drawl that she had apparently succeeded in toning down. That made Chloe think she would stick to locations in the South where she would not stand out. Her two henchmen had both come from Louisiana and had criminal records there. She had to know them from somewhere. That would be a good place to start digging. She could branch out from there if she had to. She would start with deep background checks on the Beaudreau cousins and see if she could come up with any connections to a female matching Anne Marie’s description.
She would bury herself in work. She would not let J.J.’s cruel words take root in her soul. They had felt like a hot knife through her heart, but she had survived this loss before, and she would again. She was doing good work here. She was. She had to hang on to that.
* * * *
The members of the task force and the CSIs continued to process the MPI properties. Del and Kaylin, with the help of Jed as backup, went to check out the additional addresses provided by Dan McGrath. They had searched two properties and were heading for number three.
“I wonder how Chloe missed these properties.” Del looked puzzled. “She’s like a bloodhound with her nose to the ground, and she misses nothing.”
“My guess is that the entities were formed by the law firm, and the McGraths’ names don’t appear as members or officers. That’s the way I’d do it if I didn’t want my name associated with a company.”
“Let me remember that for future reference.” Del was grinning at her now.
“Drive the car.”
They pulled up to the third address on McGrath’s list. It was another dingy warehouse building in a depressed area. It had barred windows and thick steel doors front and back with industrial-strength padlocks. Del pulled a set of heavy-duty bolt cutters out of the back of his Jeep. He and Jed attacked the door and had it opened in short order.
Del and Kaylin entered first with weapons drawn while Jed went around to watch the back door. “BSO. Is anyone here? Come out with your hands up.”
Nothing.
Kaylin tilted her head. “I think I hear some noise coming from the back.” She headed in that direction with Del on her heels. Down a narrow hallway they found another padlocked door. Del made quick work of that lock as well. They moved to the sides of the door and pushed it open. Huddled in the middle of the floor with their hands raised over their heads were five frightened, dirty teenage girls. “We’re the police. You’re going to be okay. Del, call for ambulances and backup. Also, call Jayden Lane. She might be able to help us out here until we can get Social Services involved.” Kaylin walked into the filthy, cramped room and knelt down in front of the scared girls. “We have been searching for you guys for weeks. I bet you thought no one out there was looking for you.”
“We didn’t think anyone would find us. She said no one would look for runaways or even notice that we were gone. She said that we should just make the best of our new lives.”
“I hope you will all do that, but she is not going to have anything to do with it. Can you guys identify the woman who took you and the two men who kept you priso
ner if I show you pictures?”
They all chorused, “Yes!”
One small, blonde girl said, “She was pretty with dark hair and nice clothes. She was going to take us out to lunch and to buy a new outfit.”
“Oh, baby. That old saying about looking a gift horse in the mouth is not true. You should always look them in the mouth and make sure they aren’t going to bite you.” She chuckled. “My partner is calling for help. I bet you guys are hungry and would really like showers. I think Ms. Lane at the Sistrunk Shelter can help us out with that, and then we are going to need to take your statements and get formal identifications of your kidnappers so they will go to jail for a long, long time.”
Kaylin wished that Chloe was with them for this splendid moment that made the difficult work they did worthwhile. She knew Chloe had to be hurting after what had transpired at the McGrath house. “Then, maybe we can call your parents and get you all home again. What do you think about that? If anyone doesn’t want to go home, we’ll work with you on why and see if we can’t find a solution. Okay?”
“Okay.” The little blonde continued. “After this, home isn’t looking so bad anymore.”
Kaylin called Chloe to give her the good news. “I wish I had come out with you guys, but I wanted to get started digging up Anne Marie’s bolt-hole.”
“Anything yet?”
“No. I’m checking the illustrious Beaudreau family tree. I have a call into the police in St. Martinville in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. Apparently they are from the Bayou Teche area. I hope to get some background, dig up a connection.”
Chapter Eleven
Office of Central Broward Homicide Division, Broward County Sheriff’s Office, Ron Cochran Public Safety Building, Broward Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Saturday afternoon, September 13, 2014
John Temple and Dan McGrath were in an interrogation room in the Homicide Division with Del Lord and Kaylin Gallagher. John had seen the flash of pain pass over Chloe’s face when he had verbally attacked her, and he felt like a shit. He didn’t know what he could do about it though.
When they were told that the girls had been found in a warehouse owned by Dan, he broke down and cried. “I can’t believe this. Anne Marie could not have had anything to do with this. I simply won’t believe it.”
“Where did she say she was from, McGrath?” John could see that Del was losing patience with Dan’s “poor me” attitude. “You bastard. Your spoiled wife has caused the death of one girl and done damage to five other girls that might last a lifetime, and who knows what else she had planned for them next.”
“She said she was from Fort Lauderdale but that her people were from Alabama.”
“Well, she’s definitely not from here. We’ll look into the Alabama angle, but her partners in crime are from Louisiana. Do you know if she has any connections there?”
“She never mentioned any to me. I can’t process this. Anne Marie is the mother of my children, my wife of twenty years.”
Temple broke in. “My client is not involved in this. He is as shocked by this as anyone. Yes, they were having some financial problems, but nothing Dan couldn’t handle—especially with the upcoming real estate deals in connection with the Port and Airport Expansion Eminent Domain proceedings. He is positioned to make multimillions in profits when these properties are condemned for public use for the new runway projects.”
“How nice for him. I’m sure he’ll enjoy the benefit of those millions in prison. He can spend them in the prison store.”
“Detective Lord, your sarcasm is not appreciated. My client’s wife is missing, his and his children’s lives are in chaos, and these girls have been traumatized. We are not amused by any of this, although you seem to be.”
“That is not true, Mr. Temple. This task force has been working day and night for weeks to find these girls that your client’s wife had hidden in dirty, probably rat-infested warehouses and shipping containers. One of them is dead, the rest were frightened, and likely will never be the same. We are far from amused.”
“My client has acted in good faith by giving you those additional addresses. He didn’t have to do that. That action on his part resulted in the girls being found sooner rather than later and helped avert another tragedy. He wants immunity from prosecution for his continued cooperation.”
“Dream on, Temple.”
“You have no evidence that Mr. McGrath was directly involved in any crime, even if his wife may or may not have been. He was at home asleep last night and was there this morning when you came to serve your warrants. You will not find any evidence to tie him to these crimes at his home or at his office because none exists. If you want his continued cooperation in this investigation, I suggest you speak with the State’s Attorney about immunity. That’s all we have to say at the moment. Since the girls are now safe, there is no more moral imperative to cooperate.”
“How about this one? How many other girls has Anne Marie McGrath already kidnapped and forced into prostitution or sold into slavery, and where are they?”
John felt the blood drain from his face, and Dan’s turned bone white as well. John felt sick. It had not occurred to either of them that there might be other victims. “If there are other victims, of course, Dan will want to cooperate.” He glanced over at Dan with an angry tilt to one eyebrow. He and Dan had been shouting about that before Dan turned over the additional addresses.
“I would help you if I could, but I don’t know anything more. Maybe I didn’t even know my wife.” He looked totally shaken. And why not? His whole world had come crumbling down around his feet. If, in fact, he wasn’t involved in Anne Marie’s schemes, that had to be a ten on the Richter scale.
* * * *
Chloe picked up the phone. Her call to Jacques Rousseau, the police chief in St. Martinville, Louisiana, had been returned at last.
“Hello, Chief Rousseau. This is Detective Chloe Carlton of the Broward County, Florida, Sheriff’s Department. We have a situation here, and I was hoping you could help us with some information about a couple of sterling residents of St. Martin Parish, Jean Louis Beaudreau and his cousin, Phillip Beaudreau.”
“Ah, yes, detective. Those two are just a pile of laughs. What do you want to know? Apparently you already have their rap sheets.”
“Yes, we do, and we have both of them in custody. What I am looking for is some information about the family. I’d like to fax you a photo of a woman we are trying to locate. She’s suspected of involvement in a homicide and a human trafficking ring here in Fort Lauderdale along with the Beaudreaus.”
“Sure. Send it over, but let me pull out one of my parlor tricks and dust it off. Good-looking, five feet six inches or so, curly dark hair, about forty now.”
“That’s right. She goes by the name Anne Marie Harrison-McGrath, but I doubt that’s her real name as we can’t find any record of such a person before her marriage to a local attorney in 1994. What can you tell me about her and her relationship to the Beaudreau cousins?”
“Well, I can tell you that she is one. Beaudreau cousin, I mean. The three of them were tight as ticks since they were kids. Her name is actually Antoinette Marie Beaudreau. She left town in the early nineties and hasn’t been seen or heard from here since. I wish I could ship the entire family out of town. Not one of them is worth spit. What exactly is going on in Fort Lauderdale, Florida?”
Chloe filled him in. “The death of our homicide victim, Mitzi Jones, may or may not have been an accident, but that is irrelevant since it occurred during the commission of felony kidnapping. So, we think that Anne Marie is the brains behind this trafficking ring. And there may be more individuals involved. The two cousins don’t seem to have the brainpower to run the operation.”
“You would be right there. Neither of them is too bright, and Antoinette Marie ran that little gang since she was a girl. There are a couple more cousins and siblings, and most of them are in trouble of one kind or another regularly. Jean Louis and Phillip were always i
n and out of jail until they got into the big stuff and went up the river, so to speak, and Antoinette Marie left town.” He sighed. “Your situation might fit in with something we’ve noticed going on here. There has been an increase in underage girls being involved in prostitution, especially around the casinos in New Orleans and Shreveport. Of course, we can’t know their exact ages since we don’t even have their real names. When they get picked up, they’re usually scared and won’t talk. They get a fine or a little time in juvie, and then they’re back on the streets doing it all over again.”
“So it looks like she’s picking them up off the streets in Fort Lauderdale and putting them back on the streets up there under duress of some kind. We have no idea how many kids have gone missing here because she targets homeless runaways. You know how they come and go. Recently, it’s been noticed by some of the other kids that girls seem to have gone missing—ones who were unlikely to have just gone home. Our big break came when our suspect stopped to talk to a girl who refused to get in her car.” Chloe sighed. “We’ve had a BOLO out for weeks and recently had a stroke of luck when one of our deputies spotted her talking to another girl and got a partial plate. She took off and disappeared in the downtown streets. We were able to get a good description of her from the kids, and it was confirmed by the deputy. We were very lucky to find five girls held prisoner in a warehouse near Port Everglades this morning, and we managed to pick up the Beaudreaus.” Chloe did not relate the embarrassing fact that the cousins had managed to get the drop on her and Kaylin, and they had to be rescued by all of BSO, including the SWAT unit. She would keep that little tidbit to herself, thanks very much.
Chloe's Rescue [The Black Iris Club 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) Page 10