by Shane Crosby
What was eerie about it was they all said basically the same things. The condition of the bodies. The lack of a trail that would link them to someone. Seasoned detectives being mortified at what they saw so much so they retired early. Murders of family and friends, evidence disappearing and those clubs. The clubs were constant in each story. What stood out to me were the clubs in Wisconsin and Indiana went up in smoke. The employees disappeared as if they never existed. All of this occurred right after me and Jack served the warrant on the owners of Club Hedonist. I still didn’t have the solid proof needed to bring them to justice, but in my mind I knew. I knew we were on the right track. The same person owns all of those clubs. Now it’s up to me and my brothers to prove it.
Washington D.C.
Evening News
Good evening everyone, tonight on the Hill In previous interviews, the President has stated he was going to make changes to policies that have been long standing and should have been done away with decades ago. Well he’s kept his promise. The first to go is sure to upset many Cuban Americans and their families.
In a statement issued by the White House:
Cubans will no longer have cart blanche to enter into this country simply by placing their foot on American soil. The wet foot dry foot law is over effective immediately and retroactive beginning May 1. To put it bluntly, if you came here six months ago you will be returned to your home country. The official language of this country is English and will be added to the constitution. If you’re stopped by law enforcement, they have the legal right to ask to see your green card. If you do not have it, you will be detained and returned to your home country. Immigrants attempting to cross into this country illegally, if a confrontation occurs, you will no longer be able to sue the United States Government stating their rights have been violated. If you’re not a citizen of this country, you don’t have any rights to violate. If an American went into another country they wouldn’t change their policies to fit us we would have to adapt to their countries laws and ways this is how it’s going to be in the United States going forward. If you don’t speak English, you’ll need to learn. We will no longer cater to individuals who aren’t fluent in the official language of the United States. Thank you.
Well, there you’ve heard it for yourselves. The White House is making good on promises made when the President was sworn into office. It’s obvious whom these policies are targeting. The next order of business on the White House’s agenda is to complete the wall that separates the United States and Mexico. That’s in process right now as I’m giving you this report. No doubt a new day for Americans everywhere. With the hard line stance, the President has taken on certain policies, interestingly enough, his ratings have only dipped a few points. We’ll see what these latest developments bring. Back to you Rob.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
TWO WEEKS LATER
I GOT AN IDEA, YOU’RE GONNA HATE IT
BUNKER
Trevor
I made calls until the wee hours of the morning. During the calls the story was the same. They had headless bodies with their hands cut off. All of the bodies had the hair removed. I surmised that they all started finding burned bodies right after I conducted the press conference. Of course, they aren’t aware of this and I didn’t provide any additional information.
After I finished with my calls, I had another theory. There were some investigators who mentioned they didn’t hear from the families after they filed the missing person’s report. To me, that’s a little odd. I’ve talked with guys who worked missing persons and they all said the families would keep in touch. There were some who were so annoying they wouldn’t answer if they called. Therefore, never hearing form a family about someone they’ve reported missing, makes me wonder why.
In order to catch a break in this case, I believe we’re going to have to do something different. The difference being, switch locations. Something the guys aren’t going to like.
“Hey guys I have an idea.”
“Speak.”
“It’s more like a theory.”
“Bring it.”
“I think the people who reported someone missing were murdered.”
“Why?”
“During my conversation with some of the detectives they mentioned they didn’t hear from the families again. I was thinking, we need to go to the states to try and look them up. Speak with remaining family members to see if they can provide additional information.”
“Why is that worth checking out?”
“Families don’t just report someone missing and never follow up.”
“That’s true.”
“In speaking with the families, we can put together additional information that could be a common thread with all the families.”
“And, it could be a dead end.”
“When you’re working a case, you expect some dead ends. It doesn’t mean you just ignore a clue.”
“We’re at dead ends on everything so I’m willing to go to the states but not separate. It leaves us to vulnerable and you’re not completely recovered. Even when cast free, you’ll still need physical therapy. No way could you run, dive, fall, take a hit or get knocked down you wouldn’t survive that and you know it.”
“I agree it’s too risky.”
“I agree.”
“In my experience, it’s better to speak with people in person.”
“We can do it from here going alone is like Scott said, too risky.”
“Yep, waaaay too risky.”
“I have to agree. You would still need months to just let your body continue to heal. And, with everything that’s happened when you’ve ventured out there’s no way. I wouldn’t recommend going alone.”
“I think we can get in and get out without being noticed.”
“Trev, someone tried to kill you. They succeeded in killing your partner. Don was shot and knocked unconscious. He almost died twice. They tried to kill me and Mase. They shut down the entire city just to murder us. They’ve killed everyone we’ve even thought about contacting. Some kind of way they find us. And, you actually believe we could go to the states without someone trying to kill us? You can’t possibly believe that.”
“You forgot the airport.”
“When we tried to get you to safety they ambushed us in the airport. No way am I going back there again. The last time, Don and I had to go in disguise to get through the airport.”
“Well, what do you suggest, Dub?”
“I suggest you come up with a better darn plan. Preferably one that isn’t going to get us killed.”
“You’ve always been a dick, you know that? Even when we were kids you were a dick!”
To prevent this from going any further, Mason and Don stand between each brother.
“Hey, hey, hey bring it down both of you.”
“Dub go sit down.”
“Trevor do the same.”
“We can’t allow this case to divide us.”
“We need to remain calm and come together to think of a better plan of action. They want us off balance. You make mistakes then.”
“Let’s all remember that our mistakes can and will get us killed. And, I for one don’t want that. I have a lot of life to live. We’ve all been in wars and survived let’s not get killed during peacetime just because we’re allowing the stress of our situation to get to us.”
“Listen, both of you, as a doctor, Trevor you can’t travel anyway.”
“Yeah, there has to be a better way.”
“We would be asking someone to print out a heck of a lot of names.”
“I’m sure it’s not that many but we get it. What about condensing the request a bit. Ask for one month of names first. If it doesn’t pan out then we can ALL go to the states together.”
“Ask for six weeks how many names could it be?”
“In a city as large as Gochian a hell of a lot! Let’s not forget about NYC.”
“Okay, okay how about condensing it even further to onl
y include those cases that are still unsolved.”
“I think that’ll work.”
“So do I.”
“You’re asking officers to take time out of their investigations and mandatory paperwork to print and fax a bunch of missing persons cases and also take the time to identify the families who never followed up? That’s never going to yield concrete results. If it were me, I wouldn’t send it. I have better things to do.”
“Trevor, it’s all we can offer right now. You’re hurt. You know it. Don and Dub barely made it to the states the last time. We can’t take that chance with your life as well as ours.”
“The doc has already said you can’t travel.”
“Listen up everyone. Let’s give Trevor time to heal, then if it’s best to go to the states to further investigate, we’ll make that decision then.”
“I agree.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t have a choice. You’re out voted.”
“Yeah, Trev, why you stressing this death wish?”
“We’ll never solve it sitting here.”
“We’ll never solve it in the graveyard either.”
“So, what are we going to do? Sit in this bunker, hiding forever?”
“No, it’s not forever. Just until you’re one hundred percent. Why aren’t you okay with that?”
“Like you said, I don’t have a choice.”
As much as I hate to admit it, they are right. I’m still rehabbing my knee. There’s no way in hell I could run, jump or anything along the lines of being helpful in a battle. So, I guess I’m homebound once again.
THREE WEEKS LATER
TIME TO MAKE A MOVE
BUNKER
Trevor
After weeks hold up in the bunker trying to find a way to make sense out of what the Attorney General left behind, in my opinion, we’d done nothing more than spin our wheels. I used my login information to access the department’s missing persons case files and I got some guys from other states to help out as well. After comparing what we received to what we had, the information continued to line up with my suspicions, but not enough to prove my theory without a doubt. We were going to have to leave the safety of the bunker to find out more.
“How are you coming with the missing person’s list?”
“Glad you asked. Please sit everyone.”
“Don, would you like to go first?”
“With the states I investigated, all of the missing people that I was able to find in the system of course had records. For those who worked at gentlemen’s clubs, I called the clubs and they’re no longer in business. I looked up some of these clubs and at least one of them went up in flames. I have some women who are prostitutes as well. As you know, the police don’t consider women with these types of professions as human. I know that repulses you but it’s true. Trevor you’re next.”
“My list reads much like Don’s. Some of the people on my list were also strippers. I had some immigrants who had been listed missing by family members within the states. Now, here again, immigrants lead a migrant lifestyle. They could be fine but in another state or simply went back to their own country. I had a lot of people who were as far as I can tell, regular people. One day they didn’t come home again. I have people reported missing and their families are missing. You could view this a credible common link or just a coincidence. There’s not really enough here to suggest there’s a substantial link. I tried calling the number’s listed and there was no answer. We see a lot of prostitutes and drug addicts go missing. Most of the time the families don’t even report it. We usually find their bodies and do some digging to find the families. There are times; they haven’t seen them in years.”
“Question, do we investigate this further or leave this part alone?”
“What do we have? He left us dates when the bodies were found. We have a graph of the US economy. Since he was the Attorney General that could mean anything or nothing at all.”
“Pictures, coordinates and a thumb drive.”
“If it was in the box, it means something. We just don’t know what was in his head at the time.”
“The vote is what?”
“I say we keep working it.”
“I do, too.”
“We’re agreed?”
“Yep.”
“Now where do we go from here? Do you still think we should go to the states or check out those coordinates?”
“I say we go to the states just to speak with the families of some of them but that’s just me.”
“Coordinates.”
“Yeah, Coordinates.”
“I tell you what, let’s go to the states check out the background of several of the missing people and see if they’re linked in any way. If not, we’ll check out the coordinates.”
“My plan is dangerous but we’ll get more done. Two of us go to the states, three can go to the Swiss Alps. We know the states; we can get around better and hide. Send more to the Alps it’s a foreign country unknown terrain safer in numbers.”
“Let’s do it.”
“Me, Don and Mase will go to the Alps.
“Trevor knows the US Justice System and he’s a cop. You’ll do better investigating there.”
“How ‘bout me and Don go. You and the rest go to the Alps.”
“That’ll work, too.”
“We’ll leave the Doc here this trip.”
“I’m okay here. No worries.”
“I’ll start getting the cases together that we’ll investigate.”
“Take more just in case. We’ll go to four states over the course of about ten days. We’ll spend three days in each city.”
“I’ll make some calls to the detectives so we can get on the ground running.”
“We’ll get our gear ready for a hike because who knows what’s going on there.”
“Take plenty of weapons and ammunition.”
“Will do.”
“Trevor, how’s the leg?”
“I can shoot a gun. I don’t need my leg for that.”
“Okay, we’ll get our end covered. You and Don can take care of yours.”
“Let’s get this party started.”
CHAPTER THIRTY -FOUR
NO TURNING BACK
SWEDEN
Dub, Mase, Scott
None of us were jumping for joy to put ourselves back in harm’s way. The detective in Trevor wouldn’t allow him to rest. I knew that if we didn’t support him one hundred percent in this pursuit, he’d go it alone. And, not if, but when something happened to him, none of us would be able to live with ourselves.
Since we were all aware that this was a life or death mission, we took our time to prepare. When the time came to take this to the next level, the procrastination, fear and worry stopped and the self-confidence of a soldier stepped in.
Leaving via the airport was out of the question. Scott called in another favor. We were flown to Sweden in a US fighter jet.
We were dropped off first and then he made the next stop the United States. Since our little brother Jared was in the United States, I knew they would have help, if needed. Us on the other hand, we were going to be far away from anything resembling help. First of all we didn’t know where we were going. We had coordinates, sure but to where and for what? I didn’t tell the others about my reservations, but they were so large I didn’t think I’d be able to fit them inside the chopper.
We were dropped off on top of a mountain in what looked to me to be a remote part of Sweden. Looking out of the helicopter, all you can see is snow for miles and miles. Every now and then, you might see a little brown speck representing some sort of structure I hoped held life inside. The longer we were in the air, the more effort it took me to stop myself from telling him to turn around.
When we touched down, I feel like I did the day I arrived for boot camp. I thought I’d made the biggest mistake of my life. But, I’d committed to the time, nothing I can do but go forward.
“Welcome to Sweden bo
ys. I hope you enjoy your stay. Set your watches.”
“What time do we need to be back here?”
“You’ll have a pickup in ten days at zero eight hundred. If you’re not here, you’ll be left.”
“You’ll be in this exact spot?”
“That’s right, here’s a beacon, if you get into trouble, set it off. We’ll know to send the Calvary. Keep yourselves alive until we can get to you.”
“Will do.”
“Until our paths cross again, watch each other’s six.”
KANSAS CITY
PROJECTS
Don & Trevor
The jet dropped us off at a strip in Kansas City. We had to walk five miles to the nearest hotel. Initially, we’d planned to start the day we arrived, but having to develop eyes in the back of your head, preparation for the trip, the flight admittedly wore us out. We checked into our hotel, mapped out our route for the next day and did our best to get some much needed rest.
Today, we got up early, not refreshed, but with a little rest, we bought us enough energy to get through today.
Our thoughts were, we’d start early in the morning. To prevent having to engage in a physical altercation for disturbing someone’s rest, I was prepared with my badge and a good reason for knocking so early. By noon, we’d visited four houses and hadn’t been able to catch anyone at home. We’re visiting the projects. I hate to sound stereotypical but there’s always someone at home in the projects. They rarely, I’ll just come out and say it, they never have a job, that’s why they live in the projects. Out of all the families we’ve visited not one person was home. My shock has gone to stratospheric levels. I’m about to go to the police and file a missing person’s report for each family because I know there has to be something catastrophic going on here. And, Don always the one who can be objective and give everyone the benefit of the doubt on some levels, was thinking the same thing.
“Trev, okay, I know I’m going to hell for saying this but, since when is there no one home in the projects? Not only was there no one home, but the population of these projects is looking sparse. Once they live in the projects the entire family lives here. They never get enough motivation to do anything to better their situation. It’s like their brainwashed to be project rats all of their lives.”