“All clear!” Garcia yelled out to the teams and they put away their weapons. The teams searched through all of the rooms for clues, but could find nothing but bedding and a series of cheap mattresses on the floors of the bedrooms. The bathrooms had been wiped clean, especially countertops that could yield fingerprints. Most likely the doorknobs had also been wiped. The kitchen counters and island had also been wiped clean. There were some dirty dishes in the sink, but they had all been rinsed, making the chance of obtaining fingerprints impossible.
Outside, a few of the neighbors were watching the operation. A few of the SWAT team members questioned them about recent activity in the house. One of the neighbors said he noticed vehicles leaving from the garage around eleven PM last night, but no unusual behavior.
Captain Garcia questioned the neighbor further, asking if he was aware of who lived in the house. “I knew there were a couple of men living there, and they seemed to have one or two Chinese servants. That was all I ever observed. They were very unfriendly and kept to themselves. Since they were quiet, didn’t bother us with noise, and had no interest in socializing, we left them alone.”
Captain Garcia went back and talked with the officers in the task force. No one had been able to find any useful clues in the house. There were no records of any kind, computers, or personal items. Other than evidence that a lot of people were sleeping in the house, the teams found nothing. With no criminals present and no illegal domestic slaves there, the operation was over. Captain Garcia released most of the team to return to their regular duties. He stayed on with two other task force members to finish their report and make one last sweep through the house for clues.
That morning, Jason and Daniel were up early also. They were very curious about the SWAT team operation and wanted to find out if all of their legwork and time investigating the two men had paid off. Captain Garcia told them that they could come out there around seven, but they were not to try and cross any police lines.
By twenty to seven, Jason had picked up Daniel at his home, and the two of them drove over to Milpitas. When they arrived at the cul-de-sac, they were surprised to see just two police vehicles there. There were no signs of yellow police tape, so the two boys got out of Jason’s Explorer and went over to where Sergeant Jim Malone, someone they knew on the police force, was standing outside the front door. “Hi, Sergeant Malone. Is Captain Garcia here?” Jason asked.
“Yes, he is inside, Jason” Sergeant Malone replied. “Sorry to say that the operation this morning was a huge bust. No one was in the house when we arrived. Apparently they cleared out last night!”
Daniel and Jason looked at each other with disappointment in their faces. All that work was for nothing!
About five minutes later, Captain Garcia came outside, after finishing his final search through the house. “Jason, Daniel, I’m afraid that those men and their slaves are long gone. Somehow they got tipped off! Can you think of anything that might have happened to do that?”
“I have no ideas,” Jason said with regret. “We were super careful during our surveillance like we explained to you yesterday. This is all very frustrating.”
“Unfortunately, a lot of police work is frustrating,” Captain Garcia said. “This type of criminal is very canny and paranoid. The slightest little incident or thing out of place will cause them alarm and set off quick action to change their hideout location. Clearly that’s what happened here. I’m afraid we are back to square one. There is nothing more I can do at this time. There is no broken law I can act on so far!”
A few minutes later Captain Garcia and the remaining police officers finished their report, packed up their gear and left the scene. Before they left, Jason asked the captain if he and Daniel could look inside the house. “If nothing else, I would like to get a feel for how these men operate.”
“I suppose that technically you two would be trespassing,” Captain Garcia said. “But with the doors broken down and no one here to protest or call the local police, I don’t see what harm it could do. I know you two boys are disappointed that all of your investigative work has gone for nothing. When you do search in there, remember the rules. You can look but not take anything out of there. Right now I need to trace the owner of this property, so they can do repairs on the doors. I’ll talk to you both later. Oh, and Arthur says hello.”
“Thanks, Captain,” Jason said. “Right now I wish I had one of his soccer balls to kick around!”
After the SWAT team left, Jason and Daniel entered the front door. “I don’t know what we can find here,” Jason said, “but maybe we will get a clue about what to look for in the future.”
The two boys decided to check the house out from top to bottom. They climbed up the stairs to the second floor and began looking through the rooms. It looked from the disarray in the bedrooms that there had been at least a dozen people staying there, crowded four to a room, and sleeping on thin mattresses on the floor. Downstairs there were two more bedrooms, most likely where the traffickers stayed, since these rooms had complete beds on frames. The house had been completely cleaned out of any useful artifacts or papers. If there were any, the SWAT team would have found them already.
“It clear that these traffickers lived here enforcing a master-servant kind of relationship,” Jason remarked to Daniel as they were walking through the main floor of the house. “They lived down here with plenty of room, and probably used the larger rooms to train and break down their new domestic slaves.”
“I wonder what they would do if one of the girls slated to become their slave rebelled against them or refused to do the work she was told to do?” Daniel asked.
“Probably she would be beaten, yelled at, and denied basic things like food,” Jason replied. “I’m sure that these traffickers have all kinds of ways to demean their victims to keep them living in fear and under their control. In the report made by the foundation staff, it mentioned that one of the tactics they use is forcing their domestic slaves go barefoot all of the time. If they try to escape, the soles of their feet are cut with knives, making it very painful for them to walk.”
Jason and Daniel completed their search in the main part of the house without finding anything significant. They were about to leave when Daniel discovered a door to the basement of the house and decided to check it out. He turned on the light switch just past the door and looked into the basement. As they went down the open-ended wooden stairs into the basement, Daniel noticed a pair of well-worn, dirty white sneakers on the floor. He picked up one of the shoes and examined it for a moment.
“Hey Jason, these are a boy’s pair of sneakers! You can tell by the wear on the outer and inner soles and their deterioration on the sides and toecaps. These shoes were worn by someone who spent a lot of time outside, doing physical activities like sports or skateboarding. Someone working inside the house as a domestic slave would not show this type of wear on their sneakers assuming they were even allowed to wear them.”
On impulse, Daniel called out, “Is there anyone here?” Still they heard and saw nothing.
Then Daniel discovered a couple of white socks that were flung near what appeared to be the door to another room. “Let’s look inside that door,” Daniel suggested. The door was locked, but it had a simple kind of lock, one that could be opened with a skeleton key or picked.
“You know a lot of times, people leave the keys to locks like this one on the door ledge.” Daniel reached his hand up and felt along the ledge. Sure enough there was a key. Daniel used it to unlock the door.
When Daniel opened the door, he and Jason both recoiled in surprise. Inside what appeared to be a utility closet, there was a 12-year-old boy, lying on the floor, covered with a blanket. Daniel pulled the blanket off of the boy and they took a closer look at him. The boy had long dark brown hair, was only wearing a pair of underwear briefs, and was bound and gagged with duct tape. The boy was either asleep or unconscious, as his eyes were closed and he made no response to the door being opened or th
e blanket being removed. Daniel put his fingers up under the boy’s nostrils and checked the pulse on the carotid artery on his neck. “He’s alive! Help me get him up!”
Quickly Jason and Daniel pulled the boy up and removed the tape from his mouth, wrists, and ankles. As they were freeing the boy, Jason remarked to Daniel, “These human traffickers are a lot worse than I thought. Clearly they must have some side business trafficking in young boys!”
Their actions revived the boy and his dark brown eyes fluttered opened. “Who are you?” he asked in a weak voice.
Turning to the boy, Jason replied, “My name is Jason Hunter, and this is my friend, Daniel Holmes. We have nothing to do with the men who harmed you. In fact we have been trying to track them down to see if they are holding some other people captive. Finding you is the first positive result of our searching!”
“Tell us your name. Are you all right? Do you need any immediate medical treatment?” Daniel asked, following up Jason.
“My name is Robbie, Robbie Nelson. I am okay, but a little sore from being tied up with that tape. I don’t think I have any serious injuries, although those men did attack me.”
“Well Robbie, you are safe now!” Jason exclaimed in a positive sounding voice. “The men who did this to you are no longer at this house. They left in a hurry sometime last night. Let’s see about getting you your clothes back.” Jason pointed at a tattered tee shirt, thin cloth jacket, and threadbare blue jeans that had been tossed in the back of the utility room. “Are those your clothes over in the corner?”
“Yes, those are mine,” Robbie answered looking at the pile of clothing. Jason went over and handed them to Robbie, who began to put them back on.
Meanwhile, Daniel had gone over to where he had first spotted the pair of well-worn sneakers, picked them up and brought them to Robbie along with the pair of dirty white socks. “These must be your shoes and socks then,” Daniel said handing them over. After Robbie finished putting on his socks, he pulled up and tied the frayed and repair-knotted laces on his sneakers as best he could.
“How long have you been held prisoner?” Jason asked.
“Since yesterday afternoon,” Robbie replied. “I was hired to do some yard work at the house. After a couple hours of work, I was told to take a break and offered a cold drink. Most likely the drink was drugged because the next thing I knew, I was a prisoner, locked in this room.”
After Robbie finished getting dressed, Jason continued, “Let’s get you up and moving about again. Do you need to use the bathroom? I’m sure you could use a drink of water.” He offered Robbie a hand, and the young boy got up. He still was a little dizzy and disoriented. Jason and Daniel helped to guide him up the narrow basement stairs. There was a bathroom just off the kitchen area. While Robbie used the facilities and took a little time to clean himself up, Daniel found a glass in the sink and washed it off. He filled it with tap water, which he gave to Robbie when he came out of the bathroom.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” Robbie said after taking several large sips from the glass. “How did you know where to find me?”
“That’s a long story in itself, Robbie,” Jason began to explain. “We’ll tell you all about it and of course want to find out more about you. We need to contact your family and arrange to get you back there as soon as we can. We also need to let the police know that we found you, that you were attacked by those men, and that you are safe. Those predators who kidnapped you might come back for you at any time! Hopefully they can be arrested if they do! But first things first! Are you hungry?”
“Starving!” Robbie replied. “The only food I received since they imprisoned me was a small plate of rice with vegetables.”
“No problem,” Jason said. “Let’s get some breakfast. Our treat!”
After they got into Jason’s Explorer, Daniel asked, “Is there someone we can call right now to let them know you are safe? Your family must be worried sick about you!”
Robbie’s expression darkened somewhat and he looked down at the floor, not wanting to make eye contact with Daniel. “Sorry, but we don’t have a telephone right now,” he said in a low voice, almost a mumble.
“Oh, I see,” Daniel replied. Trying to smooth things over, he said, “I’m sorry if I embarrassed you. I guess you and your family are having hard times. We’ll get in contact with them another way. Let’s concentrate on getting some food in you right now.”
Chapter 18
Helping Robbie
(February 25)
Jason and Daniel took Robbie to a nearby pancake house. Jason asked the hostess if they could sit in a corner booth away from the noise and bustle of the front counter. After being seated, the three boys ordered breakfast. While they were waiting for their food order, Jason and Daniel began telling Robbie a little about themselves, and how they were trying to find young Jian-heng’s sisters to make Robbie feel at ease and to get his mind off the traumatic experience he had just undergone. When their orders arrived, the three boys took a few minutes to work on the large plates of eggs, pancakes, hash browns and breakfast meat. After Robbie had eaten much of his food, Jason began working on him to tell his story.
Jason looked Robbie in the eyes and said, “I want you to understand that Daniel and I are here to help you anyway we can. I know you are freaked out about what happened to you, and I can fully relate to that. I have been a crime victim myself, and I know what a horrible experience that is. I also sense that you have been going through a tough time in your home life. We are not here to pass judgment on you or your family in any way, but just want to do what we can to help you get back on your feet and back into a safety net. No kid, no matter what his personal circumstances may be, should ever be put through what happened to you. In order to help you, however, we have to know what actually was done to you and how it happened. We need to find out about your home life so that we can help where it is needed while not interfering where it is not needed.”
“Jason means what he says,” Daniel added, “and trust me when I say that he really does have the resources to help you out substantially. We are reaching out to you with hands of friendship. I hope you will be able to level with us!”
Robbie looked down with a serious frown on his face. He was on the verge of tears. “I am ashamed when I think of what my life has become. It just seems so unfair! My mom and I are nice people, but somehow life keeps dumping on us!”
“It’s okay, Robbie,” Jason replied in a soothing voice. “Tell us what you can, as best as you can. Get it off your chest, and I promise that Daniel and I will do something about it! If some of the things are really embarrassing or humiliating, just give us a general idea of what happened. We will understand.”
Robbie looked back at Daniel and Jason. He wasn’t totally sure how they could actually help him, but they had rescued him from danger, bought him a nice breakfast, and had been treating him respectfully, something that didn’t happen very often in his life any more. He decided to take a chance with Jason and Daniel and began telling them his story.
“Right now my mother and I are homeless, living out of the back seat of her car. She works weekends as a cashier at a local hardware store, but doesn’t make enough money to afford a place to live anymore. My father abandoned us a few years ago, and we haven’t heard from him since. Sometimes we can stay at homeless shelters or Mom rents us a cheap motel room. The rest of the time we camp out in her car.
“I try to attend school when I can, but I have trouble keeping up with the work due to my unstable home situation. I try to use the library to study when I can. Most of the time I have to stay with Mom to act as a watchdog, because we are often seen as easy targets by others. We never have enough money to live on, so whenever I get a chance to pick up a few dollars doing odd jobs for someone, I have to take it, even if it means missing school.
“Yesterday I was walking on Escuella Street when this van pulled up and a guy inside rolled down the window. ‘Hey, kid!’ he shouted at me. ‘Do you want to
make twenty bucks? I need someone to do four hours of yard work.’
“ ‘I have to go to school now,’ I lied to the man, wary of a stranger in a van, like I was taught. ‘No problem,’ the man said. ‘If you want the work, just come to this address after school. If you hustle a little, you will be able to finish before it gets dark.’ The man wrote down an address on a piece of scrap paper and handed it to me. ‘See you this afternoon,’ he said and then drove off.
“It all seemed on the up and up,” Robbie continued. “He didn’t try to force me into the van or anything, wrote down the address, and then took off. I knew we could really use the twenty dollars, so I went to the address around 2:30. I knocked on the door, the man answered, and asked me if I was the kid he had talked to this morning about doing yard work. After I showed him the note, he took me around to a back tool shed where there was a lawn mower and gardening tools. I worked hard on the lawn and trimming the weeds and bushes.
“A couple of hours later, the man came outside, said I was doing a good job, and told me I could take a ten minute break. He then offered me a glass of apple juice, which I guess contained a knockout drug. When I woke up again, I found myself inside that utility closet where you discovered me. My wrists and ankles were taped together with duct tape, and my shoes and socks had been removed, all to prevent me from escaping.”
“What a diabolical plot!” Jason exclaimed. “With that yard work ruse and the paper with the address, he basically had you deliver yourself into their hands. Sort of a do it yourself kidnapping! Can you describe what the two men looked like?”
Days of Destiny Page 14