Midnight Crossing (Josie Gray Mysteries #5)(51)

Upstairs, they spread out their lunches around the conference table and popped the tops of soft drinks while Josie dropped the bombshell.

“Caroline Moss.”

Marta’s jaw fell open and then snapped shut. “You’re putting me on.”

“I wish I was.”

Marta dropped into the chair in front of her burrito. “I just don’t know if I can believe that. I mean, I never liked the woman, but I always thought she was basically a good person. That her heart was in the right place.”

“Maybe her heart is in the right place,” said Otto. “The way Ryan talked, she was trying to help those women.”

Josie gaped at Otto. “You don’t seriously believe that, do you?”

He talked around a massive bite of burrito. “I’m just repeating what Ryan said.”

“Human trafficking is a federal offense. She knows that. And even if she somehow twisted her participation into something humane, she hired Josh Mooney, who apparently raped at least two of the women he was hired to protect. That goes way beyond irresponsible.”

Otto began nodding and raised his hand to stop her. “Calm down.”

“What do we have, beyond Ryan’s word?” said Marta.

“Nothing,” he said.

“I’ll subpoena Josh’s, Macey’s, and Caroline’s cell phone records, but they’ll be throwaway phones. We may ping one in her cell phone area, but that’s about it. We won’t connect Caroline to Josh and Macey,” Josie said. “Unless Caroline paid for a throwaway phone with a personal credit card.”

“She’d be more careful than that,” Otto said.

“Unless she figured it was a throwaway number that would never be traced back to her. It’s hard work covering your tracks. People get bogged down in the details and forget about the never-ending paper trail,” Marta said.

“Meanwhile, we’ve got the testimony of an eighteen-year-old kid versus the mayor’s wife, who is also a philanthropist and well-respected senator’s daughter,” said Josie.

“And we have three displaced women, a murder victim, and a witness to the murder who refuses to talk about it,” Otto said.

“Then let’s go to the source,” Marta said. “Yesterday, when I dropped Isabella off at the motel, I pressed her to give me contact information for her family. She confided that she didn’t want to tell us who her family was because Josh had said their families would be killed if any of them left before reaching their destination. She finally gave it up, but she didn’t want to. He played terrible head games with those girls.”

“He’s a sick bastard,” Otto said.

“It gets worse. She said he would read one of the girls’ names off a list, and then read her family’s address as a threat. Letting the women know how much control he had.”

“That’s the same story that Ryan told us,” Josie said.

“What are you getting at, Marta?” Otto asked. “Are you suggesting we call the women’s families and ask who they contacted to organize their trip to the U.S.?”

“Sure. What could it hurt? I have Isabella’s information. I should be able to get the rest too.”

“Make the call,” Josie said. “Just let them know the women are safe, but in custody. They should receive a phone call with more information within the next few days.”

*

Marta spent the next thirty minutes on the phone with Isabella’s mother. The conversation took place in Spanish, so Josie and Otto had to wait for the recap after the call ended.

Marta hung up looking worn out. “If there was any doubt about this being a truly humanitarian effort, the phone call just put that idea to rest. Each one of those women’s families paid twelve thousand dollars for the trip to Albuquerque. That amount included the travel cost, food and lodging, and a finder’s fee for getting the women high-paying jobs in the hotel services industry, as well as their room and board until they were hired.”

“Lodging? Seven people shared a motel room each night.” Josie choked out a laugh. “Twelve thousand dollars times five women is sixty thousand dollars for what probably amounted to a couple weeks’ work. Ryan said he got two thousand for helping. Josh may have gotten five thousand, which probably included gas and expenses for the trip.”

“That means Caroline clears about fifty thousand dollars on this delivery,” Otto said.

“And our Border Patrol contact, Jimmy Dixon, claims she’ll get an additional payment from the so-called hotel services industry when the women are delivered somewhere in Texas.” Josie shook her head at the amount of money that was being made. “When Ryan explained how Caroline involved him, I couldn’t imagine why she would risk getting caught over something like this. But what if this isn’t her first delivery? She could be bringing in a couple hundred thousand a year.” She let the thought hang.

“Here’s something else,” Marta said. “Isabella’s mom said she found out about the deal from a Web site. I have it written down.”

Josie and Otto stood behind Marta as she pulled up the Web site.

“She says a variety of transporters have Web sites to basically broker deals with families,” Marta said.

“Sounds like the traffickers are taking a cue from the Internet call girl industry,” Otto said.