“They told me in no uncertain terms to back off,” she sighed, shaking her head.
He frowned. “Why the hell…”
“Said that I was paranoid and looking for problems where there weren’t any because of my past as an agent. Some thought I was actually looking to be in the spotlight,” she continued, and he could hear the venom in her voice. She didn’t like being pushed off a case for any reason, and this—this sounded big.
“So what are you doing here?” he demanded. “If they told you to back off?”
“When the hell have I ever been good at leaving anything alone?” she pointed out, giving him a wry smile.
“True. You never knew how to back off or to let someone else take over,” he replied with a smirk, shaking his head.
“I continued looking into him. He’s running a trafficking and kidnapping ring along a highway not far from here, Highway Fifty. His crew is grabbing unsuspected women off the road and he’s forcing them to work for him or selling them to clients. I’ve even tracked a few missing women to a couple of ports to the east and then they’ve disappeared. I assumed they’d been sold overseas. He’s got twin sons, Lyle and Nelson, who are in on it, too. And he’s been getting away with it for far too long. Too many people have been turning a blind eye to it all. I couldn’t just sit back and pretend I hadn’t seen what I did. Know what I know.”
“And, let me guess. He figured out that you’d been tracking him?” he asked.
She nodded. “And it’s put a target on my back.” She sighed. “And my family, too. That’s why I’m here. My tires were slashed, my house was vandalized. My husband took the kids to Florida to stay with his family. I just have to hope that I can keep their attention on me. I couldn’t handle if something happened to my family.”
Her voice cracked as she spoke, the pain evident. Lawson could see how much this was wearing her down. Her eyes looked lifeless with dark circles underneath, and she appeared a lot older. And not just because ten years had passed. This was something else, something heavier, a weight that she wasn’t going to be able to shift from her shoulders until she knew the threat to her family was over.
When she said she wasn’t going to be able to leave this alone, he knew she was telling the truth. He hoped he would be able to provide the help she obviously needed.
“This has bad news written all over it, Lainey,” he muttered.
“And Granger’s not going to take kindly to someone trying to put themselves in the middle of it,” she continued. “I know. And I’m sorry to bring this to your door, I just didn’t know if there was anyone else I could trust. I can’t help but think that there’s at least a few leadership in his pocket, or they’ve at least been threatened by him in some way to just turn a blind eye. I can’t see any other reason they’d ignore my information.”
“I understand. You were right to come to me,” he promised her. “I’ll do everything I can to help you with this and to protect you. You have my word on that.”
She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. “I knew there was a reason I came to you,” she murmured, and a small smile crossed her lips. “We always made a good team, right?”
“Agreed,” he replied, and he lowered his voice and leaned forward. “So what can you tell me about this guy?”
“Hell, I don’t know where to start,” she replied. “I think the most pressing thing is the kidnappings he’s been doing along Highway Fifty. From everything I’ve been able to find out about him, he’s been laying traps with his goons along the most isolated parts of the roads, and waiting for a woman to come by—hitchhiking, driving alone, something like that—and they offer them help.”
“Stopping them someplace isolated like that highway would definitely work. Not a lot around and no one to see or hear anything to report it,” Lawson mused.
“Sometimes, they don’t even seem to use traps, they just grab them as long as they’re alone. Then they sell them off or set them to work doing who knows what. I don’t even know what to think about what that might involve. Those poor women.”
He grimaced. He was pretty sure he’d heard some talk about women who’d gone missing along the highway lately, and this might explain what had happened to them. The thought of it… God, it made him sick. He’d dealt with a lot of evil people in his time as an agent, but the human traffickers were the lowest of the low, as far as he was concerned.
Abusing the vulnerable to make money, forcing them out into the streets to earn for them… And if this guy was targeting young women, then they could be almost certain that it was sex trafficking, too.
“I want you to pass on to me all the information you have, as soon as you can,” he told her. “I’ll go through it and see if there’s anything we can do. We’re in touch with law enforcement here, and I’m sure they’ll be willing to help us.”
“You think you can trust them?” she asked doubtfully.
He nodded. “I know we can,” he replied firmly. “We’ve worked with them on several cases around the area over theyears. And in the meantime, you need to lay low. Have you got somewhere to stay in town?”
“Yeah, I have a room at a local motel,” she replied. “It’s not much, but it’s got what I need to work on this.”
“You need to get rid of your phone,” he went on. “I’ll get you a burner. Let me know the room number you’re staying in and I’ll get it delivered—”
“Who do you think I am?” she joked, raising her eyebrows. “Of course, I already got rid of my phone. Here’s the number for my burner and the info I’ve got right now.” She slid a small piece of paper with her number scribbled on it and a thumb drive across the table.
He grinned as he reached for them. There she was, the woman he had known all those years ago. The badass who would stand up for herself and others and always do what was right, no matter what the world threw at her.
“Of course, you have,” he replied. “I’ll contact you after I look through everything, okay?”
“Right,” she answered, her voice a little shaky, as though she didn’t entirely believe that he would be able to help her. He knew this must have been a last resort for her. They hadn’t spoken in years, but he was glad she had reached out to him. Especially since it affected the area he now called home.