In the Belly of the Giant

Part 26

Joey had received nothing except praise for the wild success of his big sting operation. His coworkers cheered him on and slapped him on the back as he trudged through the halls of the police station. When Joey failed to respond in a satisfactory way, Ray was more than happy to deflect attention away from his partner and soak up some of the credit, and all of the donuts. Especially the white frosted ones with the little rainbow sprinkles, his personal favorite.

Joey supposed, to everyone else, the mission was a success. He hadn't expected to take down a whole gang of smugglers, after all. The police had seized heaps of drugs, illegal weapons, and other black market goods. All of the giants arrested had a long list of crimes on their records, so they were finally able to take these dangerous men off the streets with the evidence to lock them up for a long time. While they hadn't managed to snag every gang member, Joey caught their leader, Mr. Greenwood, essentially cutting the head off the venomous snake.

The best news to come out of the whole operation was that, by some miracle, all the children that had been kidnapped from the boarding school had been recovered from the warehouse, alive and uninjured. Apparently, as premium products, Mr. Greenwood had held on to them and encouraged bidding to drive up the prices as much as possible. His avarice had paradoxically saved them from being sold in a timely manner, and facilitated their rescue by the police. When Joey reported this news to Mr. Henderson, he was very relieved the children were safe. However, he was shocked to discover that his old boss was trafficking human children from his former place of work. He knew the giant was evil after he had abused Eren back when she was a student, but he never suspected the man was capable of such terrible depravity.

Mr. Henderson slipped back into despair when he learned there was still no trace of Eren. Joey felt a wave of agony when he had to inform her father, his future father-in-law, that he had failed. No amount of accolades and good deeds could make up for the fact that Eren was gone, still in harm's way, undoubtedly scared and alone and suffering. For all he knew, she might already be dead. Joey was consumed with grief, anger, remorse, and disgrace. He blamed himself for not being able to protect her. His responsibility to her weighed heavily on him. He couldn't imagine what she must be going through.

The next logical step in conducting the investigation would be to examine the evidence and interrogate the criminals for additional clues. He needed to cast a wider net, to find out who their clients were, specifically their buyers for humans, if he was going to have any chance of reclaiming Eren. However, the criminals for obvious reasons didn't keep records of sales or client lists. They didn't take payments by credit cards or checks, only cash which they subsequently laundered. They used burner phones that couldn't be traced. Tracking their movements and business transactions wouldn't be easy.

From the human victims, the police learned that the giants had been cooperating with human kidnappers on the other side of the wall for their supply. Joey had assumed, incorrectly, that most of the victims had been from the boarding school, or already lived or worked on the giant side of town. The giant police department alerted their human equivalent on the other side of the wall and set up security cameras on the doors built into the gigantic wall to monitor all the entry points. They hoped these precautions would prevent future smuggling activities.

As useful as these new measures may be for controlling crime, they would not help Eren. Joey decided to visit the interrogation rooms to see if he could glean any new information from the gang members in custody. The rooms were located downstairs, adjacent to the jail cells. They were brightly lit, sparsely furnished, and equipped with cameras, microphones, soundproofing, and one-way glass.

As Joey passed by the first room, he halted in his tracks. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end. Sitting alone in the room, locked up, was the villainous giant whose face he had etched into his memory from photographs, but he had never seen in real life until now: Jake the Snake. Jake sat there smugly, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, feet up on the table, glancing around the room with his dark, beady eyes. He looked toward the one-way glass, and even though Joey knew he couldn't see him, he felt those evil eyes bore into him with a hateful, mocking glare, as if the man somehow could sense him standing there.