Price of Life (Sue Thomas FBEye)

Chapter Two

Everybody was silently pondering the implication of Garrett's statement, but Myles seemed the most disturbed.

Tara who was sitting beside him placed her hand on his shoulder. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

"Yes. It's just...well it's making me reconsider my charitable donations. That's all. Thanks."

"You're welcome."

"What about a little review here," suggested Jack. "We have the last four words of a dead girl: Rev. THOMSON, SOLD, REVEREND, and ARAB. We know that five years ago, an ARAB named Abdul Fassamahout paid roughly a million to REVEREND THOMSON for what may have been very young women. They leave a money trail. They get caught. There's a cover up. This time around, we have a trail of dead girls who look like they were about to be SOLD. There's a cover up before anybody gets caught. D?"

"That summons up the facts. Even if human trafficking had been considered at the time, it would have been almost impossible to prove unless one side was caught with the merchandise in hand."

"Could we not use the word merchandise, please?" pleaded Sue. "Nobody had the right to place a price on their lives."

"You're right and I apologize. This time around, we have missing girls, the possible seller, another Arab buyer maybe. Young white women are still considered hot commodities in the Middle East. Which means our Tara should be able to find a trail somewhere," said D.

"If it's there, I will find it," Tara promised.

"It seems to me the only mistake that was made was to leave Jane Doe #5 alive. Without her, we wouldn't have been able to weave that perfectly fitting theory and tie it back to the good reverend," pointed Bobby.

"So, someone was careless?" ventured Lucy.

"Maybe sheila," conceded Bobby "But why kill the girls in the first place? How much were they each worth? $20000? $50000? That's lots of money to throw in a dumpster."

"Maybe the mer...the girls," Myles caught himself in time, "were not to the buyer's taste."

"Or maybe the buyer wasn't to the girls' taste," speculated Sue. "Maybe the girls knew and wanted out. Teenagers can be very perceptive. How would you get a screaming and kicking teenager out of the country without anyone noticing?"

"Either willingly or drugged. But those are minors, you would also need a fake passport."

"Good point, Myles," said D. "You and Bobby, you're on it. And before anyone else asks, the drug cocktail was too powerful to have been an accident, they were going for the kill."

"What if instead of trying to tie the Reverend to the girls, we try tying the girls to the Reverend?" suggested Sue. "We believe the girls to be runaway, right?"

"Mostly likely first-time runaway," confirmed Jack. "Something is wrong at home, you're mad, you grab a suitcase, some money, then what?"

Sue thought for a moment. "I'd probably want to get away as far as possible, but don't have that much money, so...I take the bus...maybe even the train."

"Makes sense. Then what?" pressed Jack.

"Well, I would probably cool off halfway through the trip and start being scared. I...I would realize I may have overreacted a bit, but I'm just too proud to admit it, so I end up at a bus or train station somewhere."

That sounds just like her, no wonder her insights are so good, thought Jack, amused. "Keep going."

"What's so funny?" Sue frowned at him. "Anyway, it's probably late at night and I am lost."