Partners in Crime; A Jay Halstead Fanfic

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Yn's POV

Our current case involved 2 dead kids and 1 live one, all of whom had been "kidnapped" by this mysterious man. Quan, the boy who was still alive, only spoke Vietnamese, and so we had a translator translate for us. Quan said before he was taken by this mysterious man, he lived with a white couple in a tan house near a train, and there was a picture of cats at the front.

"Platt said someone ordered from Royal Siam" Kim said and walked up the stairs holding a brown bag. "Right here" Adam said and held up his hand. "Okay, the house with the storm shelter's registered to an LLC in Grand Cayman. They have about 200 units here in Chicago. This one was red-tagged for foundation problems. It should be empty" Hailey said. "So our suspect was squatting" Voight asked. "Sounds like it" Al said. "So we've got no name, no number, no nothing" Voight said.

"Unbelievable. It's chocolate. Quan said the house he lived in smelled like this. So, it must be around one of the chocolate factories" Adam said. "You know, if you want to pass some of that over this way, I wouldn't say no" I tell Adam. Adam laughed and pushed a wrapped piece of chocolate towards me. "You're the best" I say. "All right, Atwater, Ruzek, start scouting some houses" Voight said.

So Adam and Kevin found the house, and the woman who lived there, Kate Smith, said she gave Quan away to another family, who then gave him to our mystery man. "So, what Kate Smith did has a name. It's called 're-homing'" Jay said. "No, it's called 'unforgivable.' How could someone do that? He's just a little boy" I say. "Yeah, well, it's legal in the state of Illinois. Parents can transfer the care of foreign adoptees to someone else with a power of attorney. It started a few years back in chat rooms" Jay said. "What about the web site Kate Smith used" Voight asked. "It's a sham. It's been around for six months. The IP address is routed through the dark net, and the origin is listed as Iceland" Jay said.

"The couple Kate gave Quan to, they don't exist. There's not a record of a John or Penny Marsden in the Chicago land area" Kevin said. "Shocker. A child trafficker is using fake names" Kim said. "So we need to make contact. Find this Marsden couple and the mystery man they gave Quan to" Voight said. "Yo, Sarge, let me and Kim have a shot at him. We can pose as a couple wanting to give a kid away. Send a message out there to the web site. I bet we can draw them in" Kevin suggested. "All right, good. Hey, I don't want these re-homing punks thinking we're on to them, you understand" Voight asked. "Copy that" Kevin said.

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So, we picked up Penny and John Marden, and Hailey and I were interviewing Penny. "You've got this all wrong. We picked up that boy to rescue him" she said. "Oh, rescue him" I say.
"We're working for an undercover ICE agent. Clyde Harris. He's investigating human trafficking, especially parents giving away adopted children" she said. "Okay, so, you picked up Quan, and you gave him to this ICE agent, Clyde Harris" Hailey questioned. "Right" Penny said. "But he ended up in a storm shelter with two other kids who are both dead" Hailey said.

"We had no reason to doubt Clyde. Ever" Penny said. "Okay, explain to me how this works. When Agent Harris needs your help, how does he contact you" Hailey asked. "He calls my cell phone, and it's always from a different number. He tells us who we're supposed to meet, when, and where" Penny said. "So you pretend to be an infertile couple who wants to adopt. The Marsdens" I ask. "Yeah. That's right" Penny said.

"Where do you take the kids" I ask Penny. "We meet Agent Harris out at a truck stop near I-94" she said. "Okay. Let's try and call Agent Harris. Maybe we can meet him at that truck stop" I say and unlock Penny's phone. "What's your pass code?" "9934" Penny said. "Which number is for Agent Harris" I ask when I got to the recent calls list. "It's the second one, but it changes all the time. He has to use burner phones for his job, you know" Penny said. "You called Clyde this afternoon" Hailey asked. "Just to tell him that we didn't pick up the child" Penny responded. "The phone is disconnected" I say.

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"If there was ever any doubt, I just got confirmation from ICE. There is no Agent Clyde Harris. There is no undercover investigation into parents giving away adopted children" Antonio said. "So either the Marsdens are lying, or some monster going by Clyde Harris is playing them real hard" I say. "I think it's choice number two. I mean, we know there's a third person involved, right" Antonio asked. "Yeah, that meth dealer, Marshall" Hailey said. "Yeah, he told us the neighbor he saw with the young kid was a tall white dude. Marsden is pretty short" Antonio said. "It matches what Quan said, too" Hailey added. "All right, so Clyde's tall. Fantastic. Let's track him down" Al said. "Why don't we go to the truck stop at I-94? See if we can pull some video" Hailey suggested. "Lets do it" Antonio said.

A bit later, Jay and Hailey got something. "Hey, guys. We got a clear image of Clyde Harris from a Burger-N-Dash near the truck stop" Hailey said. "Facial recognition matches Clyde Dupree. He's got a prior for ivory smuggling" Jay said. "Ivory smuggling? Is that a joke" Al asked. "No. He paid a $10,000 fine. He did two months probation" Jay said. "His new business model's pretty much the same. He just changed the cargo" Antonio said.

We did some more digging, and we discovered that Clyde was selling more kids, so we "bought" one of those kids, and now, we were going to meet up with Clyde and take him down. When the time came, we got Clyde, and we safely rescued the other kids along with a few that had already been sold. Now, it was time to go home. "Guys, I could use a beer. Anyone else want to hit up Molly's" I ask. "I'm down" Hailey said. "Me too" Jay said. Everyone else then nodded in agreement. "Cool. I'll see you guys there" I say.