Chapter 237
1047 Words
“Damn right there’s not, and thank Christ for that.” King leaned forward a bit. “They were all angling for plea bargains in exchange for information, but the D.A.’s been pretty uninterested. I mean, me and my team caught ‘em red-handed and dead-to-rights. I found the baby in the goddamn hideout they were hunkered down in, you know?”
“So not much leverage to deal,” Dallas commented.
“Not until just now.”
“What happened?”
“One guy started talking about another kidnapping ring… a major one based out-of-state that he keeps referring to as their former ‘competition’. Like they were a restaurant chain or something.”
“Urgh.” Dallas’ blue eyes were hard. “f*****g dickheads.”
“Right? But the thing is, this guy told the D.A. about a place in Kansas that this other ring used to house the kids. The local cops raided it, and the tip was damn good.”
“What’d they find?”
“Fifty kids.”
Dallas was thunderstruck, horrified. “Fifty?”
“Fifty-three, to be pedantically correct.”
“f**k. All kidnapped from hospitals?”
“Nope. These fuckers have branched out way farther than the group King’s Men took down, and they’re equal-opportunity pricks… they’ll kidnap and sell any kid, most any age, from anywhere at all.”
Dallas cursed under his breath.
“The kids ranged from newborns to eight-year-olds. The cops and FBI have tracked them to missing persons reports filed all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico. One kid even went missing from England. Most of them have families somewhere, but some were taken from orphanages or foster homes. It’s a mixed bag, but the point of taking the kids seems to be to sell to adoptive parents.”
“Child s*x trafficking rings?” Dallas ground the words out, hating to even say them out loud. “Pedophiles? Pornography?”
“Believe it or not, there’s none of that, or at least none that’s been found yet. The ring exists and operates solely to supply rich couples with kids.”
Dallas shook his head. “And why are you telling me all of this?”
“Because a good friend of mine in the FBI tipped me off about this whole plea bargain, and I had two of my people make contact with the ring. They posed as a rich married couple looking for a baby.”
“You what?”
“Yeah. Valentina and Knox started the whole process of infiltrating this new kidnapping and adoption scam.”
“How?” Dallas was confounded. “How did they make contact? They just – what? Picked up the phone? I can’t imagine adoption scams are easy to google.”
“You’d be surprised what you can find on Craigslist, actually,” King said wryly. “But no, you’re right. These people are way more organized than that.”
“Break it down for me.” Dallas grabbed a pen and pulled a notepad closer. “All the details.”
“Sure thing.” King paused, collecting his thoughts. “So. The way it works is that the ring has people working in adoption agencies – like, legit ones. These people are the ‘front line’ part of the whole f*****g thing. They see couples, and they know who’s being rejected and why.”
“But you said these assholes cater to rich couples,” Dallas said slowly. “I always thought that the major obstacle to adoption was money.”
“Yeah, that’s true. But adoption agencies also reject people with criminal records, and even very rich people have those.”
“Ah.” Dallas leaned back. “I get it.”
“Yeah. So these front line people know that a rich couple can’t get a baby through above-board channels… and they’ll assess just how desperate the couple is. If they decide that they’re crazy-determined to adopt, and their moral compasses don’t point north and they even ask about other, less-legal channels, then the person who works at the agency will gently suggest that the couple takes a… less above-board road.”
“Uh-huh.”
“The couples are told that the kids have all been removed from abusive foster care situations, or that they’re orphans… not true, of course, but I imagine they sell the sob story beautifully. Make it sound like these rich people are saving an abused, unwanted child. Anyway, the couples are told straight-up that the kids are available, and all it involves is money. Once they agree, it’s easy. The agency person takes their phone number and passes it on, and the next stage kicks in.”
“Someone makes contact.”
“Yep. Lots of back and forth and it’s all e-mail, just to make sure that the couple is serious about doing this and also, to document their involvement. It traps them, of course, so if they get cold feet and pull out, then they’re told not to report anything. If they do, those e-mails hit the press.”
“And since these people are undoubtedly rich enough to have things like businesses and reputations and shareholders, they stay quiet.”
“You got it.” King sighed. “Anyway, once the middle man is satisfied that all is cool, a meeting is arranged. Always in Kansas, and the instructions are to bring the money in a briefcase.”
“How much?”
“Half-a-million.”
Dallas whistled. “Holy shit.”
“Oh, that’s only half. It’s fifty percent up-front, fifty percent after they choose and then get the child. The kidnappers drop the kid off, leave with the rest of the payment. It’s all over then.”
“So the going rate for a stolen kid is a cool million.”
“Yeah. That includes papers, too.”
“Birth certificate? Legal adoption stuff?”
“All of it. And it’s f*****g top-notch, man, let me tell you.”
“Christ.” Dallas shook his head. “OK. So what happened to make it all go wrong for Valentina and Knox?”
“It hasn’t gone wrong. It’s gone perfectly. Too perfectly. That’s why I’m here.”
“What’s that mean?”
- Writer
