Chapter 10: Jason

It wasn't hard to find the pattern after a while. Though Mancini hadn't given us anything more than the bare bones, what little he did give us was enough to build on. This wasn't going anything like I'd expected. Instead of having me do any of the legwork technically speaking, Track took point on that and sent me the patterns as they unfolded on his end.

"Are you getting the picture yet?" I nodded my head as I read over everything he'd laid out and sent back to me. "Lawyers, judges, social workers, cops."

"Do you notice the one thing they all have in common?"

"Yeah, they all work out of the same district court."

I could feel the blood humming in my veins the way it does when I'm on the hunt, though I knew we had a long way to go. Usually, with my cases, I know the perpetrator and go after him or her after weeks sometimes months of the guys collecting data. Since I'm going after the person who pretty much is doing my job, it's like working backward.

I got the feeling halfway through that I wasn't hunting this person to harm them, but it was more like Mancini, and the others wanted me to bring them in. The fact that Track could so easily trace their moves with just a few strokes of the keyboard told me why. Whoever this is was in danger of being caught soon. It's like they weren't even trying to cover their ass, or didn't know-how. Still, it wasn't going to be easy.

"So now we've seen the pattern, but there are a lot of cases going back more than a decade, closer to fifteen years in fact."

"That actually makes it easier for us. All we need to do is go through all the kids they placed over the years. We'll look at all the cases these particular people worked on together since it appears they worked as a team."

"Then we look for those kids who would be adults now using their socials and whatever other information we have."

"And how do we find that?" I finally lifted my head and saw the grin on his face.

'That's where I come in. I've hacked into the system's database. I'll send you everything as soon as I compile it in some semblance of order."

"I should tell you, though, that if this hive of assholes have been doing to and with these kids what we suspect, it might not be easy finding them this way. Most of them will be off the grid, or their names and identities might have been changed. Lucky for us, their fingerprints will be in the system since, by law, their prints have to be taken when they go into foster care."

"On the other hand, if they've been taken out of society, which is what I suspect, then their prints will be no use to us." Back to square one.

"So what're we doing here? How do we find them?"

"We go through the families that fostered them and start from there. It's tedious, I know." He didn't seem to mind—a real computer nut.

...

It took hours; someone, I think it was Ash, or maybe it was Gideon, brought me some food at some point. I have no idea what time it is because down here is like a casino with the lighting; it always looks like daylight. Track has been pounding away at the keys this whole time with no letup. Every once in awhile, he'd swear or say something like, 'got you, you bastard.' But other than that, we hardly spoke.

He sent me everything as soon as he got it, and together we started to put a picture together. The only reason we caught a break is because, in the beginning, the assholes weren't as careful as they had been in later years. Because no one was watching and the world hadn't been as up in arms about child sex trafficking as they are now, it was like a free for all.

"You think our perp is part of this first batch?"

"Taking age into consideration, he or she should be in the first five years or so. Most of the kids were taken at the age of five, no older than eight or nine. So let's say our perp was taken between those ages, then he or she would be between twenty and twenty-five by now give or take."

"They might not be in that batch, but we've gotta start somewhere."

"Damn!" I rubbed my gut, where a twisted knot of pain started.

"What?" Track looked at me interestedly.

"I just thought of what happens to them when they age out when they're no longer suitable for the taste of these twisted f*cks."

"Oh, that's easy. They sell them on the streets or to brothels all over the world."

"Oh, so you know about that."

"You can't do this with Mancini for any length of time and not know these things. It took me a while to get used to seeing this sh*t . I just barely started sleeping through the night again. But bringing one home makes it all worth it."

"I hear you."

"I'm sending you something now; you might want to share with Mancini and the gang. I gotta go, we'll pick this back up tomorrow my girl is getting antsy." There was a tone in his voice when he mentioned her, something that made me feel just a little bit wistful.

I'd made up my mind a long time ago, because of the blood on my hands, that love and family just isn't for me. I knew not long after I took out my old man. Not only that, I still have no idea what he was, what I'd seen him become. It could've been a trick of my imagination that one time, but I'm not taking any chances, just in case...