Captive (Detective Jade Monroe 2) Read online

  Donnelly made the introductions. “Sergeant Monroe, this is Brad Hendricks. Brad, this is our sergeant and her partner, Detective Jack Steele.”

  We shook hands with Brad and got a quick recap of the statement he’d already given to Donnelly as we walked toward the body.

  “So, you live where, Brad?”

  He turned and faced north, then he pointed up the road. “Just beyond the second house on the right, ma’am. We have an eighty-acre dairy farm and forty Holstein milking cows. Our family has lived there since my grandpa bought the place in 1965.”

  “Okay, and where were you going when you spotted the body?” I shaded my eyes with my hand as I looked up at the six-foot-plus man. The sunglasses obviously weren’t doing their intended job.

  “I was heading to our south fifty-acre parcel of hay to see if it was ready to cut.”

  I turned my head to follow the direction where he pointed.

  “Sure, I understand. Please wait here on the road.”

  Jack and I approached the wrapped body lying at the bottom of the ditch. We watched our footing to make sure nothing important was stepped on. We knelt and peered into the top end of the plastic tarp. We couldn’t see much other than her hair color and obvious slim shape. It appeared that she had been rolled several times—making the plastic tarp difficult to see through.

  “Let’s wait for forensics,” I said.

  Jack and I climbed the bank back to the road to wait for Kyle, Dan, and Jason. I jerked my head toward Brad and approached him as he stood near his truck.

  I pointed at his rig. “May I?”

  Brad looked surprised. “You want to get into my truck?”

  “If you don’t mind. I’d like to see how obvious the body was from the perspective you had when you saw it.”

  “Yeah, knock yourself out.”

  I glanced at Jack and smiled.

  Brad apologized, “Sorry, ma’am. I guess I’m not used to talking to cops, especially female sergeants.”

  “No problem.” I grabbed the handle above the driver’s door and pulled myself up.

  Two vans and another cruiser arrived and parked just as I climbed into Brad’s truck.

  Kyle exited the driver’s seat of the forensics van and grinned. With a head jerk my way, he addressed Jack. “What is she up to now?”

  Jack looked at the truck and, with a hand wave and a chuckle, explained what I was doing. “She’s checking out how things look from a higher point of view. Anyway, the body is over here.” Jack led the way, fifteen feet ahead.

  Kyle and Dan from forensics and Jason McMillian, the only acting ME we had right now, stepped down into the ditch to take a look. I exited the truck by way of the driver’s side running board and a two-foot jump, then I caught up with the guys.

  “I’ll have to cut this plastic open,” Jason said. “Do you want me to go ahead, Sergeant, or take her back to the office wrapped like this?”

  “Hang on. Dan, snap a few pictures exactly as she is right now, then we’ll proceed.”

  “Yep, sure thing, Jade.”

  I nodded for Jack to join me over by Brad. We spoke to him for a few minutes more and handed him our cards. “If you can think of anything else, please contact either one of us. Thank you for calling it in.”

  We took down his information, shook his hand, and sent him on his way. I asked Donnelly to call a few more deputies to come out and block off the road with their cruisers. We had to search the area thoroughly before we’d open up the road to vehicles again.

  “Are we good to go?” I asked as we walked back to the body.

  Dan responded, “Yep, I have photos from every angle and the ground in the immediate area.”

  I nodded for Jason to proceed. He cut the plastic and duct tape, then he exposed the nude woman that lay inside.

  “Geez, she’s telling me quite a story,” Jason said.

  Jack and I knelt down next to our victim’s exposed body. “Holy cow, she can’t be more than twenty or so. Okay, talk to me, Jason,” I said.

  He studied her closely. “She has obvious abrasions on her elbows and knees, and her muscles look seriously atrophied. She’s nearly skin and bones.” He leaned in next to her head and looked at each side of her neck. “It appears that she’s been hit with a stun gun numerous times and likely a cattle prod too.” He pointed at every spot. “See these repetitive eraser-sized marks all over her neck and the burns on her body?”

  I looked at the obvious burns. Jack peered over my shoulder. “Yep, I see them. They sure look like stun-gun burns—and those?” I pointed at the others. “They’re from a cattle prod?”

  “Oh, they definitely are.”

  I took a deep whiff. “Bleach.”

  “Yeah, she’s been doused. It eliminates trace, but we’ll check anyway. She’s been scalded too. Her skin is loose, blistered, and red. Hopefully she was dead before she went through all of that. Kyle?”

  “I have the bags right here.” Kyle stepped down and covered the victim’s hands with paper bags to protect any trace evidence she might have under her nails.

  “Do you see any defensive wounds?” Jack asked.

  Jason shook his head. “Doesn’t appear so, but that’s understandable. Either she was incapacitated with the stun gun or cattle prod or she was already too weak to resist.”

  I looked around. “Chances of finding anything out here are slim. No clothes—no ID.”

  Kyle agreed. “We’ll do a thorough search of the area anyway.”

  “Yeah, we’ll pitch in too.” I turned back to Jason. “TOD?”

  Jason tried to move her joints, but she was stiff. “She’s in full rigor. Rough estimate, I’d say probably around midnight. Check in with me later. I’ll know more then.”

  “Cause of death? Does anything stand out?”

  Other than the repetitive burns and obvious scalding, we hadn’t seen anything yet. Jason rolled her over to check her back.

  “Wow, I wasn’t expecting that.”

  “I’ll be damned. That ought to help us identify her.”

  The entire back of our Jane Doe was covered with a large Chinese dragon that went from her right shoulder to her left buttock. The colors were still vibrant, and the work was intricate.

  “This tattoo was done by the best of the best and not long ago. We should be able to narrow things down by giving that to the media. Dan, get some pictures. Okay, cause of death?”

  “Not sure, Jade. I don’t see anything obvious yet. I’ll likely have an aha moment after reviewing the tox report.”

  I nodded. “Okay, she’s all yours.”

  Jason wheeled the gurney to where the edge of the road met the gravel, then he retracted the legs to carry it down to the ditch. He and Kyle lifted our Jane Doe up and placed her on the board, then they secured her with the straps. On the road, Jason dropped the gurney’s legs and wheeled it to the back of the van, slid it inside, and left. Kyle and Dan took over searching the immediate area where her body was found, while the rest of us spent the next hour walking the edges of the road and the ditches, checking for anything that might seem out of place.

  Chapter 3

  Jeremy sat at the kitchen table—waiting. He finally heard the sound of his brother stumbling down the stairs from his bedroom. He watched as Matt entered the kitchen. Matt gave Jeremy a long look as he walked across the room. He ran his fingertips through the messy brown hair he often wore in a ponytail since it hung below his shoulders. He stretched and stuck his head in the refrigerator to see if anything interested him. A carton of orange juice behind the milk and a loaf of raisin bread caught his eye. He reached in and pulled it out.

  Jeremy frowned at Matt and smirked. “Sleeping beauty finally woke up, huh? It’s ten o’clock for God’s sake.”

  “So, who gives a crap?”

  “I do, and I’ve been doing some thinking. These girls aren’t selling fast enough. We signed a six-month lease, and we need to take advantage of our time here. We have to get as many girls as w
e can, get them into the auction site, and make some serious money.”

  Matt grinned. “I like that idea, and the new mall just out of town would be perfect. There’s bound to be a lot of women that shop there, plus I read the place has a few outdoor cafés. It’s supposed to be pretty upscale. We can watch for the right girls from the parking lot.”

  “I agree, but that’s better done at night. We’d have to be super careful—parking lot cameras, you know. We could park off to the side somewhere and watch as girls go back to their cars, distracted with arms full of shopping bags. We’ll pull up alongside them and shove them through the sliding side door, opposite the cameras.” He paused to give the idea deeper thought. “We do need to be more particular, though. Nobody wants a woman with a tattoo like Reanne’s—they’re too easy to trace unless they’re sold out of the country. I’d much rather make money than kill women because nobody wants them. Sorry about Reanne, but she had to go. She was driving me nuts.”

  Matt gave Jeremy a long, questioning stare. “So what did you do with her?”

  “I dumped her along a farm road about ten miles from here. Don’t worry. I bleached her down in the bathtub first. We don’t hang on to anyone more than three months. If they don’t sell, they die. That’s the rules, bro. You know the dr—”

  Matt interrupted, “Yeah, I know the drill.”

  “They’re just a commodity. It’s like selling a car, so don’t get attached to any of them. Reanne was a pain in the ass anyway, and nobody ever bid on her once they saw that tattoo. You like the big bucks, don’t you?”

  “Yeah, I like the money.” Matt poured a tall glass of juice and guzzled it. He poured a second one and sat down at the table, opposite Jeremy. “So, where do you want to go when our lease is up?”

  Jeremy unfolded the map that was jammed into the napkin holder. He spread it across the table. “I’m thinking Vegas. There’s plenty of open space just outside the city. With the amount of hot babes there, we can cherry-pick from the cream of the crop. We’d only need to sell eight high-quality girls, then we’ll be set for a year. We’ll go to Europe for a while. We’re due for a ski trip again.”

  Matt’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, skiing sounds great.”

  “Anyway, we have three women left. Let’s grab as many more as we can and get them sold. When we leave here, we’ll hit Vegas with plenty of fun money too.” Jeremy poured himself a cup of coffee while a new idea popped into his head. “I think we should check out a beach somewhere. Any tattoo a chick has that fits under a swimsuit should be okay. We have four more months here. I’ll even extend my rules by an extra month. Any new chick we can’t sell in four months dies, then we leave for Vegas. Beth is on the chopping block, though. We’ve already had her too long.”

  Matt nodded then dropped two slices of raisin bread into the toaster. “Okay, so what’s on the agenda?”

  “We’ll give them breakfast first and then clean them up and take new videos and still shots. They’ll be for sale on the auction site later. This will be Beth’s last chance.”

  Matt ate his toast while Jeremy made the preparations for the girls’ breakfast.

  Jeremy reached into the upper cabinet door and pulled out a box of breakfast bars. A bottle of Alprazolam sat on the counter. He dropped six tablets into a mortar then closed the bottle lid. With a pestle, he ground the pills into a fine powder and divided it into thirds. He scooped each amount into a bottle of water and handed them to Matt.

  “Here, shake these good.”

  Jeremy pulled out two chewy bars for each woman and headed to the basement. Matt shoved the rest of his toast into his mouth and followed Jeremy with the water.

  Ten cages lined the basement wall, but only three were occupied. The whimpering began.

  “Shut the hell up,” Matt said.

  He set the water bottles on a table and waited as Jeremy tossed two breakfast bars into each cage. They watched the women eat.

  Matt spoke up. “Back up so I can put the bottles inside. Don’t do anything stupid, either. Drink all of it. Each of you will take a shower and put on clean clothes. It’s auction day.”

  Matt turned the keys and opened the padlocks. He set a bottle in each cage and stood there to make sure the women drank the water.

  Jeremy went to the bathroom and returned with three towels.

  “Strip off those clothes and put these towels around you. We’ll be back in ten minutes. After your showers, you’ll get clean outfits to put on.”

  Matt clicked the padlocks closed, and the brothers disappeared around the corner. The door to the next room creaked when Matt opened it, and they walked in.

  “Damn mice,” he said when he heard something scurry by.

  Jeremy hit the light switch. The room was full of camera and video equipment. The computer sat on the desk next to a closet-sized area used as a photo booth. A bright light hung above the space. The women couldn’t be given too much room in case they tried to run.

  Chapter 4

  The hour-long search through the brush in the ditches and along the roadside produced nothing. Our killer was careful and thorough, even down to bleaching and scalding the body to remove trace evidence. We returned to the station to brief the lieutenant on what we had, which wasn’t much.

  I went downstairs and passed Kyle in the hallway. He told me he had just fingerprinted our Jane Doe. He would enter her prints into the IAFIS database, and he’d know soon enough if she was in the system. Without a match, we’d have no idea who this young lady was. We’d have to depend on the tattoo to give us answers.

  “Let me know as soon as you find something out.”

  “I will,” Kyle said.

  I entered the cold autopsy room to check on Jason’s progress. Our victim lay on the stainless-steel table, her head resting on a block. A cart containing scissors, forceps, a bone saw, chisels, bowls, and a scale sat alongside the body. I tried not to give their use too much thought.

  Jason pulled a sheet up to Jane Doe’s neck and paused his preparations when I entered. “Jade.”

  “Hey, Jason. How’s it going?”

  “Just getting under way.”

  I walked over to the table our victim was lying on and gave her a long, thoughtful stare. I wondered who she was and how she ended up in this terrible predicament. She had family somewhere. Weren’t they looking for her?

  “So, what more can you tell me?” I asked.

  Jason pointed at the table in the corner. “Let’s have a seat. I have a few hours of work to do, but I have an interesting theory. It might actually hold some weight.”

  “Okay, I have an open mind.” I sat at the table and rested my hands in my lap. “Go ahead.”

  “I’ll get to the obvious first. I’d say she’s in her early twenties, no defensive wounds, has been deceased for about fifteen hours, and other than the tattoo, she has no identifiable markings such as birthmarks, scars, or piercings. She has plenty of stun-gun burns, yet I don’t see what would be the COD. She wasn’t stabbed, shot, or strangled. She hasn’t expelled any water, so even though she was scalded, she didn’t drown. I’m thinking the submersion in water and the bleaching was done postmortem. I noticed evidence of bleach in her mouth too. I’m certain something will pop on the tox report. Now, on to my theory.”

  I took a deep breath and pulled out my notepad to jot down what Jason was about to tell me.

  “I think this young woman was caged, as in held prisoner.”

  I dug my fingertips into my temples and groaned. “Okay, why did you come to that conclusion?” I began writing as he talked.

  “Her elbows and knees were scuffed raw, as if she was confined in a tight space. I did a scraping of the scuffed areas and took a look under the microscope. There are very minute traces of metal dust, likely from bars or a chain-link cage, embedded in the tissue. Also, she wasn’t getting any exercise, hence the atrophied muscles.”

  “Couldn’t that come from lack of food?”

  “Sure, in conjunction with n
o exercise. Her skin is unusually pale for summertime, like she never went outside.”

  “Maybe bedridden?”

  “I don’t think so. That wouldn’t explain the scuffed elbows and knees. Have you ever heard of incidents like this?”

  I sighed and let my breath out slowly. “Sure, I’ve heard of it but never witnessed anything remotely similar. I wouldn’t even know of a particular case to cite. So you think it could be black-market human trafficking?”

  “It’s possible, but if that’s the case, there are likely more women out there. I’ve seen TV documentaries where women are sold via darknet auction houses. The search engines go from surface web to deep web and then dark web, which ensures anonymity. The dark web conducts the searches and the darknet is the networking platform. The location where these women are held captive isn’t important. These auctions are online and can take place in the most remote areas or right next door. You never know who is running them. Anyone, anywhere, with an account and the knowledge of how to access these sites can buy a woman from the darknet. I’m just throwing it out there, Jade. Let’s see what the tox report tells us. No matter what, I doubt if the bleach killed her, but I do think she was overdosed with something.”

  I closed my notepad and slid it into my pants pocket. “Is there any way to put a rush on the tox results?”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Okay, I’m going to see if Kyle got a hit on the prints yet. Thanks, Jason.”

  He nodded and walked back over to our victim, where he continued his prep work.

  The forensics lab was the first room on the right nearest the staircase to the upper levels. I went down the hall and entered through the glass double doors. Kyle was sitting at his computer, and Dan was checking the duct tape under the microscope.

  I walked over and stood at Kyle’s back. “Please tell me you got a hit.”