Free Always Watching by LS Sygnet Page A

First twenty-four are
critical, right?”
    I nodded.
    “ Winslow says this girl
ain’t been dead more’n an hour, two tops.  Don’t that fit with
your federal profile on how soon these pervos dump the victims
after they snatch ‘em?”
    “ Yeah, actually, it does
fit.”
    “ Does that matter?” Maya
asked.
    “ Perhaps.  If there
was no alert in the past day for a five to seven year old Asian
girl, it could mean a number of things.  First could be that a
family member is responsible for this.  They’d be the first
line to report her missing.”
    “ But she don’t look like
an abused kid,” Briscoe said.
    “ No, she doesn’t. 
Which makes me wonder why her family wouldn’t have reported her
missing.  She could’ve been in the care of someone else,
someone the family trusted.”
    “ Yet that don’t explain
the mark on her right arm,” Briscoe said.
    “ You may as well spit it
out now before I get frustrated with you again.  What did
Crevan tell you?”
    “ I never said he told me,”
he said, “but I did overhear him tellin’ Darnell before he left the
hospital for a chat with your suspect.”
    “ And?” Devlin growled his
lost patience.
    “ Your Florence Payette
came right unglued when the boys from OSI picked her up.”  He
paused, stared at the tiny arm of our victim.  “All they got
out of her was that she don’t have no choice but to do what
her owner tells
her to do.”
    “ Jesus,” I rasped.  I
grabbed Dev’s hand and dragged him behind me on the
beach.
    “ What?  Why are you
freaking out, Helen?”
    “ That mark,” I said. 
“Maybe it looks like a UPC symbol because it is.”
    “ Why would you
–”
    “ Human trafficking,” I
wheezed the horrible thought from a constricted throat. 
“Selling human beings, Devlin.  If Payette is owned, and she
stole Datello’s daughter –”
    “ And we have a dead child
on the beach with a weird mark on her arm, that baby could be far
out at sea by now.”
    “ Dammit!”
    The corruption in Darkwater Bay apparently
knew no bounds. 
    “ We should expand the
search for missing Asian children to the international stage,”
Devlin said. 
    “ Prepare to be
sickened.  It’s not a pretty picture, Devlin.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 8
     
    My leg bounced.  I chewed the cuticle
of a thumbnail until it bled onto my lower lip.  That
particular pound of flesh was next in line for abuse.
    “ Helen, we don’t know that
these cases are related.”
    “ Dev, as much as I hate
Tony Briscoe right now, he made a valid point.  And who the
hell refers to someone as their owner ?  I’d bet my life savings
that Crevan hasn’t gotten a coherent word out of Florence
Payette.”
    “ Try to call him
again.”
    “ If he didn’t answer the
first three times, what makes you think he’ll pick up if I call him
again?”
    “ Maybe he’s reached the
same conclusion you did by now.”
    “ No,” I said.  “He
won’t give up that easily.”
    “ You won’t give up that easily.  Crevan knows when he’s
beating his head against a wall.  Plus, he’s gotta know that
this woman is probably going to be more likely to open up to a
woman than a man.  Hate to break it to you, cupcake, but women
aren’t as threatening as men.”
    “ Don’t call me
cupcake.  And did you miss my little non-threatening outburst
at the bay?  I bet Briscoe would give you a different opinion
right about now.”
    “ Well, I’ve never thought
you were an average girl.  I still think you’ll have a better
shot at getting information out of Payette than the rest of
us.”
    “ I doubt it.  Are you
familiar with Stockholm Syndrome?”
    “ In a very vague
sense.  Isn’t that where victims begin to identify with their
captors to the point of cooperation?”
    “ It’s a little more
complex than that.  Say I kidnap you.  And every day, I
come into the dungeon where I’ve got you chained to a wall without
even the most basic of