Third Eye Watch (A Serena Shaw Mystery) (26 page)

Ten minutes later, a SWAT guy called out, “I think I’ve found it.” He had been stomping on the floor in a small room off the main hall, when he happened to peek inside the closet. And when he saw the rug covering the closet floor, he knew he had found something and called out to them.

Sam and Audrey lifted the rug and underneath was a steel panel with a handle. Audrey got down on her hunches, and gave Sam an inquiring look. Sam looked around and saw two SWAT guys standing behind them, with their guns at ready. He nodded to her and she lifted the handle gingerly, and then peered down the opening. Sam too peered, and they saw a short, narrow metal staircase.  He nodded at two SWAT guys, who put their night vision goggles on, and descended the steps soundlessly. Sam and Audrey too put their night vision goggles on, then followed them; Sam first and then Audrey.

At the landing, they stood hesitantly for a moment. They stood in a large vacant room, and there was no one around them. Sam stepped forward, even though one of the SWAT guys tried to stop him, and advanced into the room.
 

“I know you are here, Sasha.” Sam’s unemotional voice echoed in the cavernous space. “Put your gun down and show yourself.”

Another long moment passed but there was no movement. All Sam could see was an empty room. Had he made a mistake? Had Sasha escaped somehow? He did a full circle, looking around him but didn’t see any windows or openings in the wall or any depressions on the floor indicating a tunnel. 

Then he paused. Something had caught his eye, but what was it. He did another full circle, but this time he turned very, very slowly.
 

There.
 

He moved closer to Audrey, and whispered in her ear, pointing to the wall on his right. Audrey nodded, then waved the SWAT guys closer, and whispered in their ears. They had already seen Sam pointing to the wall, and now they understood.

Sam and Audrey waited, while the SWAT guys advanced forward soundlessly. Then, with one sweeping hand motion, one of the SWAT guys pulled at a depression that was actually a sliding closet door, and the other yelled, “Put down your gun, now.”
They heard a faint clatter, probably the gun being set down. As one of the SWAT guys bent to pick up the gun, Sam and Audrey looked in. Standing ramrod against the back wall of the makeshift closet was a man of medium height, fully dressed, and holding his arms up in the air.
Audrey shone her flashlight in his face. It was Sasha, in the flesh.

As Sam stared at Sasha, his mind played a quick slideshow for him. Sasha had been watching the unloading of the girls when he had heard “FBI.” He had run to the closet, and his men had lifted the panel, allowing him to step in; then closed it behind him and thrown the rug over it before hurrying back outside.

Sam walked closer to Sasha and met his eyes. Sasha gave him a derisive look, and then flicked his gaze to Audrey. Now, a small smile appeared on his face. Audrey arched her brows at Sasha, then took out her handcuffs and slapped them on Sasha in quick decisive moves, saying, “Aleksander Besjana, aka Sasha, you are under arrest. You have the right…..”

They led Sasha upstairs. Dickson and Sanders were now inside, all the girls had been unloaded and were now inside the warehouse. Some were standing, while others were sitting. Some had tears in their eyes, others looked too tired to even cry.

“What about these girls?” Audrey asked him.

Sam looked at severely malnourished girls and felt his gut clench.

“Sam, come in,” his earpiece chimed.

“Go,” he replied.

“Need you at the Criket Club. Things didn’t quite go as planned”. Carter said, and then proceeded to give him a brief overview.

“Any casualties on our side?” He asked as he watched Audrey walk over to a group of women and talk to them in a soft voice.

“No, no casualties. Although a couple of guys are bruised up, and…”

“I’ll see you in a few,” Carter said and cut the connection.

xxxx

Sam surveyed the scene in front of him. Audrey stood next to Sasha, as she waited for Sam to be done with the call. Sanders, Dickson, and Decker were talking to the girls in hushed tones, telling them they were safe now. The five men had been handcuffed and placed in chairs facing the wall, well separated from each other while two SWAT guys patrolled the room.

“Dickson, you and Sanders take Sasha to the safe house.” Sam told them, they had already decided on the safe house they would use, so he didn’t have to say much.

“And, shoot to kill, if he tries to escape.” Audrey told them, giving Sasha a smirk. Sasha shrugged, then looked at the women around him and started laughing in loud gaffaws. Dickson and Sanders pushed him towards the exit, and departed, but Sasha’s faint laughter could still be heard for another few moments.

“Decker, order some pizza and water for the women. Then call Immigration and Naturalization services, and ask them to send someone here, now.”

“We’ll take your vehicle to the Criket Club. Remain in touch on the comms.”

xxxx

On the way to the Criket Club, Audrey texted the SAC, letting him know Sasha had been apprehended. The SAC called immediately, and Audrey put him on speaker so that Sam could hear the congratulations first hand.

At the Criket Club, Stucky met them at the entrance and filled them in.

The SWAT lead had used a battering ram to rush the side door. But the door had refused to budge. The door had flown open after one final heave of the battering ram, and the SWAT team had rushed inside.

They had found remnants of an unfinished poker game in the center of the room.

A gunshot was heard, and an officer had gone down. Fortunately, the Kevlar had saved Officer Cline’s life. Stucky had taken the shooter out.

SWAT lead Officer Patterson had then rolled six smoke bombs, and the rooms had filled with smoke. Two minutes later it was all over when twelve men had stumbled out, coughing and screaming, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”

“But Carter was hit in the arm by a ricochet bullet. A medic is ….”

“Where is he?” Audrey interrupted Stucky as she turned to leave. Stucky pointed in the direction of the bar, and watched in surprise as Audrey ran toward it.

“What was that all about?”

“Is Carter ok?” Sam asked, worried about his friend, but not following Audrey, wanting to give them a few minutes alone. “Oh yeah, it was just a graze. Carter refused to get it looked at, but I insisted.”

“Ok, so what happened?” Sam asked Stucky.

“Well, apparently there was an impromptu poker game going on. Those two girls were entertainment.” Stucky said, pointing to the skimpily clad girls who were sitting in the far left corner.

“They don’t look a day older than sixteen,” Sam said.

“They’re not. One told me she had just turned fifteen, the other told me she will be sixteen in four weeks.” Stucky said to him.

IN THE AFTERMATH

Dickson and Sanders had transported Sasha to a secure safe house, and he remained there until the FBI could decide on how to proceed with his interrogation.

For now, the FBI planned to make no announcements about the apprehension of a Top Ten fugitive, although by now the news of Sasha’s capture would have already spread throughout the organized crime community.

Audrey and Sam had participated in a debriefing with the SAC, who had told them that their six-day operation could very well be the shortest stint in the history of the FBI, and taking into consideration the scope of the project, one for the books.

xxxx

Another kind of debriefing took place at Audrey’s that night. Operation Third Eye Watch was deemed a success by the entire nine-person team, and toast after toast was made as stories were told and retold.

Audrey had invited Serena but hadn’t told Sam. Neither had Serena let on to Sam that she’d be seeing him much sooner than the following day. When the doorbell rang, Sam went to open it, thinking it might be the pizza that had been ordered.

But when he opened the door, his heart thrummed at the sight that greeted him. Serena, clad in a short summer dress, stood there, holding two large bouquets of flowers and a bottle of wine.

“Aren’t you going to ask her in?” Audrey asked softly from behind him. He turned to look at his partner, who stood with a glass of wine in her hands. He turned back to look at Serena, then slowly opened the door.

Serena handed him one bouquet, placing the other on a table behind her.

“You bought me flowers?”

“Yes. Why? Were you expecting something more extravagant?”

He grinned, then placed his bouquet next to the other bouquet behind Serena, and pulled her into his arms.

“No one has ever given me flowers until now.” He told her in a voice filled with emotion.

“Oh, Well, then I’ll be sure to give you flowers often.” She told him, and then pulled his head and said, “I missed you, Sam.”

He captured her lips in a passionate kiss, his arms tightening around her as Serena twined her arms around his neck and kissed him back just as fervently.

They broke apart for air, staring at each other for a long moment. Then Sam took her hand and murmured, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the team.”

LOOSE ENDS

The INS had taken custody of the girls. All of the rescued girls were between the ages of twelve to seventeen. All of them had been kidnapped in their country and sold to others, sometimes more than once.

All of the girls had also been inked before they had been brought to the warehouse.

The tattoos found on the back of their necks matched those that had been discovered on the murdered Jane Doe, Sofia, and Fredrik. The two dancers rescued during the raid on the Criket Club also had the same tattoos.

The girls were tattooed, they were told by one of the men arrested at the warehouse, on Sasha’s request. He told his men that he wanted the girls to know that Sasha now owned them; and if they ever tried to escape, they’d be murdered.
 

The girls would be deported to their country of origin, where many of them would be re-victimized due to lack of education, money, and family to take care of them.

Sofia had been murdered because she had tried to escape. Four weeks before her kidnapping, Sofia had acquired a fake passport and was planning on returning home to Albania. She carried her passport with her in her purse, afraid of leaving it behind in her apartment, knowing that Sasha’s goons periodically checked it. Unfortunately for Sofia, the fake passport had been discovered in her purse, by a repeat customer who had rummaged through her purse, looking for a hit. The customer had told Sofia’s handler about the passport, and that’s why the two men had arrived to search her apartment, and then returned at night to kidnap her and find out more about her plans.  As punishment for trying to escape, Sofia had been enslaved, raped and tortured for months. Then they had killed her and dumped her body.
Fredrik had been killed because he had been heard asking questions about Sofia, and telling people that the FBI was looking for her killers. Fortunately, he hadn’t let on that Sofia’s sister Lena was with him and that was probably the only reason Lena had been saved.

Thaqi and Rudaj had been arrested, and booked on charges of sex trafficking and harboring a Top Ten Fugitive and were scheduled to be arraigned soon.

Sam and Audrey planned to look into the deaths of the other Jane Doe’s once they began their interrogation of Sasha.
But for now, they were both taking a couple of days off.

EPILOGUE

Serena was bored. It had been a quiet day. It had also been a week since she had met Sam at Audrey’s, and although they had spoken every night, she missed him terribly.

The wind chimes sang, and she sighed inwardly thinking she was so not in the mood for a customer. Then plastering a smile on her face, she turned, but the welcoming words froze on her lips.