Cold Betrayal (32 page)

“Incidentally, I’ve been informed that we’ve now located a total of twenty of those, most of whom are deceased. However, that number includes two young women who have been found alive. They ended up in an orphanage and stayed on in Nigeria when they were old enough to leave because they had nowhere else to go. Without passports or documents of any kind, they were stuck where they were.”

“Twenty victims?” Ali echoed. “That many? The last I heard the count was just over a dozen.”

“As I said, it’s been a very busy morning,” Governor Dunham replied. “Back to the warrants issue, however. When it comes time to execute them, I have a problem. Who’s going to do it? That job should belong to the local sheriff’s department, so what’s your beef with Sheriff Alvarado? I can’t ignore the man. The Encampment is located inside his jurisdiction.”

“Are you aware that one of his deputies, Amos Sellers, is part of that community—a member of The Family?”

“I’m well aware of the situation with Deputy Sellers,” Governor Dunham said. “As a matter of fact, I have a warrant with his name on it right here in front of me. What about him?”

“For an unknown number of years he’s moonlighted as The Family’s bounty hunter, tracking down runaway girls and bringing them back home. He’s had that job longer than he’s been a deputy. If Sheriff Alvarado’s department is involved in whatever you’re planning, I’m afraid word will get back to Amos and from him to everyone else. I can’t see the whole group hitting the road for parts unknown, but I can see them herding everyone—women and children included—into the church or some other central location and turning it into a siege situation.”

“You mean turn it into another Waco,” Governor Dunham said. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Ali admitted. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Mine, too,” Governor Dunham said. “I’ve been remembering images of that hellacious fire all day long. That’s why the current plan is to execute the warrants in the dead of night when everyone should be at home fast asleep. We’ll be using emergency response teams from several jurisdictions so the warrants can all be executed at once. That way, any resistance should be kept to a minimum and on an individual rather than group basis. I believe that will be safer for all concerned—law enforcement officers and civilians alike.

“But just because one of Sheriff Alvarado’s people belongs to the targeted group doesn’t mean I’m going to tar everyone with the same brush,” Governor Dunham continued. “I’m also not going to overstep my authority and allow a duly elected law enforcement officer to be left out of the loop on a major operation being conducted inside his jurisdiction. I assure you, Ali, I have every confidence that Sheriff Alvarado and his people will conduct themselves in full accordance with the law. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ali said, feeling as though she’d just been chewed out by her high school principal.

“That said, however,” Governor Dunham continued, “I’m not discounting your concern or the historical precedent, either. As I’m sure you’re aware, long ago there was a very similar situation in which people living in a place called Short Creek, now Colorado City, were taken into custody while peacefully assembled inside their church and singing hymns. That was part of what gave Governor Pyle such a black eye and turned what he did into a PR nightmare—the fact that they were all in church and singing when they were arrested. Later on, the man had his ass handed to him by the voters when he ran for reelection.

“What happened to Governor Pyle turned Short Creek, now Colorado City, into a no-man’s-land and left it virtually untouchable as far as state government and law enforcement are concerned. Out of sight was out of mind. Everybody—my administration included, I’m ashamed to say—went along with that program. We were all content to let the people up there do their own thing. After all, what’s a little polygamy among consenting adults?”

“But they’re not just consenting adults,” Ali objected. “I already told you. Little girls are expected to be betrothed by the time they’re six or seven. When they’re in their mid-teens, they’re forced into marriages with much older men and end up giving birth to children while they themselves are still juveniles.”

“You know that to be the case?” the governor demanded.

“Yes, I do,” Ali answered. “As for the ones who try to escape? If they’re caught and brought back by Deputy Sellers, they’re consigned to live lives of terrible privation.”

Ali thought about mentioning the other girl then—the Kingman Jane Doe who hadn’t survived long enough to be brought back. But there was no point. Ali knew that without the missing evidence box, Amos Sellers would never be held accountable for her death or for the death of her child.

“I take it you heard that from the two women you mentioned earlier,” Virginia Dunham said, cutting into Ali’s thought process. “I believe you referred to them as Brought Back girls? What are their names again?”

“Agnes and Patricia,” Ali answered. “They’ve spent the last fifteen years living in a Quonset hut with no electricity, no heating or cooling, and no running water. They’ve been forced to sleep on straw mattresses and walk around wearing other people’s cast-off rags and shoes. If the state of Arizona treated convicted killers the way they’ve been treated, the American Civil Liberties folks would be up in arms.”

“I suspect the American Civil Liberties folks will be weighing in on this matter all too soon,” Governor Dunham observed, “and not in a good way, either. They’ll be far more concerned with how we treat the guys we place under arrest than they will be about how the women and children were treated.

“The problem is,” she continued, “my blind eye went away early this morning when Sean Fergus’s phone call landed on my desk. As long as I’m the chief executive of the state of Arizona, known instances of human trafficking will not be tolerated. Holding people in what amounts to involuntary servitude will not be tolerated. Denying women and children their basic civil and human rights will not be tolerated—not on my watch. Because I’m not Governor Pyle.

“When this term of office is over, I’m done. I’m not standing for reelection for this office or any other. Politics and I are finished, so I’m going full speed ahead on this, Ali. The raid I’ve authorized is on. It’s going to happen—tonight, most likely. Sheriff Alvarado’s department will be charged with executing some of the warrants but with the proviso that Amos Sellers is to receive no advance warning whatsoever. Is that understood?”

Nothing Governor Dunham said dispelled Ali’s misgivings about Sheriff Alvarado’s involvement, but it wasn’t her call to make. “Yes, ma’am,” Ali said.

“I’m expecting that, one way or another, arrests will be made,” Governor Dunham went on. “At least one person—the head honcho, a guy named Richard Lowell, will be going to the slammer. Interpol made it clear to the various banking institutions involved that cooperation would be in their best interest. All the financial transactions lead directly back to Lowell’s name and no one else’s. He’s the one listed on all the accounts. He’s the one who disperses the money and writes the checks. That means that once he’s taken down, The Family’s financial underpinnings will go away as well. Whether or not some or all the men go to jail, it’s likely that their families will be dispossessed.”

Just then the cop left the shelter and returned to the patrol car he’d left parked in front of the building. A glance inside told Ali that the distressed woman and her equally upset children had been ushered through the waiting room and into the area beyond the security door. Shivering from the cold and trying to keep her teeth from chattering, Ali buzzed to be let back inside. Once inside she found the receptionist was on the phone discussing what sounded like a complicated personal issue. Ali hoped that the conversation was engrossing enough that she’d be able to continue her own without every word being overheard.

Governor Dunham was on a roll. “Human trafficking issues aside, let’s address the displaced persons part of the problem. My understanding is that this group has chosen to remain almost completely isolated from the modern world. That’s going to change in a heartbeat. How do we help these people make that difficult transition? For instance, the two women you mentioned before—Agnes and Patricia. What’s happening with them right now?”

“I’m friends with Andrea Rogers, the executive director of Irene’s Place, a domestic violence shelter here in Flagstaff. Agnes and Patricia have been fed. They’ve also taken showers and been given a change of clothing. Most likely, they’ll end up in one of the no- or low-cost housing units Irene’s has at its disposal. They’re fish out of water. They’re nervous and scared, but what scares them more than anything is that someone will force them to go back to The Family.”

“That’s not going to happen,” the governor insisted. “Do either of them have any marketable skills?”

“I doubt it,” Ali answered. “They’ve spent the last fifteen years of their lives looking after a herd of pigs. My expectation is that most of the others won’t be any better prepared for life on the outside.”

“According to the number of warrants on my desk,” Governor Dunham said, “we’re dealing with thirty-one residences in all—twenty-nine on the property and two in town. If each household consists of a husband and three or four wives, that comes to one hundred and fifty, give or take.”

“From what Patricia said, each family probably has its own contingent of Brought Back girls, too.”

“That would add sixty more,” the governor said. “How many kids?”

“Lots,” Ali said. “That’s my impression, anyway. Women are there to do the housework and bear children, the more of those the better.”

“So let’s estimate eight to ten children per household. That’s another two hundred fifty to three hundred. The drone footage reveals something that functions as a dormitory of some sort. It apparently houses young males in their teens. We got an unofficial playground count on them of forty-five to fifty. That brings us up to more than five hundred destitute individuals with no place to stay, nothing to eat, and no marketable skills, right?”

“That’s how I see it,” Ali agreed. “Some of the family units may want to stay together. Others may not. The Brought Back girls who’ve been treated as untouchables will most likely need to be handled as a whole separate category.”

“All right,” the governor agreed. “What’s the name of your friend again, the one who runs the shelter?”

Ali gave Governor Dunham Andrea’s contact information. “Do you have any idea about the number of units Andrea has available?”

“Not really,” Ali answered.

“I’ll speak to her, then,” Governor Dunham said, “but trust me. Her organization won’t be left to shoulder this load alone. My office will be assisting them and, if you agree, so will you.”

“Me? How?”

“I’d like to appoint you to serve as a special deputy in this matter,” Governor Dunham said. “By the time tonight’s raid is over, people in The Family will feel like they’ve been subjected to a military attack. They won’t be far from wrong. They’ll be traumatized and terrified.

“This is a joint task-force operation put together in a hurry to prevent another possible load of girls from being shipped out of the country. To make sure of that, an FBI SWAT team will move in from the north after dark. They’ll be bivouacked on the BLM land that lies north of The Encampment and tasked with guarding the landing strip. If an aircraft flies in, the team has been directed to allow it to land but under no circumstances are SWAT members to let it take off. That team will be coming down from Salt Lake rather than up from Phoenix. Once I’m off the phone, my deputy will be contacting the emergency response teams in nearby jurisdictions and assigning them specific targets.”

“What do you need from me?” Ali asked.

“You and I and whoever else we can round up will be there to win hearts and minds,” Virginia Dunham said. “We’ll be the rear guard, going in after the raid itself and after the cops have finished doing their jobs. Our task will be to convince the folks left behind that we mean them no harm. If you can persuade Patricia and Agnes to come along, they might be able to demonstrate to some of the women and most especially to the other Brought Back girls that we’re there to help. They’re going to need what we have to offer, but I expect we’ll have to convince them to accept it.”

Ali didn’t have to think long or hard. “If you want me as your deputy, I’m in,” she said. “Tell me where and when.”

“We’ll assemble at the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Flag at six
P.M.
,” Governor Dunham said. “I’m told it’s a four-hour drive from there to The Encampment. People will leave in convoys of two or three vehicles, starting at seven. If too many head up the road all at once, it’ll be far too obvious. We should all be in position before midnight; that’s when the fireworks start.”

“I’ll be there,” Ali said. “With any kind of luck, Patricia and Agnes will be there, too.”

32

A
li went back into the office. Andrea looked up at her with a tentative smile, which quickly faded. “Is something wrong?”

Ali nodded. “Yes. I just got off the phone with the governor of Arizona.” She looked at David Upton. He nodded slightly, a gesture that indicated to Ali that he already had some idea of what was coming. Ali’s problem was figuring out a way to start the conversation.

“Patricia and Agnes,” Ali said. “Have you ever heard of DNA?”

Their blank stares were answer enough. Somehow she doubted that their educations had included much in terms of biology.

“You know that your bodies are made up of cells—skin cells, blood cells, bone cells, right?”

They nodded in unison, but Ali was afraid the nods came out of their being agreeable rather than any kind of real understanding of what was being said. She continued anyway.

“Inside each of those cells are tiny bits of material that lead back through the generations to your furthest ancestors. DNA tracks back to your mothers and fathers. You share DNA traits with your brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles. In other words, people who do what’s called DNA profiling are able to examine the family tree that is planted inside each of your cells.”