Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

“Are you two ever going to get out?” Tobias yelled. “Or does the little lady need more time to fix her makeup?”

The comment was irritating, but I was far more concerned about the incensed expression that came over Charlie’s face as he suddenly marched over to Tobias.

“Oh no,” I groaned as I hurriedly opened the door. I needed to do damage control before Charlie ended up getting into a fight with a Jamaican cop on Jamaican soil. Federal agent or not, it wasn’t going to go well for him if he did. I could hear Charlie muttering something to Tobias as I approached.

“Why?” he responded to whatever it was Charlie had said. “Just look at how indecently she’s dressed! She wants people to take her seriously when she’s walking around like that?”

Charlie opened his mouth to say something in response, but before he could, the sound of a bullet tore across the front yard, and a spot of red bloomed on the side of Tobias’s head.

“Gun!” Charlie yelled as he pulled his own gun from his holster and pointed it somewhere to my left. I threw myself to the ground as I heard more shots go off. I lifted my head and looked behind me in the direction the bullet had come from and saw a man leaning out of the driver’s side window of a car. I got to my knees and drew my gun just as he started to pull away.

I lifted my gun and emptied the chamber into the back of the car. The third shot shattered the rear windshield, and the fifth blew out one of the rear tires. The man panicked as the tire exploded and caused the car to shift to the right. He over-corrected as he turned the wheel forcefully to the right, causing the car to spin out and come to a stop sideways across the road. I ran to the car and threw open the door. The suspect inside was bleeding and appeared to be dazed. From what I could see, he hadn’t been wearing his seatbelt and had cracked his head against the window when the car spun out.

I sighed irritably as I hauled him out of the car. I always hated when suspects got injured. Not because I felt bad for them, but because it always delayed our timeline and led to more paperwork.

“Are you okay?” Charlie asked as he caught up to me.

“I’m fine,” I responded. “Help me cuff him. Is Tobias alright?”

“I don’t know,” Charlie huffed as he glanced back to where Leo was kneeling over Tobias’s still form. “The other cop already called for backup and an ambulance.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Let’s take this one over to Leo. We need to do a search of the house ASAP. There could be children inside.”

The suspect seemed to be coming out of his dazed state and began to struggle as we frogmarched him over to where Leo was standing.

“Leo, we need to clear the house,” I informed him. “Are you okay to watch the suspect?” His eyes were wide and blank as he looked down at his fallen partner, but a moment later, he blinked hard and turned to look at me.

“Yes, I’m fine,” he nodded as he took hold of the suspect’s arms. “Shut up! Hold still and stop making a fuss!” It was a little jarring to hear him yell so authoritatively. It was a stark contrast to the gentle way he’d spoken to me earlier.

I walked up to the door of the house and was disappointed to find that it was locked.

“Let me,” Charlie insisted before kicking the door down with intense force. I winced as I watched him. He spent so much time doing that, and he’d probably develop knee problems as he got older.

I rushed into the house behind Charlie.

“You take the right,” he suggested. “I’ll go left.” I nodded before following his instruction. The house was lovely and nicely furnished, and I’d spent enough time in the Caribbean to know that only someone wealthy could afford to live in this kind of house. I had a strong suspicion that the suspect’s wealth hadn’t been honestly earned.

“There’s no one here,” Charlie called as he finished clearing his part of the house. “No suspects and no kids.”

“None over here, either,” I called as he walked into the office room I’d just cleared. There was a computer in this room, along with several stacks of folders and notebooks.

“Did you find something?” Charlie asked.

“Maybe. Look at this,” I replied as I picked up one of the notebooks. On the front, someone had written the word “May” in French. On the notebook below that one, someone had written “April.” I flipped the first notebook open and was shocked to see what looked like a manifest. On each page was the name, age, and physical description of a child, as well as a picture. The page would also detail what day the child had been acquired and what day they were sent to the United States, as well as various other bits of information such as any health issues.

“It’s a record of sales,” Charlie muttered as he took one of the other notebooks off the desk. “One for each month.”

“There are dozens of children in here,” I gasped, my heart dropping as I considered how many there must be in total. “How absolutely vile.”

“We need to call Wallace,” Charlie nodded. “I’ll take some pictures as evidence and send them to Fiona. She can get started on tracking them down. It doesn’t list specific addresses, but maybe she can find something using the dates that they were flown over.”

I nodded slowly as I watched him pull his phone out of his pocket. My heart was beating so hard it felt as though it was trying to press its way out of my chest. I could feel my hands trembling as I looked over the multiple stacks of books piled high beside the computer, and I felt