The morning of the fourth day post Luna’s kidnapping dawned overcast and dim. This part of the country was more prone to storm systems than I had been used to in the capital. I sat out on the little east facing porch to watch the sunrise with a mug of black coffee clutched between my hands, allowing my senses to awaken and my brain to sharpen. Had this been a normal week with no missing person’s case, it would have been my day off. But without any thought, I had arisen at my usual 4:30am and begun my day fully intending to work until I could not physically and mentally function any longer that evening. I was used to giving up my days off. Before I had been kicked off the force up in the capital, I hadn’t had consecutive days off for over a year and at my worst point had worked a solid month straight without any days off at all. That had been right before the incident. My therapist had helpfully pointed out this lack of time away might have contributed to my mental snap. But there was no way I was taking the day off while Luna and Lysha might still be out there suffering.
I mulled the jumbled details from the previous day over in my mind. Bract, the nomad camp, Lysha’s family, and Ulug. Drug running and kidnapped children. Was I drawing lines in the sand by connecting my current case to the one I had been working in the capital? What were the odds that the drug running had come this far north? Never having left the jurisdiction of the capital before now, I had no idea how far and wide such crimes might stretch. But if there was a connection, it might explain quite a few things.
I headed into work and arrived at 7 sharp. Meryl was already there and Oak arrived just a few minutes later. Meryl didn’t comment as to why I was here on my day off, nor did I mention anything. I sat down at my computer and began my usual task, checking the online forums posted for anonymous tips, checking my inbox, glancing over the latest news feeds.
My cell rang. I pulled it out and eyed the caller ID. It was Lawrence. My adrenaline shot up as I stood and headed into the break room to answer the call.
“Morning Lawrence.”
“Morning Sen. Look I just got in, I ran your name.” His voice was strident and I could tell immediately that we had something. “This guy Ulug is in one of our registries. Matches your physical description near enough.”
“Who is he?” I asked, urgency lacing my veins.
“Full name, Kasorsh Ulug. He’s got a hell of a background. I’m still looking through files but here’s the gist of it. First brought in about ten years ago in Cannon City, right at the end of the crank epidemic. Running drugs for one of the bigger outfitters. Did two years along with a bunch of other cronies caught in the same raid. Once out, it seems he moved to the capital because the next instance we encountered him was him being taken in for questioning a year later as a suspect in a crank ring that had formed in the capital. And guess who else we had in for questioning at that time?”
I knew already, I had read the detail in his file at least a dozen times. “Borsk.” I said without hesitation.
“Exactly. Well as you know, Higor Borsk and about twenty others walked that year because we couldn’t pin them directly to the drugs. Shipments vanished overnight and to this day no one knows where they went. Ulug was one who walked. He doesn’t turn up for another three years when we start seeing the child labor industry skyrocket. He was caught in association with a child labor force that year and tried, but only given nine months for perjury as his name couldn’t be linked to the ring. They could only prove he had obstructed their investigation.”
I was taking notes as fast as my hand could fly across my notebook. “Ok, so what happened then?”
“Well, that brings us to today. He hasn’t been heard of since. I ran a background check on him and he appears to not have been employed or be on record since he got out of prison the second time.”
I let out a breath, my pulse hard in my throat, my mouth dry. “So you’re saying he’s gone dark?”
“Near enough. Either he’s moved out of the spotlight enough to fly under the radar or he’s set up shop elsewhere. If he’s still in the capital, he’s being awfully low key compared to what he used to do.”
My mind writhed. Could this possibly be the piece we had been searching for, the whole reason that Luna and Lysha had been taken?
“Hey, I’m going to send you a bunch of documents so you can look through them. But listen Sen, this is sort of…off the record ok? Melvin doesn’t want me encouraging you. He keeps saying you need to take a break.”
Though I was aware of my former superior’s sentiments, its stung none the less. “I get it,” I said after a moment of self-pity. “Thanks Lawrence.”
We hung up and I stood there, my body veritably humming with excitement. I hurried out of the break room and back to my desk, where a fat email full of documents on Ulug sat. I began to rifle through them but at that moment, Meryl stepped out of his office.
“Attention please,” he said. He was looking grim. “We’ve had a tipoff. Neighbor of a registered pedophile says that the guy hasn’t been home since Luna’s disappearance. She called it in because she normally sees him at least twice a day but his vehicle has been gone and there’s not a single sign of him being home.”
These words, which I might have jumped on ravenously a day ago, made hardly a dent in my newfound interest in the potential of Ulug and possible connections to drug running rings.
“Oh god,” Oak said, looking pale.
“We’ve got to track this guy down, find out where he is and make damn well sure he hasn’t got Luna. I’m forwarding all the details of his case to you both. Let’s make this our first priority.”
I stood just as Oak did. “I’ve found out something as well. It pertains to our investigation last night,” I said, before Meryl could turn around. “That guy Ulug that Lysha’s brother mentioned, he’s a former drug runner, possibly a current one. He was involved in a child labor ring previously. He might have had motivation to kidnap young children like Luna and Lysha.”
There was a long silence. Meryl was looking at me hard, in a way that made me feel distinctly like I had spoken out of turn. Oak glanced between us. Finally, Meryl said, “how did you figure all this out?”
“I had a friend of mine in the capital run the name and description Nilo gave us. Sounds like the same guy.”
Meryl fingered the doorknob to his office. “Alright, it’s another lead. But as we have no evidence to tie this Ulug to Luna’s kidnapping, we shall first pursue the missing pedophile.”
“He might be tied to Lysha’s kidnapping, if her family was in debt to him.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Lysha isn’t the subject of our case. If her family wants to make a formal inquiry, then we can investigate her as well.”
“We could divide up and pursue both at the same time,” I suggested.
“No. I want both of you working the same case, the one we’ve been assigned to. If we dead end with the pedophile, you can start casing the Ulug lead. Right now a local pedophile is a lot more likely of a suspect than a drug lord out of the capital.”
“He might not be in the capital anymore. If he’s running an operation up north here or on the border-”
“Senel,” Meryl interrupted curtly. “You have your instructions. Pedophile. Find. Go.”
I closed my mouth, feeling deflated. Meryl gave me a cold appraising look and then headed into his office. I felt like punching my desk but instead I stood and followed Oak out of the office. While I drove in stony silence, Oak perused the file.
“Clinton Roth. He was indicted five years ago for sexually exposing himself in front of children. Did six months in the can. He’s in his late forties, last employed as a stockman at a grocery store part time. Not married, no kids of his own.”
I shook my head out of my cloud. The sooner we tracked this guy down, the sooner we could return to what I was certain was the proper lead to finding Luna.
“Let’s go to the house first and take the neighbor’s full statement,” I said.
“Ok, he’s in Wiggins, off in the countryside. I’ll direct you.”
We arrived at a dilapidated farm property some time later, where a squat woman in her mid to late seventies was sweeping a porch that looked more in need of an intense bleach scrubbing.
“Mrs. Holiday? This is DI Senel and my name is Inspector Oak. We hope to ask you some questions about your neighbor Mr. Roth?”
“Yes,” Mrs. Holiday said. “Like I said to the police on the phone, he’s been gone for the past three days. I thought that was very odd, because he normally never leaves home except for work. Then I heard about that girl that went missing. And I realized that she went missing at the exact same time that I stopped seeing Mr. Roth. I thought, well, that’s a bit of a coincidence. I know he’s a sex offender you see. My daughter used to manage that grocery store where he works and the cops told her about it all.”
“How did you know Mr. Roth was absent?” Oak asked.
“His car was gone and I usually see him a couple times a day outside. Nothing for the past three days.”
“Do you know if he has any family or friends in the area? We’d like to talk to them.”
“I think he’s got a sister in town. Layla Widdy.”
“Great thank you for reporting this Mrs. Roth.”
We headed over to Mr. Roth’s house next, an even more dilapidate little cottage than Mrs. Holiday’s had been. There was junk everywhere, old farm equipment that looked as if it hadn’t been utilized for over a decade, as well as piles of trash and liquor bottles. Oak knocked on the front door, but there was no reply.
“Mr. Roth. Police. Please open up,” I called, but there was no reply.
We moved to the back door and I peered through a broken window into a scene of fifth and decay. It wasn’t possible to see far, but from what I could tell, Mr. Roth wasn’t much of a cleaner. I did see one thing to give me pause. There was what looked like shells to what could have been a 12 gauge shotgun scattered all over the floor.
“Looks like he’s a fan of guns,” I mentioned to Oak, jabbing my thumb for her to take a look.
“And whiskey,” Oak said, toeing one of the many empty bottles thrown everywhere across the back yard.
“I don’t think he’s here, like the neighbor said. Let’s check up on the sister, then the grocery store.”
We called in the sister when we got back into the car and Salas gave us the address. We sped over to find a middle aged overweight woman living in a mobile home hanging laundry on a line. Two young kids sat playing in a pile of sand a little ways away.
“Mrs. Widdy?” I called to her as we approached.
She looked up at us and frowned. “Who’s asking?”
“DI Senel and Inspector Oak. We’ve got some questions for you about your brother.”
“Clint? What about him?”
“Have you seen him in the past three days, Mrs. Widdy?”
“Nope,” she said without hesitation. “I don’t see him much though. Why?”
“We’ve received a tip off that he hasn’t been home for three days now. Any idea if he was planning to be out of town?”
She frowned. “Don know. Sometimes during huntin’ season, he goes up to our paw’s old cabin up on Firecreek Mesa. But he didn’t tell me about it.”
“Firecreek Mesa,” I said, glancing at Oak. She nodded to indicate she knew of the place. “When was the last time you saw your brother?”
“Shit, I don know, like a month ago. He come complaining to me that he didn’t get some promotion at his job. Like I care. Asking me for money as usual. Like I got extra just laying around with two kids eating my shelves empty. I turned him down and he drove off in a big huff.”
“You haven’t seen or heard from him since?”
“Hell no. I don’t take his shit no more.”
“Are you aware your brother has a record of indecent exposure in front of children?”
That seemed to give her pause. “Yeah. All that shit back then with the kids? He was drunk as fuck, wandered into a local daycare ass naked thinking it was the liquor store. The nannies freaked out, pressed charges, my stupid ass brother didn’t get himself a good lawyer, so he did time and now they call him some pedo. But he ain’t no pedo, just a damn drunk.”
I glanced at Oak again and then said, “is there anywhere else your brother might be?”
She shrugged. “Naw. Not unless he got himself a girlfriend. Crazier shit’s happened. Why? What’s all this about?”
“We just want to talk with him,” I said delicately, not wanting to put the woman on her guard. “If you see him, will you tell him to call us, or swing by the sheriff’s office?”
I held out a card to her and she shrugged, already returning to her laundry. We hopped back in the car, heading to the grocery store.
“What do you think?” Oak asked.
“Well, he doesn’t sound like the predatory type necessarily, but if he was drunk during the incident with the kids, it might have been a sign he was losing his inhibitions to hold back sinister desires.”
“Firecreek Mesa’s not too far from here. If he took Luna up there, we should be able to locate his cabin by the end of the day.”
She called in this info to Salas as we pulled up to the grocery store. It was a little city market, nothing remarkable. We headed in and managed to find the manager pretty quick.
“What can I do for you?” the mustachioed man in his later 40’s asked, leading us into the back office.
“We’re looking for a Mr. Roth and we told he’s employed here. Has he been into work over the past three days?”
The manager frowned. “Clint? Naw, he’s not been in for a few days now. Let me check.”
He pulled up some documents on a computer screen. “Nope, last clock out was four days ago. He’s scheduled in two days though, on Monday.”
“Is that an unusual scheduling for him? To be absent for long stretches of time?”
“Well, no. He’s only part time at the moment. On partial disability due to an accident in his last job working construction. He usually schedules long shifts several days in a row, then he’ll dip out for a while.”
“Are you aware of his criminal record?”
“Sure am. The police told us about it when he was hired. I wasn’t here at the time, but all the managers were told as they came aboard.”
“Have you ever seen him act suspiciously around kids?”
The manager deepened his frown, his mustache curling inwards. “To be honest, no. Though I admit I’m not watching him more than anyone else. But I never heard anything weird or received any complaints. He mostly just stocks, so he’s not in contact with many of the customers.”
“Ok, thank you for your time.”
We headed back out to the car. I suggested a quick lunch break before we moved any further. I chose a little panini shop and as we waited for our order, I pulled out the pile of maps I had gotten from the Forest Service station two days ago. We spread some out and Oak pointed out Firecreek Mesa. Indeed it wasn’t far, though not in the same neck of the woods where Luna had been taken.
“You know this area at all?”
“Not really. It’s a hunting destination alright. Archery only this time of year until October 1st when rifle season starts.”
“Feel like doing some hiking?” I asked with a wry smile.
“I’ll out hike you any day Senny. I was born and raised in woods like these.”
We ate, then headed to the Sheriff’s Office to check on Salas’s progress.
“There a lot of old hunting cabins up there,” he informed us. “Looks like Mr. Roth Sr. had one on the eastern slope, but I can’t pinpoint exactly.”
“Type of car Mr. Roth drives?”
“1980 Dodj pickup is registered to him. Black.”
“Any idea if he has a hunting license for archery season on file?”
“I checked. Looks like he puts in for one every year including this year but also looks like most years he doesn’t report a kill.”
“Ok, that should be enough to go on. We’ve got a map of roads in the area.”
“Need any help up there? We’re short staffed on the weekends, but I can call one of the boys in.”
“We should be ok, but we might be giving you a call.”
“Alright. Y’all be careful up there.”