David entered the Mainland Police Station at exactly nine o’clock and asked for Detective Hart. Shortly after nine a pretty woman came out dressed in gray slacks, black top and sensible shoes. She looked like she was in her mid-thirties. Her brown hair was cut short in a boyish style, but she made it work.
“David Jackson?” she called out.
“That’s me,” David said while standing up.
“Right this way please. I’m detective Laura Hart,” she said after extending her hand for him to shake.
“Nice to meet you,” he said shaking her hand firmly.
“Please have a seat,” Laura said while sitting down behind her desk. “I understand you are on the team with Luke investigating the disappearance of these four women.”
“That’s correct,” David answered. “I’d like to let you know about some evidence we came across that might suggest foul play, and to ask you for some help too.”
“Go ahead; I’m interested in anything that pertains to this case. Let me start off by telling you that we do not have much in the way of data to support the conclusion of foul play. I have just recently been assigned to this case. In the beginning, to be honest, I think the brass half expected the women to walk back into the resort at some point. There was nothing that pointed to suspicious activity.”
“Well, now there is,” David declared.
“I’m listening,” she replied.
“Firstly, we did a search of security footage for two weeks before each disappearance,” David began. “We found that there were time stamp gaps in the video. It skipped as much as five minutes in places. So we then looked back a month before each time and found two of the women with these men.” He showed her the photos of them being ‘friendly” with the men.
“Secondly, we did a search of the women’s rooms and discovered two notes asking them to meet at the beach around the time they went missing. In another room we found a phone that had this guy’s picture in it,” David said as he pointed to the video picture. “With a text asking her to meet him at the beach. The contact just said ‘M’. We don’t know who these guys are, but Luke is showing around some pictures today at the resort. Incidentally, the spare room keys for all four women have been misplaced or taken,” he stated.
“Thirdly, Luke and I went through the caves down at the beach and found a room way back inside the cliff where we found a bracelet with the initials L.M on it. Lea Monroe was one of the women that went missing,” he declared as he finished and sat back quietly.
“OK,” Detective Hart said. “You’ve convinced me that there is enough going on to suggest possible criminal activity.”
“There are some other things going on that are also suspicious,” David continued. “In the cave by where we found the bracelet we found granola bar wrappers that have The Paradise Hotel stamped on them. That is one thing I wanted to ask you is if you could get them fingerprinted.”
“OK,” she said while reaching in her drawer and pulling out an evidence bag to put the wrappers in. “I’ll send them in, but I wouldn’t expect too much.” She labeled the bag and set it on the edge of her desk.
“I understand,” David replied. “Another thing is that some of the girls were transferred from other resorts in France, Sweden, and one was here on the mainland. That seems a little fishy for some reason. The person we interviewed said it has been happening more and more in the past couple years. One of girls said she was an orphan when hired, but has a family picture and a family bible in her room. It just doesn’t add up. Also, we set up a time line with the dates of all the disappearances and they occurred once a month for four months in a row with the last one being less than a month ago. We may be running out of time,” David said grimly.
“I agree that things just don’t add up,” Detective Hart responded. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to come out to the resort with you to look over everything you have collected and look at the video footage you have of these men. I’ll also send in these wrappers for fingerprints. I want to find out what happened as much as anybody, David.” She got up to shake his hand again and motioned for them to leave.
“I have to tell you something that I think you should know,” Detective Hart warned. “These islands are not all tourists, beaches, and fun. There is a dark ugly under-belly that most people never see. I have seen things here that would make you physically ill. There are some very wealthy, powerful people on this island. They run a drug trade, illegal gambling, prostitution, murder and everything else that goes along with that. But the most significant thing that I want your team to be aware of is the growing evidence that there may be organized human trafficking going on…”