Ava was just making the last of her phone calls to the families of the missing women after a long afternoon of searching. With David’s help an exhaustive search yielded some very fascinating discoveries.
Concerning Christine Blakely; Ava and David found her mother Liz who was living in Texas. She was sorry to hear that Christine was missing and admitted that Christine had some issues when she was younger, with her step-dad, and took off after that. Since Liz didn’t know where Christine was she couldn’t tell her that her step dad died of a drug overdose about six months ago. Liz asked if someone could call her and keep her updated if they found Christine. She also asked them to tell Christine that she loved her and wanted her to come home. Ava promised that she would.
David and Ava also checked into the death of Lea Monroe’s parents and everything Lea told Irene was the truth. There was really no family to speak of and they could not find anyone to contact of her disappearance. Ava couldn’t help to be sad by the fact that Lea had no family in her life. That might be why Irene is so attached to her. It made Ava very grateful for her father even though she didn’t like being in the public spotlight as a mayor’s daughter.
The interesting information came out when looking into Bella Francis. Ava searched the internet for the most recent names listed in Bella’s family bible. It brought up some names in France of some very influential people. When searching through some online pictures Ava found a man of about fifty that looked like a man in the photo that Bella had in her room. His name was Dominique Francis. They tracked him to his corporate office in Lyon and called him there. He was overjoyed that his daughter was still alive and cried right there on the phone. They gave him a moment to compose himself, then Ava asked him what happened with Bella.
Dominique explained that Bella went missing from her job at the Château de Prye. The resort could not tell them anything, so they hired an investigator and still had no luck. Bella had just disappeared without a trace. Who would have even thought she would end up in a beach resort on Paradise Island? Dominique told them. He was quite distraught at the thought of her missing again. He told Ava and David that he would be out on the first available flight and would see them soon.
David had worked on locating Susanna Yvonne’s family. He tracked her to the Halstad Resort in Sweden, where she had a position before coming to The Paradise. David talked to the Human Resource Manager and supposedly Susanna was approached by a man who offered her more money, so she took the job here. On her job application Susanna listed her mother Ella as the emergency contact, so they gave David that number. He wasted no time calling her. Ella was worried sick because she had not heard from Susanna in 5 weeks. She asked for a phone call to update her on the status of the investigation as soon as they knew anything.
It was early evening and after knowing all of this Ava and David discussed possible scenarios with the team. What would make sense if the trafficking intelligence was to be believed?
“So from everything we know let’s create a picture of what might have brought each girl here.” Ava started. “First off, keep in mind that all of the girls are pretty and seem to be of different nationalities. Christine was offered a job from someone at the Graycliff resort on the island. Lea was waitressing on the mainland and offered a job by a man. Bella went missing from a resort that we order wine from and might have been kidnapped. Susanna was offered more money to come here from a sister resort in Sweden.”
David looked shocked by all the similarities and the fact that it was very plausible that it could have happened this way. “They could have all been lured here with a job and money, so they would be close by when needed.”
“That’s a scary thought,” shivered Sophia. “That would make this a massive scale operation to have that many people and countries involved.”
“From the way Laura talked it is very possible,” Luke added. “We will have to run this by her and see what she thinks. I’m very anxious to see what she wants to talk to us about anyways. Why don’t we all go get some dinner and we can discuss everything again later.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Sophia replied. “I’m starving.”
“Me too!” exclaimed Ava.
Luke took Sophia’s hand and smiled at her and led her to the dining room. David smiled at Ava and they walked arm in arm after the others.
“Guys!” Hemi bellowed as they all walked in. “How are you doing? Come on in. Have a seat over here.” He motioned to a table away from the main walk way to the buffet.
“Hemi the food looks great!” exclaimed Luke. “I don’t know how you do it.”
“You just don’t see all the great chefs I have back in the kitchen. I just take all the credit!” he chuckled. “Truthfully though, I oversee everything and plan the menu, but they are the superstars. I’m very proud of all my staff. It gives me time to take care of some other things, like running this food over to the boat.”
“What boat?” Luke asked wondering what Hemi was talking about.
“There’s a 100 foot yacht anchored offshore of Honeymoon beach. Out there with the cruise ships” Hemi communicated. “I get paid to restock the pantry. I guess the guy is super rich and throws parties on the week-ends, so they need supplies.”
“How long have you been doing that?” asked Luke curiously.
“Oh, about four or five months, I guess,” Hemi said after he thought about it for a few seconds.
“What’s the guy’s name Hemi?” David asked looking suspicious.
“I don’t know his name, I guess he is incredibly private, but Luther is the one that pays me to restock the inventory. He sends me the list once a week…”