It was after ten o’clock before everyone was back in the conference room. Luke grabbed Sophia when she came in and hugged her tightly. “Thank God you’re ok. I was so worried,” he whispered in her ear. “You found them, didn’t you?” he said smiling and kissing her cheek.
“Yes we did,” Sophia answered. “I was so scared. I don’t know if you noticed, but he had a gun on his belt.”
“I did, and I was scared for you,” Luke said comfortingly. “You’re safe now honey, but you were very brave looking for those girls.”
“Hemi, you did a great job too,” Luke said as he turned to embrace Hemi. “Thank you for your help getting us on the boat. Without you we would never have realized they might be on that yacht.”
“It’s cool, all in a day’s work,” Hemi said humbly, looking down, embarrassed by all the attention. Everyone smiled and laughed which made him giggle too.
Luke called his Uncle Max and Aunt Irene down from their room and told them they found the girls. Irene was sobbing and wiping her tears with a handkerchief. Max was stunned that Luther was definitely involved. Luke told him everything they suspected. Sophia told Irene about Lea dropping her bracelet in the cave.
“I knew she was a smart girl, that one!’ Irene gushed. “I may have to make her a manger.” Everyone laughed at Irene’s excitement.
Laura’s crew was breaking down the equipment when she asked them to all take a seat. “I think it’s time to fill you all in on what we discovered today,” she began.
“First, let me say that I had my IT guy analyze the surveillance video footage. There was definitely evidence of tampering. Sections of video were positively deleted, proving Luther lied. Second, David, when you first came to see me at the precinct you brought me some wrappers that you and Luke found in the cave. I sent them out and we got a hit. It was definitely Michael’s fingerprints. That places him in the cave with Lea.
We ran his and Clark’s name through the FAA database and there were two tickets to Jamaica purchased in their names by a business account from the Ocean Club. We contacted the local authorities in Jamaica and had them picked up as soon as they got off the plane and returned here. They are now on the mainland. We interrogated them and they admitted to Luther paying them to lure the girls to the cave. They waited for it to get dark and a boat came to pick up each girl. They also said that Luther was getting nervous and was changing tactics. He was going to hire the girls at the security building, that way no one would miss them when he took them to the boat. That is how Camilla got involved. They also admitted that Luther is the one who asked them to steal the spare room keys. Both Clark and Michael will get lighter sentences for their cooperation, but they will still face kidnapping and trafficking charges for their participation in all this.”
“That’s incredible!” Max stated. ‘So, now you can go arrest Luther, right?”
“Not yet,” Laura replied. “I need him to get someone into that party on Saturday. Then we take down the whole stinking ring all at once, but we can talk about that tomorrow. We found out something else you should know. We traced back the money from the confidential investor of the security building to the Ocean Club. It came from the same account that paid for the airline tickets. That means it is a very good assumption that the private donor plays a big part in that organization. They have ties to money laundering, prostitution and gambling. If we can take that down it would be a major hit.”
“I say we do it,” Luke declared looking around the room at his team. ‘Who’s in?” They all said yes, even Max and Irene.
“Let’s get this island cleaned up. This has gone on long enough,” Max said sadly.
“What do you mean by that, Uncle Max?” Luke asked.
“There has been a seedy element around here for as long as I can remember” he stated. “I don’t think it always went to this extreme, but it was always there, a dark side that I chose to ignore for many years, but no more. Too many people have been hurt. We will fight this with you. ” He took Irene’s hand and they both nodded.
“OK,” said Luke. “What now?” he asked as he looked at Laura.
“First, we need to set up operations away from Luther’s view,” Laura responded as she thought. “Max, do you have a secluded room we could use for a command post?”
“Yes, I can give you any room,” Max replied. “Would higher up be better?”
“Yes,” she stated. “Then we could use our optical equipment to view the yacht.”
“Fine, I will get the room arranged on that side of the building, on the top floor,” Max said as he left the room taking Irene with him.
Laura addressed the team. “Leave up the board and the timeline in the conference room, so if Luther comes by he won’t think anything is amiss. We will gather all of our equipment and set it up tomorrow in the room and get things dialed in. I will also run the plan by you to get someone into that party once I have it nailed down. I have an idea that just might work.”
“Get a good night sleep people,” Laura insisted. “We have a couple days to get this right and I want to make the time count. I’ll see you all at eight tomorrow morning.”
“Good night Laura. I appreciate all your help,” Luke said warmly as she left the room with her crew following behind her.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I need a drink,” Luke stated as he stood up. “Who’s coming?”
“Make mine a double,” Sophia said while laughing and taking Luke’s hand.
“I’ll be along shortly,” Ava said. “I want to call the families and let them know we found their girls.”
“I’ll help you,” David stated. “See you guys at the bar…”