“They’d been used for people.” Eli stared at Daniel, and Daniel nodded seriously.
“People who had been in there for a long time?”
His eyes stung.
“Maybe clothes? Food wrappers?”
And the rest.
“Did you ever see any of these people?”
Eli shook his head, but he knew they had been there. Knew it wasn’t animals.
Daniel looked up at Talon. “Maybe we need to see what vehicles Caffrey had registered? Find out if the Orlando team has anything on possible transport routes.”
“I have a contact in Border Patrol, customs,” Talon said. “Importing illegal immigrants is a billion-dollar business.” Talon turned and spoke quietly to the others, but Eli didn’t listen. He just focused on Daniel and tried to get the smell of the trailers out of his head.
“So we’re thinking that Caffrey has gone back to his original business, just on a much larger scale?” Jake asked.
“The trouble is a lot of residents never consider Tampa to be a border,” Talon said, “but more than two hundred people stayed illegally last year alone that we know of, simply workers getting off ships and not returning. Port Tampa Bay at over 5,000 acres is one of the largest in the country. Most people think of Tampa as just a vacation destination, but it’s the largest port in Florida by far and handles over thirty-seven million tons of cargo a year. Everyone thinks smuggling, whether drugs, guns, or people, has to happen at quiet, out-of-the-way places, but it simply isn’t true. You need somewhere with road access, busy traffic, and lots of people to hide in plain sight.” He grinned. “I actually used to work there.”
Finn nudged his arm, but he was smiling.
“The nightclubs would be a good way of laundering money for such a business,” Gael mused.
“Caffrey’s place was next to the port?” Jake asked.
“But it’s derelict. It’s been compulsory purchased by the port authority.” Talon’s phone rang. “Yes, sir?” Talon’s face showed surprise. He listened for a moment, then nodded. “We’ll be right down.” He looked up. “Denise Caffrey just walked in and wants to see the agents who are trying to find Kai. She’s with her sister. The mother of the kid who told the teacher about Kai.”
Talon seemed to think for a second. “Eli, I want your input. See if you can get anything.” Daniel immediately stood up as if he was going to object. “Daniel, you come too. Everyone else wait here.” He turned and Eli glanced at Daniel, then followed Talon out of the conference room.
“Apparently she called to speak to Agent Wright, and they told her this team was taking over the case because Agents Lin and Wright were involved in a shooting incident yesterday.”
Eli processed that. “Does she know she died?”
Talon shook his head as he started down the stairs. “They wouldn’t give out that sort of information.”
“I wonder if Caffrey knows she’s here?” Daniel asked.
Denise Caffrey stood as soon as they entered one of the interview rooms on the ground floor. Her sister stayed seated and nodded to them all. Talon introduced himself and Daniel and Eli, but after seeing him enter the room, Eli didn’t think Denise Caffrey heard a word Daniel said.
She held out her hand wordlessly, and Eli took it. He got an overwhelming feeling of anxiety but not pain. He felt Daniel stiffen as he touched her, clearly worried he was going to keel over or something.
“We’re still trying to catch up with the details of your son’s case, Mrs. Caffrey,” Talon started cautiously.
“Do you know my husband?” she suddenly asked, looking straight at Eli.
He shot an alarmed look at Daniel, but Mrs. Caffrey carried on without waiting for a reply. “It’s just you remind me so much of a picture he has.” She flushed. “Sorry, that was incredibly rude of me, Agent.”
“A picture?” Eli sat. Something cold skittered across his body.
She nodded. “Kai showed me a photo my husband has in his office, except— ”She indicated her face, and Eli understood any picture wouldn’t be of him with a scar. “—it was of a boy my husband used to foster years ago. Anyway, Kai liked that picture and kept it in his room. He-he—” Her eyes filled with sudden tears. She shook her head as if impatient with herself. “My husband was quite annoyed when he realized Kai had taken it from out of his desk, and asked him not to do so again, but even when my husband locked his office, the picture would just turn up in Kai’s room. He’d say he found it.” She laughed nervously. “I don’t even know why Max has just that one. I think he fostered quite a few children.”
Eli felt Daniel step closer to him. Daniel hadn’t sat when everyone else did. He could almost feel his solid presence even though they weren’t touching.
“Max was so good with him though. He never thought what Kai did was strange or treated him differently. He once asked Kai if he could find the real boy.” She smiled as if it had been a fond memory, but all sorts of alarms were pinging in Eli.
“And did he try, ma’am?” Daniel asked.
She frowned. “Kai said he was in Tampa but that he didn’t want to be found.” She looked right at Eli. “He said he was hiding. Max just said it was a shame because he’d like to know if he was happy. There was a bad accident at the house one night and the building caught fire. Max was badly burned, and obviously all the children had to be rehomed.”
If I was happy? Eli wanted to vomit.
“Is there anywhere you can think of that Kai might have gone?” Daniel asked, and Eli managed a short choppy breath when her focus turned to Daniel.
“He didn’t have any friends. He wanted a dog, but Max has allergies, so it’s out of the question. The only place he went was on the site visits with Max to the club. Kai was upset he was too young to go once it was open, so Max used to take him there all the time while they were building it.”
They went over the timeline. Sunday night she’d gone to bed as usual, and Denise had checked Kai was sleeping before she turned in. In the morning he simply wasn’t there.
“And did your husband go to bed at the same time as you?” Talon asked.
“No. He’s busy at the club. He’s been there all hours and didn’t get home until after one.”
“Would he check on Kai then?”
She shook her head. “No, he said he just came to bed.”
Talon nodded, and she got up at the same time as he did. “Please. I know everyone thinks he’s run away, but I can’t believe he would be so unhappy and not tell me.”
Talon promised her they were working on it and that she could call them every day if she needed to.
“I think we need to listen to what she didn’t say,” Finn said a little while later after Talon had reported their conversation to the team.
“Huh?” Sawyer asked.
“He said he came to bed,” Finn repeated. “So she doesn’t know for a fact what time that was, and she practically told you she thinks he was taken.”
Sawyer gaped. “When—”
“Because she said she couldn’t believe he was so unhappy he would go voluntarily,” Daniel said. “It could be she’s suspicious and not saying it, or she doesn’t even realize what may be at the back of her mind. And I think it’s significant that’s she’s here without her husband.”