“He’s a sick bastard,” Otto said.
“It gets worse. She said he would read one of the girls’ names off a list, and then read her family’s address as a threat. Letting the women know how much control he had.”
“That’s the same story that Ryan told us,” Josie said.
“What are you getting at, Marta?” Otto asked. “Are you suggesting we call the women’s families and ask who they contacted to organize their trip to the U.S.?”
“Sure. What could it hurt? I have Isabella’s information. I should be able to get the rest too.”
“Make the call,” Josie said. “Just let them know the women are safe, but in custody. They should receive a phone call with more information within the next few days.”
*
Marta spent the next thirty minutes on the phone with Isabella’s mother. The conversation took place in Spanish, so Josie and Otto had to wait for the recap after the call ended.
Marta hung up looking worn out. “If there was any doubt about this being a truly humanitarian effort, the phone call just put that idea to rest. Each one of those women’s families paid twelve thousand dollars for the trip to Albuquerque. That amount included the travel cost, food and lodging, and a finder’s fee for getting the women high-paying jobs in the hotel services industry, as well as their room and board until they were hired.”
“Lodging? Seven people shared a motel room each night.” Josie choked out a laugh. “Twelve thousand dollars times five women is sixty thousand dollars for what probably amounted to a couple weeks’ work. Ryan said he got two thousand for helping. Josh may have gotten five thousand, which probably included gas and expenses for the trip.”
“That means Caroline clears about fifty thousand dollars on this delivery,” Otto said.
“And our Border Patrol contact, Jimmy Dixon, claims she’ll get an additional payment from the so-called hotel services industry when the women are delivered somewhere in Texas.” Josie shook her head at the amount of money that was being made. “When Ryan explained how Caroline involved him, I couldn’t imagine why she would risk getting caught over something like this. But what if this isn’t her first delivery? She could be bringing in a couple hundred thousand a year.” She let the thought hang.
“Here’s something else,” Marta said. “Isabella’s mom said she found out about the deal from a Web site. I have it written down.”
Josie and Otto stood behind Marta as she pulled up the Web site.
“She says a variety of transporters have Web sites to basically broker deals with families,” Marta said.
“Sounds like the traffickers are taking a cue from the Internet call girl industry,” Otto said.
The title at the top of the Web page read Jobs Without Borders. Underneath the title was a rotating banner of glitzy photographs of young women dressed in stylish clothes smiling and laughing, dancing, eating in fancy restaurants, holding the hands of well-dressed men. Underneath the photos was a paragraph that started with, “The United States is more than the land of opportunity. It is the land of wealth and happiness. It is the land of hope and the land of unlimited prospects. The hotel services industry in the United States is a booming industry in need of young women from across the globe looking for excitement and a new life!”
Marta mumbled something under her breath and clicked on the menu tab “Contact.” There were no phone numbers or addresses, just a form to fill out with a promise that someone would respond within forty-eight hours.
Josie went over to her desk and started her own computer. “I’ll call DPS and see if we can work with their cybercrimes unit. Maybe they can track down the domain address to a city.”
“There aren’t enough typos or grammatical errors for me to think that was written by someone in Guatemala,” Otto said. “It sounds like it was written by an English major.”
Josie talked with one of the cybercrimes techs at the Computer Information Technology and Electronic Crimes Unit, referred to as CITEC. A technician named Josh pulled up the Web site. He offered to do some digging, and within thirty minutes he called back and said he had some “unofficial” information.
“Let’s have it,” Josie said.
“This won’t be admissible in court. We need to go through proper channels,” the tech said.
“Absolutely. Just get me started and then I’ll file the paperwork.”
“The domain is registered by a U.S.-owned Web hosting company. A John Davis registered the company four years ago as a private company. The name is not associated publicly with the Web site, and it’s probably a fake name. However, file the paperwork to get the records for payment. If you find out how John Davis paid to register the domain name, you might find out who owns the site.”
“I got it. I’ll file with the judge.”
*
Josie hung up the phone, summarized the call, and stared across the conference table at Otto and Marta.