“Yes, sir.”
They waited until Zapelli was gone. “I wanted to break his neck,” Nate said.
“He didn’t slip much. Nothing that we can use with a judge.”
“He threatened us. That’s good enough for me to arrest him. I didn’t even raise my voice.”
“You never do.”
Villines called. “Kincaid? We hit the lottery. The rental car has a GPS system and guess what? Our number one suspect used it extensively. I’m sending you the printout of everywhere he’s been since he picked up the sedan.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
By the time they regrouped at Villines’s office, Noah had arrived and Villines himself had already mapped out the route Angelo Zapelli had taken. Lucy suspected that because his in-laws were involved, he wanted this done quickly and done right. He had assembled a small group of deputies to help them.
“You are in this room because I know each and every one of you and your families. Because this is a sensitive situation, I want to make sure that whatever we find is handled with complete discretion and sensitivity.” He stared at everyone in turn to drive home his point. “I’m turning this over to Supervisory Special Agent Noah Armstrong, who has been instrumental in keeping this office in the loop as far as the FBI investigation goes, which I appreciate.”
A stamp of approval for federal involvement in a local office made the whole process run smoother.
Noah stood, thanked Villines, and said, “I’m going to be as brief as possible. I’m not from Texas; you all know this area far better than I do. I’m originally from Colorado Springs, I served ten years in the Air Force, and for the last five years have been working out of the Washington, DC, Regional FBI Office. I’m running the San Antonio Violent Crimes Squad temporarily while the current SSA is on paternity leave.”
Lucy had never known Noah was from Colorado. What else didn’t she know about him? She felt awkward, like she should have asked—they’d become friends over the last two years, but she knew so little about him.
“My partner Agent Kincaid and I were sent to Freer to take the statement of a photojournalist who has been looking for two missing young women, Marisol and Ana de la Rosa, who disappeared over two years ago from Monterrey, Mexico. She has known these women their entire lives and believed they had been kidnapped or manipulated into the sex trade. Ms. Walsh followed a trail that led her here, after the abandoned baby known as Baby Elizabeth was left at the door of a Catholic church outside Freer.
“Assistant Sheriff Villines has already distributed photos of the two sisters. However, we believe there are more women who may have been held captive by the same criminal organization. And while they may have started out being trafficked into border cities, we believe that these particular young women have been used as breeders. Agent Kincaid uncovered evidence from a nurse involved in the conspiracy that seventy-two infants were born to women like the de la Rosa sisters and sold into the black market over the last two years. One woman known only as Eloise was found dead in a Dumpster, her baby boy cut from her womb. She was shot in the back of the head.”
He let that information sink in. He had everyone’s attention.
“Witnesses who found Marisol de la Rosa contacted your office; unfortunately, Marisol met up with a man she believed she could trust, who may have killed her or taken her back to the people she ran from. We believe that Marisol is the mother of Baby Elizabeth, and left her baby at the church in an effort to protect her from a black-market sale.
“What Deputy Villines and I need is for you to assist us in visiting every place that Mr. Zapelli went during his five days in Texas. Mr. Zapelli has been detained and is in custody at the airport pending transport to a federal jail prior to his arraignment. I won’t lie to you—we don’t have much evidence against him. He has a lawyer and has stopped talking. He gave us no information on the whereabouts of these girls, and denied seeing Marisol. However, physical evidence found on his belongings is being tested to see if it matches the young woman; if so, we will arrest him on felony kidnapping charges. We are going on the assumption that she was with him at some point Tuesday night. Right now, we’re holding Zapelli for threatening a federal agent, as a material witness to a felony, and because he’s a foreign national and a flight risk. A good lawyer will get him out in a matter of days.