Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (classic books for 10 year olds txt) 📕

“So you really didn’t know anything about the children that were found in the other neighborhood?” I asked.

“I knew about it,” Atkins shrugged. “It’s been all over the news. I just didn’t really make the connection. All this time, I thought Dajuan’s mom had just decided to get rid of him and his sister. I never really questioned the story. I guess it makes sense now that it was all a load of crap.”

“You don’t know anything about what happened to the little girl?” I asked.

“No,” Atkins shook his head. “The post had already been up for a few days when I contacted the poster, so it’s not surprising that someone had already taken her. I remember the lady asked a lot of questions, though.”

“What kind of questions?” I asked.

“Personal stuff,” Atkins shrugged. “She wanted to know how old I was and how much money I made and why I wanted the kid.”

“What did you tell her?” I asked.

“The truth, mostly,” Atkins shrugged. “I fudged some details about how old I was and what I did for a living, but I told her that I didn’t want him being snatched up by some pedophile. She actually seemed happy about that and told me she thought I’d be perfect.”

That was a little bizarre, to say the least. Why would the supplier care about what happened to the children after she’d sold them?

“Okay, Mr. Atkins,” I nodded as I moved to stand up. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

“Wait,” he interjected before I could say anything further. “What’s going to happen to Dajuan?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Is he going to be adopted for real?” Atkins asked. “I know that lady was lying about being his mom, so where’s he going to go now? Foster care or something?” There was concern in his eyes, and I could see that, regardless of what mistakes he might have made, Atkins really did care about Dajuan.

“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “But I can tell you he’ll be taken care of. MBLIS is seeing to it that all the kids we recover are given medical exams and protective care until we can locate their families or secure alternative homes for them.”

“Good,” Atkins nodded as she relaxed into his chair. “That’s good. I’m glad he’ll have someone looking out for him.”

I nodded before turning and leaving the room. I’d managed to gain new information that would help us with the case, but I still felt unsettled.

“Are you okay?” Miranda asked as I fell into the chair next to her just outside the interrogation room. “That was definitely a twist.”

“I’m fine,” I responded. “I just feel kind of bad for him, I guess. The more I think about it, the more unfair it seems for him to be treated the same as the people from the rich neighborhood who took the kids to use them as servants. He wasn’t trying to use Dajuan. He was trying to rescue him. His methods weren’t ideal, and his living situation wasn’t great, but doesn’t it just seem wrong to you that he gets the same punishment?”

“The world isn’t black and white,” Miranda sighed. “What’s legally right and what’s ethically right don’t always coincide, but it’s not really our job to figure out the difference. We investigate the crimes and find answers. It’s up to the courts and the justice system to sort out the rest.”

“You’re right,” I nodded, though I still felt unsatisfied. “Let’s go tell Fiona about the website he mentioned. She might be able to find out more from there.”

21

Miranda

“It’s going to be difficult,” Fiona frowned. “I was able to find the website on Atkins’s computer, but the post in question is gone.”

“You can’t recover it?” Junior asked.

“Maybe I can,” she shrugged. “But it might take time. The website is incredibly bare-bones. That makes it difficult to navigate and to use, but it also makes it easier to delete things without leaving a trace. It’s true what they say about something staying on the internet forever once it’s on there, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to find.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Well, not to sound insulting, but have you tried just calling the number?”

“I did think about it,” Fiona nodded. “It’s risky, though. If we decide to take that route, we really only have one shot at it. If we fail and the person realizes what we’re trying to do, all they’d have to do is chuck the phone onto the highway or something, and we’d lose that lead completely. If we do decide to try to trace the call, we need to be sure that we don’t make any mistakes.”

“Maybe we wouldn’t have to be clandestine about it,” I remarked.

“What do you mean?” Junior asked.

“Something that Atkins said to you during the interrogation stuck out to me,” I replied. “He mentioned that the woman who gave him Dajuan seemed concerned about who he was and what his intentions were. This makes me think that either the supplier had a change of heart about who she was selling the kids to, or there was something special about these two kids specifically. Either way, she wanted to vet him to make sure he’d be good for Dajuan, right?”

“Yeah,” Junior nodded. “That does seem to be the case.”

“What if whoever took the little girl is the same as Atkins?” I suggested. “What if they’re just someone who genuinely wanted to help a kid whose mom was trying to sell her off? If we offer them amnesty, they might be willing to cooperate with us.”

“How likely are they to work with us, though?” Fiona asked. “If they were on that website to begin with, they were obviously up to something sketchy. There’s a pretty good chance they won’t want to speak with federal agents.”

“That’s why we’ll offer them amnesty,” I argued. “I know it’s not a perfect plan, but there’s a missing little girl out there somewhere, and