It’s an important line to draw in the sand. Tactical missions can take on a life of their own.
Annette’s still typing but affirms with a nod.
Zach reaches over to wake up the laptop open in the center of the table. “We’ve been collaborating with the Crimes Against Children Unit for the past two years in relation to the six minors who have left the cult and for one reason or another have interacted with law enforcement or first responders,” he says as an image projects onto the screen.
Luke jumps up to dim the light switch, which brings the faces of six children and their demographics into sharper focus. Two I recognize as Gweneth and McKenzie Travers, the sisters Luke believes have been kidnapped from Maple Canyon by cult members. Two are a pair of boys I don’t recognize, and the other two are a brother-sister pair who escaped last fall. The teenaged girl was pregnant and went into early labor while they were trying to flee to a great aunt in Driggs. The motel clerk where they were staying called 9-1-1. The kids were lucky Linden and William got there in time.
Zach continues, “So far, none of these kids have been willing to speak out against Sons of Eden, but…” He glances at me. “…last week a fourteen-year-old boy showed up at a local woman’s property. He didn’t use the word ‘escape,’ but I’m convinced that’s exactly what it was.”
“So he wasn’t a Lost Boy, like those other two?” Vera asks, nodding at the screen. “Left at a street corner in some town they’d never seen before?”
“No, this boy snuck out in the middle of the night almost a month ago...” Zach flips through his notebook pages. “…managed to survive on his own, which is a miracle considering the winter we’ve had.”
Luke shakes his head. “Any idea how he managed that? Finn River’s what, forty miles south of the Elk Flats compound? That’s quite the journey for a kid his age.”
“I’m almost positive he broke into a few cabins. He also knew how to hunt small game and forage.”
No kid should have to steal to survive. He’s been through such an ordeal. This makes me think of Keo’s commitment to helping him. That she cares for the boy too soothes something inside my heart. Something powerful, even though it makes little sense.
I think back to the framed pictures on her fireplace mantle. How does she feel about being separated from her children? If my kids weren’t in Finn River, I don’t think I could stand it.
“Any chance he’ll cooperate?” Annette asks, snapping me back to the conference room.
Zach and Everett lock eyes for an instant. “He’s only been in our care for a few days.”
“And he’s only fourteen,” Everett adds in a firm tone.
“If only we could get some of the women to come forward,” I say, tapping my pen against the open file folder.
Luke grunts in frustration. “Most don’t know they’re being manipulated or abused. It’s all part of how the cult is structured. And their obedience is interwoven with the belonging these people crave. When the young women become mothers, it gets even more complicated.”
Rex steeples his fingers together, resting them against his chin. “I think we can all agree that turning the women into whistleblowers is a longshot, and that pressuring the kids to speak out would only cause them more harm. Our best and safest bet is to continue building cases against them for other crimes.” He nods at me. “Illegal logging.” He locks eyes with Vera. “A traffic stop when they’re moving people around in trailers.” He then looks at Everett and Zach. “Maybe even making people disappear.”
Everett taps the laptop touchpad. The image of a young woman with straight dark hair blinks to life on the screen. She’s not smiling but her blue eyes are warm. She’s dressed in pink scrubs with a silver cross pendant hanging from her neck.
“This is Samantha Bowen,” Everett says. “Age twenty-five. A Labor and Delivery nurse on a temporary post in Miller’s Ferry who went missing two years ago. About three months into her assignment at Valley General, Samantha had picked up on a pattern. Young mothers, some as young as fifteen, with no father, yet they all listed the same address.”
“Fifteen?” I press a fist to my chest in disgust.
Everett nods. “Legal age of marriage in Idaho is eighteen, but there’s no law against motherhood that young.”
“It’s still fucking wrong,” I grit out. “That address…let me guess. Sons of Eden?”
“Yep. The one in Miller’s Ferry.” Everett returns his attention to the image on the screen. “We think that’s what Samantha was trying to report. She apparently told her supervisor, but in Miller’s Ferry…thanks to Wakefield, there are plenty of people who are willing to look the other way.”
I blink at the screen as the implications of what he’s saying sinks in. “And not long after, Samantha went missing?”
Zach nods. “The investigation came up empty. Wakefield either scared her off and she’s left the area, or he paid her to leave town.” He glances at the screen. “Or it’s possible Wakefield had her killed.”
A thicksilence settles in the room.
“If she was willing to talk, maybe we could find others,” I say to break it. “Nurses, doctors, teachers. Especially in Elk Flats. It’s a very small community. There have to be some people who are unhappy about a cult moving in.”
“That’s a good point,” Everett muses. “Though it won’t be a teacher. All the kids are homeschooled. As for the community—” He taps the touchpad on the laptop again, and two new faces flash onto the screen.
One is Jerome Wakefield, a forty-something male with a round, fleshy face punctuated by small dark eyes and full lips. The second one is Clearwater County Sheriff Harlan Thomas. He’s young for a sheriff but he didn’t land the role honestly.
“Jerome Wakefield and his father Otis now own three of the town’s businesses,” Everett says, “and they’re creating jobs thanks to that road construction company they’re expanding. Plus they’ve got Sheriff Thomas in their pocket.”