[WARNING – There are some bits of this story that are not for the fainthearted and is NSFW]

[just before Christmas]

I’d gone into town to collect Kelly from work. Even though she was serving out her notice, the job had to go on and her patrol SUV was in the shop for another new water pump, the second this year. When I arrived at the office, she was just finishing up some paperwork, so I switched the Station TV to the Weather Channel.

“That is not good,” I said as I saw the weather forecast for the area between Denver and Omaha which included us.

“You’d better get Sue-Ellen to spread the news,” I added.

Kelly grinned.

“Preparedness email already sent. Nothing much more we can do today is there?”

I shook my head as Sheriff Sue-Ellen came out of her office and spoke to Kelly.

“Can you send a follow-up asking for a meeting tomorrow morning? There is no harm in making sure that everyone is prepared even if it never happens.”

“All ready to go,” boss.

I looked at Kelly. The dammed woman is starting to read my mind. Then I smiled. I didn't mind one little bit. I almost said something but kept my mouth shut. It was no longer my responsibility.

[Christmas Day]

The first big storm of the season hit us overnight. In the space of 8 hours, we'd gone from no snow to more than three feet of the white stuff. Some of the drifts were over ten feet. People were stuck everywhere. Danny SWA was working overtime towing people out of snow drifts.

I called Sue-Ellen and volunteered my services. The relief in her voice was palpable.
“No problem, Sheriff. Just tell me what needs doing and I’m your man.”

Calling someone else Sheriff was getting a bit easier, but it would always be a struggle. At least Kelly would be ‘Chief’ so my hang-ups over the word Sheriff would hopefully not become embarrassing.

All the locals were wisely staying inside unless they could not help it. The streets in town were just about passable now that Danny SWA’s Sidekick, Dwayne had cleared them with the new snow plow that had been purchased by the county after the old on was condemned with a rusted through chassis. Dwayne had reported enthusiastically about its performance.

A few abandoned cars had been gently towed out of the way and left where they should do no damage should another vehicle get out of control and skid off the road. Despite the streets being reasonably clear very few vehicles were moving. As we'd had warnings about the storm, at least the county was prepared. Even the restaurant on the Interstate had extra food and was being manned by those who didn’t have family close by.

Those who were stranded on the Interstate, were being put up at the adjacent Motel. They had a backup generator with enough fuel to last well over a week in place and ready to go should their power go out. The county preparedness plan that I’d helped put together seemed to be working very well.

In short, we were as ready as can be but a lot of people were not.

“Not unless you can fly. The interstates are at a standstill,” was the stock answer that I’d been giving all day. The Colorado State Police had closed the entire Interstate between here and Denver. The sheer number of accidents had made it virtually impassable unless you were in something like a ‘Snow-Cat’.

At the station, the phones were going off like there was no tomorrow. Most of the calls were of the format…

“Can I get to [insert destination here] tonight? I need to be at [insert relatives name here] for dinner tonight?”

The vast majority of these calls were from travellers on the Interstate. To be perfectly blunt, this was down to the fact that much of the local, county and state government had left for the holidays the previous day. This included many of the snow-plough drivers. Those that had gone on holiday were being very elusive. I couldn’t blame them. I’d probably be hiding if I was one of them.

I was fending them off as best I could. That allowed the Sheriff and all the officers to be getting out and helping people. Ma had sent me off with two large pots of chicken stew for the troops should they come back to the station in need of some warm food. I hoped that this was the last winter that we’d spend in Custer County. More than once, I’d had the thought that someone didn’t want us to leave but then something else happened before I could dwell on the issue.

Two of the Officers in the department were qualified to drive the ploughs. They were out doing their best but the sheer number of abandoned cars was making clearance a hard job. They’d teamed up with Danny SWA and were making good progress. Danny would tow the abandoned car out of the way with his latest toy, an ex-Korean War Army Surplus Half-track with a Chevy Supercharged V8 under the hood. Then while he got the tow to a safe place, the ploughs cleared the next half mile to a mile of road. They’d managed to keep one lane in each direction of the Interstate open as far as the truckstop. Beyond that heading west, it was closed. To the east, the State Police were doing their best to stop drivers coming west but there is just no accounting for some folk.

Most drivers were keeping to sensible speeds but a few were just being silly. Billy-Joe was not showing any Christmas Spirit to them when they inevitably crashed. He was doling out tickets like confetti raining down at a wedding. Despite the warnings, there were many people on the road without snow tires or chains on their wheels. Billy-Joe immediately impounded the vehicle because it was unfit to be on the road. It would cost them dearly to get them out when the weather cleared enough for the travel advisory to be rescinded. Half of that income would come into the coffers of the department. That was all part of the way they were funded. Having a PD that operated without the need for funding from the county was very popular with the voters and the measure was renewed every two years without opposition.

Kelly and Tom were making sure that all the old or sick people around town were safe, warm and had adequate food and drink when the final nail in our coffin was hammered home, the whole town went dark. The Power was out.

After a ten-minute call to the Power Company, Sue-Ellen wasted no time in declaring a local state of emergency. I managed to flag down Danny SWA as he towed yet another abandoned or impounded car to the parking lot at the elementary school which was being used as a temporary vehicle pound.

“Yeah, I saw the lights go out. Do you want me to get the generators?”

“Yep. I’ll get the High School Gym opened up as well as the Tornado supplies.”

“Sure, thing Sherriff. I should be there in half an hour.”
“Danny!”
He smiled.
“Sorry Boss. It will take me time to get used to you not running the show.”

I smiled back at him.
“Don’t rush. We need the power but not at any cost. You know the disaster plan.”

“Gotcha boss!”

He took off on his mission. We all knew that he’d deliver with as little fuss as possible. He’d been my right-hand man when we were in Army so I knew that the county could depend upon him.

Sue-Ellen took over manning the phones after telling me to run things at the Gym. She was following my plan to the letter.

An hour later, people started arriving at the Gym. The power generators were all hooked up and running. Danny had persuaded the city council that buying two former fairground generators for almost a pittance would pay them back handsomely one day. That day was today. These generators were also self-propelled. In reality, they were just the tractor part of a ‘semi’ with a massive diesel generator and fuel tank mounted where the hitch would normally be. He’d overhauled them when they were delivered and pronounced them ‘fit for duty’ at the end of summer. We all had to hope that he was right.

Extra fuel came from a tank trailer that was towed behind each one. We had three to four days of power at our fingertips with two more trailers back in the pound. For that foresight, everyone was eternally thankful.

I roped in as many people who were willing to go and bring the elderly and infirm into the Gym. Soon the place was buzzing. All that hot air coming out of their mouths was helping warm the place up.

It was after more than three hours, that I realised that two people were missing. Both Ma and Kelly were nowhere to be found.

After asking a few people, it appeared that Kelly had gone to fetch Ma back to the Gym. After the obligatory chuckle ‘good luck trying to get Ma to do anything she does not want to go’ from a few onlookers, I began to get worried.

Dusk was fast approaching. With it, the expected drop in temperature the roads could turn to sheets of ice for the unwary. Kelly was still not that confident when driving in these conditions. It was always a good few degrees hotter in the middle of a City than out here in the back of beyond. Add to that the wind chill and anyone caught out on a night like this unprepared would be in trouble. Any change in the wind could move those drifts in a few minutes. Only a few decades of living here could make you fully aware of how quickly things could change.

I found Danny SWA drinking some tea at the far end of the Gym where a makeshift kitchen had been set up.

“Danny, I’m going to look for Kelly. She’s gone to get Ma, but I’m worried about her driving after dark.”

“Gotcha Boss. And you want me to come to the rescue if you aren’t back in… a couple of hours?”

I smiled.

“We know each other far too well but yes, that’s right.”

“You’d best be off then?”

I didn’t hang around even though a few people wanted to talk about the power situation.

A stock answer of,
“I can’t stop. Some more people need rescuing”, seemed to shut them up for the time being. The building was warming up and some of the women had taken over the kitchen and were preparing food. That meant that the power was about the last of my worries for the time being.

Before setting off out of town, I tried to raise Kelly on the phone and radio. There was no answer to either. With the power outage, the cellular networks were also down so there was nothing for it but to get home ASAP. The Radio should have been able to reach as far as our home which made me worried.

The road surface was already getting rather slippery by the time I crested the small hill that led down towards ‘Millers Creek’ and the turn off to my house when I had to come to a stop. Blocking the road was a 40ft Trailer. No lights and no sign of the tractor that had pulled it there. It had just been abandoned without a thought of the consequences.

I grabbed my flashlight and stepped out from my nice warm truck into the biting cold.

As I rounded the end of the trailer I could see Kelly's pickup about 50ft away. Its roof lights were casting all sorts of fantastic shadows in the gloom.

The lights on her pickup flashed at me. I breathed a sigh of relief. At least one of them was safe.

I opened the passenger door and climbed in. The first thing I saw was Ma in the back seat of the double-cabbed vehicle. I managed a small smile.

“Boy, I’m glad both of you are safe.”

“We’re ok but the occupants of that trailer aren’t going to be if we don’t move them quickly,” said Kelly very urgently.

“Eh?”

“We came up behind the trailer about half an hour ago. The tractor was trying to get up the hill but I think that he didn’t have any snow chains on. I stopped on the nearest bit of flat ground and put the roof spotlights on. Before I could walk up to the tractor unit, it had been uncoupled and the tractor was disappearing into the night leaving the trailer here. I think that the people in the cab were already preparing to abandon the trailer when I got here. The retractable wheels of the trailer were already down when I got here.”

“I didn’t see any tractors heading through town. They must have cut through Carson Lane towards Route 20 and the Interstate. The boys cleared it eastbound about an hour or so ago.”

“That’s what I thought,” replied Kelly.

“Then I got a bit suspicious. Who’d abandon a trailer out here in this weather if they didn’t want to get caught with whatever is in the trailer.”

I smiled.

“So, you opened the back?”

“And shut it pretty darn quick.”

“Why?”

“There is an unknown number of people in trailer. From what I saw, they are all locked into cages and … it fucking stank to high heaven. They have obviously been in there for days. They didn’t appear to have many if any clothes on.”

“I went back with Kelly for another look. I couldn’t believe what she was describing,” said Ma.

“Then my radio packed up.”

That explained why I couldn’t get hold of her.

Kelly showed me a picture she’d taken on her phone.

I was shocked by what I saw. It was terrible.

“We need to get those poor sods into the warm and as fast as possible.”

I paused for a second.

“And as quietly as possible. The last thing we want are pictures of them in that truck appearing on Facebook. Then Homeland would be down on us like a ton of bricks plus every TV crew and paparazzi west of the Mississippi snow or no snow, blizzard or no blizzard. They’d be here come hell or high water. These people, whoever they are don’t deserve that.”

I could see that my words had taken Kelly by surprise. Ma just grinned.

“Where can we take them?” asked Kelly.

“Our Barn,” suggested Ma proudly.

Kelly thought for a moment then aster nodding her head said,

“What are we going to do for power?”

“That’s where Danny comes in,” I said calmly.

Kelly looked at me and then at Ma with a puzzled look on her face.

“Matt saved Danny’s life in Iraq. They’ve been like brothers ever since,” said Ma proudly.
Kelly already knew that but Ma had sort of adopted Danny when we game back from overseas. It made up for the disappointment that her other son, Walt had been to us all.

“Let me try to get hold of Danny, I said reaching for my Radio.”

“Come in Danny. This is Matt.”

A few seconds later Danny answered.

“Danny here. Is everyone ok?”

“Yes. No one is missing but a situation Mosul Yellow has arisen. We need that other generator you keep hidden away in your workshop plus your that heavy-duty pickup of yours that can haul a semi-trailer.”

“Situation Yellow. Ok boss. Where are you?”

“On the road to my place about half a klick from the gate. You can’t miss us.”

“Sure, thing Boss. Be there soon. Out.”

“What was that all about?” asked Kelly.

“Situation Mosul Yellow was a code in our outfit for a hostage situation.”

“But… Oh, I get it. You wanted to keep things quiet. Yellow isn’t red then?”

“You got it.”

I took a deep breath before saying,

“Ma, I’d like Kelly to take you home. Get the wood stove going and round up every bit of clothing, towels and sheets you can. Those Oil Lamps you keep in the cellar will keep you going until Danny arrives with the generator.”

Ma started to smile.

“I take it that I’m going to be mother again?”

“Yes. Well, at least until we can decide what to do with them.”

“I’ll get the hot water on as well. They’ll need a good wash I’ll bet.”

“That’s for sure. Get some of your Vegetable Soup out of the freezer as well,” I replied as I opened the door and got out of Kelly’s truck. At that moment, I regretted accepting the Chicken stew from Ma earlier. That would have been perfect for warming up the poor sods in the trailer.
I ducked back into the truck and said,
“Better make that all the soup you have got. Those kids will need something hot inside them but not that parsnip and chilli soup. There is too much chilli in it even for me.”

Ma gave me a grin which told me that my words were like trying to teach a duck to lay eggs.

By the time I'd gotten back to my truck, I could see Kelly slowly navigating her way towards my home.

I said to myself, ‘that was the easy part’.

Half an hour later Danny appeared in his truck with his ‘extra’ generator in tow.

“Orders Sir?”

“We aren’t in the service now Danny.”

“You are in charge just like you were in Faluja. Sir!”

I nodded.

“Let me unhitch the generator. Then can you turn around and hitch up to the trailer.”

Danny grinned.

“I’m the sacrificial lamb then?”

I let out a small laugh.

“Only if you aren’t careful. Back or slide the rig down the hill and then up my drive. If you can get into the big barn then we can shut out the world while we deal with the contents.”

“Gotcha boss. Lets’ get going before we get snowed in. The forecast is another 6-8 inches tonight.”
That was not good news.

---

A little under an hour later the trailer was in the barn and I was able to close the doors.

“Well done Danny,” I said as he emerged from his truck after retrieving the generator and was about to get it going to power the house.

“Thanks boss. All those hours you drilled us in the Desert finally paid off.”

We both laughed.

“Orders Sir?”

I took a deep breath before answering.

“From what Kelly has said, it seems that there are number of people inside the trailer. They appear to be locked into cages like some zoo animal. We need to get them out and into the house as soon as possible. There might be some hyperthermia or even worse so be prepared.”

Danny grinned.

“You know I can’t smell your farts so what is a few dead people to me then?”

I grinned as I recalled our days under canvas and my unfortunate flatulence attack and how Danny just waltzed through it.”

“Are you volunteering to get them out of the trailer?”

“Volunteer? Me never. Sir.”

“That’s ok then.”

After getting the generator hooked up and going, we sorted out a few miscellaneous tools and were just about to start when Kelly entered the barn with an armful of blankets.

“We thought you might be needing these.”

“Good idea,” I replied.

As she turned to leave, I said,

“Why don’t you stay here and help Danny get the poor sods out of the cages. I’ll carry them over to the house.”

“Sure. If you think a girl can handle this?”, she said trying to make light work of a bad situation.

I smiled back at her as Danny backed out of the trailer pulling the first cage with him.

Kelly and I helped him put it on a trolley that had seen better days but was a godsend right now.

Now that it was in the light of the barn, we were able to look at the cage in detail for the first time.

We all came to the same conclusion at the same time.

“Whoever planned this didn’t want the occupants getting free in a hurry,” exclaimed Kelly.

Danny and I both grunted our agreement.

“Perhaps they didn’t altogether trust the drivers?”

The cage wasn’t locked shut, it was welded shut. I counted six welds on each side of the door.

“Grab the bolt cutters and let’s get to work,” I said.

The three of us worked together in virtual silence. We were all stunned by what we were seeing as the situation unravelled. The occupants of the cage cowered away from us as much as they could. It was clear that they were terrified of anyone and everyone.

As Danny and I peeled the cage open, Kelly leapt into action with a blanket. She wrapped it around the occupant.

This resulted in the previously silent occupant saying something.

Kelly remarked,

“It is Thai. He’s talking Thai.”

“How do you know that?” asked Danny.”

I feared that Kelly would blurt out something embarrassing so I butted in and said,

“Kelly told me that she went there as a child. Isn’t that true?”

Kelly grinned and replied,

“Yeah. We went to Phuket. Nice beaches but not as good as those on Long Island.”

We all laughed. It was scant relief with a storm raging all around us, but it helped.

It took us nearly an hour to get twelve of the fourteen cages open and the occupants transferred into the now warm house. The other two others were beyond our help. One had somehow managed to cut their wrists on a jagged bit of the cage door and died what we all thought was a horrible death. The other one was dead from Hyperthermia. The last two people I’d carried into the house were very cold but still living.

Getting them warm was going to be a long and slow job.

When we’d done extracting the victims, I sent Kelly into the house to help Ma while Danny and I put all the cages back in the trailer.

“Danny, you’d better get back to the High School and give the Sheriff an update when you can get her alone that is”, I said when we’d finished.

Danny smiled back at me.

“Yes. I’d better. There will be things to do that for some reason perfectly able-bodied men can’t do.”

I laughed.

“Better get that bow and arrow out then. An arrow up their backside would get them going.”

“Hey, I’m the only one around here who’s going to get shot with an arrow.”

Danny always tried to see the funny side of things. We’d seen enough horror to last ten lifetimes while we were in the Army. Joking was his way of coping. The SWA in his name means ‘Shot with Arrow’. He’d been wounded by his elder brother when he was a child. The name had stuck ever since.

“I’ll get my own back, don’t you worry.”

“Drive safely. Give me a squawk on the radio when you get to the School.”

“Sure, thing Boss.”

As he turned to head towards his truck, I stuck my hand out and held his arm.

Danny turned to look at me.

“Nothing happened here did it?”

A smile spread over his face.

“I was never here.”

Then I hugged him tight. We’d been through a lot in Iraq together all those years ago and we were just as close now.

After closing up and locking the barn, I headed back to the house. The snow that had threatened for the past few hours was now falling steadily. I felt relieved as the new snow would cover the tracks we'd left on the highway. I feared that the owners of the trailer would come back looking for it as soon as the weather cleared.

Then I stopped in my tracks. Perhaps they wouldn’t? It was obvious that we’d get involved with an abandoned trailer and that we’d discover the contents. After a few seconds of thought, I realised that it was more than likely that they would be using the holidays to cover their tracks and destroying evidence of whatever it was they were doing with these poor people.

I shrugged my shoulders and pulled my jacket a little bit tighter. There was no wind. That meant that if the snow stopped and the sky cleared the temperature would drop like a stone. I wouldn’t want to be outside when it did.

---

I fully expected the house to be a scene of absolute chaos. It wasn't. Ma seemed to be in control of everything. Four of our new guests were busy eating bowls of hot soup. I could hear the shower going and the couch was crammed with the rest of our guests. All of them were wearing my shirts and wrapped in blankets watching TV.

“Hello son. I’ve got everything under control. Go and get those wet clothes off and I’ll get some soup on the table for you when you get back,” said Ma as soon as I poked my head around the door to the kitchen.

“Where’s Kelly?”

Ma smiled.

“She’s getting the last of them cleaned up. She’s been a great help.”

I nodded as I headed towards my bedroom.

A few minutes later I returned to the kitchen. Ma was dishing up some more food. Another large pot was cooking on the stove. I smiled. Ma was in her element.

“Get that down you,” commanded Ma as she put a steaming dish of hearty vegetable soup in front of me.

“Thanks Ma. This is just what I need. It is snowing again but the wind has dropped.”

Ma did what Ma had done all my life, she put her hand on mine and smiled.

I was almost finished eating when Kelly came into the kitchen. She looked exhausted.

“Come on Kelly, sit down before you fall down.”

She sat on the other side of the table with a wearisome sigh.

“If I ever get my hands on the butchers who messed up those kids, I will not be responsible for my actions.”

“Did you get a chance to document what they did?”

She nodded as her eyes popped out of her head as Ma put a huge bowl of food down in front of her.

Wisely, I shut up and let Kelly eat. I sat back and reviewed the situation. I smiled as I remembered the words from ‘Oliver’. The song, ‘Reviewing the Situation’.

“What’s so funny?” asked Kelly.

I smiled back at her.

“I was reviewing the situation we find ourselves in. Then the words to song ‘Reviewing the Situation’ from the Musical Oliver came to mind. We are in a bit of a situation so anything to slightly lighten the load would help us through it.”

Kelly grinned back.

“You aren’t Fagin and could never be.”

That brought a laugh from Ma. I’d played Fagin in the school production of Oliver many years before. It wasn’t my finest hour.

---

Once Kelly had finished eating, Ma put mugs of Coffee down in front of us. Then she sat down with a very serious look on her face.

“What have these bastards done to them then?”

Kelly fished out a bit of paper from her pocket.

“All of them have had stupidly large breast implants but the worse thing is what they’ve had done downstairs.”

My worst suspicions were about to come true.

“Three have had everything removed. Their plumbing looks ok but they need to see a doctor ASAP. My guess that they all have UTI’s. The rest have had their balls removed. Two of them have had something done to their penis to give it a permanent erection. Probably implants.”

“Two of them have had their vocal chords cut. Well, that’s what I think. They just make a hissing sound when they try to speak. They have their tongues. Oh, I think they have had the skin under the tongue cut. Allows them to give better blow jobs. A good number of the street hookers in NYC have had that done.”

Nothing more needed to be said. Silence fell over the kitchen. These poor kids were destined to be sex toys until they grew too much then… then they’d be disposed of like the trash.

Then Kelly said,

“I found out that they were all Katoey Boys from Bangkok. These are basically Prostitutes who work the big hotels or tourist spots. They dress as girls. Katoey is the third gender in Thai society. It seems that they were snatched off the streets in early August. Apparently…”

“How do you know all this?” I said interrupting her.

“I had my operation done in Thailand. But one of them speaks some English. Well, a lot more that Yes, Hello and that stuff. Apparently, his father was a US Marine who was stationed at the US Embassy in Bangkok.”

That news stunned us. It also made the situation with them a whole lot worse.

Ma noticed my worried look.

“What’s wrong? Isn’t it good that we can communicate with them?”

I shook my head.

“That is good news. But we have a real big problem. He or rather she probably has a right to US Citizenship due to their father. What if that is true and their father does not want anything to do with them? Who would after what those bastards have done? I would not put it past the bastards at homeland sending her back to Bangkok just for the hell of it.”

No one said anything for quite a while.

Then Kelly said,
“They were apparently destined to be sex slaves to rich men. From what I understood, they were being taken to Oklahoma City. Then they would be dispersed to their new owners around the country after the holidays. It should have been done before but three of them got infections from their last surgery. It hasn’t cleared up judging by the smell of their urine.”

“Does she know where the surgery was performed?”

Kelly smiled.

“He thinks it was Seattle. They all came over inside a container. A minder kept them quiet with drugs but he remembers a nurse wearing a Seahawks top. He’d seen one before on a client back home.”

“We have to get Homeland and the FBI involved,” said Kelly.

“Yes, to the FBI and no to Homeland. These poor kids have been mutilated on US Soil. Those are felonies and need to be dealt with here. Homeland will want to just ship them home and then carry on sucking their own dicks. I’ll make the call as soon as the phone is reconnected.”
Then I stopped myself. I wasn't Sheriff anymore. Old habits die hard.
Kelly looked sad.

“I suppose the rest of them will be made a laughing stock in the media before being deported?”

I knew what she meant. At the back of my mind, there was some sort of Federal Program that could be used to let them stay but that was a long way in the future.

Then Kelly said almost shouting,

“Oh, fuck it. We can’t let these poor children get into the hands of the feds. Given the amount of anti-immigrant rhetoric coming out of the White House, they’ll ignore any laws such as DACA and ship them back to Thailand before we can blink an eye.”

I looked at her and saw that she was serious.

“Are you suggesting that we keep them here?”

“I don’t know but the media will have a field day exposing them. I know only too well what being outed in the media means. For them it will be a million times worse. I’ve seen what happens to trans people who get outed. Many take their own lives. These kids had no say in what was done to them. They don’t deserve to be exposed in the rabid media we have these days.”

Both Ma and I looked at her surprised.

“Yes. My dear Sister Siobhan wanted to land a job at the New York Post. She gave them my story in an attempt to get them to give her a job. They didn’t give her the position, but the next thing I knew was the headlines ‘NYPD Cop wants Sex Change’. It wasn’t nice. I gave her two black eyes for her trouble. For once, my father just looked on and laughed. Even though he hated me for being trans, exposing my story to people outside of the family was beyond the pale. He threw her out that night with a one-way plane ticket to Dublin. The last I heard, she’s still there working on the family farm in the wilds of Donegal and has five kids. Her writing was at that time limited to posting photos of her kids to Facebook.”

I took her hand and squeezed it. The last thing I wanted was for her to be exposed in the media. We'd managed so far, but I had this horrible feeling that this time the TV trucks would be camped outside our place before the year was over.

The power and the phones didn’t work until the 27th. We’d had another 2-3ft of snow but thanks to the sterling efforts of the department, Danny and many of the Ranchers and Homesteaders, everyone in the county was safe and accounted for and importantly well stocked with food for at least a week.

Danny SWA worked tirelessly to keep the generators running and the women kept everyone fed at the High School. The downside for the people at the school was that they had to endure Maudy’s piano playing. That was until Mark Jefferies, the County Bookkeeper, took over and started playing classical, jazz, honky-tonk and even some more recent stuff. Mark was the School Janitor and had apparently been playing the piano since he was a child but had done it in secret due to bullying at his High School in Chicago. No one would let him keep playing in secret ever again.

I had a long conversation with Sue-Ellen about our options concerning our unexpected visitors. We agreed on a plan to move forward. I had all the contacts with the various Federal Agencies. She was still getting her feet under the table so to speak and was needed to keep the locals happy. Therefore, it was entirely logical for me to run with this operation. If it all went pear-shaped then it would fall on my shoulders and not hers. That was a risk that I was willing to take.

I let a few hours go by before I made the call to the FBI in Denver. I would have normally called Omaha but they were on the news investigating a huge Bank robbery that had happened over the Holidays and under cover of the storm, they’d disappeared into the night.

“Hello, this is Matt Beecher and I’m a deputy in Custer County. I need to speak to someone about people trafficking.”

“Yes, I am serious.”

“Yes, I would normally have called Omaha but given it is the holiday season and they have that Bank Heist to deal with, I called you.”

“I’ll hold.”

Almost two minutes went by before someone answered.

“My name is Matt Beecher and I’m a deputy in Custer County. Are you the right person to speak to about people trafficking?”

“Yes, I am serious.”

“How about a semi-trailer with eleven trafficked Thai Katoey boys being abandoned on Christmas Eve in the snow. Sadly, two didn’t make it.”

“Look son. These are real people and they have been operated on in this country.”

“What for? To be the sex slaves of rich guys. Oh, and one of them probably has an American Parent. That good enough for you?”

“Yes, I know it is the Holidays. We’ve been without power for more than two days. We have thirty-six inches of snow on the ground. When can we expect to see your team?”

“You can’t? Why the hell not? Do you want me to call Washington? I will you know. I could also call the Thai Embassy. I’m sure they’d be willing to help their citizens. A few calls from them to the State Department will make things happen.”

“Yes, I am threatening you. I won’t be fobbed off with lame excuses.”

“Sorry, tomorrow is not soon enough. I have two dead people in my barn. They deserve respect and justice.”

“Thank you, Agent Fry. I look forward to see you later. Oh, and it goes without saying that the media does not need to know about this. These are minors we are dealing with. Also, any media coverage will allow the people behind this to cover their tracks.”

I put the phone down and looked over at Kelly and Ma.

“You should have let me call them. I’d have given them a few choice words,” said Ma.

“I know Ma but if that call is anything to go by you may well get a chance when they arrive and stomp all over everything.”

“Do you know when Doc Evans will be back?” asked Kelly.

“Hopefully later today. Danny will keep an eye out and let us know. I hope he has some UTI drugs in stock.”

Then I turned to Ma,
“Any chance of some Coffee?”

Ma smiled.
“Of course. Those biscuits I made should be cool by now.”

“You made more?”

“Yes, our guests love them dunked in milk.”

That brought a smile to our faces for the first time in days.

---

The FBI turned up late the following day. They weren’t en-masse but two rookie agents who appeared to be fresh out of Quantico. It looked like the people in Denver didn’t believe me.

I’d gone into town to write up my report on what had happened since I’d come across Kelly and Ma out in the snow. There was a decent photo quality printer there so I got busy printing the photos that Kelly had taken of the truck and of each of the victims. Seeing them being extricated from those cages turned my stomach even though it hadn’t done so at the time.
“Hi there,” said one of them as they breezed into the Station. I was expecting the FBI but I wasn’t expecting ‘Laurel and Hardy’.

“Hello,” I said,
“How can I help?”

“I’m Special Agent Brown and this is Special Agent Taylor of the FBI Denver Office. I understand that you reported a case of people trafficking.”

I sighed. Rookies without a doubt.

“Welcome, please take a seat. I’m former Sheriff Matt Beecher. It was me who reported the case. I’ve been deputised for the duration of this case. I am acting on behalf of the Sheriff. She is busy with the residents of the county.”

“Deputy Beecher, who, what and when did you come upon the traffickers?” said Agent Taylor as he opened his notebook.

Yep, Rookies.

“Agent Taylor, why don’t you let me tell you the story. I’m not some simple hick town Deputy. I was an MP in the Military as well as being the Sheriff of this county for six years.”

“You aren’t in the Military now!” said Agent Brown.

“No, Agent Brown but this is my home County and I know all the facts of the case. If you want to find out then you are going to have to sit down and listen for a bit.”

“You do realise that you are impeding a federal investigation. That is a criminal offence.”

“Agent Brown, how long have you been out of Quantico?”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Agents, you are Rookies. Perhaps this is your first case and you were told to do everything by the book. Well, out here we deal with real life and facts. I’ve been investigating crimes since before you were in High School. Now shall we do it my way or not at all?”

Neither of them moved an inch.

“Then I’ll begin.”

“We had the first serious snow of the year on Christmas Eve…”

Half an hour later, I stopped telling my story.

Both of the agents had stopped writing things down about halfway through my story. No matter, everything I'd said had been recorded.

“Now agents, may I humbly suggest that you get on the phone or whatever it is you use these days and get back to your superiors and update them. Please, please, please get them to take this seriously. Oh, and the victims are in a safe place and as well as can be expected given their ordeal.”

The two agents looked at each other and left me alone. I shook my head in disbelief. They were the most ‘rookie’ of any rookie officer that I’d ever come upon.

“If you doubt me then I’ll show you the trailer and all the evidence.”

I showed them the photos of the truck and the cages with the victims inside. One of the rookies went a bit green around the edges.

I went to make some coffee while they digested the photos. This was well beyond their experience and pay grade.

I returned with the coffee hoping to see them on the phone with their superiors. They weren't.

“Agents. Drink this coffee and I’ll take you to my place. You can see for yourself. We have left the deceased victims in the trailer. It is well below zero so they won’t be smelling for some time to come.”

They refused the coffee, but I drank mine slowly. It was around zero outside and I wanted to be warm inside before we left.

---

[one hour later]

“Here is the Semi. As I said, it has Oregon Plates but they could be false or stolen.”

I opened the back doors to the trailer. As I’d expected, the stench proved too much for the rookies.

When they’d recovered I showed them the cages and the two dead bodies.

“Now do you believe me when I understand that this is serious, very serious?”

We trooped back into the house. Both of them looked even greener around the edges than before. I left them alone in the kitchen to call their office.

Whatever it was that they had said on the phone worked. Two hours later two Black Helicopters carrying FBI markings landed in the park near the Police Station.
[To be continued]