One of my least favourite duties as Sheriff, was notifying people that one of their loved ones had died. It is was local then they’d often already know of a death and my arrival would be the confirmation. Occasionally, the death may have happened on the other side of the world and it was down to local law enforcement to do the deed.

Normally I’d go on this task accompanied by a female deputy but on this particular day, Sue-Ellen and Kelly were away helping the State Police on an operation in a neighbouring county so it was left to me to head out to the Wilson Farm to give them the bad news. The other bit of a downer for me was that their home was on the far edge of the county and the last ten miles of the journey is along a dirt road that hasn’t seen a grader for fifty years. Such is the lot of a County Sheriff.

The head of the family, Joe Wilson was using a chainsaw on some fence posts the front of the homestead when I pulled up.

“Joe?”

He saw me and cut the motor to the saw and removed his ear defenders.

“Oh, Hiya Sheriff. What can I do for you on this fine day?”

“Joe, can we go inside. Is Maria around?”

“This don’t sound too good? Has Joey been caught speeding again?”

“Not Joey, your brother Tommy.”

Joe looked at me and knew that it wasn’t good news.

“I’ll go find her. She was in the stables the last time I heard her.”

“Thanks Joe.”

Five minutes later, the three of us were gathered in the kitchen of the farmhouse. I'd accepted their offer of some coffee even though I knew that I'd probably not drink it.

“To cut a long story short, I received a message from the Alaska State Police Department in Anchorage late last night. It concerns your brother Thomas Wilson. Some hunters found him at his cabin. They’d been asked to call in on him as he hadn’t been seen for several months. They found him dead and so was a huge male grizzly that was from the report very, very thin and by implication, very hungry. I think you can guess the rest. We all know that Tommy went to Alaska because he wanted to live off grid and enjoy the simple life and from memory, the last time he was down here was the year that I graduated High School. I remember him coming to speak to the school about his life in the wilderness. He spoke with real emotion and from the heart.”

Neither of them had shown much emotion.

“I wondered if something had happened when he missed Maria’s birthday. Until this year, he’d always sent a card and a few words,” said Joey with a lot of sadness in his voice.

I nodded.

“According to the State Troopers who went up to his cabin to investigate
it must have happened around last March. That’s when the bears start emerging from hibernation and are very hungry. There was clear evidence of a fresh Moose kill at the cabin.”

“Well,” said Joey,
“He knew the risks and accepted them.”

“That is the same with all the ‘Off Grider’s’ in that part of the world. They use the Railroad to get stuff in and out. No roads and probably never will be.”

“What happens next? Do we need to arrange for the body to get flown down here? I’m not sure if we can afford that.”

I smiled.
“The State Trooper who informed me of his death also said that Tommy like most of his fellow off-gridders, had paid for a funeral years ago. It is happening next Friday. He left a will with a lawyer in Anchorage. Everyone up there does that. The result is that you are now the owners of around sixty square miles of Alaska. According to the Trooper I spoke with earlier, Joey had made a little money panning for gold and put it aside for essentials such as supplies that needed to be ferried on by train and property taxes for the next 10 years. That surprised me but the Trooper said that this was not that unusual. Many of the those who live off grid are years behind with their taxes then they’ll pay off all the arrears and some years in advance. That is the nature of life up there. I can’t say that it tempts me but Tommy obviously loved it and… well, I’ll leave you the ME’s report. It came in by email just before I came over here. You can read it sometime and draw your own conclusions.”

“I think we should try to go to his funeral,” said Maria.

“Yeah. I’ll send a few extra steers to market when we get back. That should pay for our trip,” said Joey.

I handed over the papers that I’d printed out before leaving the office. The Medical Examiner’s report was very brutal but honest.

“Thanks for coming over in person to let us know,” said Maria.

I manged a little smile.
“That’s ok Maria. I think it is better to have these things said face to face rather than over the phone. All part of my job service you good people.”

---

The drive back to town was uneventful which was good because I was still troubled by the ME’s report and the State Police report. I could not imagine anyone voluntarily letting a Grizzly into their home but it was clear that there were no signs of the bear actually breaking into the building but I was several thousand miles away and… I had to put all thoughts about Alaska, Hungry Bears and a possible suicide to one side when I returned to the Office and saw that we had a resident in one of our three cells

“Why is Zeke Samson in the cells?” I asked my Deputy, Billy-Joe McLain, when I walked through the door.

“Zeke was caught dealing at the High School. They called me and I brought him back here. I’m waiting for his parents to turn up. Principal Smith will be along shortly to make a statement.”

I just shook my head. Everyone in the town and county knew that the High School is off limits for Drugs and Booze. There is a clear zero tolerance policy. Yet, every couple of years someone thinks that they can outsmart the school and us and every couple of years we get that someone in jail and they can experience their life plans disappearing up in smoke right before their very eyes.

Zeke was just the latest in a line of Samson’s to get into trouble with the law. They ran a rather decrepit farm on the edge of the County where it borders Clark County. That part of the county is pretty sparsely populated mostly due to the very poor soil. Grass is thin just like the soil. In many places the latter was totally absent. If they could have harvested their rock they would be rich but it was poor quality schist what has no commercial value.

“Does his family know what he’d been doing?”

Stan laughed.

“I tried to call them but the number is out of service. According to the phone company it was disconnected two weeks ago because they didn’t pay their bills.”

I sighed. That was probably why Zeke was peddling drugs.

“Stan, do you want to drive over and break the bad news. What was it that he was pushing?”

“Just some pills. We don’t know what is in them and he’s not saying a word.”

“Get them sent off to the lab today and then go over to their farmstead. He’s still a minor so one of his parents has to be here before we can talk to him.”

“Gotcha Sheriff.”

Stan was an ‘ok’ deputy. He really lacked the drive to succeed but he was reliable. He was proud that after almost twenty years in the department he has never had to draw his weapon let alone fire it in anger. Despite that, every month he’d go over to Clark County and spend two hours on their range. My other deputies were not as diligent but we were called upon to even draw our firearms no more than once or twice a year so I let it slide.

Despite his faults, Stan had a lot of empathy when it came to dealing with people. He could relate to people in times of crisis. Kelly had it as well. She had it in droves. If I could have bottled what they have I’m sure we’d make a fortune.

---

I was still daydreaming when my mobile phone started ringing. From the tone, I knew that it was Kelly who was calling.

“Hi Darling, this is most unexpected.”

“Oh, I see. Where are you?”

“Yeah. I know where you mean.”

I listened intently to what she was saying. When she’d finished I said,

“I will get onto this right away. Stan is going over to the Samson Homestead. Zeke was caught dealing at the High School.”

“We tried. Apparently, they have not paid their phone bill so it was disconnected.”

“Yeah, that leaves Billy-Joe on his own here but we’ll manage. When…?”

“Tomorrow! That’s great. Bye.”

Kelly had just told me that their work with the State Police was nearly done. It was a combined State Police and Homeland operation. Three illegal brothels had been found operating at other Truck Stops on the Interstate. Most of the women working in them were apparently Asian. Kelly knew a bit if Thai and Sue-Ellen spoke Spanish. The State Police had one Vietnamese and two Chinese speaking female officers so most of the bases were covered.

What worried me was that they’d found some documentation indicating that a new brothel was being setup at our very own Truck stop. These were what was being called ‘pop-up brothels’. These operated for up to a week at a time before moving to a new location often in a different state to avoid attracting attention. The Truckers could well have CB phrases to tell others where they were. Smart guys those truckers and being on the road for possibly weeks at a time, a little sexual relief would be perfect for them despite it being illegal in almost every state other than Nevada.

“I’m going up to the Truck stop and have a bit of a sniff around. Kelly has just given me a tipoff.”

“Sure thing Boss.”

“Tom will be coming in at four to relieve you.”

“Yeah. That’s what he said when he called in a while back.”

“Good. Any problems call me on my cell phone. I may not be in my car all the time.”

“Gotcha.”

---

I drove over to the Truck stop and parked on the overbridge. This is a normal place for our cars to stop and watch the traffic so should not prove to be suspicious to people on the highway or at the Truck stop.

There were about six rigs parked up at the Truck Stop and about thirty cars and SUV’s parked in a separate lot. It would soon be getting dark which meant that some of those cars may well be done driving for the day and their occupants could well be settling into their rooms the Motel. Well, that’s what I hoped would be the case.

I sat on the overbridge for almost an hour. Five of the rigs left to carry on their journey into the now near total darkness. When it gets dark in this part of the world it is truly dark. Almost zero light pollution leaves a virtual wall of dark only a dozen yards from the ends of the down-ramps. A driver could have only a set of red tail lights in the distance to follow for a long time. This is one of the reasons I love this part of the world. Plus the fact there isn’t a ‘fast food outlet’ every few yards unlike most cities around the country these days.

After a good amount of time had passed, I got out of my car and wandered over to the Restaurant. About a dozen tables were occupied with people who were eating their food. I went into the Male Rest Room and answered the call of nature. I didn’t really need to but I had to make it look like I was just doing my job.

When I was done, I wandered out of the Restaurant and over to the Motel Entrance.

I recognised the woman in the Office.

I opened the door and went inside.

“Sorry, we are full tonight!” came a voice from behind the counter.

“I’m not after a room Kathy.”

She looked up and smiled at me.

“Oh! Hello Sheriff. What are you doing here at this time of night?”

I chuckled.

“Being Sheriff does not get me out of working at least one evening every week. I was in the area and needed to use the Men’s Room over at the Restaurant.”

She sighed.

“Same here. I’m on nights all this week. Wendy-Jean is off sick.”

“Oh well. Don’t be long before you lock the door. You never know who’s prowling around a night.”

“Or ‘what’… Remember the Skunk that invaded us last year?”

I smiled back.

“I do indeed. We threw the book at the man for bringing it into a Hotel. Pet Skunk or not, those critters are not welcome in decent places.”

“It still took the cleaners more than a week to fumigate the place. I lost a week’s wages over the incident. They tried to blame me for letting it into the Motel even though I wasn’t on duty at the time.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. They Motel company let their insurance lapse so had to cover this themselves.”

“Tell me about it…”

“Anything strange been happening around here recently?”

Kathy smiled back at me.

“You mean like those two former Greyhound busses around back? They’ve been there for four… no make that five days now.”

“Really?”

“Go and take a look for yourself. They’ve been there for a couple of days now.”

She tossed me a room key.

“Room 221. They are a scheduled late arrival so please don’t mess anything up or I’ll get fired.”

I smiled back at her.

“Thanks. I’ll only be a few minutes.”

I went upstairs and entered room 221. I didn’t switch on the light but went over to the window and peered out. Sure, enough there were two vehicles that did indeed look like former Greyhound Coaches parked out the back. Even though there were blinds down over the windows, I could see that there were lights on inside so it did look like people were either living in them or it was what the State Police called a pop-up Brothel.

I took a few photos and left the room just as I’d found it and returned downstairs.

“Thanks Kathy. I think those busses are being used as a Brothel but you didn’t hear that from me ok?”

She smiled back at me. We’d dated when we were both in High School. Then I went into the Army and she ended up marrying a man who worked for the County.

“Gotcha Sheriff. What are you going to do next?”

“I don’t know. This is a new one for me. I had to deal with a couple of ladies operating out of the back of their station wagons when I was in the Army but this is a who different ball game. I think I may leave them be for tonight.”

“Don’t leave it too long Sheriff. They were only here three days last month before they left just as suddenly as they’d arrived.”

“I get you. Thanks Kathy.”

She smiled back at me.

“What I don’t get is how do their clients know where they are operating out of? If they move about all the time they must have some way of telling the ‘johns’ where to go for a quick one?”

Kathy sighed.

“Social Media. That’s my guess. Just create private group on Facebook or WhatsApp and … Well, I think you can guess the rest.”

I pondered for a few seconds.

“You might be right. Apparently, you can get most anything via Social Media these days…”

Kathy laughed.

“Right on top of it as usual eh Matt?”

I smiled back at her and walked out into the night.

---

I made a little detour on the way back to my car and took a few more photos of the Busses from a distance naturally but close enough to get a decent image of the license plates. There were no tell-tale sounds of a generator running which told me that they probably had a power hook-up somewhere. This was one well organised crew.

As I got back into my car, I remembered that they were parked where the old RV park was. It had been moved away from the Motel a year or so before because of a few fairly noisy parties being held by some RV owners. Residents of the Motel had complained so the RV’s lot was moved to the far side of the Truck Stop close to where Drivers parked their Rigs overnight. There was already a shower block and power so the regular RV users didn’t complain.

I sat on the Overbridge for another half hour thinking things through. These were cunning people. I even wondered if the move of the RV parking had been ‘engineered’ by the gang so as to provide a spot for their operations well away from public view.

---

The next morning, I emailed the photos and my report for Kelly and the State Police Officer, a Captain Hartz, who was leading the task force.

It didn’t take long before my phones started ringing and a conference call setup.

“It is all there in my report. What I saw and everything. I really don’t have much more to add apart from the fact that the two busses are still there or were half an hour ago.”

“I don’t think I can just detain them. For one I don’t have any proof that would stand up in Court. All I have is some suspicions. If you can get a search warrant then I’ll happily execute it on your behalf.”

“No Captain Hartz, I can’t just barge in and search the Busses. There is a little matter of ‘just cause’. As I said, if you can persuade a judge to sign off on a search warrant at a state level then I’ll gladly execute it for you. And before you say that I’m copping out, I have myself to think of. State law makes my county liable for the damages resulting from an illegal search. That does not apply if the warrant is issued to the State Police and I’m acting on their behalf. A similar case in Davis County from more than five years ago is still rumbling around in the courts. We don’t have the resources to withstand such actions and from what I’ve seen, this gang are well organised which means well-funded, and the leaders will no doubt have some very expensive lawyers on speed dial.”

No one said anything.

“Get a warrant and we will act on it,” I said re-enforcing the message that I was not going to act on my own.

The call ended soon after that.

After thinking what my next move should be, I called my depleted team together.

“We may be called upon to execute a search warrant on two Busses parked behind the Motel at the Truck stop. They are suspected of being a mobile brothel. The State Police are attempting to get a warrant as we speak so we must be prepared to act as soon as they get the warrant.”

“Is this where Sue-Ellen and Kelly are? With the State boys?”

“Yes Stan. They are heading back here as fast as they can. Their ETA is two hours. If their language skills are needed then I’d prefer to wait until they get here.”

“What about the State Police? Why aren’t they taking part in this?”
“The task force is working on other leads and locations at the moment. It might be that when we go in, the other parts of the gang might decide to bug out and high tail it out of the State. The State boys will go after them.”

No one said anything so I carried on.

“Tom, can you go to the Stateline Westbound Speed Trap and setup your cameras. We have not been there for about a week so it is time for a visit. As it is one of our regular locations it should create no suspicion. If the two Busses do come your way then just get it all on tape. Don’t try to stop them. Understand?”

“Gotcha Boss!”

“Stan, I’d like you to wait in the underpass to the east of the truck stop. Again, don’t do anything until I give the word. When I do don’t use the Interstate to come west. Use the farm tracks.”

Stan smiled.
“Understood Boss!”

“Billy-Joe, can you take your cruiser and park up on the Freeway Junction. Please park facing towards the Truck Stop and stay put. Leave your dash-cam recording. Pretend to be doing paperwork. If you see the two Busses leave, let us know over the Radio but don’t follow them. Channel 3 today please. Can also you keep an ear on the CB channels? It is possible that some Truckers might be using CB to pass on location details to other drivers. You are far more familiar with CB talk than any of us.”

Billy-Joe smiled.
“Sure thing Boss.”

Then he added,
“Where will you be?”

I’m going to wait for the Warrant. When I get a copy, I’ll let you all know. The signal will be, ‘Harry’s got his special Meatloaf on the Menu tomorrow’.”

“Boss, Harry has Meatloaf on the menu every day…” asked Stan.

“That’s why it is a perfect call. We all eat there at least once a week so anyone listening in on the Police Radio won’t think that this is a signal to start an operation,” said Tom.
"Boss?" said Stan.
"Aren't our Radios supposed to be private? What was the word... Encrypted?"
"That they are Stan, but I got an email a couple of days ago about a possible back door to the system. The radio company will be patching them in a few weeks. Until then, we should assume that someone is able to listen in on our communications. The people behind this operation are obviously aware of police operations. How else could they have gotten away with it for so long eh? I think it is better to err on the side of caution."
No one disagreed with my assessment so I carried on.
“When I send the message, I’ll be on my way. It will take me twenty minutes at least to get to the Interstate so if you time your moves right, we can converge on the rear of the Motel at the same time. Unless they Bug out, radio silence on all matters to do with this. Anything else is ok. Just appear normal.”

“Who will be manning the desk here?” asked Stan.

“Ma is coming in to take over. She’ll be here in a while. She’s taking some of her cornbread to Mr Chase over on Hill Road. When she’s done that she’ll be here.”

“Any more questions?”

None of my officers said anything.

“Ok, get going. You all know what to do but it will be two hours before Sue-Ellen and Kelly get here. I want a full team on the raid. And, wear your full body armour. There is no telling what weaponry they have. Stab vests might not be enough for this operation. Put them on before you leave here. Understood.”

The all nodded their understanding.

---

Almost eighty minutes had elapsed before Ma arrived having done all her errands for the day. Five minutes later, my email pinged. The warrant was also here. I quickly printed off three copies and put them in the pocket of my body armour.

Before leaving I made the call to the team.
“Harry says that he has his special meatloaf on the menu today. We gotta look sharp or it will all be gone.”

I hoped that my little extra conveyed the sense of urgency that I wanted to instil in my team.

“You take care Matt and look after Kelly. She is very special to me!” said Ma as I made my way to the door.

“I will take care of myself and all my officers not just Kelly Ma. I try not to take risks where I don’t need to. You should know that by now!”

“I do but it does not stop me worrying. That’s my right isn’t it?”

“Yes, Ma I know it is and I’d rather have it that way than any other.”

---

For once my operational planning went wrong. I was delayed getting to the Interstate by a tractor on the road. Modern Tractors are huge beasts and have large price tags to go along with it. This big green and yellow monster took up both lanes of the road between town and the Interstate. It was towing of what looked like a load of brown sludge in a spreader. It smelt pretty bad as well.

There was nowhere for it to pull off the highway for almost a mile so putting on my lights and siren would not have made any difference. I just had to wait until the ‘thing’ turned off the road.

When I arrived at the Truck Stop, my three Deputies had arrived and decided to move in just in case they were being watched. The two Busses were still there and had made no attempt to move since we’d checked on them almost three hours before.

Hot on my tails were Kelly and Sue-Ellen.

“Sorry for being late. Two semi’s took fifteen miles to do an overtake of another one,” explained Sue-Ellen.

I smiled.

“I’ve only just got here myself. Don French was on the road in that new John Deere Tractor of his.”

The both nodded.

“The others started without me so let’s see what is going on,” I said slightly concerned by the lack of movement around the two Busses.

As we approached, Stan emerged from one of the Busses.

“Hiya Boss. Everyone’s flown the coop. Both Busses are empty. It looks like they left in a hurry. There is a warm cup of coffee inside one of them.”

I swore quietly to myself. Then I made a decision.

“Everybody out!” I shouted out.

“And that means now!”

My deputies emerged from the busses. I mentally praised them because they were all wearing gloves.

“What’s wrong Boss?”

“As there is no one to detain or question, we should leave them to the State Police. That is if there is evidence of them being used as a Brothel?”

Tom and Stan looked at each other and sniggered.

“All the rooms have a bed and a mirror on the ceiling. There are used condoms everywhere. If they aren’t Brothels then my name is not Tom, said Tom.

“Good. Take a few photos and then we sit back and wait for the state forensic people to arrive. This is their case so let them carry the costs.”

No one disagreed with this.

“Boss?” said Stan.

“Yes Stan?”

“There really is something that you need to see right away.”

“Is it evidence?”

“Yes, it is but…”

“But what?”

Stan looked at Tom for a long second before answering.

“There is a driving license on the floor of the first room. It belongs to Tom’s brother. I went to school with him so I know his face anywhere.”

Tom looked shocked.

“But… He’s dead? The Army told us that he was blown up near Kandahar almost five years ago?”

We all knew the facts of the case.

“Sorry Tom but a driving license with his picture on it is on the floor. How it got there is a mystery,” said Stan.

I stepped forward to go and investigate. Tom did the same.

“Sorry Tom, you need to step back from this one. You may be a material witness to a crime. We simply don’t know yet.”

He looked angry for a few seconds. Then he relaxed. He knew that what I said was right.

“Tom, stay here. Stan and I will record the scene and bag the license. Then you can formally identify it ok?”

He nodded his head.

Stan soon showed me where the licence lay. It was on the floor next to an obviously well used bed. We both photographed it and then I bagged it. All the time Stan was photographing me doing the bagging. Finally, I got him to take some closeup shots of the license. Then we went outside the bus.

Tom came forward as soon as we stepped down from the vehicle.

I showed him the bagged evidence. One look at his face told me everything.

“I take it that it is his then?”

“That’s his picture all right.”

“And the details on the License?”

Tom looked at the address on the License. I knew he’d have some questions. The License was issued by the Florida DMV.

“Fort Myers? What? As far as I know he’d never been to Florida before he went overseas. The date of birth is wrong. This makes him more than two years older than he would have been.”

“There is a mystery to be solved but not by us. We have to let the State Police run with this.”

Tom begrudgingly nodded his head.

“Tom?”

He looked me in the eyes.

“Better not say anything to your family until … well you know the process. I’m sure that you don’t want to alarm them without due cause.”

“Ma would not like to go through his death again. I’ll keep quiet. What about State? Won’t they want to question her?”

“I’ll try to head them off at the pass. If you need to take any time to be with your family just do it. All you need to do is text me. Understand?”

“Gotcha Boss. And… thanks.”

“Tom, we are a team here. We look after each other. You are not alone here.”

Tom didn’t need to say anything. He knew that we were all behind him. That’s one of the advantages of working in a small department.

I looked at my watch.

“Stan, can you stand guard on these Busses?”

“Gotcha boss. How long should I stay? Jimmy’s playing basketball tonight and I promised him that I’d be there.”

“Billy-Joe can take over at four from you if the State Police aren’t here by then.”

“Billy-Joe, why don’t you go home for a few hours. It is your turn for evening duty so if you don’t hear anything from either Stan or myself report back here at four to relieve Stan. Ok?”

“That’s fine by me Boss.”

“Good. Now get some lunch. Kelly and I will talk to the State Police.”

The others went off towards the restaurant. Tom promised to bring Stan something to eat shortly. Kelly and I headed for my car.

Once inside, I gave her a brief kiss. She didn’t respond. Her mind was clearly on other things.

“What’s up?”

“This case. That driving license is mad. Why would Tom’s brother who was declared KIA have his Florida driving license here?”

“Yeah, I know. It is a bit of a mystery.”

“Time to update the Captain I think?”

I phoned the Captain and connected the speaker.

“Hello Captain. This is Sheriff Matt Beecher here. I have my Deputy, Kelly Fitzpatrick with me.”

“Yes, I got the warrant but there was no one on the busses when we arrived. It was clear that whoever was there left in a hurry. A still warm cup of coffee was discovered by my officers.”

“Yes Captain. We have secured it. We are waiting for your people to arrive.”

“Yes… There is something else. Something that does not make sense one little bit.”

“We found a driving license on the floor of one of the two Busses.”

“No Captain, that in itself is not out of the ordinary. However, this license has the photo of someone who was supposed to have been killed in action near Kandahar around five years ago. The photo and the name are of the brother of one of my Officers. That’s how we knew that it was strange. The License was issued by the Florida DMV and has an address in Fort Myers. It just does not make sense unless…?”

“Yes Captain. I have stood that officer down from the scene. He knows not to go messing with a crime scene but he does not want his family involved at this stage. If this is all fake then they don’t need to be involved at all. They have grieved once already.”

“Yes Captain. Understood.”

“How did your raids go?”

We listened as he gave us a status update.

“I agree. It is certainly possible that someone at one of those other locations tipped off the people here.”

“There is something else. I positioned one of my officers at a regular speed trap just short of the Colorado Border. We may well have the vehicle they used to decamp on camera. We also had a camera on the exit to the Truck Stop. We will need some time to examine the evidence but we may well be able to identify the vehicle.”

“Yes Captain. We should have all the licence plate numbers. I’ll let you know what we find.”

I closed down the call and looked at Kelly. She was in deep thought.

“What if they have all moved on to another state. I’m sure the Captain is thinking those very same thoughts.”

“I agree. To have five raids go in within ten minutes of each other and for all of them to find no people inside is clearly suspicious. There is either a leak in the State Police or the people running this are well connected. Perhaps they have people inside the State Attorney’s Office?”

“Or the simple fact that some PD’s are not as circumspect about using their radios as we are. We let a murderer get away back in New York because someone said the wrong thing on the Radio.”

I smiled.

“The State Police Radios are not encrypted like ours. Scanners are only a few bucks on Ebay or Amazon but they don’t work with our radios.”
Then I added
“As far as I know it anyway.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise,” exclaimed Kelly.

The State Troopers had to rely on funding from taxes paid to the state whereas we are self-funding. Since we took down Joe Cummings and Tracey Davis we have more than enough funds in the ‘bank’ to fund us for two years even if we never issued a single ticket in that time. The electors of the county adopted this way of working via the ballot box. Now, if we have a new bit of kit, they know that they have not had to pay for it unless they did wrong. Despite of this, we adopt a very flexible approach towards issuing tickets to residents of the County. Do something once and you get a ticking off. Do it again within six months and you get a ticket is the general rule we follow for motoring offences unless they are really bad apart from DUI’s and possession of Narcotics.

We have to live amongst the people so being fair to them makes our personal lives a whole lot easier.

“Let’s get back to the Office and look at the images from the overbridge and the Stateline.”

“Good Idea. There is nothing more we can do here is there?” asked Kelly.

“Nope and it does mean that we might get home for supper tonight at a decent time!”

Kelly laughed. I knew that from the tone of her laugh that she doubted that I would get home for dinner before 9:00pm at the earliest.

---

I did indeed speak too soon. It didn’t take us long to find a ‘U’-Haul’ Truck leaving the Truck Stop half an hour before the raid. It appeared to come from behind the Motel which told me that it was the ‘bug out’ vehicle. At that time, I was still back in town. From the timestamp it was less than five minutes after I’d received the email containing the warrant.

It did not take us long to identify the same truck doing 2mph under the legal speed limit fifteen minutes later heading into Colorado.

It was Kelly that noticed something a bit odd about the Truck.

“That’s got vents along the side. I would not have thought that those sort of vehicles would have them.”

“Eh?”
“Show me?”

Sure enough, there were ventilation louvres cut into the side of the truck a few inches below the roof.

“That’s like your Horsebox!” she added.

She was 100% correct. The louvres meant that it was meant for carrying something that was alive. Normal U-Haul vehicles don’t have vents like that. The mystery was deepening all the time.

“That lock on the back looks to be non-standard as well!”

The rear door was secured with an electronic lock. This was strange.

“That’s the sort of vehicle that could move people. As it is U-Haul, no one takes any notice of them. They have trucks and vans everywhere which makes it a perfect cover.”

Yet again, I was amazed at the ingenuity of criminals.

“Let’s run the plate.”

Two minutes later we had the answer. U-Haul did have a truck with that registration but it had been sent for scrap five months earlier after being involved in an accident. The report said that it had been sideswiped by a Semi that had run a red light. The truck that had used that registration was the looked identical in almost every way to this one.

Ten more minutes of digging and a phone call the scrap yard in Norfolk, Virginia verified that the truck was still there. Five minutes later the scrap dealer sent us a picture of the VIN Number and the damage to the vehicle. It all tallied with the U-Haul records. They were totally in the clear.

“That’s not a genuine U-Haul Truck. They use a real U-Haul plate on a modified truck that has been painted to look like a real U-Haul vehicle or they repaired the original and added the vents.”

“And as you said, no one takes a blind bit of notice. Plus, as It is below 3-Tons it is not subject to State Vehicle inspections. Ingenious.”

“Time to call the Captain I think.”

Kelly stood up and went to leave my office.

“And where do you think you are going?”

“Home. I need a few changes of clothes. In case you forgot I’ve been away from town for four days.”

She was right.

Kelly smiled back at me.

“I know Ma would love to do my washing but I’m not married to you yet so there are some bits that I’d like to keep private.”

I knew exactly what she meant.

I smiled and said,
“Off you go. I’ll see you at home.”

As she left, I picked up the phone to call the Captain with the news.

---

Things were quiet around the Office for the next few days. Tom always had a worried look on his face with good reason. I assigned him the arduous task of escorting Zeke Sampson over to Clark County for his court appearance on Drug Dealing charges.

I knew that it should not be that arduous a job as Zeke had told the County District Attorney that he was going to plead guilty to the charges. Luckily for him, the analysis of the pills he’d been caught selling had come back showing that only contained some very weak bit of the stuff in ‘pot’ that makes you high. Only twelve miles away, that would not be illegal but it is here.

The County DA has accepted that on Friday and Saturday nights many young people drive over into Colorado to take some Cannabis. We regularly stop them on their return trips and drug test the drivers and search the cars for weed but the locals do seem to have gotten the message and it has been more than a year since we caught anyone stoned driving a car or carrying any spliffs etc.

That said, we were in no doubt that supplies of Cannabis for personal use were secreted within a few miles of the State Line. The owners would return for them at a more appropriate time a few days later. It was impossible to police the border so we didn’t really try that hard. Personal use was one thing. Anything more was another matter entirely.

---

The State Police had towed the two former Greyhound busses away for further examination. Kelly had run their plates and to both of us, a clear pattern was emerging. The busses had been sold by the bus company more than five years before. The new owner was a company registered in Delaware. It took us less than two minutes to find that their address didn’t exist and that the company had not filed any accounts since their incorporation. The words ‘Dummy Corporation’ came into our minds.

“Delaware is a long way from here,” remarked Kelly.

“It is and it sort of indicates organised crime does it not?”

Kelly looked at me and raised one eyebrow.

“And you know someone who owes you a favour…?

I laughed.

“No… but you do.”

“Me?”

“Captain Murray perhaps?”

Her shoulders sagged.

“We didn’t exactly part on good terms you know?”

“Really? When I spoke to him about employing you he was most supportive and said that he regretted letting you go.”

Kelly sat silently for a while.

“If you don’t want to make the call I’ll do it?”

I reached over and took her hand.
“I know that it will bring back some bad memories.”

Then she took her hand away and looked me right in the eye.

“I’ll do it. I’ll have to face my demons sooner or later. Better do it now.”

I saw that she meant it so I took my cue to leave the Office and head over to Harry’s Bar to get us some lunch.

Armed with two of his best burgers and trimmings I went back to the Office. I’d expected Kelly to be sitting there in a state but she was smiling and working on something.

“I take it that the call went well then?”

“It did and I’m sorry for doubting you. He was very pleasant and told me well done for the Cummings case. He said that he received some nice comments that it was ‘one of their own’ who had fingered Cummings and allowed him to face justice in NYC.”

“How does that make you feel?”

“Nice. Nice that at least one part of the NYPD does not want me to rot in hell for wanting to be who I really am.”

I gave her a hug.

“He fed the data we have into VICAP…”

“VICAP? Is this really ‘violent’ crime?”

“He said that given the scope of this it should be handed over to the FBI. Putting it into VICAP may get some interest from them.”

That worried me. I hoped that the State Police would not think that we went behind their backs but as it probable that it has all simply moved to another state it would fall right into their remit. If they ended up in Nevada there might not be any crimes to answer for such are the differences in law when it comes to the states.

“I’m waiting for him to call back.”

“Then it is time for Lunch then?”

We didn’t have to wait long before the phone started ringing. The first call was from the State Police.

“Hello Captain, any developments?” I said hoping that he was not going to tear me off a strip.

“They have? That’s interesting. That sort of matches the conclusions that we have come to. As those busses were bought by a dummy company, it looks like this is a far bigger thing than we first thought it was.”

I hoped that they’d have done the same research we did.

“Oh! Really. No, it isn’t a problem. Kelly will send all the data we have over to you very soon. We just used a few sources on the Internet. It is all out there if you know where to look. Thankfully, Kelly is a bit of an expert in that from her days in the NYPD.”

“Oh, you didn’t know that? Yes, she comes from a long term NYPD family.”

“It seems that she got rather fed up with the big city and went travelling. Somehow, she ended up here. She has become a valuable member of my team.”

“I’ll get that data sent over very shortly.”

“Ours is not to reason why, theirs but to do and solve all the crimes in the world!”

“Sorry Captain. I was misquoting Tennyson at you. My favourite poem is one of his finest.”

“It is called ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’.”

“It is about an event of stupidity that cost many lives. We have many examples of our own from the Civil War but I my opinion none are described so eloquently as what Tennyson does about the Crimean War.”

Then I added.
“Sorry Captain. I tend to ramble a bit when quoting him.”

I ended the call and looked at Kelly.

“All sent,” she said.

“Sorry for rambling on like that.”

She laughed.

“You do tend to go off at all sorts of tangents when you mention him.”

“I know but I can’t help it. Tennyson got the through some dark times in the Army. He’s my…”

Kelly came and gave me a kiss.

---

Two days later, I was alone in the Office preparing some reports when the Radio came alive.

“Sheriff, are you there?”

I could recognise Stan’s voice.

“Sheriff here Stan. What’s the problem?”

“That U-Haul van. It has just passed me going eastbound.”

“But you were monitoring westbound traffic?”

“Just as you said to do Sheriff. But ever since it slipped out of our fingers, I’ve been checking out every U-Haul of that size that comes along the highway.”

I thought, ‘well done Stan’.

“Well done Stan. Do you think that they suspect that you are on to them?”

I heard him chuckle.

“I don’t think so. I was giving a speeding ticket to a guy in a Tesla. Tom clocked him doing over one hundred. He’s in for a fine of three figures.”

“Are you sure that it is the suspect Van?”

“Thanks to Kelly, we all know what to look for.

“Does Tom know what’s coming his way?”

“Yes. I just phoned him. He’s in ‘Area 51’.”

It was my turn to laugh.
A short section of the Interstate as it passed through Custer County was a radio blackspot. Sadly, it was the best spot for a hidden radar trap in the whole county. My predecessor had christened it ‘Area 51’ and the name has stuck ever since.

“Ok Stan, get after the truck. Keep your distance and keep your phone open to Tom. I’ll alert the State Police just in case we can’t stop it before it leaves the county.”

“Understood Sheriff. Out.”

I put down the microphone with a smile on my face. Perhaps we had a break in the case at last.

My next task was to get hold of Kelly. She was visiting a ranch almost in the next county along the freeway. This was one of those who’d had pedigree steers stolen. It was a follow up call due to some DNA matches that had come up when new born calves are added to the breed register.

“Hi Kelly. Are you free to talk?”

“Ok. Call me when you are but it is fairly urgent. Some trouble is coming your way but I need to speak to the boys at State first.”

“Gotcha. Speak soon.”

Then I called Captain Hartz.

“Captain, one of my officers has just clocked that bogus U-Haul van heading east on the Interstate.”

“We will try to intercept it before it leaves our county. This is a heads up just in case we don’t get our people into position in time.”

“Yes Captain, I’m leaving now. I’ll update you as soon as we have any more information.”

I hung up the phone and felt my pulse rising. The hunt was on.

I’d almost reached the Interstate when Kelly came on the phone.

“I can be at the Interstate in five minutes. I’ll be about eight miles east of Area 51. Is Tom there?”

“Yes, and he’s going to try to stop it.”

“I guess I’m backup then?”

I chuckled.

“And the State Boys will be ready beyond the county line. I’m just going down the ramp onto the Interstate as I speak.”

I hung up the call and put my foot down even though I’d probably arrive after the fact.

---

This proved to be the case. A combination of Tom, Stan and Kelly had already surrounded the truck and forced it to slow down and stop. I was about ten seconds behind them as they acted. It all worked very well indeed. The training for this very manoeuvre that we’d done the previous spring was paying off handsomely.

As it came to a halt, the passenger front door opened and a woman came out. She ran up the embankment at the side of the road. I don’t know where she’d expect to go as this part of the State is pretty desolate. The nearest thing in the direction she was going was the Railroad but that was a good five miles over some pretty inhospitable country.

Kelly came out of her SUV like a demented greyhound. She ran up the embankment and tackled the escapee like… like a rugby player. She wrapped her arms around the woman’s legs and she went down like a sack of seed.

She marched the woman down the embankment and slapped her handcuffs on the prisoner.

“Where did you learn to do that?” asked Tom.

“Is having four brothers and a cousin good enough to play rugby for Ireland good enough?”

Tom laughed.

“Let’s have a look in the back?” I suggested.

However, neither the driver nor the passenger would give up the combination of the lock on the back of the truck. That left me with a decision.

Do I order the lock to be broken or do I wait for a search warrant?

I was about to tell the others what I’d decided when Kelly asked.

“What name is she going under?”

Tom had retrieved her purse from the van answered.

“Sian Murphy. Sian? That’s an unusual name?”

Kelly smiled.
“It is from Ireland or Scotland. Sian Murphy eh?”

Then she turned to look at the woman. After a second a smile broke out on Kelly’s face.

“I am almost 100% sure that’s a false name and that her real name is Siobhan Flanagan, late of 70th Avenue in Queens.”

The woman looked at Kelly and the colour drained from her face as Kelly spoke again.
“If that is the case, she was convicted of running a Brothel and false imprisonment on Jamaica Avenue oh, at least five years ago. She went down for two years.”

“You!” cried the woman.

“You have the nerve to point the finger at me! Just wait till I get to speak to a lawyer. Then your family will come looking for you. You failed as a man and had to resort to hiding in this shithole!”

No one reacted.
The woman stared at all my people.

“Don’t you get it! That’s really a man!”

Stan stepped forward and said,
“Kelly is Kelly as far as we are concerned. We have known about her past for a long time. It is an honour and a pleasure to work with her. She is legally a woman and better still, we don’t care understand!”

Then he stepped back

“Kelly!” I said urgently.
“Don’t let her goad you into doing something you will regret.”

Kelly winked back at me. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“This woman is a convicted felon. As she was convicted of an offence that relates to sex trafficking and sentenced to more than one year in Jail, I think we have more than enough just cause to break down the door to the truck. What do you say Sherrif?”

Before he could answer, the man who had been driving the van said,
“You and your big mouth! Why the hell could you not have just shut the hell up for once but no, you had to spout out.”

That was clearly directed at Siobhan.

“I think you are right. Tom, can you smash the lock?”

Before he could act the man said,
“Six Zero One Six Three.”

Tom looked at me. I nodded.

Tom tried the numbers he’d been given and the lock sprang open.

We all held our breath as he pulled up the shutter.

The back of the van was empty of people but there was plenty of evidence that it had been used to transport people. The smell of human excrement was pretty bad. It looked like that there was a lot of it smeared on the walls. Several words were visible including ‘Morte’. The meaning of that was obvious. A single gallon water container was lying empty in the far corner.

“Care to explain the human faeces?” I asked the two who had been driving the van.

“We don’t need to explain anything to you!” said the man.
The woman was still glaring at Kelly. The look of pure hatred in her eyes said it all.

His words made up my mind.

“Tom, please close the back of the van and lock it. I think that we should hand all this over to the State Police and let them deal with it. I’ll get on the Phone to Captain Hartz.”

Then I turned to the two suspects.

“I take it you both know Miranda?”

They both nodded.

“Please say yes, just for the camera,” I said pointing at the camera on my chest.

“Yes,” said the man.
“Yes,” echoed the woman.

“Both of you understand your right especially with respect to receiving legal advice?”

“Yes,” they echoed.

“Good. Now we are going to hand you over to the State Police. They will formally Mirandize you but we will not be asking you questions relating to where you have been or were intending to go nor about the van and its contents. Do you understand that?”

Both of them said yes.

“We may ask questions about your wellbeing. For example, if you want a drink of water. That is in no way an interrogation. Do you understand that?”

Again, they said yes.

“Good. Now we are going to wait here for the State Police to arrive. We will hand everything over to them and that includes you.”

“Kelly, please put the man in the back of your SUV.”

“Certainly Sheriff.”

“Tom, please put the woman in your SUV.”

“Stan can you put the cones out to warn the oncoming traffic?”

“Gotcha Boss!”

I stepped a few yards away and called Captain Hartz. He was overjoyed at the news about the van but not so when I told him that it was empty. He brightened up when I told him that there was lots of DNA in the back that might lead to the forensic people being able to identify who had been transported in the van in recent days. He was also happy that we had identified one of the people involved.

With the call over and an ETA for his team and a flatbed to take the van away, our work was almost done.

---

Almost two hours later, we had handed everything over to the State Police and were free to carry on with our duties.

“I think we should all return to the Office. There are Video images to upload to the State Police plus there are reports to be written,” I said to my officers.

None of them disagreed.

Back in the office, I called everyone together.

"The issue of the driving license that had Tom's late brother’s photo and name on it is still outstanding. I have sent an email to the Fort Myers PD asking for information on the address and also including an image of the license plus some background. Until this whole thing is resolved I think we should keep it to ourselves. There really is no need to go blabbing about this even you your family especially you Billy-Joe. We all know how close your Ma is to Tom's Ma. Got it?"
Everyone agreed that until we had some proof that it was best to keep quiet about the license.

There were no disagreements so I wrapped up the day.
“Get your reports done and on my desk. Then you can finish for the day.”

Finally, I said.
“Well done team. The way you stopped that van on the Interstate was right out of the TPAC handbook[1]. The first two pitchers of beer at Harry’s on Friday are on me!”

As quickly as it had erupted, the case of the mobile brothels went away. Two months later the whole gang were caught operating up and down I-15 in Eastern Nevada and Southern Utah. Sixty trafficked women from places like Turkmenistan and Armenia were rescued. The two people we’d caught had turned ‘states evidence’ after being turned over to the FBI. We never knew if this helped catch the gang or not. It didn’t matter to us one little bit.

Life in Custer County carried on much as before but we did get some concrete barrier blocks placed behind the Motel on the Interstate. There were right where those busses had been parked. We didn’t want a repeat of that to happen again.

We did get an update on the fake license with Tom’s Brother’s photo on it. The address in Fort Myers was that of a ‘Winn Dixie’ Supermarket. The Florida DMV had no record of the license so the general consensus was that it was a fake and that someone who looked like Tom’s Brother was using it.

As I’d learned a long time ago from Ma, the ‘devil is in the detail’.

[the end (of this episode)]

[1] TPAC = Tactical Pursuit And Containment. A method of controlling and ultimately stopping a vehicle that is being pursued by Police.