“Incidentally, I’ve been informed that we’ve now located a total of twenty of those, most of whom are deceased. However, that number includes two young women who have been found alive. They ended up in an orphanage and stayed on in Nigeria when they were old enough to leave because they had nowhere else to go. Without passports or documents of any kind, they were stuck where they were.”
“Twenty victims?” Ali echoed. “That many? The last I heard the count was just over a dozen.”
“As I said, it’s been a very busy morning,” Governor Dunham replied. “Back to the warrants issue, however. When it comes time to execute them, I have a problem. Who’s going to do it? That job should belong to the local sheriff’s department, so what’s your beef with Sheriff Alvarado? I can’t ignore the man. The Encampment is located inside his jurisdiction.”
“Are you aware that one of his deputies, Amos Sellers, is part of that community—a member of The Family?”
“I’m well aware of the situation with Deputy Sellers,” Governor Dunham said. “As a matter of fact, I have a warrant with his name on it right here in front of me. What about him?”
“For an unknown number of years he’s moonlighted as The Family’s bounty hunter, tracking down runaway girls and bringing them back home. He’s had that job longer than he’s been a deputy. If Sheriff Alvarado’s department is involved in whatever you’re planning, I’m afraid word will get back to Amos and from him to everyone else. I can’t see the whole group hitting the road for parts unknown, but I can see them herding everyone—women and children included—into the church or some other central location and turning it into a siege situation.”
“You mean turn it into another Waco,” Governor Dunham said. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Ali admitted. “The thought had crossed my mind.”
“Mine, too,” Governor Dunham said. “I’ve been remembering images of that hellacious fire all day long. That’s why the current plan is to execute the warrants in the dead of night when everyone should be at home fast asleep. We’ll be using emergency response teams from several jurisdictions so the warrants can all be executed at once. That way, any resistance should be kept to a minimum and on an individual rather than group basis. I believe that will be safer for all concerned—law enforcement officers and civilians alike.
“But just because one of Sheriff Alvarado’s people belongs to the targeted group doesn’t mean I’m going to tar everyone with the same brush,” Governor Dunham continued. “I’m also not going to overstep my authority and allow a duly elected law enforcement officer to be left out of the loop on a major operation being conducted inside his jurisdiction. I assure you, Ali, I have every confidence that Sheriff Alvarado and his people will conduct themselves in full accordance with the law. Understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ali said, feeling as though she’d just been chewed out by her high school principal.
“That said, however,” Governor Dunham continued, “I’m not discounting your concern or the historical precedent, either. As I’m sure you’re aware, long ago there was a very similar situation in which people living in a place called Short Creek, now Colorado City, were taken into custody while peacefully assembled inside their church and singing hymns. That was part of what gave Governor Pyle such a black eye and turned what he did into a PR nightmare—the fact that they were all in church and singing when they were arrested. Later on, the man had his ass handed to him by the voters when he ran for reelection.
“What happened to Governor Pyle turned Short Creek, now Colorado City, into a no-man’s-land and left it virtually untouchable as far as state government and law enforcement are concerned. Out of sight was out of mind. Everybody—my administration included, I’m ashamed to say—went along with that program. We were all content to let the people up there do their own thing. After all, what’s a little polygamy among consenting adults?”
“But they’re not just consenting adults,” Ali objected. “I already told you. Little girls are expected to be betrothed by the time they’re six or seven. When they’re in their mid-teens, they’re forced into marriages with much older men and end up giving birth to children while they themselves are still juveniles.”
“You know that to be the case?” the governor demanded.
“Yes, I do,” Ali answered. “As for the ones who try to escape? If they’re caught and brought back by Deputy Sellers, they’re consigned to live lives of terrible privation.”
Ali thought about mentioning the other girl then—the Kingman Jane Doe who hadn’t survived long enough to be brought back. But there was no point. Ali knew that without the missing evidence box, Amos Sellers would never be held accountable for her death or for the death of her child.
“I take it you heard that from the two women you mentioned earlier,” Virginia Dunham said, cutting into Ali’s thought process. “I believe you referred to them as Brought Back girls? What are their names again?”
“Agnes and Patricia,” Ali answered. “They’ve spent the last fifteen years living in a Quonset hut with no electricity, no heating or cooling, and no running water. They’ve been forced to sleep on straw mattresses and walk around wearing other people’s cast-off rags and shoes. If the state of Arizona treated convicted killers the way they’ve been treated, the American Civil Liberties folks would be up in arms.”
“I suspect the American Civil Liberties folks will be weighing in on this matter all too soon,” Governor Dunham observed, “and not in a good way, either. They’ll be far more concerned with how we treat the guys we place under arrest than they will be about how the women and children were treated.
“The problem is,” she continued, “my blind eye went away early this morning when Sean Fergus’s phone call landed on my desk. As long as I’m the chief executive of the state of Arizona, known instances of human trafficking will not be tolerated. Holding people in what amounts to involuntary servitude will not be tolerated. Denying women and children their basic civil and human rights will not be tolerated—not on my watch. Because I’m not Governor Pyle.
“When this term of office is over, I’m done. I’m not standing for reelection for this office or any other. Politics and I are finished, so I’m going full speed ahead on this, Ali. The raid I’ve authorized is on. It’s going to happen—tonight, most likely. Sheriff Alvarado’s department will be charged with executing some of the warrants but with the proviso that Amos Sellers is to receive no advance warning whatsoever. Is that understood?”
Nothing Governor Dunham said dispelled Ali’s misgivings about Sheriff Alvarado’s involvement, but it wasn’t her call to make. “Yes, ma’am,” Ali said.
“I’m expecting that, one way or another, arrests will be made,” Governor Dunham went on. “At least one person—the head honcho, a guy named Richard Lowell, will be going to the slammer. Interpol made it clear to the various banking institutions involved that cooperation would be in their best interest. All the financial transactions lead directly back to Lowell’s name and no one else’s. He’s the one listed on all the accounts. He’s the one who disperses the money and writes the checks. That means that once he’s taken down, The Family’s financial underpinnings will go away as well. Whether or not some or all the men go to jail, it’s likely that their families will be dispossessed.”
Just then the cop left the shelter and returned to the patrol car he’d left parked in front of the building. A glance inside told Ali that the distressed woman and her equally upset children had been ushered through the waiting room and into the area beyond the security door. Shivering from the cold and trying to keep her teeth from chattering, Ali buzzed to be let back inside. Once inside she found the receptionist was on the phone discussing what sounded like a complicated personal issue. Ali hoped that the conversation was engrossing enough that she’d be able to continue her own without every word being overheard.