The Big Bad Wolf

THE NEXT MORNING I was told to attend a key-person meeting about the Connolly kidnapping and the possibility that the abduction was connected to others in the past twelve months. The case had been upgraded to "major," and it had the code name "White Girl." An FBI Rapid Start Team had already been dispatched to Atlanta. Satellite photos of the Phipps Plaza shopping center had been ordered in the hope that we could identify the motor vehicle the UNSUBS had used to get there before driving away in the Connolly station wagon. There were about two dozen agents in a windowless "major case" room at the Bureau in Washington. When I arrived, I learned that Washington would be the "office of origin" for the case, which meant the case was important to Director Burns. The Criminal Investigative Division had already prepared a briefing book for him. The important entry point for the FBI was that a federal judge's wife had disappeared. Ned Mahoney from HRT sat down next to me and seemed not just outgoing but friendly. He greeted me with a winking "Hey, star." A tiny dark-haired woman in a black jumpsuit plopped down on the other side of me. She introduced herself as Monnie Donnelley and told me she was the Violent Crimes analyst attached to the case. She talked extraordinarily fast, lots of energy, almost too much. "Guess we'll be working together," she said, and shook my hand. "I've already heard good things about you. I know your resume. I attended Hopkins for grad school too. How about that?" "Monnie's our best and our brightest," Mahoney interjected. "And that's a gross understatement." "He's so right," Monnie Donnelley agreed. "Spread the word. Please. I'm tired of being a secret weapon." I noticed that my supervisor, Gordon Nooney, wasn't in the room of at least fifty agents. Then the meeting began on White Girl. A senior agent named Walter Zelras stood in the front and started to show slides. He was professional but very dry. I almost felt as if I'd joined IBM or Chase Manhattan Bank instead of the FBI. Monnie whispered, "Don't worry, it'll get worse. He's just warming up." Zelras had a droning speaking voice that reminded me of a professor I'd had a long time ago at Hopkins. Both Zelras and my former professor gave everything equal weight, never seemed excited or disturbed about the material they were presenting. Zelras's subject was the connection the Connolly abduction might have had to several others in the past months, so it ought to have been spellbinding. "Gerrold Gottlieb," Monnie Donnelley whispered again. I smiled, almost laughed out loud. Gottlieb was the professor who used to drone on at Hopkins. "Upscale, attractive white women," Zelras was saying, "have been disappearing at a rate a little over three times the statistical norm over the past year. This is true both here in the States and in Eastern Europe. I'm going to pass around an actual catalogue showing women who were up for sale about three months ago. Unfortunately, we were unable to trace the catalogue back to whoever manufactured it. There was a Miami link, but it never went anywhere." When the catalogue got to me, I saw that it was black and white, the pages probably printed off the Internet. I quickly leafed through it. There were seventeen women shown, nude shots, along with details such as breast and waist size, "true" color of hair, and color of eyes. The women had unlikely nicknames like Candy, Sable, Foxy, Madonna, and Ripe. The prices ranged from $3,500 to $150,000. There was no further biographical information on any of the women and nothing at all about their personalities. "We've been working closely with Interpol on what we suspect could be 'white slave' trading. FYI, 'white slave' refers to women bought and sold specifically for the purpose of prostitution. These days, the women are usually Asian, Mexican, and South American, not white, except in Eastern Europe. You should also note that at this time slavery is more globalized and technologized than ever in history. Some countries in Asia look the other way as women, and children, are sold - especially into Japan and India. "In the past couple of years, a market has opened up for white women, particularly blondes. These women are sold for prices ranging from a few hundred up into the mid five figures and possibly higher. As I said, a significant market is Japan. Another is the Middle East, of course. The Saudis are the biggest buyers. Believe it or not, there's even a market in Iraq and Iran. Questions at this point?" There were several, mostly good ones, which showed me this was a savvy group that had been brought together. I finally asked a question, though I was reluctant to as the FNG. "Why do we think Elizabeth Connolly is connected to the others?" I gestured around the room. "I mean, this connected?" Zelras answered quickly. "A team took her. Kidnapping gangs are very common in the slave trade, especially in Eastern Europe. They're experienced and very efficient at the abductions, and they're connected into a pipeline. There's usually a buyer before they take a woman like Mrs. Connolly. She would be high risk but very high reward. What makes this kind of abduction attractive is that there's no ransom exchange. The Connolly abduction fits our profile." Someone asked, "Could a buyer request a specific woman? Is that a possibility?" Zelras nodded. "If the money is right, yes, absolutely. The price might go into the six figures. We're working that angle." Most of the remainder of the long meeting was taken up with discussion about Mrs. Connolly and whether we could find her quickly. The consensus was no. One detail was particularly perplexing: Why would the UNSUBS kidnap the victim in such a public place? Profit / ransom seemed the logical possibility, but there had been no ransom note. Had somebody specifically asked for Mrs. Elizabeth Connolly? If so - who? What was special about her? And why the mall? Surely there were easier abduction locations. As we talked about her, a photograph of Mrs. Connolly and her three daughters remained on the screen at the front of the conference room. The four of them looked so closeknit and happy. It was scary, sad. I found myself thinking about being with Jannie on our front porch the night before. Someone asked, "These women who've been abducted, have any of them been found?" "Not one," said Agent Zelras. "Our fear is that they're dead. That the kidnappers - or whoever the kidnappers deliver them to - consider them disposable."