Missing in Miami

Chapter 12

In all the excitement of Ollie showing us the videos of Rob, we had forgotten about the lab reports on the pills that we found at Kate Clark’s apartment. I opened the file and just as we suspected, they matched the white powder we had in the beer bottle from the Randy Graves case. We were now certain that Jesse Snyder was still on the hunt for more victims.

Blake asked, “so, do you think Jesse is being paid for every guy he recruits?”

I shrugged, “that would be my best guess, why else would he do it?”

Blake nodded, “yeah, that seems to make the most sense.”

I said, “Ty and Joey still make no sense to me though, it doesn’t fit the pattern that Jesse uses.”

Blake thought for a moment, “yeah, and we haven’t seen Joey in any of the videos either. Do you think there is another website he is being used on?”

I shrugged, “maybe, or maybe he is being used for something entirely different.”

Blake asked, “like what?”

I shook my head, “I don’t know.”

***

Joey Fischer and Dylan were snuggled up to one another on the couch after they woke up from their nap. Joey was confused by the feelings he now had for Dylan. It was more than the fact that Dylan was gorgeous, it was something much deeper. They hadn’t seen Mr. Edwards since he left abruptly earlier today.

Joey asked Dylan, “how long have you been here?”

Dylan shrugged, “I don’t know, I guess it’s been close to a year now.”

Joey asked, “and you have never tried to leave?”

Dylan shook his head, “no, this is a lot better than what I was doing before I came here.”

Joey sat up and looked into those beautiful brown eyes, “if you could do anything that you wanted, what would you do?”

Dylan asked, “what do mean?”

Joey continued, “what kind of job would you like to have? If you could go to college, what would you like to study?”

Dylan looked down, “oh, you’ll just think it’s stupid. I’m not good enough to go to college or get a real job anyway.”

Joey put his hand under Dylan’s chin and forced him to look at him, “no I won’t, nobody’s dream is stupid, and you are good enough to do anything you want.”

Dylan shrugged, “when I was little, I guess I kind of wanted to be a nurse.”

Joey said, “really?”

Dylan sighed, “see, I told you it was stupid.”

Joey shook his head, “it is not stupid, that is a noble and honorable dream.”

Dylan said, “oh what’s the difference, I’ll never be able to go to college.”

Joey said, “there are ways for you to go to college, we just need to get out of here. I would help you find a way.”

Dylan chuckled, “even if we could get out of here, why would you want to help a loser like me?”

Joey shook his head, “you are not a loser, you just haven’t been given the chance to prove yourself.”

Dylan asked, “what about you? Do you want to go to college?”

Joey nodded, “I am already going to college, I was in the middle of my first semester when I ended up here.”

Dylan asked, “what are you studying?”

Joey smiled, “I am going to be a math teacher, I love working with kids.”

Dylan smiled, “yeah me too, that’s why I would like to be a pediatric nurse.”

Joey saw the look in Dylan’s eye when he talked about being a nurse, “see, you do have a dream, and it is not stupid.”

***

We were pleasantly surprised the tax assessor’s office was quick to respond to our request for a list of all the homeowners in the areas we were looking at. We had seen in one of the older videos with Jesse, that the house we were looking for had a pool in the backyard. Ollie went to work eliminating all the homes without a pool. He then went to work eliminating more houses based on the shape and location of the pool in relationship to the house.

Blake was working on the pills that Jesse used to drug his victims. From the ingredients listed on the lab report, he was calling all the pharmaceutical companies in the area that may have produced the pills. We were fairly certain the pills weren’t produced by a legitimate company, but we had to follow the easiest path first.

I spent the afternoon following up on phone calls that we had received from people claiming to have seen our three victims or our two suspects. The tip line had been ringing off the hook since the paper ran the story about our case. So far, none of those tips lead to anything substantial, but I was glad that people were aware and stepping forward to report anything suspicious.

***

Alex was sitting in the room with the other three boys, they were all waiting for Chuck to return to see if they were being moved.

Alex asked, “so do they move us to this country house very often?”

Ethan said, “no, it has only happened once in the six months that I have been here.”

Aiden added, “yeah, this is first time it’s happened since I’ve been here.”

Paul asked, “what do you think is going on?”

Alex said, “maybe the police are coming.”

Aiden panicked, “do you think they will arrest us?”

Alex said, “why, we haven’t done anything wrong. We are the ones that are being held against our will.”

Ethan asked, “where will we go if the police do come?”

Paul chuckled, “we’ll just go back on the streets, like we were before we came here.”

Alex asked, “but don’t you all have friends or family to help you?”

They didn’t answer Alex, they all sat in silence as they waited. Alex’s mind drifted to the prince, he hated to admit it, but being with the prince wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Why did it feel wrong that he wanted to see Omar again? He guessed it wouldn’t matter anyway, he was sure the prince wouldn’t want to see him again.

A few minutes later, the door flew open, and Chuck walked in followed by two other guys.

Chuck yelled, “everybody up and grab your shit, we are headed to the country house. And everyone better behave, if any of you try anything funny, you will regret it.”

The quartet was led down the back way of the hotel and into a black suburban. Alex spent the hour-long drive thinking about Omar.

***

I returned to the office after my last interview, Ollie had eliminated an entire area in his search for our house. Blake had confirmed that Jesse’s pills were probably done in a private lab, this was not a surprise to any of us. The three of us were discussing our next move, when the reception desk rang my phone.

I answered, “this is Ridge.”

I listened for a minute, then replied, “yes, I will. Please take him to an open interview room, I’ll be right there.”

I looked to Blake as I hung up the phone, he asked, “what’s up?”

I grabbed my notebook, “a guy named, Prince Omar, from some Middle Eastern country wants to see me, he says he has some information on our case. You two care to join me?”

Blake and Ollie jumped up from their chairs and followed me down the hall.

***

Rob asked, “who are these guys that Chuck is bringing here?”

Kyle shrugged, “not sure who they are, but one time about six months ago, they brought in a few guys from one of the other locations. They were only here a day or two, then they took them away again.”

Rob asked, “so how many locations are there?”

Jared said, “we don’t know, they don’t tell us any of that information.”

Rob said, “this may be a good time to break out of here, with the extra guys we can overpower Chuck.”

Nick chuckled, “and go where?”

Rob looked at him, “I have a home and a job, I have a place to go.”

Brady said, “well good for you, but none of us do, just don’t do anything to get yourself or us hurt.”

Rob was disappointed at the lack of cooperation he was getting from the others, he just couldn’t understand that were so accepting of their predicament. He was further discouraged when the four new guys were led into the house, followed by Chuck and two other men. Rob’s heart sank when he saw the guns the two men were wearing on their belt. The others all looked at Rob as he just sat back down in the chair and sighed.

***

We walked into the interview room, I saw a man in his early twenties adorned in traditional Middle Eastern clothing, complete with headwear.

I held my hand out, “I’m detective Ridgeway, these are detectives, Robbins and Hemple. You say you have some information on our case, um, Prince, or your highness?”

The prince said, “please, you may call me Omar, yes I read about your case in the paper today.”

I took a chair, “ok Omar, thank you for coming in, now what do you know about our case?”

He opened the paper and pointed, “I know this man, Alex.”

Blake and I looked at each other, Blake asked, “how do you know Alex?”

Omar looked at all three of us, he took a breath, “we have been, what is it called… intimate together.”

I asked, “when was this?”

Omar replied, “it was yesterday.”

Blake jumped in, “where were you?”

Omar turned to Blake, “At the hotel, I don’t know the address, you will have to ask my driver for that.”

I asked, “is your driver here right now?”

Omar nodded, “yes, he is waiting for me near the front door.”

I turned to Ollie, “will you please go get his driver and bring him in here.”

Ollie jumped up and headed out the door.

I asked, “how did you get in contact with Alex, to make arrangements for him to meet you.”

Omar shook his head, “oh, Omar didn’t contact Alex, I selected him from the group, just as I always do. He was new, and he was so adorable, I could not resist.”

Blake asked, “what do you mean selected him, you have done this before?”

Omar nodded, “yes, every time Omar comes to the states, I visit the hotel. Mr. Chuck has four men for me to choose from. This time I chose Alex.”

I asked, “are you saying you pay to have sex with these men?”

Omar again nodded, “yes, is this not the normal custom in your country?”

Blake said, “no Omar, prostitution is illegal in this country.”

Omar’s eyes went wide, “detectives, I was led to believe this was acceptable, will this have repercussions for Omar?”

I said, “that is not really important right now, we will worry about that later. Our focus is on finding Alex and the other guys.”

Omar nodded, “yes detective that is what I want as well.”

I asked, “so how do make a reservation at the hotel?”

He said, "I call Mr. Chuck.”

I nodded, “can you give me that number?”

Omar pulled out his phone, “of course.” He handed me the phone with the contact information, I gave it to Blake and told him to call the number and see if he could find who the phone was registered to.

I asked, “so then how does it work when you get to the hotel?”

Omar said, “I check in at the front desk, they give me the key card to get to the top floor. I go to one of the rooms and wait for Chuck to bring the guys to Omar.”

I said, “so then you select the guy that you want to be with.”

Omar nodded, “yes, that is correct.”

I asked, “how do you pay for this service?”

He said, “I pay at the front desk, it is included in the price of the room, you pay just as you normally do at any hotel.”

Blake had returned and told me that the phone number was no longer in service. It was a prepaid phone that could be bought at Walmart or dozens of other places and could not be traced to an owner.

Just as I was going to ask Omar another question, Ollie and Omar’s driver walked into the room.

The driver looked at Omar, “Prince Omar, we must really be going now.”

I said, “excuse me sir, but we have a few more questions before you can leave. Will you please have a seat?”

The driver sat down, I asked, “what is your name sir?”

He looked at Omar, and back at me, “I am Jamal.”

I nodded, “Jamal, can you give us the address of the hotel that you dropped Omar at yesterday?”

Jamal once again looked at Omar, Omar nodded, Jamal sighed, “it was the Regency, a block off of Ocean Drive.”

Blake immediately stood and left the room and called the DA for a search warrant. I continued asking both Omar and Jamal more questions. Omar was cooperating as much as he could, it was clear that Jamal was concerned about saying too much.

After my last question only elicited a vague response from Jamal, Omar stood and said, “Jamal, we need to help these men as much as we can, they must find Alex soon.”

Jamal glared at Omar, “but your father will not be happy about you being involved in this.”

Omar threw up his hands, “Omar doesn’t care about my father right now, it is more important to keep Alex safe.”

As soon as we had a few more details from Omar, I talked to the captain, and we quickly assembled a team to go to the Regency. As soon as I briefed the team, our search warrant came through and we sped to the hotel. Omar had told us that all of his visits were to the top floor of the hotel, with several different themed rooms. He believed the boys were kept in a room at the end of the hall. We posted officers at all the exits before we even entered the hotel. Once we entered, we again posted men at every elevator and stairway door. The hotel manager gave us key cards once we showed him the warrant, Blake and I led the team up to the top floor.

The elevator opened and we were met with silence, we cleared each room as we made our way down the hall. The Tiki Hut Suite, the Royal Palace Suite, the Log Cabin Suite, the Monte Carlo Suite. They were all empty. We found the room at the end of the hall, I opened the door to see two sets of bunk beds.

Other than some clothes strewn across the floor, the room was empty.

 

To be continued…