Hide & Seek - Nicole Edwards Page 0,12
looking for various things like borrowing a saw or a ladder, as well as offering services when parents are seeking them.”
“Services?” Reese inquired.
“Lawn care, babysitting, carpool.”
“Holy shit,” Baz muttered, clearly seeing how bad that could be.
“Exactly,” the detective replied. “When parents are seeking someone to help out with their kid, maybe by picking them up from school one day or meeting them at the bus stop, these scammers are in the group already, pretending to be their neighbor. They’ve established a rapport with those in the group, so no one thinks twice that Betty Sue is offering to pick up their kid from school or even take them to dance.”
“But Betty Sue doesn’t exist,” Brantley mused.
“More than likely, Betty Sue’s really Jimmy Don Bad Guy,” Gallegos noted. “We’ve gotten a couple of reports in the past few months, but thankfully none of the parents have taken these people up on their offers.”
“This sounds more like something cybercrime should be handling, does it not?” Baz said, speaking to the detective.
“They are, yes. Across the nation, there are various law enforcement agencies looking into this because they believe it to be a specific group of people.”
“There’ve been no kidnappings yet?” JJ asked.
Gallegos cleared his throat. “There’s one that they had initially logged as a potential up in Washington State, but they were able to locate the five-year-old boy who went missing within half an hour. They noted it as carpool confusion, but it came across the wire anyway.”
“Why aren’t we seein’ anything about this on the news?” Reese asked.
“Depends on where you’re at,” Detective Gallegos said. “It’s only recently made national news but it hasn’t yet become a priority.”
“What is it you need my team to do, Detective?” Brantley asked, staring down at the phone.
“I need you to find the young man who went missing early this morning.”
Brantley planted his hands on JJ’s desk, leaned down closer to the phone. “What? I thought you just said there was only one related incident. Alleged.”
“Officially, there is,” he said solemnly. “But I can’t shake the feeling that this young man’s disappearance is related.”
“How long has he been missing?”
“Since last night at eight. The young man, his name’s Tanner Wright, supposedly went on a date with a girl he met through his school’s social media group. The parents reported him as a runaway after the school called them, so there isn’t a missing persons case open on him. I’ve done my best to relay my concerns to my boss, but I’m getting no traction. I’m being told there are more important issues to tackle.”
“And the girl he went to meet? Did you find her?”
“From what we can tell, she doesn’t exist. Which is what raised my hackles.”
“That’s where we come in,” Brantley said.
“That’s my hope. Maybe it’s a long shot, but like I said, I can’t shake this feeling. Based on what the parents have told me, Tanner’s the type of kid to run away because he’s disrespectful, yada, yada. They’re a piece of work, mind you.”
“You’ve been called out there before?”
“Not for this, no. And not me, but they do have a sheet. Drunk and disorderly, public disturbance, things like that.”
“Fantastic,” Brantley said, “So we’ve got a sixteen-year-old who could or could not be a runaway, parents who don’t seem too concerned, and no girl to ask if she’s seen him?”
“That’s the gist of it, yes,” the detective replied.
“Give me a couple of hours, Detective. My partner and I will head that way.”
There was a relieved sigh on the other end followed by, “Thank you.”
“Yep.” Brantley disconnected the call, tucked the phone in his pocket.
“You think this is the same thing the governor mentioned?” Reese asked, his brown eyes narrowed with concern.
“You can bet your ass we’re gonna find out.” He headed to his desk, retrieved his gun from the biometric safe he kept it in, holstered it, then turned back to JJ and Baz. “While Reese and I head that way, I want you two to dig up anything and everything you can find on this scam. If it’s nationwide, Washington’s not the only state that’s been affected. They just haven’t put two and two together yet.”
“You gonna take the private jet down there?” JJ asked with a smirk.
“Damn straight we are.” No way was Brantley going to pass that opportunity by.
“I’ll call Travis,” she offered. “Get the jet ready.” JJ chuckled. “God, that sounds so official and shit.”
“And I’ll call Gallegos back,” Baz said, his tone somber. “Get all the details I