Fairplay, Denver Cereal Volume 6 (7 page)

Katy nodded. Colin hugged her.

“
You don’t have to worry
anymore,” Colin said. “They won’t bother you or your Mommy
anymore.”

“
Can we go to the zoo
now?” Paddie said. Impatient, he squirmed from his mother’s tight
clench.

“
Let’s go!” Colin
said.

“
What about…?” Katy nodded
toward the men.

“
Why should those jerks
ruin our nice day?” Colin said. “Piggyback ride?”

He tossed her on his back and she squealed
and giggled. Julie helped Paddie climb onto to his father. Colin
held his hand out to Julie and they walked to the Denver Zoo.

~~~~~~~~

Saturday evening – 5:45 P.M.

Seth opened his eyes to what had been his
childhood play room. As a child, he’d spent long hours locked in
this room. Even though Maresol had left the door partially open, he
felt trapped.

He’d felt fine after waking up from his long
sleep. That was last night. The doctors had told him that he was
physically healthy and fit. They’d released him to Ava and
Maresol’s care at around ten this morning.

He was home for less than an hour when he
noticed a pain in his little toe. Within ten minutes, he had felt a
burning pain in every joint in his body. He was in so much pain,
the doctors were afraid to move him back to the hospital. They’d
wanted to knock him out again, but he’d refused. Sandy was in
Arizona closing the final chapter of her abuse. There was no way he
wasn’t going to help her.

Plus, if everything went as well as he
expected, the woman who’d pretended to be Sandy’s mother would
reveal herself as the head of the child pornography ring. When you
combined that with selling Sissy and Charlie to Sandy, or as the US
District Attorney liked to call it: human trafficking, the woman
was going to jail for a long, long time.

And one, two, three, it had all gone
down.

Seth would have smiled, but smiling required
movement and movement caused pain. His friend and medical doctor,
Bumpie, had entrusted Maresol with a syringe. The moment the
document from Sandy came in his email, Maresol had put him out.

He had no idea what woke him. But he did
need to use the bathroom.

He made a slow, painful journey across the
room. The journey back to bed was almost worse than the journey to
the bathroom. He stopped and leaned against a shelf midway to catch
his breath.

God, he hated this room. His father would
lock him in here with a piano and disappear. If there was one
reason he started composing music, it was to get out of this room.
He had to get that kid Dale to do something with this room. Taking
a breath for courage, he made it back to bed. He was almost to the
bed when he saw something on the edge of the white sheets.

What was that?

He squinted. The back end of a brown animal
was sticking out of the edge of his covers. Its tail was flying
back and forth. There was a scratching sound as if its front paws
were going a mile a minute.

“
Hey,” Seth tried to say.
He got the ‘H’ out before he groaned with pain. It sounded more
like ‘H-groan-ay’. His mind chortled at his Zombie
impression.

The animal jerked around to look at him. Its
eyes seemed to dance with recognition and laughter. In what had to
be a mimic of his ‘Hey’, the animal growl barked. He took the
remaining steps to the bed.

“
Who are you?” Seth
asked.

Beaming at Seth, the puppy barked again.

“
All right, all right,”
Seth said. “Give me a second.”

He fell more than dropped to the bed. The
puppy walked onto his lap and licked his chin. Gritting his teeth
against the pain, he rotated the collar to look at the tag.

“
Clara?” Seth asked. “Are
you Clara?”

The puppy gave another quick bark in
agreement.

“
Well, Clara,” Seth said.
“I’m Seth. It’s very nice to meet you. According to this tag, I own
you. But let’s be clear from the start. You own you. I own me.
We’re friends. Like all friends, I will honor our friendship by
caring for you in my human way. I expect you to honor our
friendship by caring for me in your dog way. Does that work for
you, Clara?”

The puppy licked his chin again.

“
I assume the younger
members of the house have fed you and taken you out. You look like
you’ve had at least one bath.”

The puppy seemed to nod.

“
Good,” Seth said. “I’m
not really up to it today.”

Clara rubbed her head against his chest. He
sat for a moment lapping up the love.

“
Shall we?”

Seth set the puppy on his pillow. He lifted
the covers and Clara zoomed under. He got in the bed next to her.
She moved over until she was right next to him. Seth sighed.

He had no idea where this puppy came from,
but he couldn’t imagine anything better. Clara took a deep breath
and sighed against him. He fell asleep with a smile on his
face.

“
Seth?” Maresol looked in
the door. “I thought I heard you…”

Seeing that he was asleep, she pulled the
door closed.

~~~~~~~~

Sunday morning – 9:45 A.M.

“
Are we going to be here
long?” Sissy asked Sandy.

She was sitting next to Sandy at a small
table. Rachel was sleeping in a sling on Sandy’s lap. Sweating and
anxious, Charlie sat in the chair at the end of the table closest
to the door. The Arizona FBI had asked Sissy, Charlie and Sandy to
come to their offices this morning. Aden had refused to let them go
without him. He sat on the other end of the table across from
Charlie.

“
I don’t think so,” Aden
said. “I think they want to update us on what’s going
on.”

“
What’s going on?” Charlie
asked.

“
Son, you look like a
criminal,” Aden threw a handkerchief at him. “You don’t want to
look like that when they get here or they’ll think you’re up to
something.”

“
How do you do it?”
Charlie asked.

“
I pretend I’m Jake,” Aden
said.

Charlie nodded. Wiping his face, he tried to
think about what Jake would do in this room. Nodding to himself, he
sat straighter in the chair. Aden nodded to his hands where he
clutched the handkerchief tight. He put them under the table.

“
Sorry to keep you
waiting,“ a young woman came into the room. She had long dark hair.
Her face bore the remnants of a First People’s Native American
ancestry. “I’m Senior Agent Angela Montiz.”

The woman looked at Charlie and Sissy. She
smiled.

“
You can call me Agent
Angie,” she smiled. Her white teeth gleamed against her tan skin.
“I’m Senior Agent in this office. We’re waiting for…”

“
Sorry,” a young man came
in the office. “I didn’t know you were…”

Her mouth spread into a smile but her nod
reflected her irritation. With the movement of her head, Sandy saw
a woman who was not only smart, but older than she originally
thought. Sandy smiled. She could trust this Agent Angie. When Sandy
smiled, Sissy and Charlie seemed to relax a little.

“
You have to forgive,
Agent Yi,” Agent Angie said. “He flew all the way from Hong Kong to
speak with you. He’s terribly jet lagged. Would you like to
introduce yourself, Agent Yi?”

“
Sorry,” the young man
said. “I’m also out of practice with US customs. I’m Special Agent
Antony Yi.”

When he smiled, his eyes reflected kind
thought and intelligence. He held his hand out for them to shake.
He shook each of their hands ending with Aden. Sandy felt the
strong desire to cut this young man’s shaggy hair away from his
face. Sandy knew that meant that she instinctively liked him.

“
I’m usually in these
rooms to interrogate subjects,” Special Agent Yi said.

“
These are children,”
Agent Angie said. “What can they call you?”

“
Oh, right,” Special Agent
Yi blushed. “You can call me Agent Tony or hey you, really. Here’s
my card.”

He passed a card to each of them.

“
This is my case,” he
said. “It’s been my case for a long time, long before everything
happened in Denver. I usually work with Detective O’Malley in
Denver. That’s why we haven’t met. Detective O’Malley wouldn’t
allow contact between the FBI and the vic…”

Agent Angie cleared her throat. He flushed
bright red.

“
It’s a real pleasure to
meet you, Mrs. Norsen,” he said. “It’s rare to meet a woman who is
as strong as you have been. You are a real hero to me and my team
in China. We understand through Detective O’Malley that you want to
help other victims. I want you to know that you already have. You
inspire our team with your resilience. You give the young girls we
rescue hope.”

“
Sandy’s amazing,” Sissy
beamed at her.

“
Is that Rachel?” Agent
Tony leaned over the table when Sandy held the sling open. “She is
more beautiful that the picture Detective O’Malley
sent.”

“
She’s a hero in her own
right,” Charlie said.

“
We didn’t think she’d
make it,” Sandy said. “But Rachel is as tough as nails.”

“
Well, it’s a pleasure to
meet all of you,” Agent Tony sat down across from Sissy.

“
You need to tell them why
you’re here,” Agent Angie said.

“
Oh right,” Agent Tony
fumbled for a moment with a briefcase and brought out a file. “I’ve
spent every moment since I’ve been here with a Vere Morgan, Dr.
Jeanette Smyth and Patricia Delgado.”

Sissy gasped. Charlie’s eyes popped open
with surprise.

“
Agent Tony?” Agent Angie
asked. “The children don’t know anything.”

“
I see,” Agent Tony said.
“What do you know?”

“
We told them this morning
about their mother wanting to make sure she was supported even if
Sissy and Charlie came to live with us,” Sandy said.

“
She signed documents,”
Sissy said.

“
Ones that Sandy brought
and ones that they had,” Charlie said. “Sandy showed us the
documents.”

“
She emailed them to Uncle
Seth,” Sissy nodded her head. “Uncle Seth is really sick right now
but he wanted to help us and help Sandy.”

“
You don’t seem surprised
by your mother’s actions,” Agent Angie said.

“
Oh no,” Sissy said. “I
mean, Mom has a job but the money she gets from Dad’s pension is
how she pays the rent and stuff.”

“
For us,” Charlie
said.

Agent Tony glanced at Sandy. She was staring
straight at him. He gave a slight nod and glanced at Agent Angie.
Agent Angie didn’t need Sandy’s prodding. She was willing to go
with whatever the kids said.

“
I think it’s confusing,”
Agent Tony said. “But the law calls that type of interaction human
trafficking.”

“
How come?” Sissy
asked.

“
Because Mom sold us like
cows, dummy,” Charlie said.

“
Charlie,” Aden gave a low
warning which Charlie understood.

“
Sorry, Sis,” Charlie
said. “I just hate this.”

“
That’s okay,” Sissy said.
“It’s just confusing. If Mom doesn’t get that money, how will she
live? Are you going to take care of her too?”

Sissy turned to look at Sandy and Aden.

“
Mom’s going to jail,”
Sandy said.

“
Oh,” Sissy’s face
clouded. “Why? I don’t understand how Mom taking care of herself is
illegal.”

“
I get confused too,”
Agent Tony said. “We originally thought we’d have your Mom on human
trafficking but Sandy and Aden actually found something
else.”

“
What?” Charlie
asked.

“
Mom was involved in my
father’s pornography business,” Sandy said.

“
Dr. Smyth has decided to
cooperate fully,” Agent Angie said.

“
That’s Mom’s therapist,”
Sandy said.

“
Dr. Smyth provided us
with evidence that Patricia Delgado was the brains behind the
pornography business,” Agent Tony said. “Ms. Delgado is not
cooperating. She insists that she’s done nothing wrong. Outside of
the therapy notes, we don’t have any hard evidence.”

“
You don’t seem surprised,
Sissy,” Agent Angie said. “Charlie?”

“
I wondered how she could
afford to buy all that stuff,” Charlie said. “When I was in school,
I wanted to play basketball. She said she couldn’t afford to get me
good shoes. She even showed her bank account and the records. Dad’s
money wasn’t a ton of money and she had accounted for every
penny.”

“
She had to for Dad’s
union rep,” Sissy said.

“
So where’d she get the
money for all the crap she bought?” Charlie asked.

“
She filled Dad’s house
with stuff she bought online or on QVS,” Sandy said. “Every room,
every closet, everything. I hired a hoarding expert to go through
it all. They were going to help her…”

“
Did she sell all of that
too?” Sissy asked.

“
We told the kids about
their Mom selling their old house,” Aden said. “And yes, Sissy, I
think she did.”

“
Her creepy lawyer said he
sold all of her assets.” Remembering the college fund, Sandy
grimaced.