Broken by A.J. Golden

Author:A.J. Golden [Golden, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mesa Verde Publishing
Published: 2024-03-03T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

“WHAT?” PETER LOOKED at his wine glass. “Am I drunk from the wine, or just dizzy from trying to follow you?”

Diana spun around to face him. “What Dubois told me about the instructions and commands coming from the top made perfect sense to me. Shevchenko, Churkin, and Pavlov weren’t leaders or bosses of the operation. They were the goons getting their hands dirty under orders from their bosses.”

“That much is clear. I’ll give you that. All three of them are hired muscle.”

“Right. But the shooting of Churkin and Pavlov makes it obvious there was a big parting of ways. Maybe a failed negotiation or a lethal disagreement. We concluded at the scene that the killings were planned or at least anticipated by Shevchenko. I now think it was because he’s gone rogue, disobeying his bosses, and he knew Pavlov and Churkin would grass him up. And I think he’s working alone. Everything about his actions suggests it: leaving twenty-two girls unattended in such an isolated location . . . stopping trains with rocks on tracks, bribing an elderly driver five hundred bucks a time . . . the fact he executed Pavlov and Churkin . . . It shows all the signs of a man operating alone.” Peter puffed out his cheeks and slumped into an armchair. “Think about it, Peter.”

“I am,” he said. “But it’s a lot to take in. You think Shevchenko is working undercover?”

“No, I think he took the job to make some money and expected to disappear when he had enough. After a few months, he changed his mind and decided to act.”

“So . . . he takes the girls and starts putting them on trains to the US? You think he’s sending the girls there to fend for themselves? Like releasing captive animals back into the wild?”

“Pretty much,” Diana said. “He probably gives them a little money, perhaps their passports, and fully expects them to find their way back home to Russia. He may have connections who help the girls, but I doubt it. It would be pointless. The girls won’t risk falling into that kind of trap again.”

“It’s a hell of a way to help these girls,” Peter said. “Just putting them on a train to a strange new country, with a bit of money in their pockets, no language, expecting them to figure it out for themselves.”

“Anything is better than being a victim of sex trafficking,” Diana replied heavily. “It might be a rough solution, but their options are, often like ours, bad and worse.”

Peter ruffled his hair while he considered Diana’s ideas. “I think he’s been doing it for months now,” Diana said. “I think that’s why we found them. Not because the organization got sloppy but because Shevchenko is acting independently of the organization.”

“That’s a big assumption. How can we be sure Shevchenko has done this repeatedly? How do we know the twenty girls weren’t a one-off?”

Diana paced a little more. “The train driver. We know that he was bribed multiple times to turn a blind eye and allow girls to be taken over the border by Shevchenko.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.