Deception Pass by Susan Lund

Author:Susan Lund
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781990518010
Publisher: S. E. Lund

Chapter Eighteen

December 2019

Bellingham, WA

* * *

Michael sent a text to Tess just before three-thirty in the afternoon while he was in Anderson’s vehicle on the way back to the office.

MICHAEL: Hey, just got great news. Jen Mason’s been found alive. She’s okay and is being taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital. I’m going to the crime scene and then to the hospital with SA Anderson and hope to speak with her when she’s able.

He waited but Tess didn’t text him right back. She was probably busy with Bret, photographing the Larsen property.

MICHAEL: We’re on our way to the hospital. I’ll let you know when I’m back at the department and you can come meet me when you and Bret are finished. I’ll ask Anderson if he knows of any good Korean if you feel like it.

He turned to Anderson. “Know any good Korean restaurants? Tess and I can’t get enough.”

Anderson laughed. “Not off hand, but I do know every decent Indian food restaurant in town. Ask around in the office when we get back.”

Michael nodded and googled Korean restaurants on his phone. There were a couple, and the map showed they weren’t too far from the task force offices.

He dug through files taken from Larsen’s business records recovered from the auto yard near Lake Whatcom. He was looking for any records or receipts that connected in any way to other members of the ring or who were involved in the cases. Michael had the sense that Larsen was either involved directly in the hub or was one of the minor spokes in the big wheel of sex trafficking and child porn operating out of the Pacific Northwest. He was a pedophile, a rapist, and a murderer, based on what Chris Wheeler had claimed in his interviews. He was a pornographer and possibly produced snuff porn using the girls he abducted. He’d had both Jen and Cassie in his shed.

Luckily, both were still alive and for that, Michael was eternally grateful. Cassie had escaped Larsen’s clutches with the help of Chris, and after being sold to someone else involved in the ring, Jen had escaped captivity out of sheer luck. It appeared to be a simple case of a drug deal gone wrong. The men involved must not have known that Jen was even downstairs in the basement apartment, or they might have taken her as tribute.

Both young women were now safe, and alive — an outcome he couldn’t have hoped for with most of the cases he was responsible for when he worked with the CARD Team as an FBI Special Agent. It would be a long road back to physical and mental health and well-being for them both, but at least they had a chance. The PD’s social workers would ensure that resources were available to both girls and their families to deal with the trauma they both experienced.

How many girls never got that chance?

The girl found in the waters of the Haro Strait, for one. They still hadn’t found

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