A Legal Trap Ch. 10

Author retains all rights to this original work of fiction.

March 12th, 5:38 PM

I looked at him, the shock on my face evident, "You know about Janet and Martin trying to take the firm over?"

"Augh, not really supposed to be talking about this Liz," he replied uncomfortably.

I didn't generally like being called Liz, but Paul saying it felt oddly nice. This was the second time he had done that, I think I liked it. Did he think I liked it? I kicked him under the table playfully.

"What the hell! You've been in my emails, I know it. So, what's going on here? You 'do' know something!"

Now he looked even more uncomfortable after accusing him of tooling around my work emails. Matching the tone of his last statement, "I've been working for Jacob for six months," he paused to count them in his head, "No, seven. I started in August of last year."

"And?" My heart was racing a little, I wasn't sure why, but there had been all those oddities in my conversations with Janet. I had no one to talk with about this stuff. Would he be willing to help me clear those oddities up?

"Well, and... Hey, you have to realize I'm not supposed to talk about this with anyone. I work for Jacob, he pays me a crazy amount of money, and I really shouldn't even have said anything," he complained.

"Who am I going to tell," I retorted.

"I don't think you would say anything to anyone Elizabeth, but if you slipped, that could alert people. You get it right? Shit, I shouldn't have let it get this far."

He was back to calling me Elizabeth, was he freaking in my head again!?!

"Look, this cat is out of the bag already. I'm not putting a wet cat back into a wet paper bag. How about if I share some oddities I've experienced with Janet since coming here?"

He looked interested and without waiting for an answer, I detailed everything Janet had said to me while being on this assignment to assist in finding Amber.

Paul listened patiently then spoke, "They, Janet and Martin, have Bill Blass the IT director working for them. He's been monitoring emails between Jacob and Gillian. Janet slipping and using David's name isn't a surprise really. More that she underestimated you."

I knew Gillian, she was Jacobs personal secretary and the firm's office manager. She was all business, polite, and always seemed to know everything about anything that was going on with cases, people in the office, and everyday operations. I wasn't accustomed to being complimented, so I'm sure I was blushing, a little flush. People probably underestimated me all the time. I worked really hard to fly under the radar, to not be on anyone's radar. In truth, underestimating anyone was generally a bad practice.

"If you suspected they were monitoring Jacob, why have him put in details about Amber in emails? I assume Janet got David - Ambers' Daddy' name, from one of their exchanges."

"Can't have their correspondence look different, would be a tell Jacob knows something is going on."

My mind was spinning a couple different directions. How did Jacob even get wind of this I wondered?

"How..."

"Did Jacob know something was up?" he finished my question for me.

"Do you have mind reading capabilities," I asked frustrated.

"Huh? No, would have made my divorce easier and a lot of other shit."

I smiled, but with a look questioning whether he was being honest, which I knew he was, but God how does he do that and so often? He knows so much about me, could he have profiled me somehow? Learned my tells; that is a poker term right? I would have to give this a little more thought later, but right now he was staring at me.

"What?"

"You can't say anything to anyone about this Elizabeth. Not Lisa, not anyone."

"I won't. Wait, did you know about my email from Lisa before I mentioned it?"

"Yes, I have access to the firm's network. Trick is to move around without being detected by Blass. I don't think he suspects anything yet and why would he? I'm careful to only snoop during office hours when Janet and Martin are in and network traffic is heavy. Gillian lets me know via texts when they are in. I was looking at emails and saw hers to you. That tells us she's overheard something. So, while Jacob's been away there's been some slippage of someone's resolve to keep their plans moving forward only in the shadows."

"Shouldn't I reply to Lisa? I can help; maybe put something out there as a red herring or something?"

"Jacob and I talked about that, we were kind of waiting to see if you would reply and how you would, organically, not coached."

"Do you trust me?"

"Yes, why would you ask that?"

"Then tell Jacob I figured out you were working for him or I mentioned Lisa's email and that I volunteered to help. Come on! Do you want me sent back to Seattle," I asked pleading and batting my eyes all goofy like at him.

"No, but... Augh! Don't look at me like that. Jacob might not want anyone else involved with this right now," he said and took a long pull from his beer after what sounded like whining to me.

"Okay, fine. Tell me how he found out that there was a mutiny."

"Argh Matey! It's not like that Liz. It actually happened by accident. Jacob was talking to one of the candidates running for Seattle City Council in June last year - Gary Sang, he's one of the guys who lost his bid in November. Anyway, Sang mentioned that both Michelle and Angela," I made a face like I didn't know who he was talking about, "Angela, Janet's partner and Michelle was Martin's..."

I blurted out, "Oh, yeah, I know who you're talking about now." I felt embarrassed; I knew who these people were. Stupid, stupid! Pay attention!

"So the partner and ex-spouse, not partners of the firm, made inordinately large contributions to two of the eventual winners of the city council races. State regulations state those donations have to be disclosed, but who really pays attention to that, right? Sang and Jacob go back a ways I guess and he wanted to know what was up. It caught Jacob by surprise, so he decided to do some investigating. That's where I come in, he asked me to see what I could find out without any of the players finding out he was looking."

"Oh! To what end though does helping a couple council members getting elected," I stopped mid-sentence. Oh crap! Port of Seattle Union contracts - grease the political skids; avoid city council issues by having two of the seven council members in your pocket, and likely a couple or more sympathetic council members collecting campaign donations from the union. The Port of Seattle is the second largest port on the west coast. There were huge implications and of course a lot of money involved. It was more than just boats coming into Seattle, it was the airport also. The union was powerful and we represented them!

"I have a feeling you've seen the light," he said smiling.

"That's, that's like corruption," I said shocked.

"Says who?"

"I don't know," I stammered, "But if it ever got out or it even remotely looked that way there would be hell to pay, right?"

"Yes. Pretty sure the liberal press in Seattle wouldn't have trouble frying their own liberal leaning city council or a corrupt law firm."

"And ah, but why force Jacob out? Why not just buy him out or something?"

"Money, power, influence? Couldn't really tell ya."

March 12th, 6:15 PM

We had just entered my room and Paul was opening up his laptop when his phone began to ring. He pulled it from his pocket, checked the number, "Jacob... How we doing?"

He put the phone on speaker, "You are on speaker, I'm here with Elizabeth. We took a break to get dinner and just got back. We were just about to check if our email got any traction with David Lafleur."

"Oh," he sounded like he wasn't expecting me to be on the call, "Hello Elizabeth. Paul, quickly... Got word from Landon the RCMP in Vancouver is picking up Lafleur tonight. I believe they will be charging him initially with Sexual Misconduct with a Minor per British Columbia law. There may be other charges levied as well - it's enough to hold him so he doesn't pick up and run. The Phoenix DA will be initiating extradition papers Monday after they determine the charges he intends to file. Of course he needs to coordinate with the prosecutor in Santa Fe, who wants her pound of flesh from Mr. Lafleur. Lot of jurisdictional wrangling yet, Landon thinks the feds may want the case deferred to the Phoenix DA, they have first chair rights."

In school we'd spent nearly a month on jurisdictional law, bottom line, the federal government got first crack at most cases they had an interest in, especially when there were international implications. I thought about saying something to that effect, but Jacob already knew that.

"If the RCMP charges him with Human Trafficking do you think our extradition request will go anywhere," I asked instead.

"Not likely Elizabeth. No country is immune from human trafficking and with better than 90% of that for the sex trade, you're probably right, Canada will want to make an example of Mr. Lafleur," Jacob said as if he were processing another thought.

"Organized crime," I said aloud accidently.

Paul was looking at me and asked as if he hadn't heard me, "Where's the connection?"

I was embarrassed, but explained my thought, "Human trafficking is one of organized crimes larger focuses, stupid I know, I... It was something we discussed in school. I was thinking, maybe David Lafleur is connected?"

"Paul, what do we know about Lafleur," Jacob asked.

"Not much, works for a software development company, logistics software. The lewd conduct with a minor and prostitution charges were his only run-ins with the law. Divorced, thirty years old, no kids - typical stuff really. That's the basic profile I got from Tim at the bureau. If there was some kind of criminal connection the FBI would likely know I'm guessing or at least have been clued in by the RCMP."

Worth a try I thought, making that connect to organized crime.

"Interesting angle Elizabeth, we need to think outside the box. I was just thinking, if Lafleur is charged with human trafficking the minimum sentence is four to six years in Canada. Amber's age at time of their first contact should up that a little since she wasn't eighteen. They do have a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, but to my knowledge no one has ever been given that sentence," Jacob said.

I felt better about my Lafleur mob connection thought spoken aloud - it wasn't really an outside the box idea, more like grasping at something intelligent to add to the conversation.

Jacob and Paul talked about a few other details and I zoned them out. What if David Lafleur was somehow... Wait, what if the chat room exchange Amber had wasn't with David? What if that was someone in his stable of women?

Classic approach: follow her online, befriend her, buy her things - but stay removed, use an intermediary. You didn't have to be a runaway to fall prey to this kind of thing. Amber may have felt marginalized by her friends given her lack of social media presence, which is akin to isolation. All traps, no matter how much support her parents were giving her. If only she...

Paul was waving at me and my lip reading of his lips was the question 'Anything you want to ask?' I nodded 'No' and he told Jacob he would call him later if we found out anything. I watched him put his phone in his pocket, then clicking to login to Amber's new email account we'd used to emailed David Lafleur.

"You checked out for a couple seconds there?"

"Yeah, just the trafficking thing had me thinking."

"What?"

"I am not an expert with this stuff, but a lot of the pieces of her life put her in a position where some shit head like Lafleur could snatch her up. I mean, the Carson's by all appearances are the perfect parents. Heck, I'm jealous, but I know feeling lost and empty and the lengths you'll go to for positive feedback. It can make you vulnerable and you aren't really thinking the snake you're petting is going to bite you."

"Okay, but besides being an asshole, David Lafleur doesn't fit the sex trafficker profile," Paul said like he was trying to gingerly pull me back from the edge.

"What if, totally hypothetical, that wasn't Lafleur in that chat room. What if it was some girl who's already working for him?"

"Aaah, I don't know Elizabeth," he said flustered, "Every time we look at something regarding Amber it seems straight forward, until it's not I guess."

"Exactly, in her other email accounts do you remember her talking to anyone regularly? Like, besides the shits heads hitting her up for pictures or videos. I'll give her credit, she didn't give much away for free. Her PayPal and Patreon accounts were what, five months old? Better than twelve-grand in five months? That's a lot of money for a teen."

Paul looked to be trying to remember Amber's email contacts, "There were plenty of people she talked to via email. More on Tumblr and within her Patreon account. No names jump out at me Liz."

I watched a smile grow on his face, was it because he knew I liked when he called me Liz? Then I looked at the TV screen - there was a reply to our email!

I felt my heart begin to race. "Oh shit...," I whispered.

"Seriously," he said clicking the email open.

There were only two words in the email - 'Fuck You'. My heart literally sank.

"What does that mean," I asked panicked.

"Means we either got the wrong email address or, crap I don't know." Paul began clicking on programs, typing gibberish in one of the screens.

"What if the owner of this email address was expecting a different reply from Amber? Like, like the person expected her to email them and not David?"

Paul wasn't paying attention, "Great, they used a secure VPN." He was typing again.

"So?"

"So, they connected off the grid basically. VPN is a Virtual Private Network. They used one that bounces the packet across multiple networks, servers." I must have looked confused because he continued, "Packet - the container your data travels the internet in. Everything regarding what you sent in a web transaction is contained in the packet - sender, receiver, location, IP address, all of that - not just the content."

"So, they did this to hide themselves..."

"Right, their VPN routed this message to any number of servers pushing infinite number of packets around the world. Virtually impossible to track."

"But the chat room, that was from Vancouver. You said that right?"

"Best guess, maybe that was the last server that processed the sending of the data," he paused, "No, each line sent to Amber would have been a packet. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that chat room stuff was all from the Vancouver area. We'd have varying servers showing up for each exchange from the FlowerGirl. Fuck..."

Paul was obviously frustrated, but I had an idea. "Okay, so we blew the email thing, but maybe not. Let me reply, I'll say that email was for David, my Daddy. That might get this person talking?"

Paul nodded his head and extended the laptop to me after hitting 'Reply' to the email. How to play this?

'That email was for Daddy, not you! Just give me what he needs me to do next week. a'

"That's good, goes with the assumption Amber knows who she's talking with. Can't hurt at this point, especially with our 'Daddy' about to be arrested."

I passed the laptop back to Paul, "Maybe less is more. Did you check to see if the link in our first email was followed?"

"Yes, it wasn't followed. Whoever this is, they are certainly being cautious."

"Wouldn't you be? Lafleur is almost arrested in Santa Fe. If this is him, he's on edge. If it's not him, the person probably knows he was almost arrested and is on edge. This is some kind of crazy."

Paul looked like he was going to say something but buried his nose back into whatever computer thing he was doing.

"You look like you want to ask me something," I asked.

He paused, typed a few keystrokes, and then asked, "Was it like this for you?"

I still wasn't sure how I felt about Paul knowing as much as he did about my past, but I didn't see 'red' by the ask. This wasn't something I wanted to really rehash as it was an embarrassing and a pathetically low-point in my life. How to say that without looking like a bitch.

"Look, you don't have to answer that. I get it, a time of your life you'd like to keep buried. I'm not trying to intrude or judge or whatever."

Alright, he gets it. "Yeah, there was some crazy. I was hit on with messages fifty plus times a day. I usually had twenty people fucking with me during my webcam sessions. Typical shit you'd expect - 'Do this'; 'Show that'. Solicitations daily were at least that many and don't get me started on the number of dick pictures sent. A lifetimes worth," I chucked.

"I did however eat it up at first, but it got old fast. When my first video hit I got over a thousand messages the first night. Sick shit, lonely losers, fetish junkies preying on my need for acceptance, my needing to be validated."

I got up and went to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and marveled at the neat rows of twelve water bottles and as many cans of assorted soda - they replenished the stock daily, "You want a Coke?"

"Nah, thanks. You got out though, that couldn't have been easy."

"No, it wasn't. I had to hit the bottom, which was more like a crash really. Not something I wanna talk about though. I bounced though and I choose to live as the real me. Saved my life probably and I haven't looked back until volunteering to help Jacob find Amber. God, I wish she wouldn't have gone down this road. I just don't understand, given all she has going for her with her family."

Paul stood and met me at the entry to the kitchen, "You made the right choice. You were brave. "

"I was stupid for not being who I knew I was from the beginning."

Paul took my hands, "Well, I'm glad you're you."

He pulled me close and just held me. It felt amazing to just be held. I didn't want it to end.

March 12th, 7:48 PM

I had been moving slowly and was finally sitting on the edge of the bed. It felt like an exaggerated slow motion contortion act I'd been putting on for the past two minutes. The clock said 7:48 PM, which meant we'd been laying here for just over an hour.

There was a little kissing before we slept, we both needed to unplug. Sleep came quickly for me, especially while being spooned by Paul. After twenty minutes though - his snoring, even with repeatedly jostling his hold on me to get him to stop and I'd had enough. The snuggling was cute, the snoring, not so much. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and headed to the living room, pulling the door to the bedroom nearly shut.

Was I going to have a story for Lisa when I got back to Seattle. I smiled as I pulled a bottle of water from the refrigerator. Yeah, she was going to freak the hell out! The first sip was cool and I ended up sucking down over half the bottle. I was a big believer in hydration, mainly because of all the running I did, but the climate here in Arizona made me feel thirsty all the time. Probably had nothing to do with being here, more likely I was being hypersensitive.

I went over to Paul's laptop sitting on the coffee table in front of the TV and jiggled the mouse to wake the system up. A password screen popped up - guess I won't be checking to see if we got any traction from the email to our 'Daddy' or other actors.

I grabbed the remote and pulled up the TV guide screen, deciding to watch a repeat of a mountain bike race from last weekend in a place called Slick Rock. Beautiful country just north of Sedona, Arizona. The chainsaw noises from the bedroom stopped and I looked toward the door, listening for Paul to be getting up. No noise, then it began again he and I figured he must have rolled over.

I stretched out on the couch and while I may have been staring at the TV, I wasn't seeing much but movement. I couldn't focus on anything but whether David Lafleur was connected to some bigger organization or was someone else working with him. I prayed he was a solo shit-head and Amber was his only victim. I closed my eyes. God I wished I could make my brain stop thinking...