The Brown Mare Pt. 01

Jenna Prince was once again looking over the case files on her messy seemingly unorganized desk. She took a long sip of black coffee from her ironic "1# detective" mug that her junior partner Rosa Parker got her as a Christmas gift. After obtaining her criminal justice degree, Jenna had started off as a beat cop in Miami for two years but realized that due to sexism and an old boys club mentality her career was going nowhere fast. She transferred to the detective department because Jenna thought this was a better move. Results got promotions and prestige, that's all that mattered. Especially considering her sleuthing was directly responsible for cracking a stagnant case with the Rocco Cartel that operated out of southern Florida, the Bahamas and Cuba. Though many cartel members were taken down, even a few dirty cops and a low level judge, Jenna knew it was only an inconvenience at best for the cartel.

"Well at least I feel I did something good for the world." Jenna mumbled to herself.

She was slowly turning into a female version of Dick Tracy, someone that had seen too much in her 27 years of life. Jenna was Scandinavian decent, meaning she was light blond, a tall 5'10'' with a touch of sun kissed skin. Since high school she has had an "all been all business no play" mentality, graduating to 10% of her class, kind of women. Today she was dressed in a light gray blazer and matching pants with a pair of sharp leather shoes.

Just as Jenna was about to crack into another file the door jingled and opened as a short curvy Cuban woman bumped the door open with her hip. In her hands she was juggling her keys, a box with two Cuban sandwiches and two iced coffees not to mention her purse on the crook of her arm. This was her overly cheerful junior partner Rosa. Her skin was a lite mocha color with her long fizzled hair held back with a banana clip. For a woman that's only 5'4'' she was blessed with Latin curves, a decent rack and wide birthing hips.

"Better for dancing" Rosa liked to say.

She was wearing one of her typical vibrant outfits. A light coral blue sweater with a tasteful cream button down with white Capri pants and flats. If this wasn't Miami one would think this was slightly inappropriate. I joke that she dresses like a female reboot of Miami Vice.

Rosa puts down the food on a nearby table and says "Hola novia! I got you lunch since I figure you forgot to eat this morning. She starts to set up are makeshift lunch table.

Jenna sighs, "Well I was up late last night working on a homicide case." I pick up the sandwich and take a bite. "Miami PD found some dumb schmucks head in the marina and I had to file reports till the AM while they were trying to find the rest of him. Probably drug related" I take a sip of the cool ice coffee without blinking an eye.

"That's not a good way to get ahead in life." Rosa replies with a smirk as she takes a bit.

All Jenna can do is shake my head. "I don't know what is worse, the fact you made a morbid joke, or made I can assume you referenced a movie from 20 years ago." But I suppose people compartmentalize information differently.

Jenna continues, "I don't think I will ever understand why you choose to get into this profession." Though Jenna did know. Her mother's family was a victim of the cartel, wrong place at the wrong time. Probably gave her a since of getting justice in her own quirky way.

As Rosa finishes her sandwich, wiper her mouth with a napkin she asks "So are you going to let me in on the big case you have been putting together." Cocking her head toward the corkboard and mountain of case files on my desk. "Or is the pastel still baking?"

Jenna gets up and works her way to the corkboard covered in pictures, names and location. "Well I figure now is a better time than ever to let you in." Jenna clears her throat. "Over the last three years there has been dozens of young women between their early twenties and mid thirties disappearing in southern Florida. Our initial investigations believed this to be kidnaping, as part of white slavery sex trade, an issue that this state is unfortunately well aware of." Jenna's eyes glaze over the pictures of various women of different ethic backgrounds, all smiling and posing with friends, families and pets. Jenna continues, "The issue is that all of these women disappeared without a trace. Poof! Even after many busts no body has every seen or heard of any of these women. There were no transactions, no records, no bodies, nothing!".

Rosa was diligently waiting for Jenna's breakthrough. Fiddling with a pen between her fingers.

Jenna then points to a picture of an infant. "This child was the unfortunate breakthrough we were looking for. A loving couple in Pensacola adopted a baby boy through a third party agency. They were told the baby's parents had died in a drunk driver accident and there were no next of kin. Basically a no strings attached adoption. What happened next is a real head twister."

Rosa was on bated breath like she was watching a telenovela caper.

"The child ended up having to go to the hospital due to a minor genetic heart defect that went unnoticed. When they pulled the child's DNA, it was a 50% match to one of our missing victims." Jenna points to the sting connected to a 23 year old athletic women with auburn hair. The picture said Alexis Conner she was in a tennis outfit with Florida University logos getting ready to serve. Jenna continues, "At this point a whole slew of agencies from child protective services, FBI and locals officials grill these two for days. It turns out the adoption agency was not that straight as the paperwork looked and they were bamboozled." Jenna touches Alexis's photo "Now there is a big lawsuit between Conner's parents and this couple over custody."

Rosa stands up and approaches the board. "So what you are saying is that all these girls are being used to pump out babies, for some kind of for-profit adoption service? She said with wide-eyed shock.

Jenna bit her lip, "I am not 100% sure, but that is what my gut believes." She then turns to her desk and picks up a manila folder. When we raided the adoption agency they had cleared out days ago. Computers wiped physical files were shredded or missing. A real gut job, but we did manage to find something interesting. There were a few odd references to a chain called Pole n' Spin." Jenna picks up a local glossy magazine with a coffee stain on the front.

Rosa takes the magazine and gives it a questionable look. "A pole dancing gym chain?" In typical fashion Rosa gives a chuckle to Jenna. "There is nothing really screaming illegal about this. It's not the Stone Age anymore. Pole dancing is becoming a popular form of exercise all over big cities. A few months ago me and my girlfriend gave it a whirl." Rosa gyrated her hips and with her index finger made a loop in the air.

Jenna knows she was purposely doing a pun to get a reaction and continues "Anyways, Pole n' Spin is a southern Florida chain with roughly 15 locations. Can you guess were most of these girls went missing? A map shows that all of these gyms were within a 10-mile radius of their apartments or places of work.

Rosa exclaims, "So lets get an injunction from the DA and knock some heads."

"Unfortunately we cannot do that." Jenna interjects. "The DA said there was not enough evidence to make any kind of legal moves and that there might be decoy which would alert the others if we happen to raid the wrong one." "So it looks like we are on our own in investigating further."

"Well looks like we will need to..." Rosa pulls her hand over her face. "Go undercover."

End part 1