Sins Uncovered

Sins Uncovered
Deputy Jake Morrison's POV

My hands were shaking as I led three FBI agents down the dark stairs into St. Mary's church basement. Behind the old furnace, I could hear quiet crying that made my heart break into pieces.
"Maria? It's Deputy Morrison. You're safe now. I brought help."
A scared voice replied from the shadows. "Deputy Morrison, is that really you? Mr. Daniels said you were dead."
"I'm alive, Maria. And Marcus Daniels is never going to hurt you or anyone else again."
I pulled away the wooden boards Marcus had used to seal the hidden room, and my flashlight showed three terrified girls huddled together on dirty mattresses. Maria Rodriguez, sixteen years old, with marks on her face and fear in her eyes. Jessica Park, seventeen, clutching a broken doll like she was five years old again. And Sarah Chen, fifteen, who looked like she hadn't eaten in days.
"Girls, these are government agents. They're here to take you somewhere safe."
Agent Williams knelt down beside Maria with a gentle smile. "Maria, your sister Amy is looking for you. She's safe, and she's been very brave trying to find you."
"Amy's really okay? Marcus said he killed her for talking to Dr. Archer."
"Amy's fine. She helped us find you."
I watched the FBI agents carefully help the three girls to their feet, covering them in blankets and speaking in soft voices. This was what I should have been doing for the past five years instead of helping Marcus destroy innocent lives. "Agent Williams," I said as we climbed back upstairs. "There's something you need to know about Marcus's operation."
"What is it, Deputy?"
"It wasn't just local. Marcus had help from police officers, judges, and government leaders in Washington, Oregon, and California."
Agent Williams stopped walking. "How many officials?"
"At least twenty that I know about. Maybe more."
"Deputy Morrison, we're going to need names, dates, and proof. This is now a multi-state federal probe."
As we walked outside into the cool night air, I pulled out a notebook I'd been keeping hidden for three years. "Agent Williams, I wrote down everything. Every bribe Marcus paid, every cover-up, every official who helped him move girls without questions."
"Why did you keep records if you were working with Marcus?"
"Because I knew someday I'd have to choose between being a thief and being a cop. Tonight, I finally chose to be a cop."
Agent Williams flipped through my notebook, and his face got more serious with every page. "Deputy, this implicates a state senator, two judges, and at least six police chiefs."
"That's just the beginning. Marcus talked about having friends in the FBI office in Seattle."
"What?"
"Someone in the Seattle FBI office was feeding Marcus information about federal probes. That's how he stayed ahead of law enforcement for twenty years." This was the hardest part to accept. For five years, I'd known there was corruption in federal law enforcement, but I'd been too scared to report it. "Deputy Morrison, do you know who the corrupt FBI agent is?"
"Marcus never told me the name, but he said it was someone high-ranking. Someone who could make investigations disappear."
Agent Williams got on his radio instantly. "Control, this is Williams. We have a security breach in the Seattle field office. I need Internal Affairs involved instantly."
As we loaded the three saved girls into an FBI van, Maria grabbed my arm. "Deputy Morrison, there are other girls. Marcus was keeping them somewhere else."
My blood turned cold. "What other girls?"
"Six more girls in a building near the harbor. Marcus was saving them for a special buyer who was coming next week."
"Maria, which warehouse?"
"The old cannery building behind the fish plant. But Deputy Morrison, they might already be gone. Marcus told his men to move them if anything went wrong tonight."
Agent Williams was already calling for extra units to search the old cannery. But I had a terrible feeling we were too late.
"Agent Williams, I need to tell you about the buyers."
"What buyers?"
"Marcus kept a list of everyone who purchased girls over the past twenty years. Rich guys, politicians, business owners. People with enough money and power to make problems disappear."
"Where's this list?"
"Hidden in Marcus's office safe. But Agent Williams, some of those customers are very dangerous people. If they find out the FBI has their names, they'll do anything to silence witnesses. " That's when I heard something that made my stomach drop. Sirens in the distance, coming from the direction of Dr. Archer's clinic. " Agent Williams, Dr. Archer was meant to give you evidence about Marcus's operation. Those sounds might mean he's in trouble."
We drove toward the clinic as fast as possible, the three rescued girls safe in the back of the van with a female spy. But as we got closer to downtown, I could see smoke coming from the direction of Dr. Archer's building.
"Deputy Morrison," Agent Williams said, "tell me everything you know about Marcus's connections to organized crime."
"Marcus worked for a man named Tommy Chen in Seattle. Chen runs trafficking activities all along the West Coast. Marcus was just one small piece of a much bigger network."
"How do you know about Chen?"
"Because Marcus was scared of him. Really scared. He said Chen had people killed for making mistakes, and Chen considered getting caught a big mistake."
Agent Williams got back on his radio. "Control, we need information on Tommy Chen, thought to be operating out of Seattle. Suspected of running multi-state crime operations."
"Agent Williams, this is Control. We already have a file on Tommy Chen. He's wanted by Interpol for foreign human trafficking. We've been trying to build a case against him for three years."
"Well, we might have just found our break in the case."
As we pulled up to Dr. Archer's office, I could see that the building was on fire. Three fire trucks were fighting the flames, and paramedics were treating Dr. Archer for smoke inhalation.
"Doc!" I called out, running over to where he sat in the back of an ambulance. "Are you okay? Did you get the proof out?"
Dr. Archer looked up at me with tired eyes. "Jake, they burned everything. All my recordings, all my files, all the evidence I'd been gathering for five years."
"Who burned it?"
"Chen's guys. They were waiting for me when I got to the office. They wanted the records, and when I refused to give them up, they set the building on fire."
Agent Williams knelt down beside Dr. Archer. "Doctor, did you manage to save anything?"
Dr. Archer smiled weakly and pulled a small digital recording from his jacket pocket. "I saved the most important recording. Marcus confessing to thirty-seven deaths and naming every person who helped him over the past twenty years."
"Including the corrupt officials?"
"All of them. Names, dates, amounts of bribes paid, and information about how they covered up missing person reports."
Agent Williams took the recorder like it was made of gold. "Doctor, this recording is going to bring down one of the biggest criminal conspiracies in American history."
"Agent Williams," I said, "there's one more thing you need to know."
"What?"
"Marcus told me that if anything happened to him, Chen would eliminate everyone who knew about the plan. That includes all the witnesses, all the survivors, and all the law enforcement officers involved in the case."
"How many people are we talking about?"
I counted on my fingers. "Elena Santos, Dr. Archer, Agent Kim, Amy Rodriguez, the three girls we just rescued, me, and probably twenty townspeople who helped fight Marcus's men tonight."
"That's a lot of people to protect."
"Agent Williams, Chen has unlimited money and trained killers who work all over the world. If he decides we all need to die, hiding won't be enough."
That's when Agent Williams' radio buzzed with an emergency message that made all our blood run cold.
"All units, be informed. We have reports of multiple black planes approaching Moonfall Bay from the north. Unknown aircraft, no flight plan recorded. ETA fifteen minutes."
Agent Williams looked at Dr. Archer, then at me, then at the three saved girls sitting in the FBI van.
"Deputy Morrison, how many people can Chen send to eliminate witnesses?"
"As many as he wants. Marcus always said Chen had enough money to buy a small army."
The sound of helicopter blades was already getting louder in the distance.
" Agent Williams," I said, "I think we're about to find out exactly how big Chen's army really is."