Growing Up Then and Now

2. Did those girls get rescued from the sex trade?

     Yes. (And two of them ended up adopted by Stephanie’s group living in the Skagit Valley.)

     On Wednesay night, December 21^st, the newly deputized posse in Vancouver pulled off a daring, successful rescue of some of Dougherty’s (aka Rafferty) and Furbush’s underage sex slaves.

     Remember on Tuesday evening, the night before, once the “Posse Extraordinaire” (Susie, Eloise, Heck and Billy) checked into their Victorian Suite, Susie called her daughter Stephanie to come join the posse.

Here’s how that conversation went:

      “Look Stephanie, all my life I’ve been a nobody, a waitress, a mom, a housewife, an unfaithful one at that, and now I’m finally doing something meaningful – important things – and finding enjoyment in living.  I helped get Eloise elected to the school board – she’s going to do some great things for our school kids.  I’ve found out I’ve still got a bit of libido left in me.  I’ve got new friends who have switched hats – they ditched their Make America Great Again caps for ‘Keep America moving FORWARD.’ 

     “I’ve got a guy I want to get elected the next sheriff in Boulder – and clean up the town, especially the underage sex trade going on . . . and that’s why I’m calling.  Guess what?  I’m here on the west coast to break up that sex ring.  Joey’s got me a room with three others from Boulder . . .”

     “You are where, Mom?!  With whom, mom?  Doing what?!”

     “Look, I checked the map, it’s only 70 miles from your farm to downtown Vancouver.  You can be here in an hour and I could really use your help.  I remember you telling me one of the neat things about living on the farm is that you are kind of a “halfway house” for young girls who want to get off the streets . . . Well!  That’s exactly what we need to do right now in Vancouver!”

     “Slow down, Mom.  What’s going on?  What are you doing!?”

     “You remember those guys in the RV, well they were in Boulder when that murder happened and somehow they got a lead on who did it.  The murder was over control of the sex trade – and our friggin’ sheriff knew it, but wouldn’t do anything about it.  And now I’m doing something about it.  Joey is in on the plan.  Come on up, now, please!”

     “Did I miss something?  You’re in Vancouver but the sex trade is in Boulder?”

     “Look, I’ll tell you everything when you get here.  The guys in Boulder have connections in Vancouver – and one of the guys is Furbush.  It’s in Vancouver where the girls start out, where they first come in from Thailand – and I’m talking underage girls, even 13-14 year-olds.  And we’re going to bust them tonight but the young girls need your help!

     “Okay, I’ll be leaving as soon as I can.”

——————————————————————————————————————

     Back at the farm, Stephanie excitedly informed her housemates about her mom’s S.O.S. call.  “It’s personal to me.  Not just that it’s my mom.  Not just that we can help some young women break away from being sexually exploited – you know, like some of us were.  But get this!  The pimp here in Vancouver is the very same guy who first gave me money back in my hometown in Montana!  This is ultimate payback!  Plus, on top of everything else, my mom seems to have come into her own – she sounds actually happy.  Let’s go!”

     The next morning, Stephanie and three of her housemates, were sitting in the Queen Victoria suite with Susie, Eloise, Heck, Billy and Joey, enjoying room service sweets and coffee.  Handling the introductions of the Boulder contingent, Susie counted nine in the posse.  Heck stood up to shake hands and looked every bit a sheriff, minus the badge and holster.  He was burly, looking young but toughened, even sort of grisly.  Mostly frowning, rarely smiling, dressed in a cowboy hat, string tie, vest, and western boots, he looked every bit like a sheriff who could handle the job.

     “Heck, here, was in law enforcement, a former conservation officer.  He plans to run for sheriff once we make headlines busting up this ring,” Susie said, moving on to Eloise: “Eloise was Joey and Stephanie’s teacher and now is on the school board.  She’s my best friend.  Billy . . . geez, what to say about Billy?  He was just an acquaintance from waitressing and has become a friend helping elect Eloise, about to be Heck’s campaign manager, and frankly, he’s changed the politics in Boulder from folks thinking of themselves as Trumpers to instead being “Trumpeters.”  I’ll tell you all about that some other time.  Okay, let’s tell them about last night and the plan for tonight.”

     “Not yet, mom,” Joey interrupted, “first we need to talk about dividing up that list of names you got from Skip who might be able to finger Shadya as part of the sex trade, then we talk about our plan for tonight.”

     After dividing the list up, with instructions about using the name “Ken Vardaman” as a way of introduction, Susie said, “Now here’s what happened last night:  Shadya gave Joey the address for a motel over on Garden City Road which is one of the places johns are sent to.  Tonight we’re going back.  Three of us – Joey, Heck and Billy – are going to ask for girls.  Stephanie, you and your friends need to figure out how to rescue these three girls.  Billy, tell them what happened when you showed up last night.”

     “Well, Heck and I went together.  Heck pretended I was his son.  In front of the clerk, after telling what we wanted, Heck says to me, ‘Tonight son, you’re going to be a man,’ and asks the desk clerk for the youngest girl available.  After we paid, the clerk gave me a room number, and made some joke like ‘Look kid, you only got an hour.  Get to it.’

     “The girl was up in the room waiting and she was really young looking.  I just couldn’t go through with it.  I told her I couldn’t lose my virginity this way, and left right away.”

     Leslie, one of Stephanie’s friends from the farm, had had some prior experience in the trade.  “Here’s what happens next,” Leslie explained.  “The girl calls the front desk saying you left, and gets assigned a new room to go to, and await her next customer.  But usually the girls wait out the whole hour before calling, so if you deliver them to us in the first half hour or so, they won’t even be missed until we’re long gone.”

     “We’ll follow you over to that same place tonight,” another of the farm ladies explained, “watch what rooms you go to and station ourselves – hopefully park – where you’ll be able to see us from the room.  Once you’re in the room, take the girl to the window, and we’ll wave – so she knows this is for real.  Make sure you tell her about our farm, and that she can stay with us as long as she wants.  Believe me, they are going to jump at the chance.  The only reason they stay is because they have nowhere to go.  Their pimp is the only security they know.  Make sure the girl understands there are three of you in on this, so they won’t feel alone.  Explain how you’re all going to make the break together.”

     “This is where it gets a little tricky,” one of the other farm ladies continued.  “If you get all three of them to want to leave, we have to time it right.  If the girl in your room says ‘yes’ she wants to make the break, give us the thumbs-up sign.  Then wait for us to give the thumbs-up sign back.  We’re going to give you fifteen minutes to do the convincing.  Once we have your three thumbs-up, we give our thumbs-up, and you walk out the room to our van with the girls.”

     And that plan worked to perfection.   Only hitch was none of the three girls had visas to cross the border so Joey had to put them up until things were cleared with the authorities. 

     On Thursday afternoon at police headquarters, the desk sergeant said they’d set up a sting operation in the next day or two.  “Not good enough,” Heck said, handing over Shadya Warsame’s sworn statement.  “I’m pretty sure your Chief has seen this  – tell him we’re here.”   

      The sworn statement read as follows:

      I, Shadya Warsame, and Abdul Abdul (his full name, now deceased) had connections in Somalia who knew how to pirate girls out of Thailand and into Canada using fraudulent Canadian visas.  This led to recruiting Thai girls on the promise of modeling careers in Hollywood – but first a “try-out” in Canada.

      Eventually we started making lots of money doing a 50/50 split with those recruiting the girls for us out of Pattaya, Thailand.  I do not know if those doing the recruiting were also part of a terrorist cell or not.    

      A person I knew as ‘John Doe’ got involved.  I never met John Doe that I know of, but he had connections with both the Thai recruiters and with some guys in the States, Montana was what I heard.  They had a way of getting the girls into the States without U.S. visas – and they paid good money for the girls we delivered up. 

     Abdul decided to check this out for himself – and that’s the last I saw of him.  Later, I learned he had been murdered in Montana with no known relatives anybody knew of. 

     I got out of the business as soon as I heard about the murder.  I’ve been clean for four months now, but the organization is still going on.  I can give names and details once I’m granted immunity.

Chapter 56

The Deal is Cut

     Levi Jansen, the District Attorney, met us at the reception desk, and ushered us to a no-windows conference room saying, “You understand all this will be taped and no promises about how, if ever, the tape is used, correct?”

     “Correct,” Steve said.  

     And as we entered the room, Jansen continued, “and of course you understand, given what I know about your story, we need the FBI in on this . . . I’d like you to meet, Mr. J. L. Stover, head of the local Bureau.”

     “Nice to meet you,” Steve said. 

     “Likewise,” said Skip.

     Jansen and Stover were two different looking men, Jansen pudgy and Stover gaunt.  (Later Skip joked, “I was thinking of calling them Laurel & Hardy if things started to go wrong.”)  Things did not start well.  After everybody made themselves comfortable, coffee, taking off coats, loosening ties (Skip sans tie – but he did remove his baseball cap), Jansen began with a sly smile, surprising us with, “I think I’ve heard about you guys – you’re the traveling Rumpkins, pulling antics all over the country – or at least that’s what I’ve been told.”

     “Oh shit,” Skip blurted out, and continued despite Steve’s trying to hush him up, “Every god-damn thing I’ve done in my life – elected to office 18 years – and no one, not one goddamn person, has ever had reason to doubt my honesty or come to distrust me.  Now look Mr. D.A., I’m going to tell you the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth – choose to disbelieve me at your own risk.”  At this, Steve gave Skip’s foot a tiny kick with a wink that said “that was good.”

     After about ten minutes doing the outline part, without names and details, Skip stopped and Steve said, “Okay, next we provide all the information, evidence, witnesses, details, everything you need to know, to catch the bombers red-handed before the bombs go off, prosecute the hell out of them and anybody else you can implicate, but first . . . but first a little favor for me that you’ll probably really want to do . . .”

     “What the fuck,” Stover jumped in with.   “There’s a bomb going off somewhere in New York maybe today, this week for sure, and you want us to take time doing favors?” 

    “Relax,” Steve said.  “It will take less than ten minutes.”  Steve then proceeded to explain how Jansen and Stover should love the PR for taking down one of the nastiest international sex trafficking rings in existence.  “Just a simple phone call to a Vancouver law office will do it.”

    “You’re shittin’ me, right?” Jansen said.  “This is the April Fool’s Day part, where you get your Rumpkin antics in, right?”

     “Here’s the number,” Steve said.  

    Ten minutes later D.A. Jansen returned from his private office where he’d gone to make the call.  As he swung himself into his chair, Jansen said, “You were right.  The lawyer out there has a sworn statement from this Shadya Warsame fellow and the Vancouver Chief of Police got on the line and said Warsame’s statement checks out.  So yeah, I told your lawyer buddy, I’d do the favor of placing a call to the British Columbia Ministry of Justice and recommend leniency for your man Warsame.”

     “Okay,” Steve said with the utmost confidence.  “We’re off to a good start.  Here are the conditions to be agreed upon, before you get everything we know about the terrorist cell and the impending bombing – I don’t think there’s a one you’ll find a deal-breaker.”  We then gave Jansen a copy of our neatly typed list of “demands.”

    “Yeah, I think you’re right, no deal-breakers here,” Jansen said, “as long as everything else you’re telling us checks out.  Maybe some details we’ll have to hash-out.”

     “One more thing, Mr. Jansen,” Steve said with a smile, “you were right about there being a Rumpkin antic somewhere in this.  Last thing before we spill everything we know:  We have to be included in the media conference announcing the busts – and in whatever way we choose.  You can have the first ten minutes, or however long you want, but then we get to finish it, and you just walk away, saying loud enough [this was Patty’s work] so the microphones pick it up, ‘These crazy Rumpkins – but God Bless Them!’ ”

     “You guys are crazy, but I like you,” Jansen said.  “It’s always nice to be in the company of a state legislator and a well-prepared lawyer.  All right, let’s have it.”

     Steve gave Skip the high five that was the signal for Skip to start in with everything that we knew, everything except Jane’s run for her life.

     An hour later Skip and Sterve walked out of the D.A.’s office, leaped into the air, clicked their heels, and gave each other big hugs, exclaiming, “We did it; we did it; we did it!”

     Enjoying a celebratory lunch at a nearby deli they found, both men breathed easier, and Skip’s conscience was finally starting to ease.   It had now been two months since he felt right with the world.  Ever since the night of the Dodger Stadium bombing, he had been having ghastly nightmares about him leaving a bomb somewhere, rendering children maimed and bloodied, screaming “Please God, let me die.”  For two months, he had awoken every day in a quandary: “Should I turn Ken in?  Should I turn Gordy in?  .  .  .  but . . . but if I do and those guys don’t come clean, the cops will have so little to go on – the bombing and carnage might actually happen – so maybe the best thing is to go along with their damned double-agent plan.”  Well, that part is over, he thought to himself, enjoying his pastrami sandwich.  “It’s out of my hands now.”

     This despite the nagging feeling that he had waited too long, that he had over-trusted Ken, and, in turn, Gordy and Jane – Gordy, whom he hardly knew, and Jane, whom he knew not at all.  One thing he did feel better about:  tomorrow he could look himself in the mirror and no longer feel like a hypocrite every time someone mentioned the need for a united stand against terrorism.

     Steve broke into his reverie, “You know we weren’t perfect.  Kind of on purpose I think we forgot the part that Gordy wanted – no details on the time and place of the bombing until three hours before, so they don’t jump the gun on us and Jane loses her chance to escape.”

     “I thought about that,” Skip responded.  “They’ll start checking things out immediately, but I’m betting they’ll want the drama and PR of catching them red-handed minutes before the bombs explode.”

     “You’re probably right.  How do you think Ken and Gordy will take the news that Jansen said he couldn’t promise anything out in California, that he couldn’t speak for another jurisdiction, as to what charges Ken and Gordy might face?”

     “I think we’re okay there too.  Remember Jansen did say, ‘There’s generally always immunity for everything said on the witness stand’ – isn’t that what you call the ‘fruit of the poisonous tree’? – the doctrine you explained to me yesterday: They can’t use what you say on the stand to convict you, nor use other evidence they follow up with from your testimony, to charge you with something.”

    “And actually, I like the result we got for Jane,” Steve added.  “You remember Jansen saying – while looking straight at Stover, ‘Not chasing down your Nancy Drew lady, I can’t promise that – but Stover here, he knows how to prioritize his limited resources.’

    “Let’s head up to Westport – I think the others are already up there, or on their way.  Phyllis can pack our stuff when she comes.  Can’t wait to share our success story!  Feel like we’re finally done with this all,” Skip said with a huge sigh.

“Well, yeah, but we’ve got to start preparing for tomorrow – another big day you know,” Steve replied with only a slight chuckle.

     Catching the New Haven Line train leaving Grand Central station with a stop in Westport, they were musing together: “It’s going to be interesting to learn if our hypothesis proves correct:  That the posse comitatus Proud Boys in Boulder found common cause sex trafficking with the Jihadis in Vancouver – for the purpose of making money, the Jihadis financing their war of terror selling girls to the posse.  Then the posse decides to eliminate the middlemen – thus the killing of Abdul and the presence of the posse in Vancouver . . .

. . .  but then what?  The posse becomes copycat terrorists?  Angry about what? The stolen election?  There are still things we don’t know . . . ”

Chapter 54

Shadya Says He’ll Sing

     Thursday, December 22, still at Phyllis’ in Philadelphia, things broke our way.  Karma?  Good guys sometimes win?  Having lots of good guys to help?  Hard work and patience paying off?  Just plain getting lucky?  Who knows?  But by Thursday night we had everything we needed to go to the D.A. as soon as they would see us.  The first big development was Susie’s awesome report from Vancouver.

     After telling us all about her posse and her plan to run Heck for Jefferson County Sheriff as soon as the current sheriff was indicted for covering up the sex trafficking operation, she told us: “You can thank your friend Ken for that list.  We divided it up and less than an hour later, one of Stephanie’s friends calls and says she’s got a guy standing next to her who knows Shadya and Abdul, and is willing to go to the authorities with what he knows because he’s recently come to suspect they were financing the local jihadists, and knows for sure they were trafficking in young girls . . .”

     “OH MY GOD,” we all said in unison back at Phyllis’, “Go on!”

     “Well, Joey was exactly right about Shadya running scared.  When Joey mentioned the name of the guy who was willing to finger him, Joey says Shadya actually shuddered – from shoulders to knees – and Joey knew he had him; so he says to Shadya, ‘You know I know Dougherty.  I know you know Dougherty.  Neither one of us likes the fucker.  If I get you a lawyer who can get you a deal for turning state’s evidence, will you help me put Dougherty behind bars?’  Shadya said he would!

“Listen to all what Shadya can tell – if he gets a deal:

• One, from his pirate days off the Horn of Africa, he has friends who transport the young girls out of Thailand;
• Two, his job is to get them into Canada with fraudulent Visas, or whatever;
• Three, once they’re working in Canada, he turns them over to Dougherty to get them into the States;
• Four, after he learned about Abdul’s murder and Furbush’s acquittal, he got out of the business;
• And five, he’s heard that Dougherty has a new group that’s muscling the Somalis out of the business.

     “So that’s where we’re at,” Susie finished telling us. “Can you believe it?! You gotta get Shadya a lawyer?  Like right now!?

    “Ohhh, by the way, last night Heck was able to purchase sex with some young Thai girl and tonight they’re going for a repeat, only this time with Stephanie’s friends ready to rescue the girl, maybe other girls.”

     “WHAT?!” we all said, again in unison.

     “Yeah look, apparently this isn’t the first time some of Stephanie’s friends have been involved with the sex trade, so they coached Heck on how to approach his next encounter asking her questions like ‘Are you really doing ok?  Is she wishing she could get out of the jam she’s in?’  Then tell her he has friends who have an apple farm, just a half hour away, and have helped others, just like her, escape.  So tonight we’re gonna see if we can pull off this rescue mission, as well as nail the clerk at the motel that sets up these sex-for-hires.”

     “No friggin’ way – you guys are awesome – total heroes!  Tell Joey we’re gonna have a lawyer for Shadya within the hour,” Skip told Susie.

     Immediately Steve said, “Yeah, great, but the lawyer I’ve talked to in Vancouver wants money first – a lot of money.”

     “I’ll call Sally,” Skip said, “she’s got plenty of dough, and one of those fancy money transfer accounts.”

     “Hey Sal, you wonderful friend, fellow traveler, do-gooder, and soon to be married to a rich guy . . .  Listen, we’ve absolutely, positively, cracked the sex ring . . . Gonna actually rescue some young innocent underage girls tonight – Furbush’s sex slaves, and whisk them to – get this – to that Lesbian farm on the Skagit River we visited!  

“Here’s what’s going on: Like you know, we got an insider in the terrorist ring that we think, we hope, is going to get us the details we can take to the FBI, to head off the bombing, but just now we got a call from Susie – our waitress friend – and we think we can put a stop to the sex-trafficking as well.

“Get this,” Skip continues telling Sally, “Susie, on her own, with those cowboys we met at the Chat & Chew, drove all night back to see her kid, Joey, in Vancouver, and together they’ve found a guy – his name is Shadya Warsame – who can put Furbush behind bars for a long, long time on the sex-trafficking charge.  But that guy won’t talk unless and until he has a lawyer to cut a deal for him – ‘cuz he’s involved too.  The lawyer’s expensive.  Would you be willing to wire money to this Vancouver law firm right the minute we get off the phone?”

     “Give me Steve,” Sally said.  “I’ll do it. Steve can give me the details.  But Jesus!   I can’t believe how many times we’ve needed a lawyer on this . . . this fishing trip.”

     Steve went over the details with Sally, and concluded saying to the rest of us, “Make sure you add this to the list of what we negotiate tomorrow, the lawyer in Vancouver we hire for Shadya will want to know the parameters of a possible deal – and you should be able to get the New York D.A. to warm up whomever is chief prosecutor out there in Vancouver.”     

While we waited for the return call from the Vancouver law firm, we got back in touch with Ken – told Ken about our breaking news, with Skip emphasizing that Gordy, and, in turn, Jane, need to understand we’re going to put Jamie behind bars on the sex thing – for life if we nail him on the terrorist thing.  But we NEED the DETAILS on WHEN and WHERE and HOW the bombing is planned.  Tell Jane she can kiss Rafferty’s ass good-bye, he’s going away for a long time, and she can live in peace without worrying about him coming after her – knowing she saved a bunch of young girls from horrible lives as sex slaves . . . but we’ve got to get those bombing details from her, NOW!