No less than seven Van City Police cruisers responded to Jimmy's call. Santos had the two entrances blocked, Kilterage and two officers entered Windy's room.

Adia, Windy, and Jimmy waited in the motel's tiny restaurant with Gib, the massive cat, making friends with the other motel residents. The three sat at the window booth waiting for the police to search Windy's unit.

Jimmy pushed the faded curtains aside to see Officer Kilterage making her way to the restaurant. "We need to get to the warehouses. Who knows when they are shipping the women out of here?"

Kilterage made her way to the group. "The CSI team took fingerprints. I looked over the unit and it appears to be safe to return Miss South."

Windy looked up to the officer. "I think I will stay somewhere else." 

"Officer Kilterage, do you have a minute or two?" Jimmy slid over to offer a seat to the young police officer.

Kilterage took a seat. "What do you have, Mr. Carrick?"

"Three young native women were seen being put into a Richmond police cruiser while in Vancouver." Jimmy looked at Adia to continue.

Adia didn't hold back and spoke without a filter. "I thought dropping natives off outside of the city was no longer practiced. We are still treated without respect in the city."

"You are right." The officer nodded in agreement. "It is no longer practiced. At least, I have not heard of it happening."

"Jimmy write down the details of the cruiser." Adia motioned to Jimmy.

He handed the paper to Kilterage. "There's something else." Jimmy explained the warehouse with the cages to the young officer who was appointed to the missing womens file by the lead investigator, Santos."

She jotted down everything Jimmy said before texting Santos.

"I think we need to get to the warehouses and check them out." Jimmy motioned he wanted to get out of the booth but Kilterage did not move. "Officer?"

"We have to get permission to go there by the Port Authority and Border Control." Kilterage spoke as if it were next to impossible. "They like to do their own investigating."

"Oh do they?" Jimmy looked to Windy who nodded back at him. "Luckily for you and your boss that Windy and I don't share that same philosophy as the PA and those Border people."

"You'll be trespassing and we can not authorize you and Miss South to investigate."

Jimmy laughed. "We are not the investigating type."

"No?"

Windy set Kilterage straight. "We're more the break and enter type."

Adia stood followed by Windy.

Jimmy offered an olive branch. "We will keep you and Officer Santos apprised of our findings. But..."

"Let's hear it, Mr. Carrick."

"But when we find the location, we expect the calvary to ride in." Jimmy waited for the officer's answer.

Before Kilterage could answer a call on her radio clipped to her shoulder loop came through. "Units in the Mount Pleasant vicinity please respond."

Kilterage stood. "That's me." She exited the restaurant with the others directly behind her. "Unit 178 responding."

Dispatch gave Officer Kilterage the address. She turned to the three listening in. "Your number, Miss South." Windy handed her a card with her number. "Good luck not getting caught by anyone in the warehouse district. If I find anything out before you, I will call you."

Santos stopped the cruiser next to the four. "We have to go." Santos nodded to Windy. "Your unit appears safe enough, Miss South. We are running  the fingerprints now."

"We are headed to the warehouses at the docks." Jimmy stepped closer as Kilterage took her seat in the cruiser. "We have information from a reliable source that says women are being held there."

Santos pointed to Jimmy. "Be very careful there. The Port Authority doesn't like people snooping around."

"Yeah, we've got that message already." Jimmy gave his wry smile.

"Let me know what you find." Santos closed his window before setting off the lights and sirens.

Abandoned House

Kilterage and Santos arrived on the scene that had already been taped off with the yellow police tape. They were met at the tape by the responding officer.

"I was flagged down by a homeless man who was sleeping inside this house. When he left the house headed for a free meal at a local church he noticed freshly turned soil." The officer paused as he turned to the next page of his notes. "He found a hand poking from the disturbed ground. It was then he ran to the street and waved me down."

"Has the coroner been called." Santos walked past the officer.

"Not yet, Sir."

"Call dispatch for a coroner and let's get the Criminal Investigation team here as well." The shift leader continued questioning the officer. "Any footprints apart from the homeless man and yours?"

"It rained last night."

"Yeah, big surprise there." Santos pointed. "Lead the way, Officer."

The three stopped at the area where the hand protruded from the saturated soil. Santos crouched down and noticed rings on each of the victim's fingers. When he stood his boots had sunk a few inches deep.

"Kilterage, the area looks bigger than just one body." Santos walked around the initial area. When he stopped he looked at Kilterage. "It's massive!"

Kilterage took out her measuring tape, crouched down, and took down the numbers. "One hundred and eight by one hundred and four inches." She stood and made eye contact with Santos.

"I am not going to like the outcome to this." Santos rubbed his face before calling his Captain. "Sir, it looks like there could be multiple victims here."

When the conversation ended, Santos jammed his phone into a pocket. "We're going to be here a while, Kilterage."

Kilterage took her own notes as the woman was exhumed from the shallow grave. Long dark hair, dark complexion, and no clothes. She watched the coroner check the victim for a cause of death.

Kilterage found Santos. "Sir, I need to let you in on what Mr. Carrick told me about three native women forced into a Richmond Police Cruiser."

"Were there any witnesses to this?"

"There was another woman with Miss South and Mr. Carrick." Kilterage recalled. "A native women that seemed to feel that the three women were being driven out of town."

"That is not done anymore. Maybe they were driven here?" Santos rubbed his chin. "I don't know why, but I have a feeling Jacobs has something to do with this."

"I agree." Kilterage nodded. "He tried to strong arm me a few times when it came to Mr. Carrick. Not a trustworthy person."

"You don't say?" Santos chortled. "Not a trustworthy person?"

A voice from the Criminal Investigation Team passed the word that three more victims were found.

Santos and Kilterage returned to the grave site. The leader of the team, covered in a mixture of soil and clay, stood to talk with Santos. "There are still more victims."

"Still more?" Santos responded.

The coroner, with clay caked to her rubber boots, stepped out of the slippery grave to join the group. "The first four have not been sexually violated. Each had a single needle puncture to the main artery on their left arm. The victims vary in age from their late teens to early forties."

"Thanks Doctor. Any idea when the victims met their fate?"

"I believe about twenty-four to thirty-six hours with the temperature and the state of rigor mortis." The coroner held her hand out to her assistant as she descended into the pit again. "I will get back to the morgue after all the bodies have been exhumed. I will perform their postmortems and determine what killed these women as quickly as I can."

"Thank you, Doctor." Santos turned to Kilterage. "Contact Mr. Carrick, Miss South and that other woman. Tell them to be very careful."

"You believe these women are connected to the warehouse, Sir?" Kilterage questioned her boss.

"No, not really." Santos looked to the street. "We are what...fifteen minutes drive from the docks?"

"At the most." Kilterage shrugged. "A straight shot down Main Street."

Windy pulled her phone from her jacket. "Yeah?"

"Miss South?"

"Officer Kilterage, what is it?"

"We are at a site with multiple victims in Mount Pleasant."

"By victims you mean women?"

"Ah, yeah." Kilterage paused. "Just be careful down there."

"Yeah. I'll call if we find anything." Windy ended the call before tapping Jimmy's shoulder, getting his attention.

"What is it, Win?"

"They found multiple victims at a property in Mount Pleasant." Windy's pause made Jimmy slow his car.

"Win?"

"Let's just be careful, okay?"

"I think you'd be more useful with your laptop, Babe." Jimmy pulled to the curb next to a Starbucks. "We'll call if we need you. Adia, let Win out."

Adia held her seat forward as Windy exited Jimmy's car with a bag. "Jimmy has my number Adia."

"Win?"

Windy made her way to his open window. "Babe?"

"Find out as much as you can about the women at that property." Jimmy placed his hand on Windy's but she needed more and dove into the window to kiss her man.

"Don't take any chances, Babe." Win pulled back. "I mean it!" She looked past Jimmy to the young native woman. "No chances, Adia!"

Adia nodded before raising the black hoodie over her head.

"Come back, Babe." Windy stroked Jimmy's chin with her left hand before heading inside the coffee house.

Windy ordered an extra large latte and found a seat at the window. She opened her laptop and plugged a bluetooth bud in her dominant ear. "Now where is that abandoned property? And why the hell would it be abandoned in a city screaming for housing?"

Windy got the address from Officer Kilterage and searched of the surrounding traffic cameras from intersections near the abandoned buildings with little success.

Jimmy called in with Windy. "We're not having any luck at the warehouses. I never knew there were so many. Any digital luck, Win?"

"Nothing just getting started, Babe."

"We'll give it another hour, maybe two." Jimmy tossed Adia's phone back to her. "Let's find that warehouse."

"What did Windy say?"

"Nothing yet." Jimmy nodded. "If anyone can find something, it'll be Win."

"She's really special, isn't she?" Adia smiled.

Jimmy just shook his head. To really describe how special Windy was would take more than a quick conversation in the dark at the docks. "Maybe I'll write a book about her."

"I knew you were a romantic, you old dog." Adia stuffed her phone into a pocket and followed Jimmy to the next warehouse.

After an hour of checking video Windy had two possible vehicles that matched the time. She reached for a her latte. The cold latte hit her lips changing her mind.

She was about to get another latte when she noticed Jimmy's classic sports car in a Tokyo drift. "Jimmy!" Windy packed the laptop into her bag as she quickly made her way out the door.

The passenger door shot open and Windy jumped in. "Adia?!"