Cold Betrayal

“That wasn’t our intention,” Ali answered, “but it’s what happened.”

“So far this morning I’ve had conversations with people from Interpol and from the FBI. I’m hearing stories about human trafficking, about people being run down on the highway, and about someone else threatening to bodily remove a seriously injured patient from a hospital room against doctors’ orders. All told, it sounds like a hot mess, and you seem to be smack in the middle of it. So tell me, if you will, what the hell’s going on up there?”

It wasn’t a simple story to lay out, but Ali did the best she could.

“Sean Fergus mentioned that you didn’t want the local sheriff’s department informed about any of this,” Governor Dunham said once Ali finished. “I have a stack of warrants here on my desk—thirty in all—that call for the collection of any and all of The Family’s family Bibles, which may or may not include the names of some of the alleged human trafficking victims. The warrants also specify that we can take cheek swabs from all the adult residents in the community in order to conduct DNA comparisons of the people in The Family with the profiles of human trafficking victims.

“Incidentally, I’ve been informed that we’ve now located a total of twenty of those, most of whom are deceased. However, that number includes two young women who have been found alive. They ended up in an orphanage and stayed on in Nigeria when they were old enough to leave because they had nowhere else to go. Without passports or documents of any kind, they were stuck where they were.”

“Twenty victims?” Ali echoed. “That many? The last I heard the count was just over a dozen.”

“As I said, it’s been a very busy morning,” Governor Dunham replied. “Back to the warrants issue, however. When it comes time to execute them, I have a problem. Who’s going to do it? That job should belong to the local sheriff’s department, so what’s your beef with Sheriff Alvarado? I can’t ignore the man. The Encampment is located inside his jurisdiction.”

“Are you aware that one of his deputies, Amos Sellers, is part of that community—a member of The Family?”

“I’m well aware of the situation with Deputy Sellers,” Governor Dunham said. “As a matter of fact, I have a warrant with his name on it right here in front of me. What about him?”

“For an unknown number of years he’s moonlighted as The Family’s bounty hunter, tracking down runaway girls and bringing them back home. He’s had that job longer than he’s been a deputy. If Sheriff Alvarado’s department is involved in whatever you’re pla

“You mean turn it into another Waco,” Governor Dunham said. “That’s what you’re thinking, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Ali admitted. “The thought had crossed my mind.”

“Mine, too,” Governor Dunham said. “I’ve been remembering images of that hellacious fire all day long. That’s why the current plan is to execute the warrants in the dead of night when everyone should be at home fast asleep. We’ll be using emergency response teams from several jurisdictions so the warrants can all be executed at once. That way, any resistance should be kept to a minimum and on an individual rather than group basis. I believe that will be safer for all concerned—law enforcement officers and civilians alike.

“But just because one of Sheriff Alvarado’s people belongs to the targeted group doesn’t mean I’m going to tar everyone with the same brush,” Governor Dunham continued. “I’m also not going to overstep my authority and allow a duly elected law enforcement officer to be left out of the loop on a major operation being conducted inside his jurisdiction. I assure you, Ali, I have every confidence that Sheriff Alvarado and his people will conduct themselves in full accordance with the law. Understood?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Ali said, feeling as though she’d just been chewed out by her high school principal.

“That said, however,” Governor Dunham continued, “I’m not discounting your concern or the historical precedent, either. As I’m sure you’re aware, long ago there was a very similar situation in which people living in a place called Short Creek, now Colorado City, were taken into custody while peacefully assembled inside their church and singing hymns. That was part of what gave Governor Pyle such a black eye and turned what he did into a PR nightmare—the fact that they were all in church and singing when they were arrested. Later on, the man had his ass handed to him by the voters when he ran for reelection.

“What happened to Governor Pyle turned Short Creek, now Colorado City, into a no-man’s-land and left it virtually untouchable as far as state government and law enforcement are concerned. Out of sight was out of mind. Everybody—my administration included, I’m ashamed to say—went along with that program. We were all content to let the people up there do their own thing. After all, what’s a little polygamy among consenting adults?”

“But they’re not just consenting adults,” Ali objected. “I already told you. Little girls are expected to be betrothed by the time they’re six or seven. When they’re in their mid-teens, they’re forced into marriages with much older men and end up giving birth to children while they themselves are still juveniles.”

“You know that to be the case?” the governor demanded.

“Yes, I do,” Ali answered. “As for the ones who try to escape? If they’re caught and brought back by Deputy Sellers, they’re consigned to live lives of terrible privation.”

Ali thought about mentioning the other girl then—the Kingman Jane Doe who hadn’t survived long enough to be brought back. But there was no point. Ali knew that without the missing evidence box, Amos Sellers would never be held accountable for her death or for the death of her child.

“I take it you heard that from the two women you mentioned earlier,” Virginia Dunham said, cutting into Ali’s thought process. “I believe you referred to them as Brought Back girls? What are their names again?”

“Agnes and Patricia,” Ali answered. “They’ve spent the last fifteen years living in a Quonset hut with no electricity, no heating or cooling, and no ru

“I suspect the American Civil Liberties folks will be weighing in on this matter all too soon,” Governor Dunham observed, “and not in a good way, either. They’ll be far more concerned with how we treat the guys we place under arrest than they will be about how the women and children were treated.

“The problem is,” she continued, “my blind eye went away early this morning when Sean Fergus’s phone call landed on my desk. As long as I’m the chief executive of the state of Arizona, known instances of human trafficking will not be tolerated. Holding people in what amounts to involuntary servitude will not be tolerated. Denying women and children their basic civil and human rights will not be tolerated—not on my watch. Because I’m not Governor Pyle.

“When this term of office is over, I’m done. I’m not standing for reelection for this office or any other. Politics and I are finished, so I’m going full speed ahead on this, Ali. The raid I’ve authorized is on. It’s going to happen—tonight, most likely. Sheriff Alvarado’s department will be charged with executing some of the warrants but with the proviso that Amos Sellers is to receive no advance warning whatsoever. Is that understood?”

Nothing Governor Dunham said dispelled Ali’s misgivings about Sheriff Alvarado’s involvement, but it wasn’t her call to make. “Yes, ma’am,” Ali said.