“And that code.”
Carmen sat back. “What’s that all about?”
“After running every kind of web search imaginable, I began searching the dark web and I found where the videos are posted.”
“On the dark web?” Carmen questioned. “Any idea why?”
Sheila nodded her head. “It’s a slavery ring, Carmen.”
“What?”
“Those women are for sale.”
Sheila explained that the buyers, “Usually foreign men in places where there are no black women, use the code to identify and bid on the women. I believe that Castor Technology made the videos and posted them to the dark web. Truckload Freight Transportation was used to take the women from wherever they’re kept and then they are transported to the port where Ingram International shipped them overseas to the buyer.”
Carmen stood up and grabbed her purse.
“Where are you going?” Sheila asked.
“I think I know where those women are being kept,” Carmen said and rushed out the door.
When she got outside the station, Carmen looked around for Kamau, but she didn’t see him anywhere. I know he’s around here somewhere. In an attempt to get his attention, Carmen began waving her arms in the air.
“Are you okay,” a female passerby asked.
“I’m fine,” Carmen said realizing how stupid she looked.
Confident that he was around somewhere and would most definitely be following her, Carmen hailed a cab and got in.
“Where to?”
“Enzo’s Palace,” she said and then Carmen thought about it and told the driver to take her back to her apartment. When they arrived at her building, Carmen told the driver to, “Wait here,” and she went inside.
Once Carmen was in her apartment, she went straight to her closet and opened the lockbox that contained her gun.
When the shooting starts, I won’t be the only one without a gun this time, Carmen thought as she loaded the nine millimeter pistol, and put it in her purse.
When Carmen left the building, she got back in the cab.
“Enzo’s Palace.”
During the ride there, Carmen kept looking out the back window to see if she could see if Kamau was following, but she didn’t. Although she was still confident that he was somewhere close by, it only made sense to call Detective Harmon and tell him what she had learned and more importantly, where she was on her way to.
After she explained, Harmon urged Carmen to wait for the police and let them handle it as he had done several times before. And as with each of the previous times, it went in one of Carmen’s ears and out the other.
When Carmen arrived at Enzo’s Palace, she paid the driver and exited the cab. She stood there for a while, thinking about what she was going to do when she went inside. If the women were there, how would she find them? It wasn’t like she could just walk in and ask. She’d tried that once and almost died for it.
There was also a part of her that was kinda waiting to see if Kamau was going to show up. And then, almost on cue, Carmen saw Kamau get out of his car and began walking toward her.
“I was starting to think you had quit on me,” Carmen said playfully.
“No, can’t get rid of me that easy. No matter how hard you try.” Kamau laughed and Carmen just assumed that he was talking about this morning’s disappearing act. And since she wasn’t ready to talk about it, she let the statement pass without commenting and hoped that he would do the same.
“So, what are we doing here?”
As they walked slowly toward Enzo’s, Carmen told Kamau what she had learned from Sheila.
“So, Castor Technology made the videos and posted them to the dark web where the buyers use the code to identify and bid on t