Peter gained a great deal of knowledge and experience while he worked in the Missing Person’s Department with Detective Gault. He, however, was so busy working on their assigned cases that he had little to no time to devote to his sister’s cold case. So it was with a great deal of regret that he decided to leave the force to devote all of his time to solving her case. During his four years on the force and four more years as a detective, he developed a lot of contacts and sources, so he felt confident that he now had all the tools and skills necessary to solve her case and bring those responsible to “justice” on his own.
Captain Smelter didn’t want to let him go, so they finally came up with a solution. He would put Peter on an extended leave of absence without pay. Captain Smelter told him that he was welcome to come back whenever he was ready. He was also be allowed access to all of the databases, and he would maintain his clearance level.
There was one stipulation, Captain Smelter could, on occasion, request his services for undercover assignments. He was to be paid on a per diem basis. For the rest of his adult life even after he resolved his sister’s case he maintained a close relationship with Detective Gault, Special Agent Pierany, Sergeant Tomlison, and Captain Smelter. Thanks to this arrangement even though he wasn’t officially on the force, it was understood that he was to be kept in the loop of any new information or progress that was made related to his sister Yua’s cold case.
Besides just being too busy to devote any time on his sisters case, another life altering event took place while he was a detective. It was an event that made him realize you just never know when an event can happen that will forever alter your life. While driving home from work after working late, his Aunt Ichika was T-boned by a drunk driver running a red light. It was estimated that he was going in excess of 70 MPH. They were both instantly killed by the collision, so now just 3 1/2 years after attending his sister’s funeral, he was now burying his beloved Aunt Ichika. This was a major blow in his life because she was the only relative (no blood relationship) that he had close ties to. While it was true that Aunt Christine was related by blood ties, they just weren’t that close. They exchanged Christmas cards and maybe made an occasional call or text to check up on each other, but that was all.
The death of his aunt produced another problem, and that was the Kurdish Mastiffs that his aunt was raising and selling. There was also the matter his own personal dog Jojo, which his aunt took care of for him when he was out-of-town on a case. Jojo was a two year old fully grown Kurdish Mastiff. He weighed like all of his breed at or around 200 pounds. What was special about Jojo was that Peter had spent a lot of money having him trained as an attack and guard dog. He could now rip a guy’s throat out in the blink of an eye. Since he no longer had a partner, Jojo was fast becoming his backup and full-time companion. While they had always been close, their bond was becoming especially close. Jojo was now quite possessive of his owner. Peter knew that when he went walking down the street with his Mastiff nobody was likely to mess with him. Jojo’s black spiked collar did not hurt either.
Peter had to include Jojo in the funeral plans as well because the dog had grown quite close to Ichika. Poor Aiko had to make one final trip to the U.S. to bury her last living relative. Peter felt terrible about notifying her because he knew she was feeling poorly. But there was no way that he could keep the death of her daughter from her. His aunt called her mother at least once a week, so once those calls stopped, she would have immediately realized that something was amiss. When he picked her up at the airport, he was amazed at how old she looked. It was then that he came to the realization that this was going to be the last time that he would ever see her alive. Only a few people attended the funeral. It was by necessity a closed casket because her poor body had been crushed in the accident, and there was just nothing that the morticians could do. This made it even harder for Aiko to deal with. All they had was a large photo of Ichika placed on an easel positioned next to her casket.
Even though he didn’t need the money, Ichika’s estate had been left to him. Peter was doing quite well in his investments, and he was now worth almost $10 million . So there really was no reason for him to work at a full-time job. This was just one more reason to leave the force.
It took Peter a few weeks after he buried his aunt, but he finally found a breeder that would take his aunt’s dogs off his hands. He knew that the dogs were valuable, but his major concern was not the money but that they had a good place to live. So, he was willing to forego any monetary gain to ensure that they were well taken care of. He did this not only for himself but for his aunt as well. These dogs truly were amazing. Once you spent any time with them, you couldn’t help but become attached to them.
He had all but one of the housekeeping issues taken care of. His aunt was buried in the family plot, the kennel on her property was now emptied, all he had left to do was to have it bulldozed under and replaced with a grove of nice oak trees for shade with a couple of park seats placed along a nice path through the grove. This would give him a nice private place to relax, unwind, and enjoy a little nature. He finally enclosed the entire property with an eight foot tall chain link fence and an electric gate for the driveway. The property covered five acres. With the fence in place, Jojo now had ample room to run around in. In the spring, summer, and fall months, he slept in a covered patio area in the back of the house where he had a nice comfortable pad to sleep on. During the coldest days of the winter, he slept in the house.
With his final plans in place for his newly inherited property, he needed to sit down and work on a game plan for his investigation. Now that he was on his own, every phase of the investigation was his own to organize and follow through with. There were two ways to look at working on your own: one good and one bad. The good one, alluded to earlier is that he had total control and the other one was the bad side, an that nothing would get done without his actually doing it. Everything was up to him. If a plan didn’t work or an investigative path proved to be fruitless he only had himself to blame for it.
Before he could even get started, he first needed a place to work. Unlike other people he had known that let their quest totally control their lives he wanted a separate place where he did his work. A place that he could close off when he needed a break. Now that he had moved into his aunt’s old quarters, his old room was the ideal location for that purpose. His aunt to make him comfortable had added a nice sitting room off his bedroom. So between the bedroom and the sitting room he had ample room for filing cabinets, a large 4 x 8 foot worktable, and several large dry erase boards and bulletin boards mounted on the walls. Once he had a list of things he needed, he ordered it all from a local office supply store. When it all arrived, he quickly set up his command center. He contacted a handy man and had him replace the door to his new office with a solid core door and a double key deadbolt lock. He did this to ensure privacy and safety for any of the sensitive information that he would invariably acquire during his investigation. He finally contacted an IT expert and had a high-end multi-monitor computer system setup with fiber optic access and a dedicated firewall. It was all state of the art and it set him back over $25,000 just for the computer system alone.
His aunt Ichika being used to living in compact areas, both in Japan and at first in Washington D.C. when she moved in with her sister wanted some place spacious when she moved out. So when she bought her house she did so with this in mind. She wanted a nice airy room to sleep in and lounge around in, so her suite was quite large and took up almost half of the original house plan. She even had a couple of skylights cut out of the roof, to let in more light.
This meant that Peter had a very comfortable place to sleep in now. The suite was quite extensive, it included a steam room, a jacuzzi, a light and airy sitting room where she had sat and enjoyed a cup of tea every morning before she began her day. His aunt had always taken care of her health, so she had a small workout area included in the suite as well. You may ask where she got all of her money? She had actually made a pretty good living as a translator and with her breeding of the Kurdish Mastiffs. Her parents had also given her a nice amount of money when she moved to the U.S. to help her get setup. They had not done that for Sakura, so they made up for their lapse by helping out their youngest daughter. While aunt Ichika had been living with my family, she had been investing the money and had built up a nice tidy little sum. This money had allowed her to buy the house and property and to pay for all of the modifications that she had made.
**Note I am now going to switch back to first person. The rest of the story will be told by Peter, unless otherwise specified.**
Now that I am quite comfortable in my newly altered digs, it is time to get serious about finding who was responsible for the ultimate death of my sister Yua. I have a tidy sum of money put aside now, so where my next meal comes from is not a problem. As I see it, I only have two jobs. The first one is to make sure that my money keeps on building through wise investments. I need this money so that I can devote all my time to the investigation of the kidnapping which is my second job.
So now where should I start with the investigation. Thanks to basically either dumb luck or if you believe in the supernatural, divine intervention, I have the final destination of my sister. Therefore, I have two places that I need to investigate, (1) Washington D.C. and (2) Istanbul.
Since I am already living here in D.C. area, it only makes sense to start here. Over the last few years, I have been toying around with some ideas. First off, was my sister’s kidnapping random, or was it planned? I know that the young man chasing his dog was an intentional diversion, but it could have been used to distract any parent from watching their child. My sister was not your typical target child. She was an Amerasian child with Japanese and caucasian blood which gave her a distinct look. Her kidnapping could be the result of opportunity, but I don’t think it was. I think that the whole thing was carefully planned and orchestrated, but why?
From my years in missing persons, I have come across sex trafficking for both children and adults. There is a typical look that is coveted by the people who want sex slaves. Blonde and blue-eyed girls and women are the usual targets. My sister as mentioned did not meet these criteria. So, her kidnapping had to be intended for a specific client or purpose.
Because the kidnapping was well-planned out, the chances that it was perpatrated by an amateur is unlikely. So where do you go if you want to hire people to do bad things for you? Despite what you see on TV, it isn’t that easy to hire a contract killer, for example. Especially in the year 2000. While it is true that the dark web officially got its start in that year, it would be quite some time before it became what it is today. So it was not an option in 2000. I have come across many seedy individuals in my day as not only a beat cop but a detective, so I do know people that I could contact if I wanted something illegal done, but this is not the case with your average Joe/Jane citizen. This leaves either luck, which I don’t believe in, or the individual already had contacts. This means either the person was a career criminal or he was a person involved in the sex trade already.
Because of the difficulty of hiring a professional team, I am leaning towards someone who in someway isinvolved in the sex trade, most likely a sexual deviant of some type or a person who used hookers and prostitutes. Because a child was kidnapped it was most likely a serial pedophile. This person would by necessity now have contacts in the seedier side of society.
Another question that needs to be asked: how was my sister selected or chosen? Was she chosen by the client personally after they had tracked and followed that child? Or was she a particular type of child chosen by the client and the team did all the heavy lifting from searching for, surveillance and finally snatching of the desired child?
I am leaning behind door number two. From personal experience, following someone is not that easy. Especially if that person is a known sexual predator. As a convicted sexual predator, you have to register by law when you move in an area. You are also not allowed to hang out around schools or parks for obvious reasons. It also is possible that our client has not been convicted and is therefore both careful and intelligent or very lucky. I am still leaning towards a professional doing the surveillance by using rotating team members. The same person watching a park or school yard would become obvious fairly quickly, hence the need for a team. Besides, an intelligent and cautious individual would not want to put themselves at risk by doing the serveilance themselves.
So the question remains…where do you hire a professional team like this. While your typical pedophile may have some contacts, I am fairly certain he would not be crossing paths with these types of individuals. So he would need a go-between, someone with even more extensive contacts,like a broker for people with special talents.
Most people wanting to adopt children do so through legitimate adoption agencies. But what if you were not your typical type, what if you were tired of taking the risk of paying to have sex with children, what if you wanted your own full time child to mistreat at your leisure. I know this is beyond the pale, but it does happen. Would an adoption agency that was not completely on the up and up know of a team of professionals that could be hired to kidnap specific children? It kind of makes you wonder. There could actually be a ring in D.C right now scouting for children.
After all, my sister Yua had been kidnapped in 2000, and in 2002, Yancy Thuet, another Amerasian girl two years older, was kidnapped. Could this be a coincidence, I think not. My old partner Detective Gault and his best friend Special Agent Pierany had investigated both cases. They both agreed that something was suspicious about the Yancy case. But since both parents were clean, with not even a parking ticket on record, they had been ruled out as suspects in the kidnapping.
I am not so sure that they did the right thing by clearing them. There is something about the ages of both Yua and Yancy. I just don’t believe in coincidences. I know that I am probably barking up the wrong tree, but I am going to at least check the Thuets out some more. I also want to investigate the adoption agency angle some more, and one final thing I need to check out and that is to find out if there is any known kidnapping teams operating in the tri-state area. I haven’t even touched base on Istanbul yet. That will just have to wait for a while. Besides, my brain is starting to hurt from all of the thinking that I have been doing. I will pick up where I left off tomorrow.
Today is a new day, I am quite proud of myself on what I accomplished on my first official day of investigating as a private citizen. Thanks to my official police account, I have access to more information than the average citizen. So, I logged onto the Metro database to see what information was available on the Thuets. Much to my surprise, Francois Thuet was showing up as deceased. Apparently, he died in 2010 as a patient of Howard University Hospital located at 2041 Georgia Ave., NW 20060, Washington Metropolitan Area in Washington, D.C. Thanks to the HIPPA Privacy Rule, I couldn’t find out what he died from. It would take a court order to reveal this. I knew no judge would sign for one, because I no longer was working for the Metro Police department.
The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other individually identifiable health information (collectively defined as “protected health information”) and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically. The rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of protected health information and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without an individual’s authorization. The Rule also gives individuals rights over their protected health information, including rights to examine and obtain a copy of their health records, to direct a covered entity to transmit to a third party an electronic copy of their protected health information in an electronic health record, and to request corrections.
According to the information that I was able to access, Francois was only 50 years old when he died. While he was still quite young to die from natural causes, people died all the time at that age, so nothing could be inferred just from his death. But it was just one more thing that wasn’t sitting right with me. So I put a big bullseye on the Thuets. They were now my key suspects or at least persons of interest.
I considered talking to Mrs. Thuet but there was no way she was going to talk to a private citizen especially if there was something nefarious going on with that family. Even though I haven’t ruled out coercion as a tool to be used, it was still too early in my investigation to be cracking skulls. I needed a lot more proof than a simple feeling. I need proof that Francois Thuet was a pedophile. With a name like his, the chances that he came from France are quite high. So maybe I will check Interpol to see if anything shows up. In order to do this, I will have to give a call to my old partner Detective Gault and see if he can get some information on him.
In the meantime, I can do some internet searching to see if I can find out anything on Francois. After spending some time tickeling the keys I came across a few things. It turns out that he was born in Toulouse, France in 1960, and he moved to Washington, D.C. in 1985 for work. He visited Thailand in 1995 where he met Lamai Saelim whom he married shortly afterwards. They had one child, Yancy Thuet, who was born in 1996. She was subsequently kidnapped in 2002. Francois was survived by his widow Lamai, who still lives at their original address. While I found a lot of information, none of it was damning in any way. Maybe there will be something in Interpol.
After lunchtime, I gave a call to Detective Gault. He was happy to hear from me. I explained to him my feelings about the Thuets, and he concurred. Since nothing had shown up locally, they did not pursue it any further. I asked him if he might try contacting interpol, and he said, “sure”. Since as you know there is a time difference I did not expect to hear any news until at least the following day.
Two o’clock in the afternoon the next day Detective Gault called. Right off the bat, he said, “Peter, you won’t believe what I found out from Interpol. Francois Thuet was under close scrutiny in Toulouse back in 1985 for some questionable acivities regarding a minor. Nothing ever came out of it because he moved to the States that year. It kind of makes you wonder, doesn’t it? I think it warrants further investigation.”
I replied excitedly, “You could knock me over with a feather. I can’t believe what you just told me. He definitely just got moved up on the list of persons of interest. Too bad he is dead, so if he was involved in some way with my sister’s kidnapping, he will never be punished. Though there is still his wife. I am sure she was aware that her husband had some issues. Unfortunately, this is only just supposition and conjecture at this time.”
Gault finished by congratulating me on the progress I had made on the case.
“Charlie, I have one more favor to ask you, do you know of any of the adoption agencies in the tri-state area that may be involved in questionable practices?”
Charlie queried, “Why do you ask?”
“It is just a feeling I have,” I replied.
Charlie paused for a moment, “That is an interesting question. I’ll check my sources and I’ll give a call to our friend James at the FBI. I will give you a buzz as soon as I hear anything.”
“Sounds good, and by the way thanks for all of your help,” I said before I hung up.
After I got off the phone with Detective Gault, I sat at my desk, ruminating over what I had found out today. A million crazy thoughts were racing through my mind. None of it made any sense. If the Thuets had a young daughter, why would they need Yua if they were indeed responsible for her kidnapping? If they simply wanted a companion for their child, why not just have another baby? Maybe she couldn’t have another child? If so, why not kidnap a young boy instead? This way, Francois could have a son. Why did the child have to be a four year old Amerasian girl? Did something happen to their daughter, and they needed or wanted a replacement? If their daughter died of natural causes, then the age nor sex of the child would matter. What if the child died under suspicious circumstances? Needing a close replacement for their daughter would then make sense. So why would her replacement need to be removed from the scene just two years later? What is so significant about the age? What happens to children at five or six years of age?
OK, I need a break because I am becoming numb. I know what will not only help me relax but be productive as well, I will take Jojo out for a walk to one of the parks in the area. I can take him out for a walk each day at a different park to sort of make an unofficial canvassing of the local parks. Who knows maybe I will see something of interest there, like maybe someone else doing the same thing. After I hit all the parks, I will start over again. I will take notes of what I find at each park. I will also get a large map of the D.C. area and mark out all the parks on it.
I knew it was a longshot, but what did I have to lose. The first park Jojo and I went to was Clemyjotri Park in McLean, Virginia. Clemyjontri Park is a 2-acre park in McLean, Virginia, opened in 2006, which boasts a setting for children of all abilities to congregate. Even though the park wasn’t even in the planning stages when Yua was kidnapped, that didn’t mean that it couldn’t be a target for the kidnappers. We made a loop around the park twice. I really couldn’t justify making a third loop, I didn’t want to look suspicious or make any of the parents uncomfortable. Besides, I did not see any suspicious activity or questionable individuals. There were just a lot of kids and parents having fun. Even if our walk around the park was not overly productive, the fresh air and exercise did both of us good. It also helped me to clear my head a little and Jojo certainly seemed to be having fun.
Over the next couple of days while I waited to hear from Charlie, Jojo and I hit a couple of more parks on the map. We accomplished little on either day besides getting exercise. I was beginning to have doubts about my plan. However, it was just too early to give up on it. Besides, I have been only on my own for a week.
The weeks stretched into months and I have been doing the walking thing with Jojo all this time, and nothing has developed. I am beginning to think that I need a little break. Maybe now is a good time to make a little trip to France. Then it happened. Charlie called me.
” I have three words to say to you, Peter, Simpson’s Adoption Agency. Everyone I talk to mentions this agency when questions arise about shady adoptions. But nobody seems to have actual evidence of any impropriety. All they have are bad feelings. The agency is fully licensed and bonded. When I asked if any other agency is on the suspect list and I get a big NO, every other agency is above reproach. When I asked my boss at the department if we have enough to investigate the adoption agency he said no.”
“Charlie, I am sorry to say that I feel the same way as your boss, I would like more evidence before I take that step and possibly put myself into harms way or drive the agency underground. There is nothing stopping them from closing up shop and moving some place else. Then where would we be, right back to square one. I think that they are the key to a major portion of child trafficking in D.C. if not in the Tri-State area. With so much riding on this, I think discretion is the better part of valor. I want to further add that I think we have two of the major players in regard to my sister Yua’s kidnapping. I think the adoption agency provided the expertise and the Thuets for some, as of yet, undiscovered reason purchased their services. While I do have a crazy hunch, it is based on nothing but speculation and conjecture and possibly an overactive imagination. But despite all of that, I still hold firm in this belief. Now we just have to fill in the missing pieces.”
Charlie further added, “I think that a future sting operation is definitely in order. Unfortunately, my boss won’t sign off on it because a hunch or feeling is not enough of a reason for such an action. But you, Peter, being an independent contractor, don’t need to follow the same rules that we at Metro do. So I am sorry to say that without additional incriminating evidence coming to light, the next step will be up to you.”
Before I took off for France I decided to just check out the Simpson Adoption Agency. I spent a few days documenting the comings and goings of workers and perspective clients. One curious thing I noticed there did seem to be a fair number of single men going in and out of the agency, more than you would expect. I would think that young couples would be the types of people needing the services of an adoption agency not lone men. While this was certainly interesting and it provided another piece to the puzzle, I still think that I need to take to the friendly skies.
Jojo and I have grown so close since Aunt Ichika’s death that I can’t bear to leave him here in D.C. while I go to France, so I have decided to bring him with me. I already have proof of his rabies vaccination but he hasn’t been microchipped yet. While the chip is not mandatory in all of the countries in Europe, it is in France. Because he is such a valuable breed, it only makes sense to get him chipped for my piece of mind as well. Not to mention, Jojo could do with a bath and a little TLC. I also need to get a less intimidating collar than the spiked one he has been wearing. I saw the looks that some of the parents had been giving me when I take him for my daily walks.
I grabbed Jojo’s leash and loaded him into my aunt’s SUV. It had a large cage in the back cargo area. She had been lately only using it for transporting her dogs to their new owners. She no longer needed the SUV to bring them to the vet’s office. Because she had grown so large this was simply not practical to do this any more. She had put a veternarian on retainer who made monthly visits to give her mastiffs’ shots and to check on their health.
After I had taken care of all the arrangements for Jojo, I bought my plane tickets and rented a panel van at the airport in Toulouse. Finally all of the preparations have been made and I am off to Toulouse, France to see if I could discover more about Francois Thuet. But before I left I decided to give my old partner Detective Gault a courtesy call to tell him about my travel plans.
After I exchanged pleasantries and updated him on my progress or lack thereof, there was a moment of silence before I told him about my plans. “I think I am going to take a break in my investigation in the U.S. and take a trip over to Toulouse, France. Sometimes, you have to just step back a little to get a clearer picture.”
Before Charlie hung up, he added, “I think you have good instincts, Peter. You’re instinctively making the right moves. I will see you when you get back. Feel free to get in touch if you need any more help or if you discover anything more on this case.”
While I am not cheap it is nice to save a little money when you can so I decided after some investigating to take Jojo to Anicira Veterinary Clinic. “Anicira is a non-profit veterinary service provider working to end animal suffering by improving access to veterinary care. Anicira provides free veterinary care and pet food to thousands of pets each year.“ I was quite amazed by what I discovered about them. “Our goal is to provide excellence and superlative quality in the care of our patients. This goal is reflected in the type of programs we offer, the collaborations we develop, and our willingness to help animals in need. Our team helps families care for their pets by making veterinary care affordable.“
By the time Jojo was done, he was not only chipped, he looked like a million bucks, especially with his new collar. He certainly seemed to have a little more pep in his step.
Jojo, minus his new collar