“Grab coffee if you need it,” Brantley instructed. “Then pull up a chair.”
“Can I put my stuff down first?” JJ muttered, heading for the stairs.
Reese took a sip from his mug, glancing at those surrounding him. He smiled to himself.
Never knew what to expect around this place, but one thing was for sure. It was never dull.
*
Half an hour later, once the teamhad trickled in, Brantley watched as they interacted with one another.
There were some familiar responses taking place: JJ and Baz glancing at one another every so often, Trey keeping his head down, hoping no one noticed him. Charlie, smiling as she interacted with Elana, both women seemingly happy to be here. Then there were the new interactions: Slade, ever the sly one, winking at Holly and making the young woman blush, Luca talking nonstop, Becs somehow managing to keep up with him.
It was interesting to say the least, but Brantley was eager to start tackling cold cases, not sit around chatting like this was a book club.
He cleared his throat, gave everyone a moment to finish their sentences and turn their attention to him.
“I know it’s gonna take some time for the newbies to settle in, but we’ve still got work to do. While each team will take its share of cold cases, there’s one case I want everyone to pitch in on whenever you have spare time.” He glanced over at Baz. “Where are we with the social media investigation?”
“Not much further than we were,” Baz answered, glancing at all the faces watching him. “Back in November, we worked with a Houston detective to locate a missing teenager,” he explained. “The case ended up not being related to this social media scam, but the detective thought it might be. He brought us up to speed on a group, or groups, of people who’re utilizing social media to insert themselves into virtual communities by joining online forums used by neighbors, parents, teachers to get together and help each other.”
JJ continued when he paused to take a breath. “A lot of people tend to overshare on social media, and these are scammers who’re capitalizing on it. You’ve got people pretendin’ to be your neighbor, offerin’ to help out in any way so they can get close. Whether it’s so they can steal from you or whatever. But the biggest problem lies with the ones who’ve set their sights on kidnappin’ kids.”
Becs looked like she was going to lose her breakfast. “You mean, they’re gaining trust, offering to help, and then…”
“Exactly that,” Baz confirmed. “There’ve been a couple of attempts across the nation, starting with one in Washington State. The news is spreading, but not nearly fast enough.”
“And it’s difficult to know who’s the potential scammer and who’s legit,” JJ inserted. “I mean, why wouldn’t you believe Cindy Smiles-a-lot isn’t who she says she is? You’ve interacted with her for a few months, read stories about her kids, about their school, about their sports, now you’re in a bind and she offers to pick up your kid. So why not?”
“That’s when they take the kid,” Baz added. “Luckily, the one time they knew it happened, they were able to get the boy back quickly and unharmed. However, since we’ve started looking into it, there’ve been numerous reports of failed attempts. They’re getting bolder, moving faster.”
“And this is somethin’ we’re actively pursuing?” Slade asked, looking cool and confident as he peered over at Brantley.
“Yes. Because we cover missing persons, and if we want to prevent them in this instance, we need to tackle the underlyin’ problem.”
“Makes sense.”
“Nothin’ will ever be enough as long as someone’s missin’ or murdered, but we’ll contribute,” Reese added. “If a specialized unit comes in and tells us to cease our efforts, fine. We’ll pass over what we have and they can deal with it. Until then, we’ll do what we can.”
Brantley nodded for Baz to continue.
“JJ and I have created some anonymous profiles and identified active community groups across the state,” he informed everyone.
“You said this is nationwide?” Becs inquired.
“Correct. But at the moment, we’re not, so we have to start somewhere. Our resources are limited, so we focus where we can.”
Brantley nodded to JJ, so she picked up with, “With Luca’s help, we’re monitoring these groups on the back end. I’d like to add more, watch more closely—”
“I can help with that,” Holly offered, her voice somber, expression, too. “Whatever way I can.”
“That’d be great,” Baz told her.
“It’ll certainly help, but what we need are people who can follow up on them,” JJ noted. “Once we’ve identified questionable activity, we need to be loggin’ into the groups, doin’ deep dives into the people who are offerin’ to help.” JJ was quick to add, “Yes, we might violate some privacy, but it’s for the greater good. If we can verify they’re real and they have a right to be engagin’ in such a manner, we’ll back off.”
“Everyone will pitch in,” Brantley decided. “JJ, you can work up a schedule so we can log some hours monitoring.”
JJ nodded. “Will do.”
