Stop Me (Last Stand #2)(100)
Author: Brenda Novak

Her man. She didn’t know if Romain felt the same way about her that she did about him, but it was a lost cause to pretend he wasn’t the most important thing in the world to her. “I hope so.”

“Huff’s dead.”

Jasmine nodded. She’d already heard. “Has anyone located Mrs. Moreau?”

“She called me.”

“Wasn’t she afraid you might turn her in?”

“That’s why she called. She wants to turn herself in. And she needed my help to make sure that a boy in her keeping made it back to his parents.”

“She had a child with her?”

“She took him before Huff could get him to adoptive parents and collect yet another paycheck.”

“How’d she get involved with Huff in the first place?” Jasmine asked. “She just…doesn’t seem the type.”

“Huff busted Gruber Coen for ‘performing lewd acts’ at a  p**n  theater ten years ago, found out he was a truck driver for a lighting company and recruited him for his little sideline business. Gruber got Francis involved, and when Dustin’s medical bills began to mount up, Francis got his mother a job working for Huff. Soon Phillip was part of the ring, too. As long as they didn’t ask too many questions, it probably didn’t seem like a big deal to look after a few kids every night. And as the truth of what was really happening became more obvious, Beverly was in too deep to back out.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “That guy you found in the basement, Jack Lewis?”

“Yeah.”

“He used to work for Huff. He tried to get out and Huff shot him right there in Francis’s house. That taught them all a very powerful lesson.”

“That Huff wouldn’t be crossed.”

“Exactly.”

“How could Huff keep that many people busy?”

“It was a pretty big operation. Jack and a man named Roger were scouts. Huff paid for them to travel around and troll for kids. Other guys, like Gruber, Francis and Phillip, he sent to nab them once they’d been located. Bev and another woman—I can’t remember her name—helped out at the transfer house, taking care of the kids until they could be placed. He even had some prostitutes in his employ and they put out the word that he’d pay big bucks for a baby.”

“And he could afford all these people?”

“Some of them had outside jobs, like Francis, who was a delivery man, and Jack, who shuttled kids back and forth to after-school care. Others were strictly at his disposal, like Gruber—who quit his job driving a truck—and Phillip.”

“What got Huff involved in the first place?” she asked, trying to grasp the extent of Huff’s activities.

“His uncle’s an attorney. Bev thinks he gave Huff the idea, even threw him a few leads.”

“That’s how Huff came by his prospective clients? From leads?”

“Bev said Huff mentioned various attorneys who referred clients to him—people who didn’t qualify to adopt through legitimate agencies or wanted something very specific. Or didn’t want to wait the usual length of time it takes to get a child.”

“He had people putting in orders for certain types of children?” she asked in astonishment.

“That’s where he made the big bucks.”

Jasmine shook her head. “What’d he do with all his money?”

“His wife isn’t sure, but she thinks he was putting it in offshore accounts for when he retired.”

“Was his wife aware of what her husband was doing?”

“Not at all. She’s devastated. She found out he was planning to dump her, which makes it even worse.”

Jasmine couldn’t even imagine what that kind of betrayal would feel like.

“What’s she going to do?”

“What can she do? She’ll muddle through the best she can and see where her finances are when this is all over. She taught school for years. Maybe she’ll have to go back to it.”

Jasmine fiddled with the edge of the sheet on Romain’s bed. “What gets me is that Huff had children of his own, didn’t he?”

“Two grown boys.”

“How sad. They must be in total shock.”

“I’m sure they are. But you need to get some sleep,” Pearson said.

“I owe you an apology,” she told him. “I thought you were the bad guy.”

“Huff had the money to buy a lot of loyalty down at the station. It was easy for them to make me look like the bad guy. It was also easy for them to get rid of me.”

“Kozlowski wasn’t one of them, was he?”

“Yes. That’s the only man I know for sure, because he took Beverly’s call, yet he never filed a report.”

Jasmine wondered what Kozlowski would’ve done if he’d been on duty when she’d tried to contact him after finding Gruber Coen’s address. Had she phoned in just a few hours later, she probably would’ve spoken to the sergeant; she’d asked for him. Then he would have alerted Huff, and she would’ve died instead of the poor rookie. “Are you going to try and get back on the force?”

“I’d like to. After this, there’ll certainly be enough openings. And I’ve been humbled, grown up a lot. I hope they’ll take me.”

“It’d beat working nights in a parking lot,” she said with a smile.

“The chief is really trying to clean up the place. I think he’ll be willing to give me a second chance. He knows I didn’t tamper with the evidence on that case like Huff’s cronies said I did. That was just Huff’s way of getting me out of the picture.”

The hand holding the coffee he’d brought her was beginning to feel warm, which began to ease the terrible tension inside her. “I’m sorry that happened.”

“I take some responsibility for it. I shouldn’t have written that blog. Showing off like that allowed Huff to make me look like some kind of freak, so the whole evidence thing was easier to believe.”

Jasmine agreed that he’d helped them by writing what he had. “Why’d you do it?”

“I’m fascinated by the criminal mind, by deviant behavior.” He took a sip of his coffee. “I want to write a book someday.”

“You should do that.”

“We’ll see how it goes.” He pulled an envelope from his pocket. “I have something for you.”

Surprised, Jasmine shifted her chair away from the bed. “What is it?”