Beast Tamer's Rebirth National Treasure Edition novel Chapter 288

Chapter 288

‘All the voices?’ Anderson thought.

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He sensed something was wrong. First, he used his walkie-talkie to have the police cars move outside the mine. Then he said. “The recording only has Cesar, his wife, me, and his son Kenny Fleming. Did you catch Kenny’s voice, too?”

The five suspects quickly nodded.

None of them dared to hide anything, and one of the suspects explained, “The audio was kind of fuzzy, so at first, we couldn’t be sure. But the moment we heard the kid, we were certain.”

Sierra, sitting in the car, caught on and quickly said, “Don’t rush, ust go on.”

“Whenever we did business, there were always three people: a man, a kid, and a woman. But the woman’s voice on the recording isn’t the one we used to hear, so we hesitated.

“The kid’s voice, though, is really unique, especially when he called out ‘Dad’. That tone is unmistakable. There’s no way we’d get it wrong!”

Anderson realized what was going on and quickly called the station, “Check right now if Cesar has a mistress or any kids outside his marriage. If he does, I want everything on them.”

While the search was underway, Sierra explained the situation with Richie and Penny.

“I asked Richie and Penny, and neither of them caught any scent of kids nearby,” Sierra said. She paused and then switched topics. “But there’s definitely something shady about this mine.

“The dog that was barking at us told me that now and then, a truck comes by and drops off a bunch of people who seem a bit slow or confused.”

Anderson’s eyes widened. “You mean…”

“I suspect Cesar might be involved in trafficking adults who are mentally challenged,” Sierra said.

They still hadn’t found the kids, but they’d stumbled onto something unexpected.

If Cesar really was trafficking adults with intellectual disabilities, then everything started to make sense.

Cesar was using these adults for dangerous mining work. Mining was already extremely risky, and if anything went wrong in the mine, the owner could end up bankrupt from the compensation.

What really puzzled Sierra was, if Cesar was involved with the missing kids, what he was after.

Sure, a boy could go for tens of thousands these days, but for someone like Cesar, a mine owner, kid trafficking and maintaining a whole operation like that was high risk, low reward. It just didn’t make sense.

Cesar was a smart guy. He wouldn’t bother with something like that.

If he really was doing it, there had to be a reason he couldn’t let anyone else know.

“Tell me, once Cesar snatches these kids, where does he send them?” Sierra pressed.

“We… We really don’t know,” one of them blurted out. The five suspects all shook their heads. Seeing Sierra’s suspicious glare, they finally realized they were screwed. No matter what they said, nobody was going to believe them.

“We swear, we really don’t know. Look at us, we’re already controlled. Why would we lie now? We just want to give you anything useful, maybe shave a couple of years off our sentence one of them pleaded.

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12:23 Sat, Feb 28 M m M.

Chapter 288

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Anderson let out a cold laugh. “Now you’re scared? Where was that fear when you were snatching kids? Did you ever think you’d end up here?”

The five suspects fell completely silent.

But Anderson pressed on, “Come on, Ms. Sterling just asked you question. Don’t just sit there, answer her!”

The five suspects just exchanged nervous glances, wide-eyed and speechless.

After three seconds of tense silence, the suspect sitting at the edge finally spoke up, his voice barely more than a whisper, “We’re really not lying.

“Every time we handed over a kid we snatched or grabbed, Mr. Fleming would give us a huge payout, like a hundred grand for each kid. But where he sent them after that, we honestly have no clue.

“But there’s one thing.” The suspect paused, looking uncertain and glancing around nervously. “I don’t know if it’s even connected to the case.”

“If you think it’s suspicious, just spit it out,” Anderson said.

“I… I’ll talk,” the suspect blurted out, voice shaky. “When we were snatching kids, every boss only wanted boys.

“Most buyers either had daughters or couldn’t have kids, so they shell out a fortune for a boy. The younger the kid, the faster he’d get sold.

“But Mr. Fleming wasn’t like the others. He didn’t care about gender or age. What he really wanted were kids around four or five, old enough to remember a little, but still too young to really know what’s going on.

“Where he took them after, we seriously have no clue. Once Mr Fleming handed us the cash, he’d blindfold us and have someone drive us out of there.”

Sierra and Anderson could sense the suspect really had no reason to make things up.

And honestly, what he said was downright bizarre.

Sierra said, “With all these police cars showing up at the mine today, Cesar’s probably already getting suspicious. He might want to protect himself.

“If we go back now, we might lose all our leads. But what really worries me is that he might kill everyone to cover it up.”

Anderson’s eyes narrowed in alarm.

Ryan was stunned, too, and then said, “So you’re saying Cesar might just leave those mentally challenged workers trapped down in the mine?”

Sierra nodded.

“That’s very likely,” Sierra said, her tone serious.

Right now, there’s no way Cesar would risk moving those workers. The operation would be way too obvious, and with that many people, hiding them outside the mine would be impossible.

If she were Cesar, she’d make sure there were no witnesses left alive.

Anderson gripped his walkie-talkie tightly, and everyone in the other cars, both the cops and the wildlife rescue team, could hear every word.

At those words, everyone in the cars sucked in a sharp breath.

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12:23 Sat, Feb 28 M m M.

Chapter 288

If that was really the case, Cesar might make his move tonight.

If Cesar wiped them out to cover his tracks, it’d all be over before anyone could do a thing.

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