Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 52338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52338 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 262(@200wpm)___ 209(@250wpm)___ 174(@300wpm)
I quickly make my way out of her house, my mind hyperfocused on the pieces quickly connecting. Once I'm in my car, I pull out my phone and type BMF Cosmetics into my search engine. The website comes up, and I click on it, scrolling through the site to see all the makeup items they carry. I frown. The site itself seems legit and looks the same as any other site selling the same product. Yet that nagging feeling doesn't go away. I click through the different products, noticing how a majority of them are sold out. But all the listings seem to use the same lingo Morgan had used in her life. Many of the listings also seem to have some variation of the word cherry, which I find strange, especially for colors that didn't even include red as an option.
Closing out the site, I call Natalie. The more the pieces settle into my head, the more I realize how wrong we are.
"This is Natalie speaking," she says upon answering.
"It's Trent. I think I just stumbled upon something that may potentially blow this entire hit out of the water," I state, skipping the formalities and jumping right into business. "I've been spending a little time getting closer to the target in hopes of finding something incriminating enough for this hit on her to make sense, but I think I discovered something else entirely." I take a deep breath and exhale slowly. "I suspect she's unknowingly doing black market advertising in her Instagram lives."
"How would it be unknowingly if she's doing the lives herself?" she questions.
"Because she's only reading from some script her father gives her. I was actually with her when she just did this last one. If she is, in fact, doing that, then it would make sense for a competitor to try to take her out by ordering a hit in false pretense. Nothing I've discovered so far has given me an inkling of a reason for her to want to blow up her school. There's no motive. She's not mentally ill, she's not angry, she's nothing you'd expect a potential bomber to be. I honestly think it's more than that."
"Well, what do you think she's advertising?"
I lean my head against the headrest. "Based on the script she was reading from and what I've seen in my line of work, I think she's advertising something related to human trafficking," I answer.
In my days as a CIA agent, we'd had times when we were investigating international human trafficking rings. They always come up with the most crafty ways to stay under the radar, but I did remember some of the terminology they'd used, ones that seemed innocent enough on the surface to slide past the average civilian.
"I took a look at the website of the company she was promoting. The information is normal enough, but something still doesn't sit right with me. During her live, she kept emphasizing how the lipstick lasts twenty hours, which, when I hear twenty hours, I think about 8:00p.m. in military time. She also said the name of the lipstick often as well, which is Cherrypop. I remember back when I was working on an assignment, a lot of traffickers used references of cherries to imply that they were selling virgins. I'd say that the number of colors Morgan mentioned having is probably code for the number of girls they have." I paused to take a breath. "It might be a reach, but I honestly think Morgan was giving a coded message in her live about an upcoming human trafficking auction."
"That's quite the conclusion," Natalie says when I finally stop speaking.
"I'll send you the link to her video as well as the website of the company in question so you can dig a little deeper."
"Great. I'll look into that for you and see what I can find." She pauses for a moment. "And while it's great that you're getting intel that can potentially save a life in the event that this hit is unjust, remember that it's not a good idea to get close to her. Until proven otherwise, she's still your target."
Reality quickly settles back in. It's so easy to forget the true nature of things when you're enjoying yourself. Being around Morgan feels so normal that it's almost easy to forget that I'm contracted to end her life. And even if I ended up growing close to her, there's no way I'd be able to save her. Even if I can't pull the trigger to finish the job, The Hotel will just send someone else who will without any hesitation. If I want to keep her safe in the meantime, I have to stay on task and remain professional.
"It's purely business," I finally answer.
"Good. I'll be awaiting your information," she says and hangs up. I grab the links to both the website and Morgan's replay video of her life and send them to Natalie. My eyes drift up to Morgan's room window. My mouth goes dry as I watch her take off her dress, her perky tits coming into view before she disappears in the direction of her en suite bathroom. When she doesn't reappear, I force myself to get back out of my car and march back up to her front door, knocking firmly. So many questions fill my head as I knock even harder on the door. I wonder if her father knew. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt to think that he's probably oblivious about any sketchy business because why would a father want to set up his own daughter? But I've seen scenarios like this before. When you're deep in the life of crime, sometimes greed has no bounds. Most bad guys aren't above throwing the people they love under the bus if it means they'll gain something from it. Either way, I'm determined to get to the bottom of this.