Jane greeted us as we entered the office. After I introduced Chayton, I asked her to call a staff meeting. I wanted the rest of the employees to meet him as well.

"Already done. In about five minutes. I have a surprise for us too. I hope you don't mind but I scooped an IT expert who is a white hat hacker to work with us. She'll be in office twice a week and working from home the rest of the time. Joey is moving to Flagstaff as well. Things are starting to gel with our new staff." Jane's huge grin was a welcome sight.

"Good work! I'm putting Tommy in charge of the three of them. He knows how I like my reports done and he's always been amazing at managing contacts and informants. With Joey and your surprise, we have our intel gathering department solidified."

We turned into our boardroom as we talked.

It was a far more intimate setting than the one I was used to. A seventy-five inch smart TV dominated the wall to the left of the door. The table was older, with a slightly distressed finish. It looked like an oversized farmers table with trestle legs under it. Slightly worn leather chairs surrounded it with seating for seven people, eleven if we squeezed.

"This looks amazing, Jane." Chayton helped himself to a glass of orange juice from the slender table across the wall opposite from the massive monitor screen. Water, an ice bucket, and a Keurig with various pods were line up next to it.

"I hit the used office equipment sites and I found the table at an antiques fair. They practically begged me to take it when it was still sitting at the end of the weekend," Jane said. "The only thing we paid full price for was the screen. We have a kitchen at the end of the hall, with a dishwasher, so cleaning up after a meeting or a late night session will be easy."

"How did you get the construction over with so fast?" I found myself curious.

"A crew of university do it yourself types, with one of their grandfathers acting as their supervisor. Marcel's sister-in-law had them do work for her and raved about them. Do you mind having him on the team?" Jane asked.

"He's probably the best records guy I've ever seen. Never lost a file paper or digital in the entire time he's worked here. I'm just surprised he want to join us."

"Good. I'm not sure I can handle it. I've decided to take on the office accounting, invoicing, and scheduling. We'll keep a consulting firm on retainer for tax and payroll purposes. Everyone's gone to direct deposit, and since we're all on salary, we decided on the fifteenth and thirtieth for paydays."

"So, basically no change from what we had before." I said.

She nodded as the rest of the staff filed into the room setting down phones and laptops as they slid into seats. Joey Larson reached up to flip the power switch on the monitor. Lankier than I expected, he wasn't quite as tall as Chayton and little more muscular than Marcel who was the shortest man in the office.

The woman who followed them had an exotically made up face and dressed in an understated black business suit with a burgundy silk camisole under the blazer. Her eyes almond shaped with a slight upward slant, her facial structure a perfect blend of African-American and one of the many eastern Asian cultures, her skin was the color butterscotch pudding.

"I'm Meixing Carson. I didn't know the office policy, so don't be surprised if you don't recognize me tomorrow. I'll be in jeans and a t-shirt with no make up. The last office fired me for coming in on a weekend with out the fancy get up." She unbuttoned her jacket as she spoke, shrugging out of it. "I hate it."

"Before we get to anything else," Tommy interjected, "I have something to show you. Meixing worked on it with me."

She took charge of the monitor from her laptop. "From the picture you caught of him, and the tape from your glasses, we have a surprising ID on the man Dayton Arcourt met a Denny's."

The grainy low light picture I snapped and a still from Domestic Aide Agency appeared side by side on the screen in almost real life size.

Our brand new IT expert went on speaking in precisely clipped words. "I enhanced the signet ring. It's identical and so are the engineer's rings. On top of it, there are identifying features to his hands and one other picture forwarded to DHS from the Special Ops team who took the agency down just after your plane lifted off from Abu Dhabi."

The third and fourth pictures gave us the mugshot, so to speak. I couldn't pronounce the man's name, and Joey continued the explanation.

"He's Maha's lover. He spilled the goods when he realized he was facing a death sentence. The Emir is serious about cleaning up his country's despicable human rights issues. He will be allowed to live out his life in a mid-dessert prison. His passport was revoked. Mohamed Al-Jarrar gave us the location of four more human trafficking operations. Two are in the U.A.E. the others are in northeastern India and Afghanistan."

"Once I had a clear picture of the signet ring, I found a picture of the same ring in the possessions Derringer Whitcomb was wearing when he was arrested. It's very distinctive and there is a jeweler's stamp engraved on the inside. I need a warrant to get the sales records for all the buyers, and their shipping addresses." Tommy concluded their presentation.

Meixing continued, "I am untangling your mystery messages as well, ma'am."

I interrupted her, "Alyana. We're a team here and no one is more or less than anyone else."

"Maybe so, but you're still the boss. I've traced them back to a company based in India. I'm about to hack into their computers to find out who used the numbers your call came from. I know it's not legally useable evidence, but it will track them down and we can build from there."

"You have a good point on those numbers" Chayton said.

I nodded before I went on.

"Great work, everyone. Marcel, I'm counting on you to make sure we have record of all of this. I'll want to share it with our partner agencies in this. You will be responsible for compiling new intelligence and research results to share with them through the group intelligence manager. I'll give you his email address as soon as I have it."

"Yes, Ma'am," Marcel said, "Fits right in with everything else I'm doing.

I sighed and said, "Alyana everyone."

My newly minted office intelligence manager rolled his eyes and winked at Meixing, and I watched a quick smile flicker across her face.

I was ready to let everyone go to get on with other assignments, when she spoke up again.

"On a side note, I'm also playing with frequency modulations to unmask the true voice of your mystery caller slash texter. There are only four devices which do this I would trust, so I should have something for you there." She closed her laptop and prepared to leave.

My research team stood to follow her and I held up a finger.

"Just a second, I'll get your warrant, Tommy. Fortunately, I'm still a member of the bar and I can ask for it. We have enough evidence already to have a reason. Meixing, thank you."

She shrugged. "Anything we can figure out will help identify them."

"Marcel, I'm glad to have you aboard." I couldn't keep the surprise out of my voice.

"Happy to be here. I'll look for that email address, yes?"

"Give me ten minutes. Need to check my messages and email. Keep going. Chayton and I are heading into northern Mexico to bring Ella's Abuelita out of the country. In the meantime, we're expecting pictures of all six victims of the Meadow Murders. Joey's brother Jonah has completed their forensic reconstruction."

"I have a list of missing women from Elaine Wolfchild as well," Joey informed me.

"Cross reference their pictures with the women I caught on camera at the gala and Domestic Aide as well. Do you have a list of names for the victims from the raid there?"

"Not yet, as far as I know," Jane responded.

Everyone else shook their heads.

"I think that's it."

My office manager held up a finger. "Ophelia has handed us the investigation to find next of kin for Bessie and Bree. They are starting to talk so we have some leads there."

"Tommy, take the file. Are you going to need more help?"

"I think we can handle it. Meixing has ideas on where to begin looking. She's a pleasure to work with."

"If you can handle a techno nerd with an IQ which was never quantified, then maybe," she said. "I'll start cataloguing missing persons stories and posts in all the social media sites as well. Sometimes no one believes the families."

I caught a hint of anger in her comments and made a mental note to find out who ignored her. I asked the obvious question.

"Why no IQ score?"

"I couldn't resist playing with the questions and testing. I used to come up with the worst or most wrong answer."

My giggle escaped before I could control it. "Love it."

I got my first genuine smile from her.

"You're going to fit in just fine Meixing." Chayton's chuckling comment matched my assessment perfectly.

"By the way, this is Chayton Adakai, my fiancé."

A chorus of hellos and welcomes came from my team, as they went out the door.

Marcel had the last word.

"You think we didn't figure it out? Welcome man. We'll take help from wherever it comes."