“Yoder’s in the hospital. Critical, but he’s going to make it.” He grimaces. “We didn’t get Smucker. We think he took the snow machine and crossed into Canada. We’ve alerted the border patrol and the local authorities up there. Chances are he’ll seek medical attention for that gunshot wound. We’ll get him.”

I agree. Even a flesh wound is serious. Smucker’s no criminal mastermind. With no one to tell him what to do, he won’t last. That’s not to say he isn’t an extremely dangerous individual, an animal caught up in the flight or fight instinct. I know when law enforcement catches up with him, he’ll go down hard.

“What about the other people out at the compound?” I’m not sure when we began referring to Schrock’s farm as “the compound” but that’s what it is now.

“We got the warrant shortly after you were brought in. State police and St. Lawrence deputies are out there now, searching the place. Chances are there will be more arrests; Schrock and Yoder and Smucker didn’t do this by themselves.” He sighs. “They found three females locked in that old barn. We’ve run into some language issues. We think some of the women are Ukrainian. We’ve got a translator on the way.”

“They were smuggling people into the U.S. from Canada?”

“Smuggling and possibly trafficking. Some of these women were promised husbands. Evidently, Schrock and his pals made contact with men via the Internet. The men basically paid cash for these women, either to marry or prostitute them. We confiscated four laptops. Going to take a while to sift through all of it, but preliminarily, it looks like Schrock took in illegals and other vulnerable individuals, people down on their luck or homeless, and kept them at the compound. An unknown individual in Canada was sending people down to Schrock. Smucker and Yoder would smuggle them into the country using snowmobiles at night. Most were women, but we believe there may have been children involved, too.”

“Somehow, it always makes it worse when kids are involved,” I say.

“Whatever the case, multiple individuals were being held against their will. Most were subjected to physical abuse and sexual assault while they were here.”

“What about the Amish kids living at the compound?” I ask.

“We’ve got social workers out there. I’m assuming most of them will be placed with foster parents until we can figure out what else was going on out there. Interviews are happening today and will probably continue the next couple of weeks.”

I nod, wondering what they’ll find. If the kids will talk. How much they know. If the parents will cooperate.

Betancourt studies me a moment. “What’s your take on the Amish connection to all of this, Chief?”