“I’m on my way back. Who’s available to help track down some leads? Preferably female.”
Judy giggled. “You looking to get slapped with sex discrimination?”
“Funny, but no. Most females who may have been sexually harassed are more apt to talk to a female than a male.”
“True. I think Deborah is available.”
“Good, can you transfer me?”
“Yes, ma’am. Hang on.”
Rachel’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel while she waited for Deborah to pick up. She didn’t like men using authority to intimidate women into sex. That was one of the things she loved most about Ben. It was equal push and pull. On nights when she needed an escape, he gave her everything she desired and vice versa. Her mind was drifting back to last night when Deborah’s voice came through the line.
“Rachel?”
She blinked her eyes and cleared her throat. “Good morning. Are you in the middle of anything?”
“No, Allen is presenting closing arguments this morning, so I’m free after I box up all of the evidence. You need something?”
Rachel laughed. “Yes, your assistance.”
“Hang on. Let me grab a pen and notebook.” Rachel heard papers rustling. “Okay. Tell me what I’m looking for.”
“University of South Carolina law school. Class of 2008. Matthew Hightower should be in that graduating class. We need to talk to any female in that class as well as 2009 and 2010.”
“What are we trying to find?”
“Any female he made uncomfortable in a sexual way. I’m trying to form a pattern. With the younger ladies, find out if he used his status in any way to gain sexual favors.”
“Is this the same Matthew Hightower who’s the prosecutor in Cloverville County?”
“One and the same.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, also run down any former female interns who’ve worked there since Matthew was hired. I have one accusing him of using his position to coerce her into sex after he was elected as the county prosecutor. She isn’t claiming rape, but that he gave her a position then took it away when she told him she was uncomfortable with him touching her. The only way she got her position back was to allow touching then intercourse to occur.”
“That’s terrible.”
“Yeah, she’s willing to testify, but having corroboration would make this an easier case.”
“You know that will be almost impossible, especially with his alliances.”
Rachel sighed. “Yeah, but one of those alliances may fall with him.”
“Holy shit.”
“Exactly, I’ll be in the office in about an hour.”
“See you then.”
* * *
As soon as Rachel pulled out of his driveway, Ben walked toward the closed door of one of his spare bedrooms. This was one room Rachel never went into and for good reason. She knew what was in here, but this room was personal. He opened the door and flipped the light switch as he stood in the doorway. When his survivor’s guilt was too much to bear, this is where he came. He looked at the pictures scattered around the room of him and Maggie. They looked so young to him now … babies. At twenty-five, they’d thought they knew what this world was about, and they were going to conquer it with their youthful zeal. He picked up the picture of their wedding day—the one he always picked up because it was the last image of them before the crash. His fingers slowly drifted down Maggie’s face as he sat in the only chair in the room. He clutched the picture in both hands as his arms rested on his thighs, and he stared at her smiling face as he began to talk…
“Mags, I think I’ve figured out the last clue. I’ve just got to prove it. The thing is, I don’t know if it’ll do any good.” He took a ragged breath. “You know I’ll always love you, right? I mean, if you were still with me, it would be you and me forever, but honey, for the first time I think I’m ready. Rachel asked me if I could love both of you. I’m different now, Mags, but she loves me anyway. God, I really wish I could talk to you about this.”
He pulled the drawer of the small table open and grabbed the old cell phone. Over the years, he’d sometimes call just to hear her voice. He hit her speed dial number, and after four rings, her voicemail picked up. His eyes closed when her voice told him to leave a message. He didn’t always leave a message, but today, he needed to say these words out loud. “Mags, this’ll be the last time I call you. I’m sorry, honey, but if Rachel and I are going to give this thing between us a shot, I’ve got to do this. I told her this morning that I love her, and I do, Maggie, I love her. You will always be in my heart, but it’s time for me to live again … to be a part of the living. Fly high, Mags.”
He didn’t return the old phone to the drawer. He’d been paying to keep it on so he could hear Maggie’s voice, but now, it was Rachel’s voice he needed to hear more than anything. An overwhelming urge to prove to Rachel that he was ready to move on came over him.
Hopefully, it wasn’t too late.
8
Rachel pulled into her reserved parking spot at the district attorney’s office in Charleston. She flipped open the mirror on her visor to touch up her makeup. With shaking hands, she powdered her nose and reapplied her mascara. She quickly sent Ben a text:
I’m at the office.
Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, she left the secure confines of her car. She made the quick walk into the building, and Deborah met her at her office door. “Hey, Rachel. I’m just getting started, but wanted you to know that between the three classes, there are fifteen women we need to contact.”
“Fourteen. At least one of them has passed away.”
“How do you know that?”
“One of them was Maggie Johnson Stevens, Ben’s wife. I helped to prosecute the man who killed her.” Or at least the one sentenced for it.
“Oh, wow. Rachel, I’m sorry.”
She waved it off. “That’s how I met Ben. Anyway, Maggie had told him that Matthew creeped out the female students by standing too close and accidentally touching them, and I need to know if he took it farther. Supposedly, he helped tutor younger students, and from comments he made about the intern, the more innocent they were, the better he liked them.”
Deborah took notes. “I went to high school with one of the female students, so I should be able to get her contact information fairly easily, and another works in the Attorney General’s office in Columbia. Her reputation is that she’s very standoffish, though, so I don’t know how useful she’ll be.”
“Hmm, maybe I ought to speak with her. She may open up to me, colleague to colleague.”
Deborah nodded. “I was hoping you’d say that.” She smiled. “Anything else?”
“I’m going to start with his family life—mother, father, siblings. Get me all the information on the woman in Columbia, and let me know when you make contact. Try to set up an appointment for me to meet with her sooner rather than later.”
“Got it.”
Rachel sat at her desk and pulled out all the information that Carrie had given her. She’d scribbled on her notepad that Ben was supposed to email her the copy of the check Matthew gave Carrie, so she booted up her computer and made notes while it came up. Who were Matthew’s parents? Did he have siblings? Girlfriends? Where did he grow up? When her computer was fully awake, she took off her suit jacket to get comfortable for a long day of computer research. She started with a general search on Matthew Hightower, Cloverville County Prosecutor, and several articles about the cases he’d won as well as the current case against Charles Harper and Linda Gregory popped up.
She scrolled down to find his personal information from his campaign page when he ran for county prosecutor.
Mother: Gloria Hightower. She had suffered a stroke and lived in a nursing home in Rock Hill. Rachel jotted down the name of the facility so she could contact the home and find out if Ms. Hightower was lucid enough for visitors.
Father: blank She made a note for Deborah to get a co
py of Matthew’s birth certificate.
Siblings: Only child
Hometown: Rock Hill, SC
Rock Hill was big enough that it had several high schools, so she needed to find the one he’d attended and track down any old girlfriends. Was this behavior prevalent then? That brought another question to mind. What kind of student was he?
She slipped off her heels and bit her pencil as her mind continued to work.
* * *
As Ben dressed for work, he called the Riverton Crossing Chief of Police, Evan Riverton. The call connected on the second ring.
“Riverton.”
“Evan, it’s Ben.” He wasn’t a fan of small talk but he knew he needed to ease into this. “How ya doing, man?”
“Great. How’s the new Sheriff?”
“Acting Sheriff. I haven’t decided if I want this permanently yet.”
“Come on, Ben. You know you love it here.”
“We’ll see.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Listen, can you meet me at the diner for lunch?”
“Yeah, are you okay?”
“Maybe. I don’t know.” Ben looked at his watch. “Meet me at noon?”
“See you then.”
Ben sat at the computer in his home office and typed Samuel James Baxter into the search bar, but there were no pictures anywhere of Samuel James Baxter. Was he a fucking ghost?
An incoming text pinged on Ben’s phone. He looked to see a message from Rachel:
I’m at the office.
That was one less worry. He’d have to figure out a way to talk to her later. He took a deep breath and dialed the number of the only person who could help.
“Rogers.”
“Adam, it’s Ben Stevens.”
“How the hell are you? We miss your ugly mug around here.”
“Miss me enough to help me out?”
The man cleared his throat. “The state police investigative office is here to help all law enforcement, even the ones who leave us.”
Ben laughed. “I need this off the record, Adam. Are you okay with that?”
“What have you gotten yourself into?”
“Nothing, I just need some background on one of my deputies. He’s a friend but made a comment that piqued my curiosity, and I need to know if it’s going to bite me in the ass.”
“You can’t run a background check in the low country?”
“Not in my office without arousing suspicion. I’m at home trying to run a search, and I can find his name, but there are absolutely no pictures of him anywhere.”
“Got his social security number?”
“I’ll have it this afternoon. I’ll call you when I get it. Thanks, Adam.”
Ben clicked on the last entry from a year ago. There was a picture of a man, woman, and young woman from the Oil Baron’s Ball in Salina, Oklahoma. The caption read:
Harvey Baxter, Managing Partner of Baxter Oil with his wife, Jacquelyn, and daughter Alexandrea. Mr. and Mrs. Baxter’s son, Samuel, is not pictured.
Who the hell are you, Sam? He shook his head and shut down his computer then headed for his lunch meeting with Evan.
Fifteen minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot of the diner. Evan’s car was already there, so he didn’t hesitate to walk inside. He cleared the door and looked around, finding Evan in the back booth as far from anyone as possible. Ben sat across from him.
“One of these mine, or are we expecting company?” He pointed to the ice teas on the table.
Evan smiled. “It’s yours. You didn’t sound like we needed company.”
Ben took a swallow of tea. “Nah, this needs to stay between us.”
The waitress walked up and took Evan’s order first. While Ben placed his order, Evan sent a text. “Sorry, just checking on Ginger,” he stated once the waitress had left. “She’s in the middle of her second trimester, so things are better, but I just want to make sure she’s getting plenty of rest. She’s not sleeping all that well.” Evan shrugged. “We don’t go back to the doctor until next week.”
“You may want to finish that text quickly. There’s an angry man heading this way at your three o’clock.” Ben took another sip of his drink.
The man stopped right beside Evan with a finger pointed and a scowl on his face. “You finally did it. You shut her down. Are you happy now?”
Evan furrowed his brows as he turned toward the man. His gaze was on the man’s finger until it was lowered. Finally, he looked the man in the eyes. “What are you talking about, Mr. Myers?”
“Ruby. She’s closed her doors and put her house up for sale.”
Evan rubbed his jaw. “Mr. Myers, even though it’s no secret what Ruby does, prostitution is still illegal, but she and I have an understanding. As long as she stays away from my officers and off the streets, I won’t go looking into her visitors and what she does with them, so if she’s no longer having visitors, then that’s up to her.” Evan looked out the window of the diner in time to see a man finish hanging the For Sale sign in her front lawn, and another man escorting Ruby down the street with her arm linked through his.
Evan nodded toward the window. “It appears Ruby is occupied, Mr. Myers.”
The man stared out the window. “He’s been there every day for a month. Are you going to do something?”
“It’s none of my business, Mr. Myers, unless she falters on our understanding.”
The man looked back at Evan. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Evan politely tipped his head toward the man. “You do that, Mr. Myers. Thank you.” When he turned toward Ben, he shook his head. “Please tell me this isn’t your agenda too.”
Ben held his hand up. “Not my jurisdiction.”
“So what’s on your mind?”
The waitress stepped up to the table with their lunch orders. The men thanked the lady before she turned and walked off. Ben looked around again before he focused on Evan. “Sam.”
Evan’s fork stopped halfway to his mouth. His hand slowly lowered back to the table, and his mouth closed as he stared at Ben. “What about him?”
“What do you know about his past?”
Evan took a bite of his food. “He was DEA when I was getting out of the Masterson Investments case.” Evan shrugged. “He’s solid. We’ve worked well together. He and Nathan are tight.”
“He confronted Hightower the other day. Now, he wants to bring him down.”
“Matthew has never been one of Sam’s favorite people. He was the prosecutor when Sam was arrested while he was undercover on the Masterson Investments case.” Evan raised a shoulder. “Sam tolerates him, but doesn’t look for a reason to be in the same room with him.”
Ben nodded. “I can promise you, he’s got a real hard-on to take him down now.”
“Is that what this is about?”
“Partially.” Ben looked Evan in the eyes. “Will I have an issue with him?”
“As long as I’ve worked with Sam, he’s been by the book for the most part.”
Ben nodded again.
“Is that all we needed to talk about?”
Ben laid his fork down and rubbed the back of his neck. “You know, for ten years I’ve felt something wasn’t right with Maggie’s case.”
“Yeah…”
“Yesterday when Rachel was talking to Carrie, something she said triggered a memory, and … and…” Ben shook his head.
“And what?”
“And this part we need to finish behind closed doors.”
Evan studied Ben’s face. “My office is closer.”
* * *
Ben followed Evan to the Riverton Crossing Police Department. They walked through the front doors, and Evan called over his shoulder, “Hold my calls, Rita.”
They closed the door to Evan’s office and sat down. Evan propped his feet on the corner of his desk and looked expectantly at Ben.
“It wasn’t Theodore Nobles driving the damn car.”
“Then who was it?”
Ben leaned for
ward. “Senator Martin Pickens.”
Evan sat straight up. “What the hell, Ben? Are you sure?”
“I thought I would vomit when the picture became clear as a bell to me in that conference room. I didn’t expect it, Evan, and I didn’t plan it, but dammit, I see it clear as day. They changed places. Mr. Nobles helped Senator Pickens out of the car and into the passenger side before he got behind the wheel.”
“God Almighty, Ben. Can you prove it?”
“Not yet, but here’s the thing—I want to use this with Sam and Carrie. I don’t think Sam likes the idea too much, but I want to see if I can springboard my way into the Senator’s financials.”
“What does Rachel say?”
“Yeah, well…”
“She thinks you’re crazy.”
“Not exactly. She may have called us quits this morning.”
“Personally or professionally?”
“I don’t know. She asked for a few days.”
Evan sighed. “What happened? Y’all have been together for a long time.” Ben leveled Evan with a stare, and Evan rubbed his jaw. “Maggie.” Ben nodded. “She’s been gone for a decade, Ben, and Rachel has stood by you when most women would’ve told you to take a leap.”
“I know.”
“Then what’s holding you back from her?”
“What if I can’t protect her just like I couldn’t protect Maggie?”
“I don’t know, man.” Evan shook his head. “I’d lose my shit if something happened to Ginger.”
Ben pointed at him. “Exactly. And to top it off, I was talking in my sleep last night and said something about my wife. Rachel thought I was talking about Maggie, but it was Rachel’s face I saw.”
“Does Rachel know it was her?”
Ben nodded. “She does now, but it hurt her bad, Evan. I told her I love her this morning for the first time, but I’m afraid it’s too little too late.”
Evan’s eyebrows tried to find his hairline. “For the first time? Y’all have been together for years, Ben. What the hell?”
Uncovered Secrets: A Riverton Crossing Novel - Book 7 Page 4