Every Dark Corner (The Cincinnati Series Book 3)

by Karen Rose

  Zimmerman nodded. ‘Adam’s back at trying to figure out where the filming was done on the later Suzie videos, and Troy’s back to viewing the Alice videos. Hopefully Alice was banging someone who has some information about the traffickers’ customers and suppliers.’ He sighed wearily. ‘Because we still have a lot of kids – teens and adolescents – unaccounted for.’

  Kate focused on the paper and the way it felt as she folded each strip as she thought about the kids – the ones Decker and Wendi had identified from the neighborhood as well as the ones McCord had bought from Alice. ‘I was thinking. Decker is right. McCord and the Professor crossed paths, probably five years ago – that’s when the studio location changed. I keep wondering why he’d do that and why he’d remove those videos from the Internet, because that lost him money. It only makes sense if there was something in that first house . . . or in those first videos maybe. Something that could incriminate him or identify him.’

  ‘So maybe Adam should be focusing on the first-year videos?’ Zimmerman asked softly.

  She nodded. ‘Maybe McCord saw his video and said, “Dude, I found you this easy because you let this detail show up in your video. Let me show you how to do this gig right.” And they became partners. Or maybe he found McCord because whatever happened in that first house almost got him caught and he was scared, but not so much that he’d stop making films. He sold drugs to kids he recognized from the videos, and they told him about McCord.’

  ‘Or maybe McCord had a nicer place to film,’ Zimmerman said.

  She shook her head. ‘If that was the case, the Professor would’ve left the videos up where they could continue making him money. He’s moved everything to offshore servers now, based on the conversation that Alice had with her father. The one Decker taped with his bugs.’

  ‘The conversation that started all this.’

  She nodded. ‘The conversation Decker thought important enough to risk his life to tell us about. “Tip of the iceberg”, Alice said. McCord’s operation was tiny. The Professor’s the one with the reach. The traffickers’ IT guy – Alice’s half-brother – helped him move the servers offshore in exchange for a steady stream of revenue. He could have re-uploaded the first-year videos to that offshore server and made a mint, but he didn’t.’

  ‘You could very well be right,’ Zimmerman said thoughtfully. ‘I’ll tell Adam to focus on the first-year Suzie films, the ones you got from Corey Addison’s computer.’

  ‘I’ll help him when I’m done at the jail. Adam shouldn’t have to shoulder that alone.’

  ‘He isn’t. I’ve been working with the head of ICAC to find their mole. We can’t allow one bad apple to keep us from utilizing an entire department’s resources. ICAC will cooperate with our own cybercrimes division and we’ll ferret out whoever in there is dirty. In the meantime, they’ll make tracing the Suzie filming location a priority, because you’re right – the Professor is the one with the big reach. When I told ICAC what we were looking for, they found his other films right away. Not the server – too many proxies and too many foreign entities to navigate that quickly and easily. But progress.’

  ‘Good. Then Decker and I will get to the jail.’ Kate scooped up the flowers she’d folded from the torn strips of paper and placed them in the basket she’d made first. ‘For Mrs Z,’ she said with a smile. ‘Until I have a free moment to write a proper thank-you card.’

  Zimmerman picked up the basket, a slow smile of delight blooming on his face. ‘She’ll love it. Thank you.’ He looked up, over Kate’s shoulder. ‘You can come in now, Decker.’

  Kate startled, turning in her chair to find Decker leaning against the door frame, watching her. ‘How long have you been standing there?’

  ‘Since you started folding paper,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to interrupt when you were on a roll. But since you’re done, there’s something you should see. You too, boss.’

  Kate and Zimmerman followed him, Kate holding the box of paper to her chest. Decker’s tone had her worrying about what she was about to see. He led them to the private area where Kate had viewed Corey Addison’s Sunshine Suzie videos the day before. ‘Troy and Taylor have been examining the Alice videos in here,’ he explained.

  The two men were seated in front of a large monitor. ‘Quincy here enlarged the picture,’ Troy explained, ‘so that his face fills the screen.’

  ‘You won’t have to see any more flesh than that if you don’t want to,’ Quincy added.

  ‘I appreciate it,’ Kate murmured, steeling herself for whatever it was they’d found.

  It was a man, just his face as Quincy had promised. He was a handsome man, but . . . She wasn’t sure what she was looking for. His face was lifted upwards, his head thrown back. His expression was tight with sexual concentration, his eyes closed. ‘What are we supposed to—’

  Zimmerman derailed her train of thought with a gasp of shock. ‘Oh my God,’ he breathed, sitting heavily in the chair next to Troy. ‘That can’t be who I think it is.’

  ‘Oh, but it is,’ Troy said soberly.

  ‘Who?’ Kate demanded. ‘Who is he?’

  Twenty-six

  Cincinnati, Ohio,

  Saturday 15 August, 3.00 P.M.

  ‘Well?’ Kate demanded again when no one answered her. ‘Who is this guy?’

  Troy looked up at her. ‘Oh, right. You’re new in town. You wouldn’t recognize him. He’s a local TV personality. He does the medical report on the news. Last time I saw him, he was discussing some new implant for controlling insulin delivery for diabetics.’

  Zimmerman was shaking his head, trying to make sense of what they were seeing. ‘He was having sex with Alice?’

  ‘In many different positions.’ Troy grimaced. ‘Alice was quite the athlete.’

  ‘Holy shit.’ Kate blinked at the image, her mind racing. ‘He’s a doctor?’

  ‘Dr Brandon Edwards,’ Zimmerman said numbly. ‘He has a practice in the city.’

  ‘A doctor would know chemistry,’ Decker said, standing beside her, leaning heavily on his walking stick. ‘Poisons. Drugs. Making ricin wouldn’t be hard to do.’

  She gaped at him. ‘You’re thinking that this is the Professor?’

  Decker shrugged. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. But he’s the right height. The right body type.’

  ‘And,’ Troy added, ‘so far he’s the only one who’s matched all the physical parameters.’

  Zimmerman was still staring. ‘I’ve met him. Shaken his hand.’ He shuddered hard. ‘Oh my God. My kids went to him when they were in college.’

  Kate wanted to shudder along with him. Considered trying to comfort him, but what could she say? She clutched the box of pretty paper tighter to her chest instead – kind of a talisman – and made herself think. ‘I saw his eyes last night. I’d remember his eyes. Can you find a shot of him with his eyes open?’

  ‘No,’ Quincy said grimly. ‘Not when he’s facing the camera. He never actually makes eye contact with Alice while they’re . . . doing it.’

  ‘It’s like he doesn’t really want to be there.’ Troy shrugged, an odd, almost hurt expression flickering across his face. ‘He’s imagining he’s somewhere else. Or that she’s someone else.’

  ‘Okay, then . . .’ Kate focused on the face frozen on the screen rather than on Zimmerman, who seemed to be pulling himself together. ‘But his face is familiar to me, too, now that I look at it some more. I could have seen him in the crowd today at Kroger, but . . . I don’t think that’s it. It wouldn’t have been from the TV news. I haven’t watched any since I’ve been here. Maybe . . .’ She drew a shocked breath as recognition smacked her hard. ‘Quincy, can you bring the picture back to its original size?’

  ‘You want to see him in all his flesh?’ Quincy asked, surprised.

  ‘Well, no, but do it anyway.’ She practically snapped t
he command, then remembered herself and sighed. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude. Please reset the scale.’

  Quincy complied, tapping his keyboard. ‘The good doctor, in all his glory.’

  Kate stilled, her body feeling suddenly heavy, her shoulders weighed down with the memory of what she’d witnessed the last time she’d been in this room. ‘There,’ she said hoarsely, pointing at the man’s flank. ‘Zoom there.’

  Quincy obeyed immediately, and no one said a word.

  Kate pursed her lips so tightly they hurt. ‘Yeah. That’s him. That’s why he took them down. Sonofamotherfuckingbitch.’

  ‘Kate?’ Decker asked cautiously.

  She didn’t look at him. Her eyes were glued to the small tattoo on the doctor’s left ass cheek. ‘You know all those Sunshine Suzie videos that don’t exist online anymore? The ones that were recorded when she was twelve years old?’

  ‘Oh my God,’ Decker breathed. ‘He’s in them? This doctor? The tattoo. That’s what Stone saw when he was fourteen.’

  Kate nodded grimly and opened her box of pretty paper.

  Decker sat down next to her. ‘I like lions,’ he murmured. ‘Tigers and bears are good too.’

  Her smile was quick and forced, but she appreciated his attempt. I gotta get this fixed. I can’t keep folding paper and knitting blankets to cope with stress. But that wasn’t going to happen right now, so her hands started folding because her throat was closing up, a sob building at the thought of monsters who raped little girls. And then made money from it.

  ‘That man, the one on the screen, was in all the videos. First, second, and third year.’ Her hands faltered as she tried to swallow the baseball lodged in her throat. ‘He was . . . raping her in all of them.’ She drew a huge breath, her hands shaking too hard to fold paper. She hunched over, dropping her chin. ‘Oh God.’

  Decker splayed his hand on her back, rubbing big comforting circles. Saying nothing. Nor did anyone else.

  She pulled the emotion back in and shoved it down. I have to deal with this. It keeps surfacing, no matter how hard I shove it down. She flattened her hands on the tabletop to stretch the muscles that had clenched. Then she began to fold again. ‘He wore a wig, I think. In the videos. His hair didn’t move right, like it was shellacked to his head. Like a big Ken doll. He was spray-tanned, and in the early videos this tattoo showed. In the later ones, it’s not there.’

  Decker kept rubbing her back. ‘He must have learned how to cover it with makeup.’

  She nodded. ‘But here . . .’ She jerked her chin toward the monitor. ‘Here, he didn’t know he was being recorded. Alice’s camera was hidden. He didn’t hide his tat. That’s him.’ Her voice hardened. ‘And when we bring him in, we can prove that he raped a twelve-year-old in addition to tying him to production and distribution of child pornography.’

  She glanced at Zimmerman, who looked green. ‘I’m sorry to ask this, sir, but where did your kids go to college?’

  He closed his eyes. ‘King’s College, just like Sidney Siler and Stone O’Bannion. Edwards’s practice is near there. We had our own doctor, but both my kids played sports and needed physicals to play. His practice was convenient. They didn’t have to miss class. He recruited customers out of his practice as their doctor. He sold them drugs as the fucking Professor. This keeps getting worse.’

  ‘You don’t know that he did anything to your kids,’ she said gently, then recoiled when his eyes flew open, filled with rage.

  ‘He touched them!’ he roared. ‘He looked at them!’ He closed his eyes again, shaking his head. His hands clenched into fists, pounding his knees hard, just once, and when he spoke again, although it wasn’t with his characteristic calm, he was under control. ‘I’m sorry, Kate. I know you’re trying to help, but that bastard had his hands on my daughters. I’m finding it difficult to be objective at the moment.’

  Kate hesitated, then carefully covered one of his clenched fists with her palm. ‘How could you be objective?’ she asked softly. ‘I’d want to kill him, too.’

  Zimmerman’s throat worked as he tried to swallow. He opened his eyes, but made no effort to shake her hand away, so she left it there, giving him whatever comfort she could. ‘My kids are not the victims here. The victims are the kids he dragged into drugs when they were in middle school. And the kids that he and McCord somehow pulled into kiddie porn. We need to find out how he got his hands on Mallory. Maybe that will tell us how he recruited those victims.’

  Decker took his hand off her back. ‘I know where else I’ve seen him. Can I use the keyboard?’ Quincy passed it down to him, and Decker typed fast, the sound like rifle fire. He opened a new window on the big monitor and Kate’s heart sank.

  ‘Oh no,’ she whispered. Because now it made sense. A lot of things made sense.

  ‘The Lorelle Meadows Shelter and Free Clinic,’ Quincy said. ‘That’s the shelter down in Over-the-Rhine, right? But how does that factor into all of this?’

  ‘Some of the child porn victims come from that neighborhood,’ Decker said.

  ‘And it’s where Dani Novak was attacked,’ Troy added. ‘She said she volunteered there before getting offered a job. If he volunteered there too, he’d know the neighborhood kids. He’d know who was vulnerable. God, talk about being a kid in a candy store.’

  Decker shook his head. ‘He more than volunteered. I looked the website up yesterday when Dani said she’d been called into the shelter.’ He clicked on About Us, and up popped a photo of Dr Brandon Edwards, polished and dignified. ‘He’s the director. Has been for years. And he’s Dani’s new boss.’

  ‘Diesel said her attacker seemed to come out of nowhere,’ Kate murmured. ‘Because he came from inside the shelter itself. We need a positive ID from Mallory. She might be the only one, other than Alice, who’s seen his real face.’

  ‘Which is why he killed Alice,’ Zimmerman said. ‘But not before making sure she didn’t have any written record of their transactions. All right. I want to do this fast and right. Nobody gets to be a cowboy. Got it?’ They all nodded dutifully, and he went on. ‘We mount a three-pronged attack. I’ll send agents to his house and his office. They will sit there until I have a signed search warrant for both places. We’ll likely need Mallory’s ID to get a signature.’

  ‘We can match the tattoos,’ Kate said, protesting.

  Zimmerman shook his head. ‘He is a well-respected physician who has at least one cop in his pocket. Who knows who else he’s blackmailing? I’m not going to risk a dirty judge, or even one who’s star-struck because the bastard is on TV. We have to prove that’s him. We might get a warrant for him specifically so that we can prove it, but not for his house and office, not right away, and that gives him time to destroy evidence. And perhaps even to harm Macy.’

  ‘So where do you want us to go?’ Kate asked.

  ‘You and Decker go to the hospital. Get a positive ID from Mallory, even if it’s only a video of her reaction when she sees his photo. I’ll get the warrants drafted and have Edwards’s home and office surrounded. As soon as you have the ID, tell me, and I’ll get the warrant signed. Troy, I want you with the agents surrounding the office. Kate, Decker, you start for his home address as soon as you get that ID. Troy, I’ll meet you at the office.’

  ‘He films somewhere,’ Kate said. ‘His new studio. It could be in his house.’

  Zimmerman nodded. ‘Hopefully. But if it’s not, maybe Meredith can convince Mallory to tell us where that is after she knows that we have him ID’d. Oh, and Kate, you tell that former partner of yours that if I or anyone else sees his white head anywhere, I will have it on a platter. He is to go nowhere near Edwards or any of the possible places he could be hiding. I’m serious. I will make sure he never works again. He’s normally level-headed, but if he gets his hands on the man who attacked his sister, he’ll kill him. And I can’t protect
him from that.’

  Kate nodded. ‘I’ll tell him. Do I have permission to tie him up?’ she added wryly.

  Zimmerman nodded. ‘You do. Better yet, call Faith. Tell her to keep him in line.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Zimmerman waved them out the door. ‘Go. Now. Vests on everybody. Be safe.’

  Cincinnati, Ohio,

  Saturday 15 August, 3.00 P.M.

  He backed Gemma’s minivan up to the kitchen door. He had to get those four teens out of his house, and with one good arm he wasn’t planning to drag them any further than he had to. Once he had them someplace safe, he’d find a way to get closer to Mallory. That he’d be able to was not even a concern. He’d waltzed into the hospital and nobody had given him a second glance. He could be anyone he wanted to be and nobody could stop him.

  He figured he could add a little GHB into the teens’ drinks, like he had with JJ. None of them were terribly big, and he had a wheelchair in the basement from the last time he’d taken Roxy to the hospital for treatment. He’d just wheel them out and dump them in the back of the minivan. Once he had them tied up, it would be easy to offload them individually at the studio.

  Because he was going to need the money those kids would make him even more now. It would be a long time before he could build his business back up to its current level without the Professor.

  And the Professor, sadly, had to die.

  Hm. Intriguing thought. He could actually kill one of his threats and make it look as if they’d been the Professor. That way he got rid of a threat and got the cops off his back. If the Professor was dead, they’d stop looking for him.

  He’d have to give that one some serious consideration. He lifted the back hatch of the minivan and checked on Macy. She was awake and terrified. And crying. He patted her cheek.