Every Dark Corner (The Cincinnati Series Book 3)

by Karen Rose

  ‘Don’t cry. I’ll have you someplace nice really soon.’ He covered her back up with the blanket and entered his house through the kitchen door, and was immediately greeted by the heavy odor of pot. So the kids had found his stash.

  Excellent. At least something was going according to plan.

  He found them all in a happy daze around the TV, which was playing the very naughty, hard R, nearly porn movie he’d left out for them. They’d be easy to train once he got them hidden away and broken. He would have liked more time to soften them up, but thanks to Mallory, he no longer had that option.

  Mallory was going to suffer. Death by ricin might be painful enough. No, nothing was painful enough. But he couldn’t let himself focus on Mallory right now.

  ‘Hi, sir!’ Seth said happily.

  ‘Hello, kids,’ he said, feigning a scowl. Normally he wouldn’t pretend to be angry. His ready acceptance of his victims’ drug use was one thing that kept them coming back voluntarily. But since he wasn’t going to let them go, he changed his approach on the fly. ‘What the devil has been going on here? Are you all high?’

  Sarah, the serious one, frowned. She did not appear to be high. Figures. There was always one goody-goody in every group. Once he got them to the studio, he’d have to break her first. The others would fall into line much faster without their moral spine.

  ‘I tried to stop them, sir. Really. But they wouldn’t listen to me.’

  ‘This is not good, kids,’ he said angrily. ‘Your parents and grandparents trusted me to take care of you. I trusted you to behave.’ He turned to Goody-Two-Shoes Sarah with a sigh. ‘Maybe you can help me get them sober, then. I could use some help making coffee.’ Into which he’d add liberal helpings of GHB.

  She followed him into the kitchen, still frowning. ‘I thought you were a doctor.’

  He looked at her, eyebrows raised. ‘I am.’

  ‘Then why are you wearing that uniform? That’s a policeman’s uniform.’

  I hate intelligent children. He handed her a bag of ground coffee and pointed to the machine. ‘Because I stopped to help someone in a car accident while I was out. I got my clothes bloody and one of the officers offered me this shirt.’

  That seemed to satisfy her. ‘Oh. Okay. Should I make the coffee strong?’

  ‘Please. They’re pretty toasted.’

  ‘I know,’ she said, disgusted. ‘I’m so sorry.’

  ‘Don’t be. I should have checked to make sure they hadn’t brought any pot with them.’

  She shook her head, one brow lifted. ‘No, sir. They found it here. In the cookie jar.’

  He sighed sadly. ‘My niece lives with me. She has a drug problem. Sometimes she brings things into the house that she shouldn’t. I’m sorry you had to see that.’

  ‘Thank you for explaining it to me,’ she said politely. ‘I understand, but my gran would’ve gotten really mad. My mama brings in drugs. She’s outta control.’

  This he knew, because her mama was one of his better customers. He didn’t know how the woman had been paying him all these years, but her most recent payment was Sarah herself. What he hadn’t known was that there was a puritanical grandmother in the mix. ‘Did you tell your gran?’ he asked casually, relieved when she shook her head.

  ‘My cell phone don’t work here. Plus Mama told her that I’d be with her all day. She knew Gran wouldn’t let me come here. Gran’s real strict, on account of Mama’s problem.’

  Good. And that meant Sarah’s gran would be one less person he’d have to kill. Sarah’s mother, on the other hand . . . She had lied to him, told him that he’d have no trouble with Sarah. She hadn’t mentioned Gran. So Mama would be dealt with.

  He sighed to himself. He’d broken his number one rule: Never trust an addict. Next time he wouldn’t be in such a hurry to make deals like the one he’d made with Sarah’s mama.

  He assessed Sarah’s size. She didn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. ‘Do you drink coffee, Sarah?’

  ‘No, but I like pop,’ she said with a smile.

  ‘Then let me get you some.’ He poured cola into a glass, and while she was making the coffee for the others, he stirred in enough GHB to put her out fast. She guzzled it down and put out her glass for more. He refilled it, then asked her to get them some snacks. While her back was turned, he added the powder to the cups of coffee.

  Sarah took the coffee in and scolded the others to drink it and sober up, sounding like a little mama herself. The other three kids fell into line, gulping the coffee down even though it was still very hot.

  Oh yeah. I definitely have to break Sarah first. She’s the kind who could lead an uprising.

  He checked his watch, relieved when they all started to fade. He walked Sarah out first, holding her up as she staggered and stumbled. He pushed her into the back of the van, tying her firmly and taping her mouth before going back to get the others.

  Everything worked as he’d hoped, and soon he had all four teenagers in the back of his van. He moved Macy to one of the middle seats so that she didn’t get squashed by one of the bigger kids, then he locked up the house, got back in the minivan and was on his way, the ease of the operation a good omen. The horrible luck of this day was over.

  He’d take them all to the studio, then rest a bit before he figured out how he’d deal with Mallory. And at some point he needed to get that antibiotic in his arm. It no longer throbbed. It was numb. And he didn’t need to be a doctor to know that wasn’t good at all.

  Cincinnati, Ohio,

  Saturday 15 August, 3.20 P.M.

  Decker drew up a chair next to Agent Triplett, who’d pulled guard duty again, this time outside Mallory’s room. Zimmerman had released all the security from the safe house, since nobody was using it to stay safe.

  Meredith came out of Mallory’s room, looking as tired as Decker felt.

  ‘How is she?’ Kate murmured.

  Meredith shrugged. ‘Physically, she’s in pain. I’ve been watching her respiration and pulse like a hawk, just in case someone does try to put something in her IV other than pain meds. She drifts in and out. She kept asking for Kendra until I finally called Wendi and asked her to bring Kendra here. They’re on their way.’

  ‘She hasn’t had any visitors,’ Trip added. ‘No one’s tried anything. It’s been quiet.’

  ‘Not for much longer,’ Decker said.

  ‘That’s for sure,’ Kate agreed and quickly brought them up to speed, giving Meredith and Trip time to absorb the new information before telling them what they planned to do.

  ‘You’re going to videotape her reaction?’ Meredith said uncertainly. ‘That seems like a violation of her privacy to me. But I don’t have a better plan. Did you tell her doctor so that they can be prepared if she goes into shock?’

  Decker nodded. ‘We did. Her doctor’s on standby. It’s more likely she’ll need you to calm her down, Meredith.’

  ‘Hopefully Kendra will be here soon. Mallory’s got a one-track mind when it comes to wanting her here, which isn’t uncommon for victims of abuse. They often attach themselves to a person – or the idea of a person. Kendra was her savior, her safety net all week. I think knowing someone had her back was what gave her the courage to come forward in the first place. That Kendra was there, waiting for her when she came out of the store – that’s a powerful mental image. And one we really shouldn’t try to make her give up.’

  ‘We don’t have time to wait for Kendra to get here,’ Kate said. ‘Zimmerman has a judge waiting to sign our warrant.’

  Meredith’s nod was weary. ‘Then let’s do this.’

  ‘You and I are going to be in the room,’ Kate told her. ‘Decker’s going to do the video.’

  ‘And I’m just here to look pretty,’ Trip said with a roll of his eyes.

  Meredith pat
ted his massive arm. ‘You’re here making her feel safe, even though she doesn’t have the words to tell you that yet.’

  Decker blew out a breath and forced himself to stand. ‘I gotta say, I’m about done.’

  ‘When did you two last eat?’ Trip asked.

  ‘I don’t even remember,’ Decker said with a short laugh. ‘We’ll have to grab something on our way out of here.’

  Trip patted the cooler next to his foot. ‘You can have my dinner. I got my eye on one of the nurses who I can sweet-talk into bringing me something later.’

  Decker’s stomach started growling at the thought. ‘I’d say no thank you, but my stomach might just kill me.’ He followed Kate into Mallory’s room and hung by the door, waiting to see what the girl’s reaction would be. He started recording, holding his phone so that it wasn’t obvious what he was doing.

  ‘Hi, Mallory,’ Kate said, pulling one of the chairs close to the girl’s bed. ‘I’m back.’

  Mallory blinked at her, half asleep. ‘Kate.’

  ‘That’s right. That guy over there? He’s one of my partners. His name is Agent Davenport.’

  The girl seemed to wake up a little. ‘Davenport?’

  ‘Yes’m, but you can call me Decker. It’s a nickname.’

  ‘Why? Why is it a nickname?’

  ‘Because I was a scrapper as a kid, and I decked everybody,’ he answered with a smile. It was his stock answer for people who asked. But then something in his gut told him that he needed to give her more than that. He sobered, losing the smile. Losing the glossed-over version. ‘I decked everybody because my mama would get high and we’d get put in foster care and sometimes it was good and sometimes it wasn’t.’ She watched him, suspicion flickering in her narrowed eyes, unsure whether she could trust that his story was true. So he gave her true, laying himself bare. ‘She’d get clean long enough to get me and my sister back, and the cycle would begin again. Until my mama OD’d after letting some old pervert have my little sister.’

  Mallory gasped, and from the corner of his eye he could see Meredith’s eyes widen. Kate, on the other hand . . . She smiled at him encouragingly, making it so much easier to answer Mallory’s next question. ‘What happened to her? To both of them?’

  ‘My mama died in a puddle of her own vomit, the needle still in her arm.’ He drew a breath. ‘My sister died too and . . . well, that was really hard because she suffered. A lot. She was a little girl and he . . . well, he was a grown man. He hurt her, so bad she died. But it wasn’t like she even got to rest in peace, because the bastard who’d hurt her had taken pictures of her.’

  Mallory went still, her eyes locked on Decker’s. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she whispered.

  He found a small smile for the young woman who’d also suffered. ‘Thank you. But it got worse, because the bastard uploaded those pictures to the Internet. And some of the boys I knew found them. And they thought it was funny. I didn’t agree.’

  Mallory swallowed hard. ‘So you decked them all?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am, I did.’

  The girl was trembling. ‘Good,’ she whispered. ‘I’m glad.’

  ‘Well, looking back, so am I. I got to fight back. At least I got to tell myself I was doing something, which is a lot better than doing nothing.’

  Her eyes flashed, angry now. ‘You want me to tell you things. I can’t. He’s got Macy. And he’s here. I know he is. He knows.’

  ‘Because he left the phone for you,’ Kate murmured.

  ‘You don’t know what it’s like to be watched. All the time. I thought if I got away I could tell the truth, I could do something, but he watches me here, just like at home. He’s got eyes everywhere. Spies, cameras, everywhere. I want to tell you everything. I do.’ Tears filled Mallory’s eyes and Decker’s heart cracked. ‘I really want to do the right thing. But I can’t.’

  ‘Can I come closer?’ Decker asked.

  Mallory nodded unsteadily. ‘Yes. Thank you for asking.’

  Decker handed off his phone to Trip, who moved to where Decker had been standing, continuing to record.

  ‘Last thing I wanna do is make you afraid. More afraid,’ Decker amended. He lowered himself into the chair on the other side of the bed, unable to silence his groan. ‘Pardon the creaking, ma’am,’ he drawled with a quiet smile, hoping to put her at ease. If there was ever a time to charm a lady, this was it. ‘I was hurt last week. And then . . . well, someone tried to hurt me again.’

  ‘Is your first name Griffin?’ she asked, and it was Decker’s turn to be surprised.

  ‘Yes, it is. How do you know that?’

  ‘I heard him talking about you. He was . . . afraid. It was the first time I ever heard him be afraid. He sent someone to kill you in the hospital. Then he was really mad when they failed.’ Her lips curved in grim satisfaction. ‘I’m glad they failed.’

  ‘Me too. But I gotta thank my partner over there, Agent Coppola. She ran through the hospital like a damn crazy woman, jumping lunch carts like they were hurdles.’

  ‘That must have been something to see,’ Mallory murmured, then she pursed her lips, like she was thinking. She was silent for nearly a minute before she finally spoke. ‘You need to warn someone named Dani. A lady. A doctor. He’s going to try to kill her too.’

  ‘He already tried,’ Decker told her. ‘He failed. Her friend was there and he stopped him. Threw a knife into his arm.’

  ‘Oh,’ Mallory breathed. ‘That’s how he got the arm wound. It’s infected. I . . . might have put something dirty in the bandage when he told me to fix him up. I was supposed to get him antibiotic, which I bought at Kroger today. But then he hit me with a car and I have no idea where the bottle is. That’s karma, right?’

  ‘It sure is,’ Decker murmured. ‘But sometimes karma isn’t enough. Sometimes it needs help. Sometimes it needs somebody who’s watching out for you, who jumps lunch carts like hurdles to save your life.’

  ‘I don’t have anyone like that. I just have me. And Macy just has me.’

  ‘Now that’s not true,’ he said with mild reproach. ‘You have me. And Kate. Kendra. Meredith. Agent Triplett over there. Anybody wants to get to you, they have to go through him. You have our whole team. You’ve been so brave. Making that first phone call. Taking that cab today so you could make the second call. You’ve trusted us, even before you knew us. We need you to trust us just a little more. We need you to look at a photo. Just one. Will you?’

  ‘What is it of?’

  ‘Six men,’ Decker told her. ‘We need to know if you know one of them.’

  She looked at the door, saw Trip with Decker’s phone, recording. ‘You’re taping me?’

  ‘Yes,’ Decker said honestly. ‘Do you know what a search warrant is?’

  ‘It’s a paper that says you have the right to enter someone’s house and search even if they don’t want you to, right? Do you have one of those? On his house?’

  ‘One thing at a time,’ he said. ‘Your definition is mostly right. But we can’t just get a warrant any time we please. We have to get a judge to agree. To your second question, yes, we have a warrant waiting to be signed by the judge. He’s waiting for you to tell us if we have the right man. We figured we’d tape this in case you continued not to want to talk to us, so that we could show him your reaction. But we also want to make sure that you’re protected. We think this man has a lot of friends and we want to be sure nobody says we put words in your mouth.’

  She stared at him, her expression wary, but clearly wanting so much to believe his words. ‘Do I have to say anything?’

  ‘Not if you don’t want to.’

  She bit her split lip. ‘He’ll find out. He’ll hurt Macy. You don’t know him like I do.’

  She wants to be convinced, Decker thought. She was strong enough to take a little honesty right here.
‘If you say nothing? We won’t catch him and he’ll still have Macy. But if you help us, our chances of getting her back are much better.’ He held out his hand, palm up. ‘Trust us.’

  Mallory stared at his hand, then up at him. ‘Do you promise to find her?’

  ‘No,’ he said quietly. ‘I can’t promise that. I won’t lie to you. You deserve better than that and you’re smart enough to know a lie anyway. I can’t promise to find her. I can promise to do my best. And I can promise that my best is pretty damn good.’ He hadn’t moved his hand.

  ‘He thinks I’m afraid of him,’ she whispered. ‘And he’s right. I am. But if I say nothing and he turns Macy into me? I’d die.’ She drew a breath, then slipped her hand in his. ‘All right. Show me the pictures.’

  Kate gave him a look that he’d remember for the rest of his life, no matter what happened next. It held pride and something more, something that made him so damn happy she’d jumped out of that tree and shoved her rifle in his back.

  Kate had saved to her phone a photo array that included Dr Brandon Edwards. ‘Did one of these men force you to make pornographic movies when you were twelve years old?’

  Mallory froze. She nodded once.

  Kate gentled her voice. ‘I know this is hard, but can you point to which one?’

  Mallory raised a trembling hand and pointed to the photo of Edwards.

  Kate closed the photo window immediately. ‘Thank you, Mallory. That’s all we needed to know.’

  ‘Wait,’ Mallory said. She looked over at Trip. ‘Are you still recording?’

  ‘Yes, ma’am,’ Trip said.

  ‘Good.’ She tightened her hold on Decker’s hand until he nearly whimpered. But he didn’t make a sound, because she was staring straight into the camera. ‘Yes, Mr Judge, whoever you are,’ she said loudly. ‘The man in the top right corner is Dr Brandon Edwards. He forced me to make movies, starting when I was twelve until I was fifteen. He did horrible things. Sex things. I wanted to stop and he wouldn’t let me. I tried to get help and he told lies about me. He made me look like I was crazy and a drug addict. He made my little sister afraid of me. And then he punished me by locking me in a closet for days, and when he let me out . . . he let other people . . . other men . . . do things too. He said that if I didn’t do what he said, he’d make Macy do all those things, too. I thought about killing him so many times, but he said that if he died, his partner, Woody McCord, would take over, and that he wouldn’t wait for Macy to get older.’ She was breathing hard. ‘He’s had other kids during the time I’ve lived with him. Boys and girls. He made them do movies too. And today . . . he has four kids at his house. He was supposed to, anyway. I don’t know if they came or not. I’ll say this in court.’ She lifted her chin. ‘Unless he kills me first. Which he said he would do if I ever told.’