Dominance (Fox Meridian Book 8)

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I managed to identify him,’ Kit said as Fox looked down at the corpse of a big man. Or what was left of the corpse of a big man. He was mangled and partially burned, and his left arm was a few feet away from the rest of him, closer to the car. ‘His name is Silas Paulus Rampton. He was a staff sergeant in the Army before joining Wayden Executive Services eleven years ago.’

  ‘Huh,’ Fox responded and glanced back at the compact which was now less compact. The roof had been pushed upward, crumpling the sides inward, and the interior was a burned-out husk of its former glory. ‘Thermobaric grenade. My guess anyway.’

  ‘You’ve seen enough of them go off.’

  ‘Huh,’ Fox responded again. ‘So, she lured him to the car and blew it. I’d guess at a remote detonation. She was watching him from one of the buildings. Get a search team in to see whether they can find any evidence of her. But then she didn’t take his car, which either means she has another, or she has somewhere else near here to hole up in. Did you get an ID for the other guy?’

  ‘Andrew Pons. Also ex-military, but with the Rangers. He went to sniper school. He joined Wayden Executive Services at the same time as Mister Rampton. They both list addresses in Fargo as their current places of residence. Prior to that, they were registered in Detroit. The BOLO for Mister Pons is still active. No hits yet.’

  ‘Okay… We’ll go over the rest of this scene, but we’re going to get squat. Rampton’s probably too professional to leave anything incriminating in their car, and the one Lomax was driving isn’t going to give us anything useful. Lomax and Pons are on foot, so we may not see anything of them for a few hours. I think we’ve got enough evidence to try chasing Neiman for more. See if judicial liaison can get us a warrant to search Neiman’s place. Stress the link between him and Sherman Wayden, and the fact that two Wayden goons from Fargo have shown up here and shot a cop.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Kit said.

  ‘Oh, and let Sam know he can stay in bed. Mister Neiman will be moving into tower three while someone puts his pool room back together.’

  ~~~

  ‘You can’t keep me here!’ Neiman shouted. It would have sounded more impressive if he was not dangerously close to squealing. ‘I need protection.’

  ‘You’re safer in this building than almost any other in the metro,’ Fox replied. They were in one of the VIP suites near the top of tower three and there was, in fact, very little chance that anyone could get near to Neiman without a serious assault force. Lomax might be good with security systems and computers, but not that good.

  ‘Under your protection? Your protection ain’t worth dick! That maniac would’ve–’

  ‘Been arrested, by me, hours ago, if I hadn’t been shot by two men employed by Wayden Executive Services who seemed fairly keen on making sure they put a permanent end to the suspect.’ To emphasise the point, Fox tapped her left hand with her right index finger. Her left arm was in a sling until she had the time to either swap bodies or get her arm fixed, and her hand hung limply from the plastic straps, completely useless currently. The large holes in her bicep were also quite visible, which did make a great visual aid. ‘Would you like to tell me why two men from Sherman Wayden’s police district are here in New York Metro, hunting down a killer? Or should I start telling you what I think?’

  The anger backed off just a little too sharply. ‘I have no idea what they were doing there. They broke into my house while you were guarding it too.’

  It was partially true. Fox was pretty sure that Neiman had not known Rampton and Pons were coming, but he had some idea why they were there. ‘You went to Fargo on a fact-finding tour to research policing methods for a “serious” production you’ve never gone ahead with.’

  ‘These things fall through all the time.’

  ‘I’m sure. Thing is, you and Sherman Wayden are the only survivors from that trip. Someone has decided the men who went on that tour have to die. Now, it just so happens that fourteen young women went missing in Fargo while your group was there. Two of them washed up on the shore of Lake Lida, where Wayden has a house.’

  ‘So? What does–’

  ‘The detective who was working those cases was murdered. Tortured and then killed. That was two weeks before Kent Killian was found staked to a tree having been raped with his good citizenship award prior to having his belly opened up like a fish. And now someone, probably someone high up, in Wayden Executive Services seems to have decided to eliminate this murderer rather than wait for due process. That someone wants her stopped before she can say anything to the police. Or the police in this metro anyway. They were willing to shoot a cop to achieve that.’

  ‘I have no id-dea about that. I need to get out of here. I’ll go to Detroit. Where there’s a competent police force.’

  ‘Sure? They shot me to keep Lomax away from me. Old Sherm is trying to keep this quiet, away from anyone who might discover his dirty secret. Do you really think he considers you a worthwhile risk? And Lomax knows I’m guarding you here. She knows she’s busted. She’s going to hit the next target on her list, who hasn’t accepted my protection. And you want to run right to where she’s going to go next?’

  ‘There’s no way she can get to–’

  ‘She got to Burrage,’ Fox countered. ‘Guy had pretty good security. Access to plenty of weapons. Do you want to know what she did to him? I can show you the crime scene photos. If you want to do a serious horror flick, they’re great material.’

  Neiman turned his face from her. ‘He said he’d fixed everything,’ he muttered.

  ‘I have excellent hearing, Mister Neiman. Who? Sherman Wayden? He sent a couple of ex-military thugs to kill the killer. Think they would have left you alive after?’

  ‘He’s my friend,’ Neiman whispered. Then he turned to look at Fox. ‘You’re getting nothing from me. You’re supposed to be keeping me safe.’

  ‘And I have. And I have a warrant to search your house. And it would be a lot better for you if you came clean before I find anything.’

  ‘You can’t–’ He looked away again. ‘I’m saying nothing more without a lawyer present.’

  ‘Fine,’ Fox said, turning to leave. ‘Go down with the ship. Believe me, it’s holed below the waterline and I’m just going to rip that hole bigger.’

  ~~~

  ‘They fixed your arm then?’ Piper asked as Fox escorted her into Neiman’s house. The crime scene techs were still busy going through the place, but they were mostly occupied in the studio section currently, and both Neiman and Piper needed clothes. Fox had scared Neiman into staying in tower three while Piper packed.

  ‘No,’ Fox replied. ‘My cybernetics tech is working on that now. They say they’ll have to strip it back and reskin the whole thing when the arm’s been replaced, so it might be a day or two. I swapped into another cyberframe before we came out here.’

  ‘Oh. You can just do that?’ Piper was puzzling over a drawer filled with flimsy undergarments, trying to decide which of them to take with her. From what Fox could see, wearing any of them was roughly equivalent to wearing none of them, but it was Piper’s underwear drawer.

  ‘If the frame has a powerful enough computer. This is the frame I used to use all the time. It’s built for combat. If I’d been in this one last night, I probably wouldn’t have needed to get it fixed afterward.’

  ‘Why do you use the other one then?’

  ‘I don’t normally get shot by armour-piercing rounds and this one has a terrible battery lifetime.’

  ‘Oh.’ Piper picked up a lacy teddy, nodded, and dropped it into her case. ‘Is Davy under arrest?’

  ‘No. He’s scared to leave the tower in case the big bad bogeywoman comes for him, but he’s not under arrest.’ Fox let the air fall still for a second and then added, ‘Yet.’ The volume was calculated to be a mutter just about audible to Piper: an overheard personal aside.

  ‘What do you think he’s done, Captain Meridian?’ Fox had expected the blonde to be outraged, or anxious, pr
obably not angry but more than the calm tone she was using.

  ‘Several women, young women, girls really, went missing from Fargo around the time Neiman was there with Sherman Wayden and Thomas Winsford.’ Piper shuddered, just a little, at the mention of Winsford’s name. ‘Two of them washed up on the shores of a lake. Dead. I don’t have a direct link, yet, between those missing girls and the deaths here in New York, but I think I’m getting closer. You don’t like Thomas Winsford, do you, Piper?’

  ‘No.’ The flat statement was something of a surprise too. Piper clearly had some assertiveness in her. ‘I went on a date with him once. For Davy. I got all dressed up to go out and stuff. Then we had a drink at his place and… I don’t remember much after that. I’m pretty dumb, Captain, but I know he dosed me with Cupie.’

  ‘You should have taken it to the police,’ Fox said, knowing that was probably something Piper had considered.

  ‘It was NAPA back then. I had no evidence. It would’ve been my word against his and you know what they were like about important people in Manhattan. And Winsford would’ve crushed me, a-and Davy.’

  ‘Neiman persuade you of that, did he?’

  There was silence for a second or so, and then Piper pulled the underwear she had selected out of her case and dumped it back in the drawer before opening a lower drawer and taking out a lot of far more functional undergarments. ‘If I were you,’ she said, ‘I would be looking for the floor safe Davy has in his bedroom. I don’t know what Davy and the others did in Fargo, but Davy put some memory cards in the safe after he came back. He said his project needed to be kept really secure, so he wasn’t putting any of the documents on the company server.’

  ‘The safe in the bedroom is being worked on at the moment,’ Kit said into Fox’s mind. ‘We should have whatever is in it in the next thirty minutes.’

  ‘Keep me updated,’ Fox replied. Aloud, she said, ‘Thank you, Piper. We’ll look into that.’

  ‘Okay. Uh, Captain Meridian, could you get me a separate room from Davy? Maybe on a different floor?’

  Fox barely managed to keep the smile off her face. ‘I think that can be arranged.’

  ~~~

  ‘What did you say to her?! She won’t even talk to me. What did you say?’ David Neiman was not a happy man. He was, in fact, an anxious, unhappy man, and that suited Fox just fine.

  ‘I told her about the missing girls in Fargo,’ Fox said. ‘Have to say, she didn’t seem really surprised.’

  ‘You had no–’

  ‘That was after she told me about you setting her up on a date with Thomas Winsford and then persuading her not to file rape charges.’

  The anxiety was building, overriding what little righteous anger might have been in there. ‘He didn’t–’

  ‘She’s not as stupid as she seems, your Piper. Not from a well-off family, I’d imagine? Got into porn to get out of prostitution, maybe? She’s seen enough people on Cupie to recognise the symptoms, but I’d bet you knew Winsford couldn’t get it up without a few chemical aids, right? You knew what would happen to her when you made the arrangement.’

  ‘No, I–’

  ‘She told us about the safe in your bedroom. We’re loading the videos onto a server for inspection right now.’

  ‘Shit!’ Neiman jumped up and began to pace. Another good sign.

  ‘Yeah, shit is probably right. That’s a bad habit you’ve got, Neiman. Videoing everything is never a good idea, unless you’re a cop.’

  He turned and looked at her, and the anxiety had taken complete control. His eyes were pleading. ‘I didn’t know what they were going to do! You have to believe me. I figured we’d have some fun. I even took a few girls out there to move things along. A little Cupie, maybe. Never hurt anyone. It’s just a little… fun.’

  Fox supressed the urge to break Neiman’s jaw. ‘But?’

  ‘They had this drug. New stuff, Burrage said. Something some guy in South Africa cooked up. It… It made the girls really compliant, but…’

  ‘But it killed them,’ Fox said flatly. ‘Where did you think the extra girls came from?’

  ‘I don’t know. I didn’t ask.’

  ‘And where do you think they went after?’

  ‘I didn’t ask! Look, Sherm said he’d take care of them. They wouldn’t be a problem. I figured he’d bribe them. A-and Burrage was handing out his drug to us, but I didn’t want anything to do with it. What’s the point of a girl who’ll do anything you want when she only lives a few days? Huh?’

  Fox stared at Neiman for a few seconds before getting to her feet. ‘David Harold Neiman, I am placing you under arrest on the charges–’

  ‘You can’t!’ Neiman yelled.

  ‘On the charges of conspiracy to commit rape, kidnapping, and murder. Further charges may be forthcoming. You have the right to remain silent and I suggest you take it because I am this close to beating you senseless. So, shut the fuck up! You have a right to an attorney, and you’re going to need one. If you can’t afford an attorney, an AI representative will be appointed for you. Anything you do decide to say can and will be used in court against you. If you decide to waive your right to an attorney, you can change your mind at any time, but I’m going to remind you that keeping your mouth shut right now is probably saving you from bruising.’ It was not exactly a standard Miranda reading, but it covered all the points as far as Fox could tell. ‘Do you understand your rights, and the fact that I will not invent new forms of police brutality if you keep your mouth shut, Mister Neiman?’

  Neiman nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, I understand.’

  ‘Good. Don’t leave the room. I’ll have a couple of officers up here shortly to escort you to a holding cell.’ Fox turned and headed for the door. Being in the same room as David Neiman was making her fists itch.

  ~~~

  ‘Several channels are reporting the arrest of Mister Neiman,’ Belle said as IB-62 displayed on a virtual screen beside her. Fox had the sound off, but there was a scrolling banner with ‘Breaking News’ reporting the same thing and someone had managed to find a picture of Neiman to display behind the presenter. ‘Most have made the link to the recent murders.’

  ‘Good,’ Fox replied. ‘That should give Sherman Wayden a scare. Kit, we’ll need a statement indicating that Neiman’s arrest is not directly linked to the deaths. It’s a “related case.” How are we doing with the videos?’

  ‘They have all been loaded and scanned for facial-recognition purposes,’ Kit replied. She was sitting beside Fox in their virtual lounge and she did not look especially happy. ‘We have identified all of Miss Lomax’s victims, except for Detective Guthrie, as well as David Neiman and Sherman Wayden. We also have all of the abductees in the videos.’

  ‘Have you watched any of them?’

  ‘Only one. The party at Mister Killian’s house a-and not all of it. I checked and Amelia Lomax was there with Molly Tailor. They both appear… robotic, zombified. The video also confirms that Miss Delvalle was given Cupie.’

  ‘Add another count of aggravated rape to the list,’ Fox muttered. ‘Okay… The next step is going to be a tough one. We need to persuade a judge to give us an arrest warrant for Sherman Wayden. That’s going to be…’

  ‘Politically loaded?’ Kit suggested. ‘Should I inform Miss Barrera?’

  Fox nodded; MarTech’s head political analyst was going to need to know, but she was also likely to be a big help. ‘Yes. Uh, if Dia says she’d like to see the evidence, suggest that she would really be better off without.’

  ‘I will. You are going to watch it all, however.’ It was a statement rather than a question. Fox’s nod just confirmed it. ‘Then I shall be watching with you. There is no reason for you to go through it alone.’

  ‘Thanks, Kit,’ Fox said. ‘And I think we might lay on a bottle of virtual whiskey while we’re at it. We’ll need to watch it sober, but there’s no reason why we can’t get slammed after.’

  ~~~

  ‘I’m not going to say anything st
upid,’ Fox said, ‘like, “I don’t understand how one person can do that to another.” I’m fully aware that people can be total shits to each other. But… Damn, Naomi, this is a bad one.’

  Sitting on the sofa across from Fox, and still in her uniform, Naomi nodded. ‘So I’d gathered. We could all wish for a world where people followed Christian tenets, even if they are not Christians, but the world does not work that way.’

  ‘I know.’ Fox looked up and flashed a weak smile. ‘Thanks for seeing me so late. I needed… I’m not sure, but after watching that stuff I needed…’

  ‘Comfort?’ Naomi suggested.

  ‘Yes.’ Fox paused. ‘Maybe reassurance. It’s all about dominance. Well, not really. Not exactly. Not all of them. I’m… not sure what I’m getting at. It seemed like some of them needed to know they had control. Winsford and Wayden definitely, but I could see it in the others. Except, maybe, Neiman. I think he just enjoyed the extra kink. They wanted to dominate, to control. Or… Or they wanted submission. Complete submission. They were willing to do some pretty terrible things to get it.’

  ‘Some will.’

  ‘The… The games we’ve been playing. The DS games…’

  Naomi sat back and crossed her long legs. Fox’s eyes flicked down at the action, an involuntary reaction. The woman was just so damn sexy! If Naomi noticed, she said nothing about it and her expression was serious. ‘Dominance and submission go together in the triad of BDSM because they must go together. A true DS relationship stems from the willingness of the sub to allow someone to dominate them. This relationship can fail on both sides. A submissive may seek control, constantly forcing the dominant to fight them. Not the playful testing of cuffs or ropes, but constantly testing the dominant’s resolve and wits. To be a submissive, one must want to be submissive to someone. Thomas Winsford, for example, never wanted real submission.’ She paused and sipped from her wine glass. ‘For those with dominant personalities, the balance is complex. They must be able and willing to fulfil the role and give their sub what is wanted. Pain, pleasure, humiliation, denial, release… Equally, they must accept submission, not demand it. The… The “game,” as you called it, might call for them to force their sub into submission, but it’s role play. The pushing of limits is a key factor in most DS relationships and, sometimes, the dominant must push their own limits to give their sub what they require. Men like Winsford and Wayden don’t understand that balance of wants and needs. They see only their own desires. They take submission because they don’t have the talent and skill to accept it.’