Alone in the Dark

by Karen Rose

  ‘I threw the chair at the window.’

  Decker’s expression became wary. ‘Why?’

  Ken rubbed his eyes wearily. ‘Alice was arrested.’ He’d just gotten the news from Sean, who’d been equally devastated.

  ‘Oh no,’ Decker murmured. ‘How, sir?’

  ‘I sent her after the employee of Constant Global Surveillance who’d been taken into custody for supplying our ankle trackers. She was supposed to kill Demetrius’s contact before he went into CPD, but they caught her on the roof. Had her surrounded before she could set up her shot. She missed the bastard and got taken into custody.’

  ‘Oh shit,’ Decker murmured.

  Ken turned narrowed eyes on the young man who could have been a model or a football player or anything else he’d wanted to be, yet had come to work for Ken for a paltry salary. ‘It was almost like they knew she would be there ahead of time.’

  Decker went still. ‘Are you accusing me of something, sir?’

  ‘Maybe. All of this started when you called me yesterday morning. You’re new to my company, but you’ve ingratiated yourself into my service very quickly.’

  Decker’s jaw was like granite. ‘No, sir. I do not agree. May I respectfully remind you that I’ve worked for you for three years. That I was your bodyguard for all but one month out of those years. That I walked in front of a bullet for you, sir. All of this started when your personal leadership team began to fall apart. Joel drinks like a fish. I was always fixing his mistakes on the legit books. I don’t even want to think about how he’s mucked up the real books. Demetrius snorts coke and generally goofs up anything that doesn’t require his fists, and Reuben, wherever the hell he is, is a sex addict. That’s how all this started.’ He was breathing hard, his nostrils flaring. ‘Sir.’

  Ken studied the man dispassionately. Decker had just uttered more words at one time than he’d said in the last three years. ‘You seem to know quite a bit, Decker.’

  Decker bristled. ‘I listen at the meetings, sir. I have eyes. I watch what goes on. But I didn’t know that Alice had gone after that employee of the tracker company. Had I known, I would have advised strongly against it. It smells of a trap.’

  ‘Really?’ Ken said coolly. ‘How so?’

  ‘What better way to draw out your opponent than with such an important prisoner?’ he said acidly. ‘The tracker supplier would know who he was selling to, so the cops knew you’d want him silenced. He was too tempting a prize. Therefore it was a trap.’

  And I should have thought of that. ‘I have to get her out of there.’

  ‘With all due respect, I don’t think that’s necessary, sir. Certainly not if you’re considering something as drastic as a jailbreak.’

  Which is exactly what I was considering. Ken’s silence was answer enough.

  ‘She won’t break, will she, sir? She won’t give your name?’

  ‘No.’ Of that Ken was sure. ‘Of course not.’ Unless they offered her a deal she’d be too smart to refuse. His daughter was not stupid.

  ‘She doesn’t have a record, right? No prints in the system? She’ll experience a bit of discomfort in lockup, but you’ll get her a good lawyer. She’ll be out soon.’

  ‘Perhaps.’ But he didn’t think so. She’d been caught with her finger on the trigger. Someone had known she was there, of that he was certain. But he was running out of people to suspect. Ken rolled to his feet without Decker’s help. ‘How is Demetrius?’

  A quiet exhale. ‘He’s dead, sir. He lost too much blood. A surgeon might have been able to save him, but . . . I’m sorry. I was coming to tell you when I heard the window smash.’

  Ken had felt panic and fury when Sean had told him about Alice’s arrest. Now he felt . . . absolutely nothing. Which was preferable.

  ‘Clean up the mess . . . here and upstairs. Thank you.’

  ‘Should I dispo— I mean, what should be done with Demetrius’s body?’

  ‘Same place you put Chip and Marlene Anders. Oh, and kill the Anders girl too. Demetrius was supposed to set up an auction and I don’t want to do that now.’

  ‘What about the guard who got shot at Anders’s house yesterday morning? He’s still sedated. And what do you want done with Burton?’

  ‘Whatever you want to do with them. I don’t care. I just don’t want Burton talking. If the other guard is loyal to Burton, dispose of him, too.’ Ken walked to his office and closed the door. He poured himself a stiff drink and dropped into his desk chair. Then he called Sean.

  ‘Dad . . .’ Sean sounded as numb as Ken felt. ‘What are we going to do now?’

  ‘What I should have done a long time ago.’ Ken pushed the glass of bourbon aside and opened his gun safe.

  I’m buying a one-way ticket to Bora Bora. I’m going to kill Marcus O’Bannion.

  Cincinnati, Ohio

  Wednesday 5 August, 3.45 P.M.

  Scarlett gave Marcus a sideways glance from the driver’s seat of the department unmarked car after leaving her Audi parked in the CPD garage. He was being a little too quiet. ‘Do you want to go see Phillip first?’ she asked him. ‘I understand if you do.’

  ‘No. We need to answer these questions about Demetrius. Lisette’s with Phillip now, so he’s not alone.’ He looked out the car window. ‘I’ve remembered more of what happened when I was in the hospital. It’s starting to freak me out a little.’

  Ah. ‘Tell me.’

  ‘I realized that I’d actually remembered it before, but I thought it was just a bad dream caused by the morphine.’ He grimaced. ‘That stuff gave me the worst nightmares.’

  ‘What do you remember, Marcus?’

  He sighed. ‘There was another person there. A woman. I didn’t see her face.’

  Scarlett had to swallow back her rage. ‘Because your face was covered with a pillow.’

  ‘There was that,’ he said sarcastically, then paused for a few beats, his forehead furrowed. ‘She told him to hurry, that someone was coming. I think that was why he didn’t finish with the pillow. They must have left because the charge nurse came in. The machine had been beeping like my IV got pulled.’

  ‘Well it wasn’t like you were almost suffocated or anything,’ she muttered. ‘Thank goodness for the machines.’

  ‘The nurse fixed my IV and I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t if I’d tried. I think he came back a second time. Had a hypo filled with God knows what and had injected it in the IV bags that were staged to be next in line. I remember needing to tell, but being so out of it that I couldn’t. Like that dream where you’re screaming in your mind but nothing comes out. I think I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not. Or even sane,’ he added a lot more quietly.

  Scarlett hoped she found Demetrius or whatever his real name was because she wanted to kill him with her bare hands. But that wouldn’t help Marcus, so she kept her voice mild. ‘You were lucid the time I came to see you. He may have found a way to increase your drugs if you were that out of it. Some drugs can make you doubt what you’ve seen. Some can make you trapped in your own body.’

  ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’

  She squeezed his hand, relieved to hear his relief. ‘Given what we know this man is capable of, drugging you is definitely within the realm of believability. Don’t go doubting your sanity yet. So what happened with the IV bags?’

  ‘I don’t know. I didn’t die, so something obviously happened.’

  ‘Maybe you’ll remember more later. Or maybe you could find the nurse who worked your shift that night and ask what she remembers.’

  ‘She wouldn’t remember back nine months.’

  ‘Don’t be so sure. You were quite the celebrity. You lying there in that bed, so handsome and brave and heroic. A man who jumps in front of bullets to save a stranger is quite a turn-on for a lot of women.’ She batted her eyelashes, making him laugh again.

  ‘As long as it is for you,’ he said, kissing her hand. ‘Where are we going first?’

  ‘To the Ledger to see Stone. I w
ant to know about McCord.’

  ‘What about the two people who may have seen Drake?’

  ‘I called the shelter. Tommy and Edna are there, trying to stay out of the heat. Tommy’s got a heart condition,’ she explained. ‘Dani’s there and she’s going to hold them for me. When we get to the Ledger, I want you to go straight in. Same with the shelter.’

  ‘I’m wearing Kevlar.’

  ‘The sniper yesterday was aiming for your head so keep your head down. Don’t wait for me and don’t be a gentleman. Not when people on roofs might shoot you.’

  ‘What about you?’

  ‘They ain’t gunnin’ for me. Besides, I’m suited up, too.’ She tugged at the collar of the thin Kevlar vest she wore under her shirt. ‘Damn thing chafes. Promise me, Marcus. No heroics.’

  He made a disgruntled sound. ‘All right, fine. I’ll tuck and roll.’

  He kept his promise, hurrying into the Ledger’s lobby when she stopped the car. He grabbed her as soon she came through the door, and before she could protest, his mouth was on hers, his hands moving her head this way and that as he tasted her thoroughly.

  ‘People, people, get a room,’ someone called. Sounded like Diesel.

  Scarlett smiled against Marcus’s mouth before pulling away. ‘Very public, Marcus.’ Which had likely been the point. There had been a possessiveness to the kiss, as if he wanted his whole world to know.

  ‘I know,’ he said, then turned her to face the lobby.

  Diesel sat behind the desk, grinning at them. ‘Detective.’

  ‘Mr Kennedy,’ she said with a nod. She looked around the lobby, noting the presence of the newly hired armed guard in the corner. ‘Where is Gayle?’

  ‘I told her to take a coffee break, so I could install extra firewalls on her computer. I shored up the network server already, but Gayle’s computer needed extra.’

  ‘Because of Jill,’ Scarlett murmured, and beside her Marcus sighed.

  Diesel just shrugged. ‘So what’s up with you two? Other than the need to get a room.’

  ‘We came to see Stone,’ Marcus said, serious now. ‘You should come too.’

  Diesel came to his feet with a frown. ‘Okay.’

  Marcus led them past his own office and through a door to the back where the rest of the staff worked. Offices with doors lined the walls and the middle was divided into cubicles. He stopped at a closed door with Stone’s name on it and knocked.

  Stone opened the door right away and gave Scarlett a look that wasn’t quite welcoming but was considerably less hostile than before. ‘I got your text saying you needed to talk, Marcus, but I didn’t expect a party. What’s this about?’ he asked when he’d shut the door.

  Marcus showed them a copy of the sketch of Demetrius, told them what the Bautistas had suffered and what he himself remembered from his hospital stay.

  Stone was visibly shaken. ‘They tried to kill you in the hospital? Holy shit, Marcus.’

  ‘You attract trouble even when you’re unconscious,’ Diesel added, stunned and furious on behalf of his friend. ‘What the fuck?’

  ‘The obvious threat that week was from Leslie McCord,’ Scarlett said, ‘but she was dead by the time Marcus was in the hospital. There’s a puzzle piece missing. What can you remember about that investigation?’

  Both Stone and Diesel winced. ‘That was a bad one,’ Diesel said softly. ‘I . . . I still can’t get those pictures out of my head, and I only looked at a few. As soon as I saw what McCord had on his home hard drive, I backed out.’

  ‘I wrote the story,’ Stone said, ‘then we tipped the Internet Crimes Against Children task force. As soon as they confiscated McCord’s computer, we went live with the story.’

  ‘Where are the photos now?’ Scarlett asked.

  ‘With the ICAC task force,’ Stone said. ‘We didn’t keep copies.’

  ‘I always keep copies of the hard drives that I hack,’ Diesel said, ‘except when it’s kids. I don’t want it and I can’t handle it,’ he added with brutal honesty.

  ‘Not many can,’ Scarlett said. ‘What can you give me?’

  Stone typed a command, and a minute later his printer was spitting out pages. ‘This is the story and all my notes. We got tipped off that McCord was too friendly with some of his students by a few of the boys on the JV football team. Marcus was a volunteer coach.’

  ‘The Ledger sponsors youth sports,’ Marcus said. ‘It’s an environment that can make kids vulnerable to predators, but it also fosters a spirit of communication.’

  ‘Not the Ledger,’ Diesel told Scarlett in a theatric whisper. ‘Sponsoring sports was Marcus’s idea. And mostly his money.’

  She smiled up at the giant of a man who was even larger than Stone. She patted Marcus’s thigh as he sat in the chair beside her. ‘I’m not surprised.’

  Marcus rolled his eyes, embarrassed. ‘It’s expedient with respect to our team’s goal. Kids will talk to a coach or a team sponsor about things they might not tell a teacher – especially when that teacher is the predator. McCord taught freshman science. Some of the boys were creeped out because of how he would get too cozy when he was checking their lab setup. They said the girls felt the same way – uncomfortable. None of the kids would come forward with anything specific, though, so I had Diesel dig.’

  Diesel raked his fingers across his shaved head as if he still had hair. ‘I . . . I was not expecting what I saw. I mean, I’ve seen porn collections and I’ve even seen some kid photos when I poke around people’s computers as part of this job, but McCord’s collection took it to a whole new level. He had photos, video files . . . big files. Long videos, not just clips.’ He swallowed hard. ‘Like I said, I backed out as soon as I figured out what I was looking at. I’m no lover of cops, no offense, Detective, but I pitied the ones who had to analyze that vile shit.’

  ‘Okay,’ Scarlett said gently, because Diesel was actually trembling. ‘You said you turned the entire hard drive over to ICAC. You didn’t keep copies of the photos or videos, but what about the rest of the hard drive? Was it all pictures, or were there other file types?’

  ‘Files,’ he said on a rough exhale. ‘Word files, a few spreadsheets. Hell, I didn’t even open them. I ran a check to be sure there were no picture files embedded, then I put them in my safe at home with the drives from all our other investigations.’

  Scarlett glanced up at Marcus. ‘We need to have a look. I can do it, if you want.’

  He nodded grimly. ‘I’m gonna accept that offer. I just don’t think I can.’

  She squeezed his knee, then began skimming the pages Stone had given her. ‘So you anonymously tipped ICAC, they got a warrant, found McCord’s stash. He’s arrested, you publish the story, the community shudders – appropriately – in horror and disgust. McCord loses his job, his pension, goes to jail . . .’ She turned the page and frowned. ‘He hired an attorney who was going to fight the charges.’ She looked up at Stone. ‘Fight with what? What did McCord have to bargain with?’

  ‘The attorney wouldn’t say,’ Stone said. ‘I badgered him about it, because I wanted to know too. Finally, after McCord hanged himself, the attorney said that he’d planned to expose his suppliers to get his charges knocked down from possession of child porn to pandering.’

  Scarlett blinked. ‘Pandering? Really? I mean, it’s a lower minimum sentence than for child porn possession so that’s why he’d want it, but pandering carries with it an economic element. Was he copping to prostitution? Would a judge even allow that?’

  Stone shrugged. ‘That’s all the attorney would tell me.’

  Scarlett found the attorney’s name in Stone’s story and used her phone to look him up online. ‘Shit,’ she muttered. ‘We won’t be following up with him. He’s dead.’

  Marcus leaned over her shoulder to read along with her. ‘Died in an office fire. Arson was suspected.’

  ‘Tidy,’ Scarlett said grimly. ‘Dammit. McCord said he was going to expose his suppliers, and all of a sudden anyone wh
o can tell us what he was going to divulge and against whom is dead.’ She put the papers down, spoke aloud the thought that had been circling in her mind since they’d left the hotel. ‘Demetrius supplied the Bautistas to Chip Anders for labor. Maybe he supplied children to McCord for—’

  ‘God knows what,’ Marcus said from behind clenched teeth.

  Scarlett squeezed his knee again, for support. And comfort. Because now she understood his zeal to punish monsters who hurt children. ‘Let’s take a look at the files you saved, Diesel. You say they’re at your house? We can follow you there.’

  ‘I’ll go home and get them and bring them to you,’ Diesel said.

  Scarlett wanted to argue, but there was a sudden undercurrent in the room, a tension that she could feel but that she didn’t understand. She squeezed Marcus’s knee again, so lightly that no one else would know.

  ‘We don’t have that much time,’ Marcus said to Diesel, apology in his voice. ‘We’re headed to the Meadow next. It’s a shelter on Race Street.’

  ‘I know it,’ Diesel said stiffly. ‘I’ll meet you there as soon as I can.’

  They dispersed, Scarlett holding her question until she and Marcus were alone in his office with the door closed. ‘I didn’t mean to upset him,’ she said. ‘What did I say?’

  He covered her shoulders with his hands and massaged. ‘Nothing wrong. It’s just Diesel being fucked in the head. He doesn’t like letting people in his house. I’ve only been there a few times myself.’ He leaned in until their foreheads touched. ‘I’m afraid to see what he brings us.’

  ‘I know. I couldn’t push either of them any further to tell us more. They . . .’ She swallowed hard. Thought of what Marcus had told her about Stone, and all the things he hadn’t put into words. She’d seen the pain in Stone’s eyes, the understanding where there should have been none. Diesel had exhibited that same deer-in-the-headlights panic. ‘Diesel too?’

  ‘I don’t know. He’s never told me. I never asked.’ He straightened, kissed the top of her head. ‘Let’s go, or he’ll get to the shelter before we do. He doesn’t live far.’ He pulled a battered old laptop from a lower desk drawer and slid it into his computer bag.