Promise You Won't Tell?
Page 17
“What about them?”
“There’s been no mention of CDs, videos, or video surveillance equipment being found in Mitch’s room. Police were there, investigating his death. Even the news reporters have nothing to say about the presence of video equipment.”
“So?”
“Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”
“I guess I’ve been so busy with my own issues, I haven’t taken time to think about that.”
“I have.”
“What do you think happened?”
“I think you, Parker, and Kelli removed all the equipment from Mitch’s room after making your video. I think you destroyed all the evidence except your video. I think you went through Mitch’s room with a fine-tooth comb last week, and probably caught a break since his and Kelli’s rooms were on the second floor.”
“How does that help?”
“The wiring between the two rooms went through the attic, and was easy to find. Then, sometime after Dillon took pictures of Kelli’s bedroom, and you knew we finally figured out there were cameras, you removed them from Kelli’s room. Then, when Mitch came home, I think Kelli confronted him and told him she watched all the videos, called the police, and they showed up and confiscated everything. I can practically hear her saying, ‘They’re gathering evidence even as we speak. They’re going to see video evidence that you raped me. And by the way, the police have already issued a warrant for your arrest. They’re coming to get you, Mitch!’ I think he was devastated that all this was about to come out. I think Kelli may have talked Mitch into committing suicide. If she didn’t kill him herself.”
She looks around the coffee shop, then gives me a sympathetic smile and says, “Please tell me you’re not wearing a wire, hoping to bait me into confessing something that might give credibility to this outlandish tale.”
“I’m not wearing a wire. We can go in the restroom right now and I’ll prove it, if you’ll tell me how you managed to put all this together.”
She studies the check carefully. Then says, “This is what you thought about all weekend?”
“It is.”
“And when did you come to the crazy conclusion the whole thing was a setup?”
“Last night.”
“And yet you still went to Gavin today and collected the check?”
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m on your side, Riley. I always have been, and probably always will be. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like what you did. But I’m okay with it.”
“Let’s pretend for a minute your accusations are true. How could you possibly be okay with it?”
“I make my living doing decoy work.”
“So?”
“People pay me to test other people’s characters. It’s usually wives or fiancés paying to see if their husbands or future husbands can be trusted. I find the mark, tease him, tantalize him. Make him prove his character. At the point I can prove he’s faithful, or not, I turn the evidence over to the person who hired me.”
“You must have had some close calls.”
“Good point. Which is why I always have an ally close by, someone who can protect me in case things go too far. When I’m on a date with a mark I do my best to keep him from getting drunk, but as you well know, it’s not an exact science. You get a guy all worked up, he might go too far.”
“Interesting.”
“I’m always concerned at the end of the evening when the moment of truth arrives, because it usually involves a hotel room, or a car, or even an elevator. My biggest fear is he’ll pull a knife on me, lock the elevator between two floors, and rape me.”
“And you’re telling me all this because?”
“I’ve had years of experience as a decoy. And even I wouldn’t dare be alone in a room with two teenage boys who’d been drinking.”
“You’re asking me if I had an ally.”
“I am.”
“Why is this so important to you?”
“Because I’ve decided to focus on what I do best.”
“Which is?”
“Decoy work.”
“It does sound fascinating.”
“Here’s what I think. You may be young, but you’re the best I’ve ever seen. You’re a natural. Parker and Kelli might prove to be equally good as decoys, though they’re obviously not mastermind material.”
“Are you offering the three of us a job?”
“Yes. I want you to work with me. At least from time to time.”
“Why would we possibly want to do that? I’ve got my charity, the girls have senior year and college coming up.”
“You’d all have to be eighteen, of course. But as for why you might want to? Simple. It’s exhilarating! The three of you put together the most intricate, innovative scam I’ve ever seen. And you’re just getting started. You can’t tell me you didn’t feel an incredible rush, making all this happen. I’ve been there. It’s euphoric. Intoxicating. Addictive. Good as you are? You’re going to want more. Even when money isn’t important to you anymore, you’re going to miss the rush. You’ll crave the excitement.”
“You sound almost jealous not to be included.”
“But I was included. I figured it out before getting the check today. I could have brought up all these concerns to Gavin.”
“Could you have proven them?”
“As it turns out, yes.”
Her expression turns serious.
“What are you talking about?”
“Everything I’ve mentioned raised a red flag. The timing, the CDs, the way you tried to get us focused on the photos, your prior knowledge of Ethan’s birth certificate…but you’re right, there was nothing I could prove.”
“And yet?”
“Dumb luck reared its head...”
She waits.
“…In the form of panties.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Riley says. “And that’s the truth.”
“I have a client who thought his wife, Erica, was cheating on him. Saturday, he brought me a pair of Erica’s soiled, stained panties so I could test the semen residue.”
“Dani. About that job offer? It’s a no. A firm no.”
“That’s not part of the decoy job, it’s from the business I’m trying to get away from. But hear me out. Yesterday I tracked Erica down and had a talk with her. And learned who she’d been sleeping with.”
“Someone I know?”
“Mitch Underhill.”
“That’s an amazing coincidence. But where are you going with all this?”
“Can you imagine how shocked she must have been to hear he committed suicide only hours after they had sex?”
“That must have been very hard on her. Did her mood improve when you returned her panties?”
I smile.
She smiles.
“See? This is why I like you so much,” I say. “Who else talks like this?”
“Thanks. As you talked with Erica, I suppose she confided in you about Mitch and his activities?”
“She told me what she knew, which wasn’t much. Nothing for you to worry about. She said three months ago Mitch claimed to enjoy taping himself having sex with other women. He even admitted he was seeing someone else and wondered if Erica would consider a threesome.”
“Did she?”
“No, but she pretended to be interested, so she could find out who the other woman was.”
“Clever.”
“So Mitch got all excited, and gave Erica a CD showing him having sex with the other woman. She asked if she could keep the CD because it really turned her on. Erica never confronted the other woman, but she did send her the CD.”
“So Erica kept seeing Mitch even though he’d been dating another woman?”
“I know. Crazy, right?”
She shrugs.
I say, “Guess who the other woman was?”
“How would I know?”
“Please. Say it.”
She looks a
round again. Then stands, and says, “I need to use the restroom. Want to freshen up?”
“I do.”
We enter the restroom and wait till the lady who’s in there finishes washing her hands. Then I place a small wedge into the door jamb, turn toward Riley, and raise my blouse to my neck. I turn in a circle. Then lower my blouse, raise my skirt to my waist, and make a circle. Then she looks through my handbag.
“You’re armed?” she says.
“It’s not as exciting as it sounds,” I say. “I nearly shot Fanny by mistake on Friday.”
She laughs. “Jesus, Dani.”
“I know.”
When she’s satisfied I’m not wearing a wire, she says, “You wanted me to guess who Mitch filmed himself having sex with?”
“Uh huh.”
“Parker Page.”
“Bingo!”
She laughs. “Funny.”
“One thing I’ve got to know,” I say.
“What’s that?”
“You’re too smart to take a chance on having two teenage boys in that room with you. They’d been drinking. You must have had a backup. But I can’t figure out who it was.”
“Think about it.”
“I have. There were eight boys in the basement, plus Kelli, and the two other girls she invited to the slumber party, Jennie Cox and Cammi Churra. And Parker, who had to be picked up by midnight. So who’s left to mind the store?”
“Think about it.”
“There’s no one left.”
“Think about it, Dani. What’s the centerpiece of your timing issues?”
“That so much had to happen in such a small window of time.”
“And who was central to that?”
“Parker.”
She shakes her head. “Before Parker.”
“Kelli.”
“Jesus, Dani. Before Kelli.”
I’m ashamed it takes me so long. But when it hits, it hits hard.
“I don’t believe it!” I say.
She smiles. “I’m certainly not going to say it!”
I say, “Kelli’s mom. Lydia Underhill! Can I get a Bingo?”
“Not from me,” she says, laughing.
“How the hell?”
“That’s all I’m going to say.”
“You haven’t said anything! How could she be your ally? How could she have possibly known if you’d need help when they were alone in the room with you?”
“Think about it.”
“Not this again!”
“Where’s the one place Lydia could have been that would allow her to protect me, if neccesary?”
“Holy shit! Mitch’s bedroom! She watched the whole thing live. She coordinated with Parker, and Kelli, and she did it because she also hated Mitch.”
I shake my head. “That was brilliant of you guys to have her attorney threaten me at the beginning of my investigation. It threw me off completely.”
I think about it some more and say, “Wait. Did she kill Mitch?”
Riley says nothing.
I say, “She’d get next to nothing in a divorce. Same thing if he wound up in prison. But if he died…”
My mind races to the natural conclusions. “This all happened three months ago. Parker received the video from Erica, watched it and realized Mitch had filmed them having sex in Kelli’s room. Parker knew the only way that could have happened is if Mitch had been filming his stepdaughter, Kelli.
“Parker must have freaked out. She’d been sleeping with Kelli’s stepfather, who’d been filming Kelli. She told you about it, and the two of you broke the news to Kelli, who wondered if Mitch filmed himself raping her last year. She broke into Mitch’s room not last week, but three months ago! Found the videos. Watched them, including her own rape. She couldn’t keep the secret any longer, so she told her mom, and showed her the video.
“Kelli, Parker, and Lydia all wanted Mitch put away, but Kelli and Lydia didn’t want to lose the lifestyle, and Kelli and Parker didn’t want the police and everyone else in the world to see videos of them naked, having sex. Meanwhile, you had an intense desire to fund your charity. You also had some killer information regarding Ethan’s phony birth certificate.
“You used your body to fund your charity, and they agreed to help because they wanted Mitch punished, or dead.”
“You have a vivid imagination, Dani,” she says. “I’ve always admired you for that.”
“And I admire how you put all this together. I’m not upset over what you did to Ethan. The kid’s a slime. The video proved it. He deserved to take a hit to his piggybank. Yes, you set him up, just like I do with my decoy work. But no one forced him to touch you. And you did ask him to stop. And he didn’t.”
“You wouldn’t rather see him in jail? See justice done?”
“Justice was done. This is how you beat people like Ethan and Gavin. You take away their power, and their money. They’ll get it back in other ways, but at least you come out ahead, and the kids you’ll help through your charity.”
“Thanks Dani. I really appreciate that.”
“What about the job? Wouldn’t it be fun for you, Kelli, and Parker to work with me someday?”
“I honestly don’t see that in our futures, although you might be interested to know Parker and Kelli have changed their majors to Nonprofit Management and Social Entrepreneurship, respectively.”
“So you did offer them jobs!”
“That’s all I’m going to say.”
“You’ll miss the rush, you know.”
“You think?”
“I would,” I say.
“We’ll stay busy. If we do our jobs right, we could change the world.”
“You make it sound so much more noble than getting all dressed up to catch cheating husbands.”
“We all serve in our own way,” she says.
“Are you sure you’re seventeen?”
She smiles. “I’m going to miss your flattery.”
“I picked out a name for us,” I say. “I was going to get matching t-shirts.”
“Tell me.”
“Brace yourself.”
“Okay.”
“Dani’s Decoys!”
She smiles. “You’ll have to carry on without us. I’m sure we’d have fun, but our donors would never approve. Nevertheless, if you do make the shirts, we’ll wear them proudly.”
With that, she gives me a big hug, removes the wedge from the door, places it on the counter, and walks out.
I don’t blame Riley for not taking me up on my job offer. Being a decoy is far less prestigious than being the administrator of a major charity. Not to mention she can immediately start paying herself a substantial salary and fund all sorts of humanitarian projects. Like Gavin said, there are lots of organizations, including private schools, who’ll provide matching funds for contributions up to a certain amount. When she makes Gavin’s contribution public, it will be an irresistible story. It’ll open the floodgates, and donor money will fly through the door. She’ll get national exposure for it, and I’m not talking about the photos that have already been purged from the internet. Riley knows a multi-million dollar charity, properly administered, can generate a lifetime of income for her, while allowing her to do good deeds.
I’m not thrilled about my handling of what Dillon calls our pro-porno case. We did some things I’m not proud of, including breaking and entering, theft, and of course, I lied about watching the video, which I have since destroyed. I will say this was a very unique case, and I was emotionally vested in it. Still, I’m very, very sorry for the lies I told, the mistakes I made, and the laws I broke, or caused to be broken. I solemnly promise I won’t break any laws from here on out, now, and forever more.
Of course, I made that very same promise after finishing my last case, too…
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Dani Ripper
…is the pseudonym for New York
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