by Leonie Gant
Looking at the big screen television, I noticed the network cord going into the wall. Looking around I spotted the walk in closet. Grabbing a chair I went over to the closet, opened the door and climbed on the chair.
“What are you doing?” asked Travis as he came over.
“Just got a hunch” I said as I reached toward the back of the top shelf of the closet. Standing on tiptoe I started pulling cords out of the hard drive and pulled it down.
“One hard drive” I said.
“How did you know?” asked Travis.
“The guy has a computer and a pretty sweet looking entertainment center. The television is hooked up somewhere and so is the computer, but I can’t see any other equipment. Means he has got a network system somewhere. The only place really out of sight but also with enough air circulating for the equipment is his wardrobe. The back of the top shelf is out of sight but you can see conduit coming from the ceiling. If he was going to watch these movies on the big screen, and frankly all I know about Eric says that he’s the kind to do that, he needs the drive to be connected to a network and here it is.”
“Smart” said Travis.
“Or just lucky” I said. “One of my clients had a setup similar to this. All the televisions and computers were networked to a single hard drive, that way he could watch the movies on them from any screen in his house.”
“Probably got a password on it” said Travis.
“It could” I said, “but I know an IT guy who says that people may, if you’re lucky, put a password on the network, but they rarely put one on a removable hard drive like this. They get complacent thinking the security on the network will protect them. What they don’t realize is that you can take the hard drive and connect it to another computer and there is no security at all.”
“Let’s have a look” said Travis grabbing his back pack and pulling out a laptop.
Sitting at the table in the apartment he hooked up the hard drive and within seconds was looking at the file structure.
“Looks like we got lucky” he said and opened up a file.
Within seconds the moans of a woman started echoing through the room. Sure enough there was Eric with a woman that was not either of his wives.
“Do you want to turn it off?” I said keeping my eyes above the screen.
Travis grinned. “Not interested?”
“No, we know what it’s about, don’t need to see anymore. Chances are that woman had no idea she was being taped. It’s wrong to watch it.”
“You know, I didn’t think women were that uptight anymore.”
“I’m sure the women that you date aren’t.” I said.
Travis turned off the movie. Looking at the file structure I could see dozens of films on the hard drive.
“So what do we do with this?” I asked.
“We give it to the police” said Travis.
“Aren’t you going to use it to solve the case?” I was a bit confused.
“Not my job sweetheart. My job was simply to create reasonable doubt. I’ll follow it and make sure that the police are actually pursuing other lines of inquiry, but other than that, I have done what I need to do. It’s up to Griffin now, with me looking over his shoulder of course.”
“Great, that’s going to make him happy.”
“I know, but I’ve got to say that I look at making Griffin’s life difficult as one of the perks of the job.”
While Travis made the phone call to Griffin I scrolled through the number of files on the hard drive. Travis finished up his phone call.
“Griffin will be here soon. We need to stay to answer questions. The guy is seriously annoyed that we found this place.” All of this was said with a massive grin on his face.
When I didn’t smile back Travis’s grin dimmed. “What’s the problem?”
“Look I knew that Eric had the morals of an alley cat, I knew the guy was gorgeous and charming, I just… all these women trusted him and look what happened.”
“Sometimes you trust the wrong person” Travis said. “It happens all the time. When that trust is betrayed you can’t let that damage who you are or the jerk wins.”
I nodded. “So exactly how angry is Griffin?”
“I could almost see the steam coming through the phone. Got to say, that made my day. Almost willing to do the job for free for the chance to one up Griffin on his case.” Travis’s smile was back.
“You are an extremely petty man” I said smiling. “How much of a difference will this make to Adele’s case really?”
“Even with the gun the case against Adele was always going to be pretty circumstantial. By finding this hard drive the pool of suspects has now become huge. Every one of those women has a motive to kill Eric, not to mention husbands, boyfriends, and fathers. We have just thrown a major lot of reasonable doubt on the table. I don’t see them going after Adele until they can clear that from the defense lawyers arsenal, and that is going to take a long time.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The knock at the door surprised me.
“That was quick” I said as Travis got the door.
Before he opened it he turned to me. “Just a word of warning, Griffin is really angry, he might put us in handcuffs.”
“Not the first time” I muttered.
Travis raised an eyebrow and realizing what I had said, I went bright red. Travis opened the door and Jake Griffin walked in to find Travis laughing uproariously and my face looking like a tomato.
“Having fun” he drawled looking at me piercingly.
“Best time I’ve had in ages” said Travis giving me a big wink.
Griffin stiffened perceptively. I rolled my eyes at Travis, knowing that he had made the comment just to annoy Griffin.
“So what exactly is it that you think is so important to my case that I am racing down here?” Griffin stiffened his shoulders and directed his question towards Travis. I felt a little annoyed as he turned away from me.
“This is Eric Wesson’s apartment, which was used for some of his extramarital activities” Travis said leaning back against the wall.
“Interesting” said Griffin, “and why exactly am I finding the two of you here?”
I decided that I really wasn’t happy with being faced with Griffin’s back.
“We spoke to a friend of Eric who told us about this place and gave us a key” I said.
Finally Griffin turned towards me and going by the look on his face I was beginning to think that I should have kept my mouth shut.
“So you both thought that breaking and entering was a good idea.”
“We were given a key by someone who had free access to the place” Travis interrupted.
“Kind of shaky ground there” Griffin said.
I held my breath waiting to see where this went next.
“So what did you have to tell me?” asked Griffin. “I’m assuming, considering it looks like the two of you are working together, that you have something that is supposed to blow my case against Adele out of the water.”
“Just trying to help local law enforcement” said Travis.
“Of course you are” said Griffin putting his full attention back on Travis, “and exactly why did you feel the need to pull Trudie into your investigation? It wouldn’t have anything to do with your desperate need to annoy me would it?”
“Hey,” I said, sure that somewhere in there I had been insulted. “I’m helping him. Adele is my employer. I do have something to contribute to this case. You were the first one to recognize that. If I wasn’t so useful you wouldn’t have used me to make your case.”
Griffin looked as though he was about to answer my arguments when Travis interrupted.
“Much as I would enjoy this reality show playing itself out, I think Griffin might be a bit more interested in what we found.”
I shrugged. Considering how Griffin seemed to prioritize everything below his work, Travis was probably correct. Moving over to the computer Travis opened up one of the file
s and the next thing we heard was a woman’s voice giving Eric some very explicit instructions. Much as I tried to be cool about it and portray an air of sophistication, I could feel the heat rising up my neck and knew that I was fighting a losing battle. Glancing up I saw Griffin looking at me speculatively and I could feel the blush deepen. Thankfully Travis turned off the file and the voices stopped.
Travis cleared his throat. “The hard drive we found has lots of files on them like that. I’m sure if you looked hard enough, you’d be able to find quite a few people who wanted Eric dead.”
“It doesn’t matter” said Griffin, still looking intently at me. “We found the gun in Adele’s safe, she had gun residue on her hands and she was with the victim when he died. Her motive is still the strongest available.”
“Still got reasonable doubt here and you know it. Do you really want to mess up your golden boy status by screwing up a high profile case like this?” Travis asked.
That statement got Griffin’s attention. “You think I only care about a win, regardless of who did the actual killing?”
“I think that you have a tendency to get so focused on one person that you fail to see what else is going on around you” Travis said smiling tightly.
Watching the two of them, I wondered how they had ever worked together.
At that moment Ramos walked in, took in the scene in front of her and with a muttered “oh hell” stepped between the two males who looked for all the world as if they were going to lock horns.
Catching the eye of her partner she asked quietly, “do we have a problem here?”
Griffin sighed. “We could have. We need to seize all the electronic equipment here and do a search.”
“I’ll organize the paperwork” she said in her same quiet voice.
Travis tapped her on the shoulder and Ramos stiffened.
“You might want to include this” he said holding up the small camera.
“Do I want to know where you found that?” Ramos asked.
“Light fitting above the bed” he said proudly.
“You’re a pain in my neck, you know that don’t you?” said Ramos.
“Of course I do darling”.
Ramos smiled tightly. “Call me darling again and I’ll shoot you. Considering the way certain cops feel about you, I’d get away with it too.”
Smiling again Travis walked towards the door.
“Coming sweetheart,” he said throwing a glance in my direction.
Muttering beneath my breath I followed him through the door, aware that Griffin was watching my every move. Once out of sight of the two cops I punched Travis in the arm.
“What was that?” I asked, my annoyance clear in my voice.
Travis doubled over laughing. “Did you see him?” he asked. “There was almost steam coming out of his ears. Oh that moment was pure gold. Do you want a job because I think that would be the icing on the cake that would give Griffin a brain explosion.”
I shook my head. “You’re not being nice” I said. “There isn’t a need to cause that kind of a problem.”
“The guy is uptight, always has been, always will be. The thing is that you shake him up. That little scene in there, that was because of you, not me. Griffin and I have butted heads too many times before to count. He has never taken it this personally. You are the difference here.”
“I can’t help that” I said, suddenly realizing that this conversation was taking an uncomfortable turn.
“I’ve seen Griffin with women before” Travis said as he leaned against his car. “None of them got under his skin the way you seem to. I’m not sure why but you seem to have found a chink in his perfect armor. You are the one who puts the golden boy off his game and I find that very interesting.”
I mirrored his stance and crossed my arms. “You know, I think you just insulted me and I’m not sure why.”
“Honey” Travis said as he opened my door for me. “Believe me when I say that was not an insult. In fact, I am in awe of whatever power you seem to possess.”
“Great” I said.
After we’d been driving for a while I had to know. “Why do you dislike Griffin so much?”
Travis gave me a sideways glance and smiled.
“You know we were partners.”
I nodded.
“One night we were chasing a suspect and we got separated. The suspect came at me suddenly and I wasn’t able to get at my gun. He was hyped up on drugs and I was barely able to fight him off. He went down, hit his head on the pavement and died. Unfortunately he was some rich kid whose parents came after me. There was an investigation. Griffin refused to back my version of events. According to what I heard he believed that it was possible to talk this kid down and he felt I could have handled it differently. I got cleared but thanks to Griffin, there was always going to be a dark cloud over me. I wasn’t asking him to lie, just to back me up. He wouldn’t even do that. I quit the force the day I was cleared.”
“Are you using me to get back at him? I understand if you’re angry with him, but I’m not going to get into the middle of your little war. I’m really not that interested. In fact I’d be happy not to see either one of you ever again if that’s the case.”
With that I got out the car and shut the door. As I opened the door to my apartment I heard him drive off. Closing the door I breathed a sigh of relief. My phone started ringing and looking down I saw it was Griffin again. Sighing I answered the phone.
“What” I said.
There was a pause. “Look I know you’re angry with me but working with Travis is a very bad idea.”
I sighed. “I’m not angry anymore” I said. “I’m just really not interested in getting in the middle of this thing that the two of you have going on.”
I could almost hear him grinding his teeth.
“Look, I’ll come over and we can talk about this.”
“No” I said quickly, “I’ve got to go out and get some work done.”
“Trudie” he said, but it was too late. I hung up the phone.
Some women might enjoy being fought over by two men. Me, I knew what happened when male pride got involved. The situation became less about the woman and more about winning. I was not built like a trophy girlfriend and I was really not interested in becoming someone that was won. Grabbing my car keys I immediately headed out. I figured Griffin would not carry out his threat to come and see me, but just in case he did, I didn’t want to be there. Admittedly once I’d gone through a drive through and sat in a parking lot eating a burger, the thought that I may be acting a little cowardly went through my mind.
Jake Griffin confused me. I had never felt this on edge with anyone before in my life. When he looked at me and his eyes crinkled I just felt like melting where I stood and when he took me in his arms I felt safe and on fire all at once. The problem was I had seen women who had fallen for men like him before. Men who put their work first over everything. In my family it was often joked that the women would only put up with men who adored them. I wanted to be adored, I wanted to be put first and if I couldn’t have that then I didn’t want anyone. As I was wiping the grease from my hands my phone rang again. Sighing I grabbed it without looking at the caller ID.
“Trudie” Adele’s wavering voice came through. I was instantly on alert.
“Adele, what’s going on?” I asked.
“Trudie, I need you to come to my house. I found something and I don’t know what to do.”
“What is it Adele?”
“I think I know why Eric was killed. I don’t know who to turn to. You’re the only one I trust.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Racing up the steps to Adele’s house I called out her name.
“In here” she cried out.
I found her in the kitchen with her laptop open. The look on her face was devastated.
“How am I going to tell him?” she said tears rolling down her face.
Making my way around to her side, I looked down at the co
mputer screen. I recognized the bed in the paused video, I recognized the room and unfortunately I recognized both of the participants. There frozen on the screen was Eric Wesson and Miranda Powell.
“Oh no” I breathed.
“Elliot will be devastated if he sees this” Adele said.
I didn’t feel that this was the appropriate time to remind her of the rather close clinch I had seen her in with Elliot at Eric’s funeral.
“Where did you get this?” I asked.
“I wanted to come home so I left the hotel. It was in the mail when I got here, addressed to Eric.”
Seeing the envelope on the table I picked it up. There, in Eric’s familiar handwriting, was Eric’s name and address.
“He sent it to himself” I said. “He must have been trying to hide it, it wasn’t with the others.”
“Others?” queried Adele.
“Yes, the investigator that Elliot hired and I have been looking into whether there was anyone else that could have a reason to kill Eric. We found the apartment where all of this was filmed. Miranda Powell wasn’t the only one.”
“I never believed I was.”
My blood chilled as I looked towards the doorway to see Miranda Powell standing there, a gun in her hand pointing directly at Adele and me.
“Miranda” Adele said. “What are you doing? You’re my friend. We’ve been friends since we were in high school.”
“Then maybe you should have kept your hooks out of my husband” sneered Miranda.
I cringed, the fact she knew about Adele and Elliot did not bode well. Looking at Adele I saw a look of shame.
“I’m sorry, I am so, so sorry” Adele said, the tears rolling down her face.
“It was fine when Andrew was alive.” Miranda went on as if ignoring Adele. “But then he died and you just fell apart. This whole pathetic need to be taken care of by a man. I was always there for him for years but he wanted the needy little girl who never stood on her own two feet.”
Terrified as I was at that moment, I could understand why she was annoyed. Adele was no help as she sat blubbering in the chair and I fought the temptation to sigh in frustration. Even when our lives were on the line, Adele was incapable of stepping up and dealing with the situation. Taking a step forward, I regretted it immediately when the gun swung in my direction. The wound in my side started burning. My mouth went dry as I remembered the way it felt to have a bullet slice into you.