Fear No Evil

SIX

“GOOD MORNING, sunshine.”

Trevor Conrad walked into the room, staying out of view of the camera. Lucy must have dozed off. She startled awake.

How could she have even fallen asleep?

She jerked at the ties around her wrists. Her skin was chafed and sore.

“Fuck you, Trevor,” she said.

He chuckled. He was laughing at her. Lucy’s face grew hot with humiliation and anger. Fear was there, too, cold and hot at the same time, making everything in the plain room sharper, with fewer shadows.

Light.

The one covered window blocked the sun, but the quality of light told Lucy it was morning. How long had she been sleeping? It couldn’t have been long.

“Lucy, I’d like to reintroduce you to Roger,” Trevor said. “You remember him, of course.”

The big ugly jerk she’d kicked in the balls when he’d cut off her bra walked in behind Trevor. She watched as he unzipped his jeans.

“No. No no no no!” She shook her head back and forth, as if she thought that if she said it long enough, loud enough, they would go away. She fought her restraints, but they held fast. Warm blood coated her wrists from the chafing ropes.

Trevor laughed softly. “You’re such a fabulous actress, Lucy. You may have a future in film.” He shrugged. “Or not.”

Roger approached and knelt over her, his penis growing rigid. She closed her eyes.

Pretend you’re far away.

He pulled her jeans down to her ankles, where they tangled in the ropes at her feet.

The beach. The ocean is rolling up the sand. Seagulls. Kids. Friends. Volleyball.

Something cold and hard touched her skin and her underpants were cut from her body. The hard reality of her fate slapped her and Lucy couldn’t pretend it wasn’t happening. She couldn’t be anywhere else.

She screamed.

Kate tried to ignore what was happening to Lucy Kincaid as she scoured data for any clue that would tell her where the satellite feed was originating. It was hard to avoid it, to avoid remembering Paige. Her eyes watered and her teeth ground together as she tried to suppress her own primal scream at what Lucy now endured.

Damn bastard Trask knew she was watching.

Power.

The enormity of his power structure is what confused Kate. He’d had money at his disposal, even before his online porn sites began to flourish. His corporations paid taxes, filed reports, had a board of directors-all of which had been thoroughly investigated by the FBI and deemed legitimate. In fact, at one point her boyfriend, Evan, also an FBI agent, had told Kate she was chasing a ghost, that Trask didn’t exist. That the disappearance of the women she and Paige had been trying to find was unrelated to their jobs as porn stars. That April Klinger hadn’t been killed on screen. It had all just been an act, he said.

She’d fought with Evan the week before the sting, before Paige was kidnapped.

They had been in the living room of the small town house they shared near Quantico. She worked at headquarters, while Evan was a special agent in charge out of Washington, D.C. She was in Violent Crimes/Major Offenders, he was in Public Corruption. But he’d served in VCMO for years and had been a great sounding board for her and Paige when they’d been assigned a missing persons case related to the online pornography they routinely monitored for the VCMO unit.

Kate paced as she verbalized her reasoning on the case. It was Sunday, a rare day off for both of them, and Evan had wanted to take his boat out. He was annoyed that she was still in work mode.

“What if April was murdered during the play-acting?” Kate asked. “Maybe it was an accident. They didn’t mean to kill her. But if they reported it, a half-dozen agencies would be all over their ass, ready to shut them down. So Trask and his people covered it up.”

Evan sighed, rubbed a hand over his face. “You interviewed every actor employed by Trask Enterprises and everyone said April was alive and well after the shoot.”

“Then where is she? No one outside of their studio has seen her. She’s no longer working for them.”

“The CEO, what’s his name, said she quit. Said she was going to Hollywood to do real movies.” Evan rolled his eyes.

“The CEO is Roger Morton. You haven’t taken my case seriously since the beginning, have you?”

“I’ve listened to you for months, helped analyze data, took my own time to interview witnesses. Don’t tell me I haven’t taken you seriously. You’ve spent more time watching online porn than spending time in bed with me. What am I supposed to make of that?”

“That’s sick, Evan. This is my job. I need to find out what happened to April. Her grandmother deserves to know.”

Evan walked over to her, put his hands on her shoulders, looked her in the eye. Evan had been good to her, ever since they’d met two years ago when assigned to the same special task force. Last year he had moved into her town house. He’d been tolerant of Kate’s obsessive personality, how she took her cases personally, and up until April Klinger went missing, she’d begun to share her past with him. He knew things about her no one else knew, things she’d lied about to get into the FBI Academy in the first place.

“This is all about you, isn’t it, Kate?”

She froze. The last thing she’d expected of Evan was bringing up her past, especially now. Especially like this.

“It has nothing to do with me. You once told me you admired my dedication. If it weren’t for me being such a pit bull with evidence, we’d never have found the Williamette Strangler two years ago. You said that yourself.”

“I know, but-”

“I feel that there’s something here. I can’t prove it yet. But I know there is. Something about her eyes-don’t you see it?”

She pulled out a file and shoved a picture of April under his nose. It was her eyes that told Kate she was dead. The split second of film before the tape was cut.

She didn’t know what was sicker: strangling April to death while having sex, or running the segment on the website for months after the murder. It was only after she and Paige started interviewing employees of Trask Enterprises that the download went off-line.

And it killed her that when she’d fought tooth and nail to get a subpoena of the original digital file, it cut off at the exact same spot.

“Kate, I love you.” Evan touched her hair, ran a finger lightly over her cheek. “You’re a fantastic agent and even now you’re becoming a legend in the agency with your computer skills. You’ve spent the last four months of your life working on a case that has gone nowhere. Put it on the back burner. Other violent crimes out there need your attention. Or maybe you should consider the offer you got last month from the e-crimes unit. They want you. You’ll get a raise, you’ll get a promotion, and you’ll love it. You told me that.”

It was true. She’d wanted e-crimes because it was a challenge. But her heart-her soul-was in VCMO. She’d once told Evan that she’d been born to do this job.

“I just can’t let April go.” Kate implored Evan with her eyes, took his hands in hers. “You understand, don’t you?”

He kissed her hand. “I understand. I just think the case is cold. And you can continue to monitor it, I wouldn’t expect you to drop it completely, but it’s been four months. There’s a new hot case every day. This isn’t helping you. You’ve already strained your relationship with everyone else in the unit, including your boss. And Paige isn’t making any friends, either.”

“She agrees with me. That April was murdered.”

“Let’s say that she was. That they were filming one of those rape-fantasy scenes Trask is known for. Things got out of hand. April died. Prove it.”

“I can’t, but if-”

“You can’t because they covered it up. Got rid of her body. It could be at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for all we know. Unless there’s a body or a witness willing to come forward, you got nothing. You’re spinning your wheels. And it’s hurting us. I love you, Kate. I want you to be happy.” He kissed her.

The front door opened and Paige burst in. “Kate, guess wh-” She covered her eyes. “Sorry, didn’t mean to catch you making out.”

Evan swore under his breath.

Kate squeezed his hand. Evan and Paige had butted heads since they’d met. “What’s up?” she asked her partner.

“I have someone willing to talk. Remember Denise Arno? She’s one of the actresses at Trask. She just contacted me. She quit and is scared to death. Wants to meet with us tonight. She has evidence that April was killed, and that they’re planning on smuggling illegals into the country to use as victims.”

“When and where?” Kate dropped Evan’s hand and grabbed her notebook.

“Ten tonight, at the Jefferson Memorial.”

Evan shook his head. “I don’t like this.”

“Come with us,” Kate said. “Maybe you’ll understand why this is important.”

“I understand,” Evan said. “Are you going to have backup?”

Kate tensed. “You think I’m stupid? Or a maverick?”

“No, but-”

“No buts. You don’t trust me.”

“I think this case has blinded both of you.”

“I’m not going into this blind.”

Paige interjected. “I already talked to Jeff. He’s waiting for us to debrief him. I think we’ll get everything we want.”

“Jeff Merritt agreed to this?” Evan frowned.

“Of course.” Paige pouted. “I outlined the game plan.”

Kate turned to Evan. “Please, Evan. It’s important to me that you’re with me on this. If you don’t want to be involved, I understand. It’s not your case. But don’t turn your back on me.”

Evan touched her. “Oh, Kate. I’d never turn my back on you.”

Beep beep beep beep beep beep…

Kate shook her head, ridding herself of the bittersweet memories. She typed in a series of numbers and stopped the computer from beeping at her.

Five days after that conversation with Evan, he’d followed her to the sting operation she and Paige had set up. Evan had informed Kate that there was no backup, Merritt hadn’t authorized it. He’d looked at Kate as if she’d lied to him. But she hadn’t.

She’d repeated what Paige had told her just that morning. She’d never thought to question her partner. She’d never thought her partner would put them in jeopardy.

Evan had died believing Kate had lied to him. It still hurt.

She glanced up at the screen just as Roger climbed off Lucy Kincaid, a crooked grin on the bastard’s face. The poor girl was crying, then the picture was cut off. Trask’s voice came over the speakers as another “best of” compilation began.

“Lucy wants to clean up after her first act. Wasn’t that fabulous? Lucy definitely has a future as an actress. So while she takes care of her business, here are highlights of our past shows.”

Kate didn’t watch, not this time. She was frantically trying to isolate a frequency. But as soon as the highlights began, Lucy’s feed was off the network. Kate was tracking phantoms.

She buried her head in her arms. She’d been so close, then he cut her off. Did he do it on purpose? Or was he trying to set her up, give her a false location like he had with Paige? Could Kate even trust her skills anymore? She was better, much, much better, than five years ago, but so was Trask.

Again, it was all about power. Trask had all the money he could ever want from his pornography trade. He didn’t need to kill women to increase his cash flow. And on top of the legitimate money, she suspected he had a number of illegal schemes going on.

So why kill? And why kill online? Why show the world what he was doing?

He thinks he’s God.

For five years the FBI had been trying to find Morton and Trask, but they didn’t even fully believe Trask existed. The Bureau wanted vengeance for the murder of two federal agents. They’d take anyone and everyone they could. Some believed “Trask” was an alias of Roger Morton’s, and no matter how Kate tried to convince them that they were two different people, they’d found no proof that Trask was a separate individual. Through her contact, Special Agent Quinn Peterson, she knew they’d raided Trask Enterprises, arrested and interviewed everyone on staff. But Roger Morton had disappeared, and no one else in the company had ever heard of an individual named Trask. They all believed it was just the name of the company, not related to a living, breathing person. Then, a new CEO was appointed by the board, a man above reproach-other than the fact that he ran a strip club in New York.

There was no evidence that Trask Enterprises had anything to do with Paige’s murder.

But Kate knew the truth, even if she couldn’t prove it.