Part 14 (2/2)

The receptionist's steely smile slipped into a slight frown, and he made a call on the phone behind the front desk. ”Julia, can you come to the front, please? I've got a customer here with some questions.”

A moment later, a woman who might have been about Val's age emerged from the ”Employees Only” door, though graying hair and a square build made her seem older. ”Can I help you?” Julia asked.

”Asclepius Incorporated rented office s.p.a.ce in this building at some point in time. I know because this memo lists this building in the return address. So can you tell me where they used to be?”

Julia glanced at Val's paper, then smiled. ”Oh yes, I remember a man from Asclepius coming in here often, about six months ago. Christophe, I think his name was. I didn't see him again after their lease expired and they didn't renew. Too bad, he was a really nice guy. Very charming. French.”

”He's under investigation for rape and kidnapping.”

Julia's smile fell like a lead weight. ”Oh.”

”Where is the s.p.a.ce he rented?”

”On the twelfth floor. There are doctor's offices there now.”

A seed of hope sprang up in Val. Doctor's offices were perfect places to conduct experiments on people, though how Lucien could get unwilling partic.i.p.ants up there and keep them imprisoned without attracting attention was an open question. ”I need to go up to those offices and look around.”

Julia's eyebrows furrowed. ”Who did you say you were again?”

”Abigail Westlake, with the Seattle PD.”

”Can I see your badge?”

”It's in the shop right now. Listen, all I want to do is look around. You can follow me if you want.”

”I can't let you up there without some identification, or a warrant.”

Great, someone was a Law and Order fan. ”You're impeding a criminal investigation.”

Julia set her jaw and put her hand on her hip like a stern mother. ”I don't know what you're really doing here, but the only people allowed in this building are employees and people with appointments. Please leave.”

Val gritted her teeth and shoved the Asclepius memo back into her pocket. ”If you want to put innocent people's lives at risk for the sake of your draconian rules, then fine. I'll be back with my badge, and a warrant.” She stalked to the exit, then cut right just before the revolving gla.s.s doors. In a quiet corridor, she took a pen from her pocket and flipped the fire alarm. Val tossed the ink-covered pen in the trash as she exited the building with the other evacuating occupants. She snaked through people loitering in the parking lot, got into her car, and waited.

Two minutes later, a couple of fire engines roared up. They'd have to sweep the building, even for a false alarm. If she couldn't search Asclepius's old offices, the fire department would do it for her. Val drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and watched the firemen enter the building. Twenty minutes later, they came out, got back in their trucks, and drove away.

”f.u.c.k.” Val pounded the dashboard with her fists. ”f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k!” Another dead end. Her last hope was the mangled hard drive.

She drove to Zach's house in the Kent suburbs. Usually she didn't go to his place, since his mother was around most of the time, and it made doing business with him face-to-face awkward. This time, it was just Zach at home-his mom had gone to the plant store-and he gleefully led her to his room.

”Uh, sorry about the mess,” he said, pus.h.i.+ng dirty clothes off the foot of his bed. ”I don't normally, you know, get girls up here...” He blushed, a bright flame across his face when contrasted with his pale skin and black eyeliner.

”It's fine.” Without sitting down, she handed him a baggie with the hard drive pieces inside. ”I need you to see what information you can pull from this.”

He emptied the baggie into his hand, the pieces clinking against the huge silver skull-and-crossbones ring he wore. ”d.a.m.n. Someone throw this off a building or something?”

”Can you work with it or not?”

”Hmm...maybe. Probably.”

”Good.” She dropped five twenties on the desk in the corner he'd piled high with computer equipment. ”The sooner the better.”

”You always say that.”

”Because it's always true.”

As she left his room, he called after her, ”Hey, you can come by anytime and I can show you how I do my magic, it's pretty cool-”

She stepped outside and shut the front door behind her.

Back in her car, she let out a long, exhausted sigh. At this point, she had no choice but to tell Nora that even though she knew who had her daughter, she still couldn't prove it. Nor had she been able to find Margaret, despite being only a few steps behind Lucien.

She should also apologize to Max, maybe in a couple of days, after he'd cooled off. What could she say that would make up for keeping such a big secret from him? He'd told her a lot of things about himself that weren't any of her business. h.e.l.l, she knew practically everything about him. And he knew almost everything about her. That intimate knowledge bound her to him in a way she would never experience with any other person. Her stupid, stubborn heart couldn't give him up, no matter how hard she tried to force it to.

Val took a deep breath and pulled out her phone. Might as well start the process of making uncomfortable calls, beginning with Nora. She paused when a new e-mail notification popped up, from an address she didn't recognize. An article was embedded in the message: ”Mysterious Death Outside Local Bar Baffles Authorities.” Val's blood pressure spiked as she read the story of Calvin Williams, a Lakewood mechanic who'd somehow choked to death on his own blood. The article speculated about possible viruses. Was someone trying to blackmail her?

Then she read text underneath the article: Calvin Williams: c.o.kehead and amateur hacker. Five arrests. One conviction for drug possession with intent to sell, two misdemeanor convictions for mail fraud and unlawful cybercrimes, sp. hacking into corporate servers and personal e-mail accounts. Restraining order in effect for stalking ex-girlfriend.

It was signed simply at the bottom: a.s.shole.

Sten had sent this to her.

So Cal had worked in Lakewood as a mechanic...hadn't Zach told her the spoofed IP address where Margaret's video came from originated from a car garage in Lakewood? If Lucien was the source of the rape videos, maybe he hadn't intended for them to pop up on the Internet. Could Cal have hacked into Lucien's computer and stolen the videos? It was also possible Lucien sent the videos to certain sickos-people like Ginger-as a f.u.c.ked-up ”memories” keepsake for recruitment, and Cal hacked into their accounts and found the videos. The second scenario seemed more likely, given Lucien's gift for covering his tracks. Could be Cal targeted Ginger in particular because the two knew each other. The mechanic had a history of selling drugs-maybe he was Ginger's dealer? And when Lucien found out about the theft, he dispatched Ginger to take care of the problem, with poison in the form of a bribe.

It seemed a viable theory, taking into account everything she knew so far. How could Max be engaged to a woman whose brother was such a piece of s.h.i.+t? Val a.s.sumed Abigail and her brother grew up together. Was she really so much better than Ginger, or just better at hiding her depravity?

Val scoffed and shook her head at her spiteful thinking. Here she was, hoping her true love's fiancee was somehow a demented psycho-after she pushed him away. Pathetic. Val started her car. She'd call Nora after she was done being an emotional basket case.

On the way home, she rehea.r.s.ed the conversation she knew she needed to have with Nora, though her mind kept wandering back to Max and what she should say to him. Jesus, a woman was being tortured somewhere, and she fretted over her ex-boyfriend. Way to have your priorities straight, Val.

Feeling like a complete piece of s.h.i.+t by the time she pulled up to her house, she saw an unfamiliar car parked in her driveway. Val put a hand on the gun at her hip, then relaxed as Josephine stepped out of the driver's side. She hadn't seen Robby's sister since Dean's funeral close to a year ago. She couldn't think of any pleasant reasons why Jo would make an impromptu visit.

As soon as Val got out of the car, Jo asked, ”Why does Maxwell Carressa keep trying to give me money?”

”He's what?”

”He keeps offering me money, first as a scholars.h.i.+p fund in Robby and my dad's names, then as a charity donation. You...know him. Why is he hara.s.sing me?”

”Maybe you should ask him.”

Jo scoffed. ”I don't want anything to do with that a.s.shole. He killed my father.”

”He didn't kill your father. I was there when it happened.”

”Well, Carressa somehow pushed him to do what he did. Dad never would've killed himself.”

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