Jamil sighed heavily.

  “How long do I have?” he asked.

  “Technically, until Monday morning,” Karen said. “But realistically, we’re not going to be able to keep a lid on why Reyes is here much longer. Once word gets out that he’s the real killer, Shepherd’s release will be imminent. And if he leaves this building, it may not matter if we nail him for something. He’s got the human and financial resources to relocate someplace where we can’t touch him. He’ll just move his entire operation abroad and do his damage from a country without an extradition treaty.”

  “So, until the morning, then?” Jamil pressed, hoping for something more clear-cut.

  “If we’re lucky,” Karen told him.

  Jessie was about to give him a few more specifics that they’d learned from Miranda/Skyler when a familiar face poked his head into the room.

  “How’s it going?” Ryan asked.

  Jessie turned to Karen.

  “Can you share all our notes from the loft interview with Jamil?” she requested. “Maybe something in there will help him. I’ve got to deal with this guy.”

  “Not a problem,” Karen said, settling into the chair next to Jamil.

  Jessie took Ryan’s hand and they walked to the empty break room, where she got a granola bar. It occurred to her that she hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner today.

  “Congratulations,” Ryan said. “Decker gave me the short version.”

  “Thanks,” Jessie said. “Don’t go spreading it around though. We’re still trying to nail another bad guy and we need to keep him here to do it. How are you doing?”

  “Okay,” he said, though he didn’t look it. “Forensics confirmed that the machete blade matches the injuries to Kaylee McNulty, so even without Livia Bucco, we can close the case.”

  “That’s great,” Jessie said. “So why do you look so down?”

  “I just feel like I should have been able to talk her off that ledge,” Ryan said. “What she did was brutal, but I got the sense that she wasn’t in control of her choices. There was so much pain and confusion in her eyes before she killed herself. I would never say this to anyone but you, but in some ways, she was as much a victim of her mental illness as Kaylee.”

  “I get that,” Jessie told him, squeezing his hand. “But remember, none of this is on you. You tried your best. Obviously she wasn’t stable enough to leave the hospital. Someone really screwed up there.”

  “But that’s the thing,” Ryan said. “I reviewed her file. It appeared like she had made real progress. Looking at the notes of her therapy sessions, I might have released her too. It was like a switch was flicked inside her and she just had to do this thing that even she couldn’t explain. I don’t get it.”

  “Please don’t beat yourself up, Ryan,” she pleaded. “You’ve done enough of that lately.”

  “I know,” he conceded, “but I also feel bad for involving you. I hate that you had to make that deal with Andrea Robinson.”

  “That’s not on you,” she reminded him. “You were just the messenger. It was going to come to a head at some point. It just happened to be today. Besides, if talking to Andy Robinson saved even one other person from Kaylee’s McNulty’s fate, then it was worth it.”

  Ryan seemed to accept that, but then thought of something else.

  “And you’re really going to write a letter with a full-throated endorsement for her transfer?”

  “Maybe not full-throated,” Jessie allowed, “but I made a commitment and I intend to honor it. Besides, if I want her to keep helping, she needs to believe I made a good faith effort to get her moved. And I think that she may actually be able to help us. She has access to so many unbalanced criminals in these prison hospitals and she has a way of making them feel comfortable enough to share things that could prove invaluable to us. It’s like having an agent on the inside.”

  “But how do you know she’s not a double agent?” Ryan asked.

  “I don’t,” Jessie admitted. “That’s why I won’t be accepting any more mojitos from her.”

  They both laughed despite the darkness of the joke.

  “So you’re not coming home yet?” he asked as they exited the break room into the hallway.

  “Soon, I hope,” Jessie said. “I want one more crack at Shepherd. Will you text me when you get there and tell Hannah goodnight from me?”

  “Of course,” he said.

  Jessie smiled and gave him a long kiss. He returned it enthusiastically before walking slowly down the hall. As he did, and for reasons she couldn’t explain, Andy Robinson’s words about Ryan being taken with Susannah Valentine popped into her head.

  She knew it was a cheap dig by a manipulative killer intended to unsettle her, and yet, she still wanted to ask him how Valentine had been as a partner that day. She bit her tongue, deciding that would play into Andy’s hands. Even if she didn’t trust Valentine, she loved and trusted her fiancé and refused to let herself be played.

  Luckily, her thoughts were interrupted by Karen, who shot into the hall. Her face was flushed and she was breathing heavily. It was clear that she’d been running.

  “What is it?” Jessie asked.

  “It’s Jamil. He found something. Actually, he found everything.”

  *

  Karen wasn’t kidding.

  As Jessie sat in the research office, looking at the data on the screen, her jaw dropped open.

  “We gave you until morning and you cracked her password in minutes?” she said in disbelief. “How did you do it?”

  “It was shockingly easy,” Jamil said. “I started thinking about what you told me about the tattoo and her last words and what was important to her and it came to me. I got it on the fourth try: LITWTWIL11. Love is the way. The way is love, 11, as in the Eleventh Realm.”

  “She really did have a one track mind, huh?” Karen marveled.

  “I suppose,” Jamil said, pulling up a new screen with an Excel document, “but she managed to make time for this too.”

  “What is that?” Jessie asked.

  But even before he answered, she understood. As he scrolled from screen to screen, her eyes kept getting wider.

  “Let’s get Shepherd into an interrogation room ASAP,” she said suddenly. “And we should call his lawyers too. I want to do this by the book.”

  “Why?” Karen asked, surprised. “It’s almost 11:30. And you know there’s no way he’s going to talk to us. Hell, his lawyers will probably put duct tape over his mouth.”

  “Let’s just make it happen,” Jessie replied. “We can worry about that once they’re in the room.”

  Both Karen and Jamil looked at her skeptically.

  “Trust me,” she said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  Considering the hour and where he’d spent the last several, Jessie thought that Sterling Shepherd looked unexpectedly alert.

  Nor did he seem especially troubled as he sat in the interrogation room with his attorney, Walter Serra, who was whispering in his ear. The handcuffs had been removed and he was gingerly rubbing his wrists. Serra didn’t seem all that concerned either. In the adjoining observation room, Jessie and Karen watched him.

  “You ready?” Jessie asked.

  “I’m not entirely sure what you’re planning,” Karen said, “So no. But I have to admit I’m curious. So I guess we should get started.”

  They left the observation room and stepped into the hall, where the other two lawyers from earlier today were standing with a man that Jessie didn’t recognize. But Karen, who obviously did, stopped in her tracks. For a second Jessie thought she was going to faint, but as quickly as she’d lost control, she regained it.

  “Hi Karen,” said the unfamiliar man, who was good-looking in a washed-out, tired-eyed sort of way. He was wearing dress clothes but his blond hair was longish and unkempt and he wore loafers without socks.

  “Hi,” she replied before turning to Jessie, “Jessie Hunt, this is Derek Burke. You may recall that I mentioned him. He’s the guy who runs Detoxibrate, the bogus rehab program the Realm operates.”

  Burke smiled.

  “Is that the only way that you described me?” he asked playfully. “No other part I played in your past?”

  Karen looked ready to deck him, but before she responded, Jessie leaned in close to Burke.

  “You didn’t play anywhere near the part in her past that she’s going to play in your future,” she muttered quietly so that only he and Karen could hear her.

  The smile faded from his face as the look on Karen’s brightened. The two women left him in the hall as they entered the interrogation room. They hadn’t even spoken before Walter Serra stood up.

  “Unless you’re here to release my client, this is a waste of time,” he announced. “He’s not going to answer any of your questions.”

  “That’s okay,” Jessie said sunnily, taking a seat opposite them. Karen joined her. “We can do all the talking.”

  Serra sat back down, unsure what to make of the comment.

  “Jamil, go ahead,” she said, knowing the researcher could hear her through the room’s audio system.

  The lights dimmed slightly and an image appeared on the wall. Shepherd squinted slightly.

  “You can put on your glasses, Mr. Shepherd,” Jessie said. “No one here is going to blab about your declining vision.”

  Serra handed him a pair and he put them on. Now able to see the screen clearly, his relaxed demeanor stiffened noticeably.

  “As you can see,” Jessie said casually, “what appears before you is a comprehensive list of every girl who has sexually serviced Mr. Shepherd over the last four years, collected efficiently in an Excel spreadsheet. Next screen please, Jamil.”

  Before anyone could say a word, a new data set appeared on the wall.

  “This page includes the names of other high-profile Adherents these women were with, including dates and times.”

  Even in the darkened room, Jessie could see that Sterling Shepherd had turned pale.

  “This is outrageous,” Serra bellowed.

  “I agree,” Jessie said, “and we’re not even to the best part. Next screen please, Jamil.”

  A new image appeared. It was more involved than the first two.

  “In case there’s any confusion, this is a separate document that lists other men who aren’t Eleventh Realm Adherents, many with names you’ll recognize, next to girls’ names, along with dollar amounts, dates, and locations. Next screen please, Jamil.”

  A screen showing what appeared to be an online bank ledger flashed in front of them. Shepherd looked like he wanted to speak but Jessie beat him to the punch.

  “These are records from several bank accounts, with deposit totals and dates that conveniently enough, correspond exactly to the amounts on the preceding Excel sheet.”

  “What is all this?” Serra shouted. “Is the LAPD in the business of forging documents now?”

  “No sir,” Jessie said pleasantly. “All this information came from the cell phone of Addison Rutherford, who kept a comprehensive record of the Realm’s sexual trafficking scheme on it.”

  “You expect us to take this seriously?” Serra demanded, making up for his client’s silence with impressive bloviating.

  “I know,” Jessie agreed. “It’s hard to believe that she would keep such sensitive, potentially cult-destroying information on her personal phone. But I guess when you’ve elevated so high in the organization, your head starts to get a little fuzzy.”

  “Ms. Hunt,” Shepherd said, trying and failing to infuse his pinched voice with its typical honeyed warmth, “I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding here, just like the misunderstanding about Ms. Rutherford’s death, which I had no part in. You see, Sonny had a long history of mental illness. We were actually trying to help her with that. She led a fantasy life, where she imagined that—.”

  “Stop, Sterling,” Serra said under his breath. “It’s better if you don’t say anything.”

  “Walter,” Shepherd insisted. “I’m confident that we can clear this up if—.”

  “You should listen to your lawyer, Shep,” Jessie said standing up. “We don’t actually need to hear from you. In fact, we don’t have any questions. We just wanted to let you know that it’s all over in person, right Detective Bray?”

  “Right,” Karen said, doing a decent job of hiding the fact that until two minutes ago, she had no idea what was planned. Normally Jessie wouldn’t leave her partner blind like that, but in this case, she considered it a special gift for someone who’d suffered long enough.

  Shepherd peered more closely at Karen. Jessie saw him trying to make the mental connection that her partner had feared he would just a few hours ago. And then, in an instant, he did.

  “I know you,” he said excitedly, a big grin on his face. “You’re Karen Bartlet, that Disavowed girl from Occidental College. I figured that you eventually went back to Toledo to lick your wounds.”

  “Nope,” Karen said, without any of the apprehension that had dogged her most of the day, “still here. Any the name’s Bray now, as in Detective Karen Bray, as in the cop who will be escorting you back to your metal cot in a minute.”

  Shepherd’s grin faded away.

  “I’ll be going now, Shep” Jessie said pointedly. “I guess you didn’t really need to be here for this. I just wanted to see the look in your eyes when you realized that your whole corrupt scheme is about to fall apart, that everyone will know what you really are. The alphabet soup of acronyms that you use to hide your illegal acts— TEROTH, DRA, M&Ms, COHP, TS and TC, FIC—it won’t protect you now. Thank God, because I can’t keep track of all of them. Now I won’t have to. Get ready for a lot of prison time, Shep, along with a lot of lawsuits, and hearing the names of lots of your victims too, names like Veronica Reyes.”

  She started for the door, but then turned back.

  “Oh that reminds me—speaking of the Reyes family, I suppose you should know that you’re no longer being held for the murder of Addison Rutherford. We found the real killer and he’s in custody right now. His name is Ricardo Reyes, Veronica’s father. But I have a feeling you already knew that, considering that you sent your goons to follow us and take him out earlier tonight. It didn’t work, by the way. Maybe you can learn the details when you’re sharing a cell with them. Speaking of that, I think Detective Bray has a few new charges to levy against you.”

  She winked at Karen, who had a smile so big, it looked like it might hurt.

  “Please stand up, Mr. Shepherd,” she said, pulling out her cuffs. “You are under arrest for violating California Penal Code 236.1, banning human trafficking. That charge should suffice for now until we can come up with a more comprehensive list.”

  He did as he was told, slowly getting to his feet. For the first time since Jessie had seen him, he didn’t have that self-satisfied smile plastered across his face. Instead, his expression was one of desperation. Beside him, his lawyer looked positively forlorn.

  Karen snapped the cuffs on him and looked over at Jessie, who was about to leave.

  “Hey, Ms. Hunt,” she called out from across the room, “love is the way.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Jessie replied enthusiastically.

  “The way is love.”

  *

  “I’m tired, Captain,” Jessie pleaded. “It’s almost midnight. Can’t we talk about it tomorrow?”

  She’d just finished her paperwork and was getting ready to leave for the night when Decker called her into his office. He closed the door. Instead of sitting at his desk, he leaned against the front of it, in what she suspected was a clumsy attempt to appear casual.

  “It can’t wait,” he said. “I know that if we don’t lock this down now, it might be weeks before I can corral you again. I need a decision.”

  Jessie shook her head with a mix of frustration and exhaustion.

  “We just closed a murder case and arrested a cult leader for sex trafficking. Don’t I get a little break?”

  “That’s why I want you to come on permanently, Hunt. You did an amazing job. I have to admit that when you were pulling in movie stars and it looked like a litigious, multi-million dollar organization—.”

  “You can safely call it a cult now, Captain,” Jessie reminded him.

  “In any case,” he said, refusing to be baited, “I was concerned how this might all play out for a while there. But as usual, you came through. That’s why we need you. And it’s why I’m willing to add 25% to your already exorbitant rate as part of your annual salary. You have to admit, that’s pretty good for a city employee.”

  “Captain, that is very generous, but as I told you before, I went into teaching because this job was so emotionally taxing on me, not to mention the fact that I’m my sister’s guardian and she doesn’t need to deal with another dead relative. And I really meant what I said this morning: once I started the seminars, it turned out that I actually love working with those students, helping them hone their skills so that maybe one of them can be the next Garland Moses.”

  “There was only one Garland Moses,” Decker said, “and the closest thing to him is in this room right now.”

  “Thanks, Captain,” Jessie said standing up. “That means a lot to me, but—.”

  “I’ll remove the prohibition on you partnering with Detective Hernandez,” he interrupted.

  “I thought that had to go some human resources review board,” she said.

  “I have sway,” he replied.

  “What about public perception and the jealous people looking for HSS to fail?” she said, reminding him of his objections from this morning.

  “That should tell you how much I want you back,” he said. “The fact that I’m willing to take that crap means I’m serious about this.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24