Page 13 of Hemmed

“If you ask nicely, the ‘tech boys’ might tell you that Thurston is a moron. He has video cameras on the inside and outside of his building. I’ve got him coming and going non-stop for the last two days. I’ll pull it all together and have it ready for your review when you get here,” said Code.

“Code, you’re the man, brother. What about the tailor’s shop? Anything there?” asked Jean.

“Yes and no. Thurston and Craig both frequented the tailor often. The challenge will be proving why they were there. They always entered with a garment in hand.”

“Well, it’s a place to start. We’ll head back so we can review the videos. Any word from our three victims? Anything else that they remembered?” asked Miller.

“No. Sor gave us permission to add some security on his property. He has alarms and cameras on the cabin but nothing on the road leading to the cabin. We sent some boys out to install those. The woman knows and is fine with it.”

“Alright. Is there any happy news to tell us?”

“It’s not happy news, Miller. I’m working on finding the source of the site. You know it’s become a specialty of ours, but this one is tough. I’ve got Hayes helping me, only because he’s eighteen now. I can’t ask the little ones to work on this. Even Hayes is struggling with it.”

“Don’t let him work on it,” said Jean. “It’s too much for us half the fucking time. He’s still a kid in a lot of ways.”

“He’s only working on the coding and tracking. I’m not letting him look at the site. Hoot’s sitting with him just to be sure.”

“Okay. That makes me feel better,” said Jean.

“Listen, we’ve seen shit like this before, but to me this one is worse. These women are completely unaware that they’re being filmed. It doesn’t seem to matter their size or weight. In fact, women who are plumper are often filmed, and then bubbles of comments are added to shame her.

“You can see them staring at themselves in the mirror, not happy about how they look. Even the thin ones. It makes me ashamed to be a man. The harder part of this, and I cannot figure out how it’s done, is that they’re filming these women using the toilet.” Code was silent, waiting for the reaction that he knew would come. It was difficult for him to see the footage, and he’d seen a lot of horrific footage in his life.

“Is that a fucking joke? Are you fucking with me?” growled Miller. The silence told him that Code was not fucking with him. “What kind of sick fucking people are out there? I think we need to pay another visit to our friend Craig.”

Jean smirked at his older brother, shaking his head.

“Alright, but if you break it, you buy it.”

CHAPTER NINE

“Why are we leaving?” pouted Cara as she watched Craig tossing items into his designer luggage. He’d paid a fortune for it, just for their trip. “I thought we were going out to the lake house and then leave for the islands in a few days.”

“Fuck the lake house! Didn’t you hear me? Thurston skipped town with the money. All I have is what’s in our accounts, and those guys that came earlier today are going to rake me over the coals. You should be fucking grateful that Mark had nothing!”

“It wasn’t that he had nothing. He was just smart about where he put it. I couldn’t touch it,” she frowned.

“Pack faster,” he snapped.

“Stop yelling at me! This isn’t my fault. You promised that if I left Mark, we would have smooth sailing to do whatever we wanted.”

“Well, guess what?” he snarled, gripping her upper arm. “We won’t. You’re going to have to go back to work until I get my business off the ground in whatever city we land in.”

“I don’t want to go back to work. You promised!” she said, stomping her foot.

Craig came at her so fast she didn’t have time to evade the backhand she saw coming. He hit her so hard she stumbled backwards, tripping over the suitcase on the floor. Stumbling backwards, he just watched as she screamed, staring at him. When her head hit the corner of the nightstand, he watched as the blood amassed on the floor beneath her.

“I guess that solves one problem,” he frowned. His phone rang, and he recognized the number. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Leave whatever you’re doing and get to me. I’ll text you the address,” said Thurston.

“I’ve got a clean-up on aisle five,” he frowned. “Cara won’t be coming with me.”

“She was a pain in the ass anyway. Just leave the bitch and get to me. We can make this work somewhere else. They love this shit in Asia. I’ve got a couple of fake passports and enough money for plane tickets. Plus, we can live like kings on almost nothing.”

“I’m on my way.”

Grabbing his Louis Vuitton duffel bag and rolling bag, he looked back at Cara. She was a good lay, always willing to suck and swallow when he wanted her to, but she was a whiney bitch. Thurston was right. They could do better.

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