Page 38 of Ruthless Riches
“But what?” Fernandez asked, expression turning thunderous. “What the hell is going on here?”
“Well… the thing is, even though the club has cut ties with the Ellesmere family, there are still a few people out there who are furious about the fact that this place used to be a hangout for the Golden Circle,” the guard on the right said. “Some of those angry people are skilled hackers, or they at least have access to hackers, and our network has been under assault for weeks because of them. Have you ever heard of a distributed denial of service attack?”
Rader nodded. “Yes.”
“That’s what they’ve been doing. They managed to shut our website down for four straight days last week, and they’ve destroyed our security system too. The cameras record everything, but the data vanishes immediately afterward. We have people working on it, but—”
Fernandez lifted a hand and cut him off, looking disgusted. “So there’s really no footage from last night?”
The guard swallowed hard and shook his head.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Rader muttered under his breath.
He spoke to Fernandez for a moment in hushed tones, so I could no longer hear anything. Then the two of them headed over to me. “Nate, we need you to run us through what happened last night,” Fernandez said, taking a seat across from me.
I told her everything I remembered.
“Did you see your attacker at any point?” she asked, raising her brows.
I shook my head. “No. I was standing by my car looking for my keys, and I heard Alexis scream, so I looked up at her, but there was nothing there. Then I felt something on my neck. Everything after that is a total blank.”
“So the attacker approached you from behind.”
“Yes.”
“What about when you were walking through the parking lot?” Rader asked. “Did you see anyone else there?”
“No. They must’ve been hiding behind a car somewhere, waiting for us.”
“And you didn’t see them take Alexis?”
“No. I was unconscious.” I closed my eyes and put my head in my hands, wishing I could wake up from this horrible fucking nightmare.
I couldn’t even imagine how Alexis felt right now, wherever she was. How cold, how terrified, how utterly alone.
“Do you remember what time you and Alexis left the nightclub?” Fernandez asked.
I shook my head. “I remember that it was late, but that’s all.”
“Think hard, Nate. Without the security footage, we have no way of knowing, and establishing a timeframe is very important.”
“I know it was after midnight,” I said, looking up at her again. “We got there at nine, and we were there for hours.”
“How long after midnight? One o’clock? Two? Even later?”
“I honestly can’t remember,” I muttered. It felt like half of my brain matter had been scooped out with a hot spoon. “It’s too blurry.”
Fernandez nodded. “Okay. Keep thinking about it. It might come back to you,” she said. “For now, we need to get you to the hospital. Your car needs to stay here for a while, because it’s part of the crime scene, so Detective Rader will take you.”
“I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“Actually, you do,” she said, wrinkling her forehead. “You were drugged, and it may have been with a controlled substance. If we can get you tested and find out exactly what it was, we can figure out who might’ve had access to that drug recently. That could help us narrow the suspect field.”
I stared at her. “You know there are bars and clubs on Sixth Avenue with back rooms where you can get literally any drug on the planet, right?” I said. “I doubt this killer is dumb enough to legally buy whatever the fuck he jammed into my neck last night.”
“That may be the case, but we still need to follow up on everything we can,” she replied. “That means you need to be tested.”
“Are you going to follow up on the tip you were given about the private tunnel entrance in Central Park?” I asked. “Because that’s where he’s taken Alexis—the tunnels. I can guarantee it.”
