Page 67 of Resolutions

I eye him like he's suddenly sprouted a glittery horn in the middle of his forehead.

“Believe me, Tobias, it's worth it.”

“Fine. I've known you long enough to give you the benefit of the doubt. Follow me.”

The basement conference room hasn't been used since, well, I don't know when the last time was. Now, while it has a table and chairs, it's become a storage room and dust collector. The air feels stale as we settle in. Law sets his cup of coffee down, then thumps the several-inch-thick folder next to it, taking his seat.

“Don't mind the mess,” I say, sitting on the other side of the table from him. “So, you've got my attention. What's this all about?” I study his face, noting the shadows under his eyes. “And why do I get the feeling I'm not going to like it?”

“Because of all the things I'm about to tell you, you're going to want to kick someone's ass. But you can't.” Law scoots the folder closer to him. “Now, let me lay it all out for you before you react.”

For the next thirty minutes, I listen as my world tilts on its axis. Michael Thorne, that son of a bitch. Successful businessman, pillar of the community, Charlie Whitaker's surrogate son. He tried to take his best friend's girl. Threatened her, her family, and the Whitakers. All because he's been running a dark website where they brutalize women. Money changing hands for acts too depraved to contemplate. Forcibly taking women to be the acts in his show. And he wanted tosell Melanie to the highest bidder. All of which happened in my fucking jurisdiction, right under my fucking nose. That slimy little shit. I set the newspapers and Melanie's statement on the table.

“Melanie's alright?” I ask.

“Yes, she's with Farris at her apartment. I sent Evelyn home with strict rules not to contact anyone until Mom invites her over for coffee. So, provided Evelyn doesn't kill Michael before we set him up, we're good.” Law chuckles, shaking his head. “Never seen her so mad.”

“Rightly so. What about the teacher from Boulder Canyon?” My voice sounds angry; I clear my throat and take a sip of coffee. It's not Law I have a beef with.

“She's here. So is the librarian.” Law slides me photos of a dark green warehouse set in the pines with a barley seen small gravel parking lot. Along with several overhead shots of the inside of the building. Two main rooms stand back-to-back in the middle. No roof on either of them allows me to see one that looks like some sort of kitchen setup and the other an office setting. The outside perimeter of the warehouse looks like what I would say were jail cells, nine total. Three on the right and left and three on the far side. Bars replace the walls facing the center of the building. I can clearly see these are used to house the women. Tiny rooms with a bed, sink, and toilet. In the photos, I count seven women in the cells.

“That's the warehouse where everything happens. Thank goodness Melanie took notes after each of their calls. Otherwise, it could have taken months to even know we needed to be looking for a warehouse, let alone find it. Near as we can tell, it's about forty-five miles from here, down an abandoned old logging road.” Law looks up from the pictures, drawing my attention to his face. “Good news, it's just inside your jurisdiction.”

“That's what I wanted to hear.”

Law slides me over a spreadsheet. Listed on it are dates, names, and information of women. “Face recognition matched the highlighted women as being the ones in the pictures. Although a couple were pretty swollen, the probability of the match is still sixty percent.” Law's jaw tightens. I feel mine do the same and we both know why. There are a lot of other names on the spreadsheet. “My team figured the others didn't make it or they were sold.”

“Sold?”

“Yeah, seems when the girls were no longer money producers for the site, he would offer them up to the highest bidder.”

I crack my knuckles. “In MY fucking town. Under MY fucking nose, all this damn time. I stood next to that bastard and announced the reward.” I shake my head. “That ass smiled, waving at the cameras. Cameron was less than five feet from him. All the while, he knew exactly where the ladies were. What kind of sicko does that?”

“Michael's good at hiding, Tobias. Don't beat yourself up. Melanie didn't believe it was him at first. Evelyn was just as shocked—her family's been there for him since kindergarten. No one knew. Mouse and Keyboard have been searching for the identity of the emperor for a long time, and if they couldn't place him, well, no one could. It took what Melanie was able to share. Even then, it took a lot of hours and a small fortune in food for them to get what we needed.” Law slides several papers across the table. “These are his financial records. The voice analysis report matched him to the site. These are all the transaction records.”

“Boy, he sure liked to keep records.”

“Lucky for us, he thought he was smarter than everyone else.”

“I'm glad yours are smarter.” I take a moment to put all the papers in a stack on the table, but really, I just want toget my thoughts together. “First, I'm guessing you're not here without a warrant.” Law reaches inside his blazer and produces the warrant. Looking it over, I verify it's legitimate. “Alright, Michael's smart. Hella smart, so how do you want to play this?”

Law puts his hands on the table. “There's one more thing you need to know.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah, the ladies hacked a communication thread between Michael and someone Melanie named Mr. Daggers.”

“We've been looking for him.”

Law smiles. “You're going to find him.” His demeanor changes back to the serious, focused Law. “The correspondence said there was a shipment due in three days. A human shipment. Our guess is a new woman or women. You can see by the cell count, two are unoccupied.”

My eyes narrow. “No way in hell that's happening.”

“I was hoping you'd say that.” Law opens the folder and takes out a group of paperclipped papers, which he slides over to me. “Satellite photos, blueprints, security system schematics. It's all here.” He leans over the table and points. “There's a door here and here, loading dock here. We're guessing they pull the vehicle into the warehouse to unload.” He shifts to the papers I already have in front of me, pulling out one of the interior pictures. “See?” He shows me an area behind the cells that I hadn't noticed before. Parked in front of two sliding doors is a grey van.

“Now, as near as we can see from the pictures, there's always an armed guard walking the perimeter. And two armed men in the warehouse at all times.”

I nod as I look over the pictures. “Do you know anything else about the drop? Time, vehicle?”

---