Page 73 of Wired Justice

“So, it was a side hustle in that . . . no one else knew about it?” Wong asked.

“Yeah. Paul and Akane met gaming and they cooked it up; it was their own private gig. Later, we got involved.”

“How did the hustle work?” Freitan asked.

“Paul did some accounting for the Changs and a lot of online stuff. He identified possible marks for Akane, and later us, through a rideshare company that the Changs have connections with. We were just supposed to rob the folks without getting caught, or embarrass the marks in such a way they didn’t report what happened. Jimmy and I had a couple of cons worked out.” She looked down and plucked at the sheet again. Jake could well imagine the compromising positions they captured their prey with. “We would shake them down and leave them, or sometimes we’d hold onto them, party with them. It was all pretty fun.” Her sharp yellowish teeth, bared in a smile, reminded Jake of a coyote at a kill. “Akane is an enforcer for the family, but he likes his job a little too much. He decided to disappear some of the marks after Chernobiac had shaken down their families for ransom.”

Rayme paused, clearly reveling in having their full attention as she preened a bit, combing her straggling hair with her fingers. “Can I get some water?”

Wong handed her a cup with a straw, and she took a sip before continuing. “Jimmy and I had a smaller part in things. We took orders from Paul or Akane. We were boots on the ground to take care of the prisoners, who we kept out at Travelers’ Rest, and we were always looking to find more marks we could roll.” She took another sip of water, and belched. “Julie Weathersby was ours. She wasn’t posting on social media or any of the usual ways that Chernobiac would identify a mark. But once we realized she had super rich parents, we knew we better not let Akane have his fun with her—it would draw too much heat for her to turn up dead. The kinds of people we got the best results with were from middle-class backgrounds. Usually they had some kind of drug problem or something that made them vulnerable. We would do like we did with the Weathersby girl; cozy up, roll them for money, and Chernobiac would contact their families and collect bribes or ransom, and then we’d turn them loose on that stretch of road.”

“So you turned victims loose in the jungle without clothes or shoes, knowing that a man who enjoyed killing was going to hunt them down,” Freitan said flatly.

For the first time, real shame darkened Rayme’s eyes. She squirmed and looked away. “It didn’t start out that way. And then, by the time it was that way, we didn’t know how to get out of . . . what was happening. But I knew things had to end when Akane got a look at Julie while we were camping together—he came to Volcanoes and stopped by to check her out. I knew he was going to do terrible things to her, and I liked Julie.”

Jake flashed to the pretty young woman’s open, happy smile. “It seems you grew a conscience.”

“And that’s a good thing, considering that at this point you are part of a conspiracy to commit serial murder,” Freitan said.

Rayme crumpled the sheet in her fists. “We had had enough. Julie dead was going to draw too much attention. So Jimmy called Terence Chang. Anonymously. Told him where and when Julie could be found, and that Akane would be after her.”

Freitan’s alert gaze seemed to crackle with energy. “Why did he choose Terence Chang? Why not just tip off the police anonymously?”

“Because we didn’t want the cops involved. We thought that Terence could control Akane, get him to leave Julie alone. Terence is the head of the family now that Healani Chang died.”

“He appears to be going straight,” Wong said, frowning. “We haven’t been able to connect him to any criminal activity.”

Holly Rayme snorted. “Terence wouldn’t be much of a crime lord if you could bust him, would he? But trust me, he’s at the top of the food chain.”

Jake glanced from Wong to Freitan. If this was true, Holly Rayme had just become a very valuable witness indeed.

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