Page 13 of Six
What the hell had Jeremy been a part of? No, not a part of, Jeremy wouldneverdo what the men in the pictures had been doing. Those were the types of things Jeremy dedicated his free time topreventing.
After the death of their parents, Heather had rebelled a bit and gotten involved with a man who hadn’t been good. It had taken Jeremy a year, and Heather nearly getting killed by her abuser, before the two had been able to extricate her.
Once Heather was back on her feet, they’d both dedicated significant amounts of time to helping other victims of domestic violence. What was depicted in the images on Jeremy’s computer wasn’t domestic violence in the true sense of the word. But it was very clearly violence against women. Something Jeremy never would have countenanced.
She continued to pace. If she started the facial recognition program now, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility that she’d take her anger and disgust out on her poor computer. Stalking from one side of the room to the other, a litany of Italian flowed from her mouth as she cursed the men involved with limp dicks and pustules. Oh, she still intended to bring the men to justice, but having limp dicks and pustules would make them very popular in prison.
Her phone dinged with a text, but she wasn’t ready to talk to humanity quite yet, so she continued pacing and ignored it. She should have known better, though. Within ten minutes, she received three more texts.
Forcing herself to stop pacing, she let her friends’ concern ground her, and she picked up her phone. Two messages from Cyn and one each from Devil and Nora awaited her—all wanting to know if she was getting ready for her dinner. Opening a group text, she invited them over. Devil texted back that she was twenty minutes from home and would come straight to her house, while Cyn said she’d be right over. Nora was finishing with her current client and promised to be there as soon as possible.
After telling Cyn to make herself at home when she arrived, Six jogged upstairs to take a shower. She wouldn’t have much time with them before she’d need to leave to meet Gavin, so she wanted to at least get her hair into a manageable state.
She’d just turned off her hair dryer when she heard Cyn’s voice greet both Devil and Nora. Yes, Six had the five-minute-shower down to an art form, which left her just enough time to dry her hair enough that it wouldn’t frizz in the humidity.
“I’d make some snarky comment about getting dressed up for your dinner, but I think we have bigger things to tackle, don’t we?” Cyn asked as soon as Six joined them in her living room. She hadn’t put on her makeup yet, but she did have on her favorite pair of jeans and loose-knit silk top.
“Follow me,” Six said, leading them to her office. After opening the file with the images, she pulled up the first, then gestured for one of her friends to take over. Taking a seat, Cyn started clicking slowly through the sequence. The images got progressively more graphic from the first to the last, presumably as the night went on and the men drank more, got more aggressive, and felt more invincible.
When Cyn closed out the last of the images, she leaned back in her chair. “What was Jeremy doing with those pictures?”
“You mean was he there and took them?” Six clarified the question she thought Cyn really meant to ask. Hesitantly, Cyn nodded. “I have no idea,” Six said.
“He wouldn’t stand there and let that happen,” Nora said. A little knot of stress in Six’s stomach untangled at Nora’s certainty. Six didn’t think so either, but it was nice to know she wasn’t alone.
“I agree, but that still doesn’t answer the question of how he got them,” Cyn said.
“Or why he has them and what he planned to do with them,” Devil added.
“Who are the men?” Nora asked.
Six shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ll run their faces through the recognition program when I leave to meet Gavin. Hopefully, we’ll get hits quickly and we’ll know by the time I’m home.” She hesitated, then added, “I think they may be associated with Shanti Joy.”
Cyn frowned. “The cosmetics company?”
“Aren’t they all about ethical and sustainable business practices?” Nora asked. “Hardly in line with what we saw in the pictures.”
Six showed them the image of Austin Fogarty’s business card. “This was in Jeremy’s file as well.”
Silence fell over the group, no doubt each playing through the scenarios. It wouldn’t be the first time a corporation had lied—or even the hundredth. But it somehow seemed more egregious coming from the kind of company Shanti Joy claimed to be.
“We don’t know for certain,” Six said, acknowledging they all had legitimate reasons to doubt. “But—”
“Yes, we do,” Devil said, turning her phone around for them to see the screen. She’d done the obvious and googled Austin Fogarty. The image of the smiling, well-dressed man staring back at them was a familiar face. Yes, Shanti Joy, or at least one of its execs, was most definitely involved in the rape and exploitation of those women.
“His behavior is a little off-brand, wouldn’t you say?” Cyn said. It had taken Six about a year after meeting Cyn to fully grasp the British affinity for understated sarcasm.
Devil let out a little chuckle. “Just a bit, but it’s not just his behavior.” Again, she turned her phone around to show them the website that depicted Shanti Joy’s executive committee and board of directors. Two more familiar faces smiled back at them. Based on the pictures and bios, they were Kaden Fogarty, the COO and brother of Austin Fogarty, and Julian Newcross, member of the board and husband of the founder, Julia Newcross.
Six let out a long breath. “Well, I guess that explains Jeremy’s interest. Between the bad behavior of the corporation—or its execs—and the exploitation and abuse of the women, he wouldn’t have been able tonotget involved.”
“To what end though?” Cyn asked.
“And who is the fourth man?” Nora interjected.
Six glanced at her watch. She had the same questions, but she was also due to meet Gavin in thirty minutes. She shook her head. “I have a few ideas about how, and why, Jeremy might have gotten involved, but I’ll need to do a little research. As to the fourth man, I’ll run him through the recognition program and let’s see what we get. His picture isn’t as clear as the others, and it’s mostly a portion of his profile, but let’s see if anything pops.”
“Do you need to finish getting ready for dinner?” Nora asked. She must have caught Six looking at her watch. The question sounded innocent, but when she saw the grinning faces of her friends, she knew it was anything but.
