Paradise Crime Thrillers Box Set

by Toby Neal

  Jake kept his face serious with an effort. Rayme obviously considered herself just fine in her mental capacity. Apparently insanity had degrees.

  “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.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Sophie dug deep in her online research into her mother’s secret organization, confident in the multiple VPNs she had set up that protected her identity and location. The police department’s firewalls were a final layer of obfuscation; though she’d hardly found those effective against her own penetrations, having the location end up at Hilo PD would keep anyone from finding her individually.

  There wasn’t much available about the Yām Khûmkạn online, and Sophie had expected that. If this was a secret organization, then having a website that advertised their services would hardly be smart.

  She applied search keywords to DAVID’s parameters and got up to do a quick series of sun salutations on densely carpeted floor, limbering up muscles left stiff from sitting too long. She did jumping jacks and push-ups and was completing a series of stomach crunches when her computer emitted a tone, signaling that it had found all available matches.

  Freshly energized, Sophie sat back down, put on her headphones, and delved in.

  The Yām Khûmkạn was referred to in various articles and books as a “secret military police” a “black ops spy organization” and “the strong-arm gangster organization protecting the elite of Thailand.”

  Recruitment was unknown. Training was unknown. Length of service, rate of pay, even a clear description of how the organization was set up was unknown—but its existence was confirmed.

  Sophie dug deeper, going into the untraceable posts of the dark net. This search yielded more. She was even able to find a site that cataloged coups and assassinations credited to the clandestine group.

  So her mother wasn’t a raving lunatic—but then, Sophie had never believed that she was.

  But she had hoped that, in reaching out, Pim Wat had been making an effort to truly connect with her daughter. She’d been wrong. No such love existed.

  Sophie had to tell her father.

  But how? What untold number of security breaches had occurred because the ambassador had been an unwitting pawn in her mother’s schemes?

  Perhaps what Sophie needed to do was get more information from and about Pim Wat and the Yām Khûmkạn. Pretend to go along with recruitment and penetrate the organization. See how far the security breach with her father went, what the group’s agenda was, and break the news to the ambassador when she had something real to share.

  Ellie Smith, the intelligent and capable Secret Service agent she had worked with another time when her own security breach had threatened her father, might be a good place to start to come up with a plan.

  But even telling an agent Sophie trusted that she’d been approached could have huge ramifications. If Sophie broke silence now on the subject, there was no telling what the Secret Service would do. They might lock her up, believing that she was involved with the organization. Her life would be scrutinized. Picked apart. She would be detained, questioned. She’d lose the momentum she’d fought for so hard in charting her own destiny.

  She had to plan her next steps very carefully.

  The Ghost might be someone who could help her navigate this minefield.

  No. The thought of more involvement with Connor tied her stomach in knots; she couldn’t be indebted to him. She was already sick about losing intimacy with Jake, and missing Alika’s solid friendship and support as more secrets grew between them like mushrooms after a rain. She couldn’t tell any of this to her law enforcement friends, Marcella and Lei.

  She had no one to talk to about this situation but Dr. Wilson.

  She’d forgotten her appointment! Sophie glanced at the clock. She should have met the psychologist over an hour ago.

  Sophie texted an apology to the psychologist with a request for a reschedule. Clearly, she needed a break to clear her thoughts. “I need exercise,” she muttered.

  Sophie closed up her computer and detached her headphones.

  She could walk the dogs at
the park, stretch her legs and get a cup of tea. She texted Jake. “I’m taking the dogs for a run at Hilo Bay. Let me know when and where to pick you up when you are done working with the detectives.”

  She waited a moment for a reply, but there was none. Likely he didn’t have phone reception inside the correctional facility, but he would get her message after he was out of the building.

  She would have felt better getting a response from Jake. Hopefully nothing was wrong.

  The dogs bounced and pranced on their leashes as Sophie set out from the Banyan Tree Motel. It felt great to get into the rhythm of running, her heartbeat a thunder in her ears echoed by the smack of her shoes on the sidewalk encircling the park. The dogs pulled at their leashes, one in each hand, playful and excited. The waning light of afternoon slanted the shadows of the coconut palms across the velvety green grass.

  Sophie did a lap of the entire park, beginning to limber up as the dogs settled down, their restless energy from being cooped up in the motel dissipating. She passed the bench where her mother had surprised her.

  What was she going to do about that?

  If Sophie did go in deeper, contact her mother, let her think she was intrigued by the idea of being a part of the Yām Khûmkạn, she had to talk to the Secret Service first and get the idea approved. They’d never believe she wasn’t a part of it if she went to them later.

  But what if they turned her over to the CIA, or even, Jupiter forbid it, the FBI? What if Sophie had to deal with an investigation, and her friends came to know about it?

  Her reverie was shattered abruptly as a van roared up onto the sidewalk in front of her, stopping with a screech of brakes. The side door flew open to reveal a dark-skinned man dressed in fatigues with a ski mask on, pointing a silenced pistol at her.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  “Foul goiter on a lice-ridden yak!” Sophie pulled the dogs back and plunged to the side. She’d been too distracted to see the vehicle coming!

  “Get in the van!” The masked man yelled.

  “Screw you!” Sophie yelled, reversing direction as fast as she could with the excited dogs fighting her.

  The gun spat and Tank yelped in pain, pressing against her legs. Ginger barked aggressively, straining toward the armed assailant.

  “I’ll nail these dogs if you don’t get in. Right now,” Ski Mask said.

  Sophie squatted, pulling Tank against her to check him over. He’d been grazed, a bloody furrow dug along his back just above the tail. “Son of a poxy whore!” Sophie screamed. Red rage blurred her vision. “What kind of a monster are you?”

  “The kind that knows how to get a job done.” The man took aim at the dog’s big square head. “Get in, bitch. We’re going for a ride.”

  Sophie whirled to look around the park. No one was nearby enough to see the drama playing out on the quiet side of the park; old men fished off the pier, children played with their families on the jungle gym equipment, mynah birds hopped on the grass. And like an idiot, she hadn’t brought her weapon.

  “Time’s up.” Ski Mask fired again, and this time, Tank went down at Sophie’s feet with a pathetic yelp that froze her heart. The man swung the gun to point at Ginger. “Want me to do this one next?”

  Sophie howled in rage and horror. Her mind shut off as she let go of the dogs’ leashes and charged forward. She leaped, bowling the man over backward into the van. She got her hands around his thick throat, wrapped her thighs around his body, and choked him, blind to anything but snuffing out his life.

  Immediately the vehicle reversed off the sidewalk, throwing Sophie off the gunman to tumble toward the front of the van, rolling over its bare, corrugated metal flooring with the assailant right on top of her. She scrambled to get out from under him, only to have the vehicle lurch forward, peeling out and tossing her and the dog killer into each other as they rolled backward.

  All was a blur of punching and kicking as they rolled around in the empty van as it took corners at a wild pace, banging Sophie and her attacker into the bare metal walls. Sophie finally got an arm around the assailant’s throat and pulled him backward in a yoke chokehold, using her hip for leverage—but Ski Mask was still armed. Sophie felt the sting of a blade against her lower back. As she squeezed, the blade dug in further.

  She was going to die faster than she could choke him if he pushed that knife all the way into her kidney.

  Sophie loosened her grip. The burning pressure of the stabbing blade released. She felt the hot warmth of blood sear her lower back.

  Her attacker rolled away as she let go, grabbing his gun up off the floor and training it on her. “Crazy bitch,” he wheezed. “I want to do you right now, but there are better things in store for you.”

  Sophie glared at Ski Mask, panting. “I’m going to kill you for what you did to my dog.”

  “I can still put a bullet in you. Where do you want it? Leg, arm, or shoulder?”

  “Chill out, man,” the driver yelled from the front seat. “We’re almost to the drop zone. You can throw her out of the van so Chang can have his fun. Did you think this was going to be an easy grab? No. You knew she was a fighter.”

  Sophie stared into slitted eyes revealed by the ski mask, twisted askew by their struggles. Maybe she could still take him.

  “Don’t even think about it,” Ski Mask growled. “I’ll gut-shoot you and enjoy watching you die.”

  Sophie had to ready herself for whatever came next. Her phone had fallen out of the pocket of her hoodie; she could feel it, out of sight and just beneath her hip. Maybe she could get a call out for help.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Freitan and Wong got as much information as they could out of Rayme before the nurse finally shooed them away. The detectives arranged for an extra layer of protection with a guard inside the jail. Once they exited the phone dead zone of the jail building, Jake and Wong waited as Freitan worked her phone setting up meetings with the DA for the following day. She also called Witness Protection to consult with the Marshals, assuring that they would protect the woman until she could testify about Chang.

  “A bird in the hand,” Freitan said with satisfaction as she slid her phone into her pocket and started the SUV. “Always best to get all the info you can out of a witness when they’re willing to talk.”

  Jake nodded agreement, and checked his own phone. He read a text from Sophie about going running in the park, and his heart did a little flip.

  She didn’t know about Chang, but he might well know about her, and all the connections she was putting together about him! The Changs had eyes and ears everywhere in Hawaii. Sophie shouldn’t be running around alone until Akane Chang was locked up.

  He phoned Sophie from the back seat of the SUV—the revelations they had uncovered were too involved to describe in a text. Her phone rang, eventually dumping into voicemail. “Please don’t go out without me. I have new information on the case. We need to take some precautions,” Jake said into the recording, and ended the call.

  “You leaving a message for your partner?” Wong asked from the front seat.

  “Yeah. She was taking the dogs for a run in the park.”

  “Sophie’s the key to this case in a lot of ways. She’s made the connections between the bodies and the Changs, and she has the info from Chernobiac’s computer. I want to talk with her ASAP,” Freitan said.

  Jake leaned forward between the seats as the SUV got underway. “This is our last couple of days on the job, now that Julie Weathersby has been found.”

  “Sorry to hear that. You two have been a huge help,” Wong said.

  “And we want all the data Sophie has been able to put together on the missing persons and anything else that woman has found,” Freitan said. “She’s quite an effective investigator.”

  Jake felt a swell of pride in Sophie. Praise from Kamani Freitan was hard-earned. “That she is.”

  Back at the station, the watch officer raised a hand to the detectives and greeted Jake. “Your partner told me
to have you call her. She will come pick you up when she’s back from the park.”

  “How long ago was that?” Jake asked.

  “About an hour.”

  Standing in the entry area, Jake tried Sophie’s cell phone again.

  This time she picked up, but he heard nothing after his greeting but some muffled background sounds, then Sophie’s voice came through, unfamiliarly hoarse with anger. “I’m still going to pay you back for killing my dog.”

  A man’s voice, echoing and tinny. “Not if I do you first. Like I said, where do you want it? Leg, arm, or shoulder? I can do all three, but that would cut down on the fun later.”

  Jake’s heart went into overdrive. Another voice, too distant to make out, yelled something else.

  Jake hit Mute on his phone so Sophie’s end of the line didn’t pick up any sound. He ran into the station after the detectives. “Wong! Freitan! Something’s happened to Sophie!”

  The two stopped near their cubicle and clustered around the phone as Jake put it on speaker. More cursing and back-and-forth came through the cell. The audio was rendered hollow and distant, vibrating with the roar of an engine in the background.

  Freitan looked up, eyes wide. “Someone’s got her.”

  “And it sounds like something happened to one of our dogs. I’m guessing this went down at the park, and she’s in a vehicle of some kind,” Jake said.

  “Let’s get down to the park and see,” Freitan said. The detectives headed for the doors at a jog as Wong radioed their plans to Dispatch. Jake ran in their wake, the phone still on speaker.

  If Sophie could, she would give him a clue to where she was.

  “I’m going to try to track her phone.” He thumbed to the Find My Phone tracking app he’d loaded. He’d plugged Sophie’s number into it some time ago, but had never used it. A map popped up, showing a moving beacon. “They are headed out of Hilo in the direction of Volcanoes Park.”