He also didn’t expect Elon, the bastard, the goddamn husband, to answer the door, but it was a welcome surprise. Carson had a feeling this would make his fact-finding mission that much easier. He also was pretty certain he had just discovered the puppeteer.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t such a welcome surprise to the man standing opposite him, judging by the quick flash of anxiety that crossed the jerk’s face. And the way he greeted him while growling, “Hello, Mr. Graham. What brings you here today?”
Bringing up his acting skills, Carson pretended not to notice his animosity. “Hey, glad you’re here, man. I was just coming to check in with your in-laws and get some more information to help my ongoing search for your wife,” he said, cool as a cucumber.
Just using the word wife with regard to Lila and this asshole made him cringe inside.
“This works out well,” he went on. “I can kill two birds with one stone now that you’re here. I’m really looking forward to getting to the end of this case for you and your in-laws. You must be so anxious to find your wife.” Carson continued to play it cool. He even stuck out his hand to shake the fucker’s hand.
“I was here checking on my in-laws,” Elon said carefully. “I actually think this whole crazy chase hasn’t been good for their health. I told them long ago, Lilach decided she didn’t want this life, and they should just let her go.” He crowded the doorway, obviously trying to keep the conversation at the front stoop.
Carson gave Elon his best shark smile, then stepped into the hallway, shouldering his way past the bastard. He did his best to ignore the fury that passed briefly on Elon’s face as he pulled the large door partially closed behind him.
The detective in him noted the extra emphasis on the “ch” in the old-fashioned pronunciation of Lila’s name that Elon had used. What was that about? Claiming his stake?
He pushed it to the back of his mind and put himself on high alert, searching for any clues, desperate to be sure nothing slipped by him. The stakes were too high. He walked farther into the entryway and faced his newfound enemy head-on, then asked, “Weren’t you worried about your wife, though, despite her not wanting this life?”
Elon stood stiffly in the hallway, his face impassive before he slid a sad but resigned look on his face. “At first, yes, but then I reflected back on the few years we were together, and she always mentioned wanting something more out of life. Not this life here, apparently. I guess she’s happy somewhere now.” The bastard stepped forward, using his personal space to attempt to push Carson back toward the door.
Yeah, right, motherfucker. More like she ran as fast as she could away from you, but why?
Carson continued with their dance and prowled right on ahead, heading toward the sitting room where he’d met with the family before, pushing himself further into a space where he clearly wasn’t welcome.
“Did she ever file divorce papers,” he asked, “or did you think about it? Did you want to move on, make a life with someone else, presuming she was happier now that she was gone?” Carson couldn’t help but goad the asshole a little bit, standing in the narrow hallway. It was the only way he could avoid physically attacking him.
Elon pressed his lips together. “She didn’t, but that’s all right. Lilach is my one true love, and I will stay married to her for as long as I live. I only wanted to know if she’s happy, which is why I allowed my in-laws some leeway with this little investigation. But we will never know, I fear.” He shook his head in mock concern.
Unreal. Carson couldn’t believe the lies that were coming out of Elon’s mouth, but worse, he couldn’t stomach him saying the name, Lilach. Carson had just learned Lila’s real name the night before, and he was still enjoying it coming off his own lips. He didn’t want it tarnished by this motherfucker.
“Hmm, so you’re not in favor of your in-laws following through with their search? Because I may have a lead,” he said, deciding to give Elon exactly what he didn’t want. He would make them think the case was close to being solved, forcing Elon to put an end to it all. And more than likely he could follow Elon to exactly who he wanted…Lila.
Elon frowned. “I think their health is more important, don’t you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know, Elon. Your wife, their daughter, is out there somewhere. She didn’t just disappear into thin air. I’d think you would want them to find her, see that she’s happy for themselves.”
Carson continued to prod and provoke, toying with the jerk’s mind. If Elon had the slightest inkling that Carson might have a lead on his wife, Carson knew he would fire him.
Bingo! That was exactly what happened.
Elon’s face tightened and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, while I agree we should find her, I’m taking over. I’m hiring my own investigator. My in-laws have run out of funds, and I’m choosing to work with someone less judgmental. I’m taking control of the situation. I will decide what information my in-laws receive,” Elon threw back at him.
Even better than a confession of guilt. It was done. Carson found himself off the case without having to do it on his own, and there was no better proof of Elon misleading Lila’s parents than Elon dismissing him from the case.
He knew Elon didn’t have any real plans of doing a search for Lila’s parents’ benefit. It would be for himself, and Lord only knew what he would do to Lila.
Carson needed to find Lila, and Elon was his first clue, now that he was free to watch the fucker.
He needed to continue to play poker, though, so Carson simply said, “That’s your choice, but I do need to hear it from the people who hired me.”
Elon pointed toward the sitting room just off the hallway, where Lila’s father sat in an armchair. He’d obviously overheard the entire conversation.
Mr. Dasher nodded his head, but wouldn’t meet his eyes. “Yes, I’m sorry. We’re out of funds, and have handed the reins of the search over to Elon.” Lila’s father’s gaze flicked to Elon, as if looking resigned to Elon being in charge.
Thank God. Now he needed to get the hell out of there and find Lila, rescuing her from this crazy-ass situation for once and for all.
But where the hell was she?
Unfortunately, he knew Elon would end up being the biggest clue in finding Lila, so he couldn’t free himself of the ass-wipe. He needed to stay close to the bastard in order to learn what he intended to do now that he’d taken Carson off the investigation.
After saying his good-byes, Carson walked down the steps of the house back toward his car, dialing Ray along the way. He knew deep in his gut that none of what Ray had to say would be good.
“Talk to me,” was all Ray said upon answering the phone. He knew it was Carson from the Caller ID.
“You talk to me, buddy. I’m trying to find my girl, who coincidentally turns out to be the person of interest in my recently fired-from-as-of-a-minute-ago case.”
Ray exploded. “Shut the fuck up, man. How did you fall for the person of interest? Christ, I thought you were asking me for favors only for your case, I didn’t know you were emotionally involved. Could this be any more unlike you?”
He let out a long sigh which Ray heard, but thankfully he didn’t see the way his body shook. “Not the time for this, Ray. I didn’t know she was the same girl I was hired to find because I’m a dumb fuck.” Carson moved the phone to his other ear as he got into his car and started it.
“I was working a case out west, looking for a religious nut, a young woman gone missing in the middle of the night seven years ago. The family who hired me sent me on a snipe hunt, and didn’t bother to tell me about the estranged husband, Elon, until last week. Probably because he wanted me out of the way, the bastard.”
Ray snorted and said, “You gotta be kidding me.”
Carson switched his cell phone to speaker, then tossed it into the center console as he looked over his shoulder before pulling out into the street. He raised his voice as he continued his story. “So I started spending some tim
e in Vegas on the weekends and got involved with a woman who worked in a club there. Turns out she’s the missing woman reincarnated as a stripper. The rest you know. Now she’s gone, more than likely at the hands of this Sam Charles I have you chasing down, and I don’t have time for any more chitchat. I need to find her before the lunatic husband does.”
Eyes on the traffic ahead, he tapped his fingers on the wheel and wished he could push his speed, allow it to take him away from the stress building inside his head.
Ray let out a sympathetic grunt, then said, “Okay, tough guy. I found out that this Sam Charles isn’t exactly a nobody in the porn industry. He did start out making small potatoes for films, but about a year ago he was brought in by a big-time production company. The company does it all—movies, live webcams, print. They run a private LLC called Mystique with all these entities, but I was able to connect the dots with Mystique and Religion Plus Press. It took some technical digging, so the average Joe wouldn’t be able to put it together. Do you know who owns Religion Plus Press?”
Carson was just pulling onto the interstate as he said, “Uh, no. If I did, I wouldn’t need you. Hurry the hell up and tell me.”
“Well, I’m not sure if it’s the same person, but one of the major shareholders of Religion Plus is Elon Finder.”
The car swerved, and he narrowly missed being the cause of a multi-car pileup. “Fuck! You have to be shitting me! Elon Finder? He’s the husband, which means he’s running Religion Plus as a front for Mystique, acting all high and mighty when he’s nothing but a perv. This also means Sam Charles works for Elon, which makes me think Elon has Lila as we speak. Sam fucking kidnapped her from her place for Elon.” He slammed the steering wheel with the palm of his hand as he ground out, “Fuck me.”
“Yeah, dude, I think you’re right.”
“Did you find out where this Mystique houses their production facilities? My guess is they keep it away from the religious shit.”
“Exactly,” Ray said. “The religious stuff is done in two locations. One located in Jersey, which is probably how they originally connected with Sam Charles. The other in Brooklyn at a small printing press and warehouse, but get this. Around the corner from that warehouse is a large unfinished building leased to S. Charles, LLC by none other than Mystique, LLC. These people are really robbing Peter to pay Paul. My best guess is they pay Charles to run the webcams and he sublets the space from them, while they make print and movies there. No matter what, none of it appears to be on the up-and-up.”
“Fucking hell,” was all Carson could say.
Ray went on. “As an added bonus, my man, I’m now interested in the whole shebang because it looks like Mystique is not crossing all their t’s and dotting all their i’s. Which opens them up to violating a number of federal offenses and who knows what else. I’m gonna keep digging and find more shit on these assholes.”
Carson fought the anger rising within him and asked, “What’s the fucking address, Ray?”
Those were the last words Carson spoke before disconnecting the call and plugging the address into his phone’s GPS. As he followed the directions, he called Asher and brought him up to speed. It wasn’t a conversation either of them wanted to have, but Carson was determined to make it all right. Or die trying.
The address took him to a dilapidated warehouse building. The area was run-down; most of the streetlights had been broken by vandals, which left the area extremely dark. On the outside it was decrepit, but a stealthy walk around the perimeter and quick peek inside a window or two showed him the inside was a different story. Someone had invested a ton of money in expensive film equipment and a pornography scene setup.
For the most part, the inside of the building was quiet except for some live webcam action he caught in the corner. Thanks to the infrared goggles he’d invested in a while back, which he fortunately was carrying in his travel bag, Carson learned there were only a few video and sound people in the building, in addition to the actors on the live sets. Although Carson watched the warehouse for several hours, it continued to be quiet. Dawn would arrive soon, which would make his stakeout more difficult.
No one else came or went.
Where the hell is Lila?
Carson was losing patience, which was bad on a stakeout. Especially an unauthorized one for his own personal cause; one where he had no jurisdiction or warrants. He started to think either Elon or Sam didn’t have Lila, or if they did, they took her somewhere else. His phone rang just as he decided to get a hotel room and do some Internet research.
Ray didn’t bother to identify himself, and got right down to business. “Got a turnpike pic of Charles. He’s with an unidentified big black dude and a smaller woman lying in the backseat, driving across the country. Appears they’re heading toward New York, buddy. Last time they were captured on camera was on I-70 in western Kansas.”
“Of course, they couldn’t fly with Lila. She doesn’t have any real identification to get on a commercial flight, plus they have to know Asher is looking for her, not to mention me. A private plane would be a bad idea, even if they wanted to cough up the cash for it. Wait, what do you mean she’s lying in the backseat, like drugged?”
“Probably how they took her. Shot her up with a sedative. They had to know a few tough guys would be looking for her. Needed her quiet,” Ray said, musing out loud.
“Fuck! I’m going to go apeshit when I find those assholes.” Carson went to punch a nearby brick wall, stopping centimeters from shattering his hand. His entire body vibrated with rage. The slew of curse words coming from his mouth didn’t even take the edge off.
Ray’s low voice came over the line. “You gotta stay calm, Carson.”
He took a deep breath and tried to corral his emotions. “Well, I checked the building out. There’s a good bit of equipment and the means to make a shitload of pornographic content, but pretty quiet at the moment other than the webcams running. Jesus, fuck, they better get here soon. I want Lila back safe and sound.”
Ray paused, then said, “Listen, I was thinking, Carson, what if we went after this even harder than just rescuing Lila. I’ve been digging deep, and these jerks don’t have all their paperwork, permits, and clearances lined up. The Bureau can bust them up on some charges of child pornography and/or trafficking of a minor, and get their shit all tied up, in addition to freeing Lila while hitting them with abduction, too.”
“I’m listening,” Carson said as he paced the alleyway, needing to burn off nervous energy.
“I’m betting this would put Lila in the clear of running anymore, leaving her free to live her life if we bring this Elon down for who he truly is—a scumbag, pedophile, borderline pimp.”
Carson nodded, even though his friend couldn’t see him. “I like where your head is at. Let’s collect all the shit we need and do it fast. This will be a good bust for the Bureau. The only thing is I don’t want to hold on too long. We have to estimate how long it’ll take them to get Lila here, because once they have her in that building, Christ, there’s no telling what they will do. I don’t want anything to go wrong on that end, Ray.”
“I hear you.”
“Do you?” Carson said tersely. “Because if something looks fucked up when it comes to Lila, I will abandon ship when it comes to anything official for the FBI. You got me?”
“Loud and clear,” Ray said with a sigh. “I’m hanging up to go to work on the information. In the meantime, I’m getting a ground team down with you to keep watch on the building and give you guys some cover. I’ll have them call your cellular when they arrive.”
Carson hung up without even a good-bye. He did some quick calculations in his head and determined that the soonest Sam Charles could arrive in Brooklyn, driving cross country with another guy to spell him at the wheel, would be sometime Wednesday.
He hoped to God whatever they gave Lila was almost out of her system. Fucking whackos better have not given her too much; so much could have gone wrong between Vegas and Kansas. He
couldn’t even think of the worst.
What if they defiled her while she was out? If they even laid a hand on her…
CAUGHT UP in a horrific line of thinking as he watched the warehouse through Monday night and into Tuesday, Carson didn’t realize how much time had passed until the ground team arrived. Too worried to think about food or other needs, he hadn’t moved from his spot except to take a piss in the alley, and there hadn’t been any more movement going on in the building. He desperately wanted to get into the bakery truck doubling as a surveillance van to see if there were any more traffic photos of Sam Charles and Lila.
There was no need for anything more than quick introductions with the FBI guys. Even though he was no longer with the agency, Ray pulled some strings and made sure he was allowed to tag along for the bust. Carson brought them this fucking case, and that was his woman, doped and being driven across state lines. He knew that they wouldn’t want to apprehend Lila outside the building. She needed to be inside so the Bureau could also take command of everything else illegal happening inside the four walls.
Carson knew Ray was doing what he needed to do. This case would be a big win for him, and would push him up the ranks a bit. The public loved when the FBI busted anything perverse and nailed the sucker responsible. Elon Finder was going to go down like the flaming bag of shit he was, freeing Lila from a life of hiding.
He had to admit, it was a stroke of brilliance on Ray’s part to hand the case to the Bureau, therefore opening up the impending bust to the media. The public eye would eat this shit up, and Lila would get redemption for why she left. Her family and friends would know who she really was married to, and why she left quietly without a trace. Her husband was a monster.
Carson was thrilled when the van arrived so he could do some research of his own. He had everything he needed at his disposal inside the van, and the ground guys would take turns keeping their eyes on the warehouse. They’d also have supplies, food and drinks, so they could stay on-site with no need to leave.
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