Secrets in the Dark

by K D Michaels

  Larry looked over at Ian and Carter then at Pratt, proudly. “Reds right. Mrs. Ruiz thinks she’s got the upper hand right now. Officer Swift, if you can get your ADA on the phone, I’d like to talk to him before any deals are struck.” Larry looked over at Pratt. “No deals for her.”

  “Lass, I thought Ruiz was killed during the shootout with deputies who were trying to arrest him?”

  “He was. Her not correcting us makes me wonder if she didn’t do something to him before she fled. The guy was a SEAL, Joe, just like you are. We are good, hell those deputies are good. Aside from York and Cortez, none of us have served in the military, nor do we have the training that you boys have had. Ruiz should have been able to overpower our guys or gotten away during the shootout. The M.E. report showed he died of seven gunshot wounds all together.”

  Sgt. Brocard walked into the room during the middle of Pratt’s discussion. Hearing what she was saying. Sgt. Brocard pulled out her phone, pulling up her emails. “From what I’m showing in the report in my emails…fuck! I never saw this. Two of the bullets pulled from Ruiz did not match the bullets from the deputy’s guns.”

  “Holy shit! Sarge is right. Both deputies were suspended because it was believed one of the deputy’s had a side piece and used it in the shooting.” Diesel gasped when she remembered the information.

  York, who had walked in with Sgt. Brocard, looked over at Larry wide-eyed. “Fuck! That’s right. You guys were officially brought in to help with the investigation when Ruiz’s XO saw the report. No one even considered that Candy or someone connected to her could have shot Ruiz before the deputies got there.”

  “Or someone took advantage and shot Ruiz during the shooting itself. Sarge, what were the other two bullets?” Pratt looked from her sergeant to Larry and Highlander.

  “It was a 7.62 x 51mm NATO round.”

  “Someone shot him from a distance with a sniper rifle. That’s not a civilian weapon. That’s used by the military, Special Forces specific.” Pratt looked over at her husband confused. “Why didn’t the XO catch that?”

  “That’s a good question lass. Now how do you ye know about that kind of round? It’s mostly used by SF trained snipers or those in spec ops with the FBI or black ops. It’s not a round cops use.”

  Pratt looked over at Larry then at Carter before looking towards her husband winking, “You forgetting what Dom did before he joined the SDPD?”

  Ian and Carter looked at Pratt confused. “Dom?”

  “My older brother Dominick. He was a Delta Force sniper for ten years before he left the military. His call sign is Reaper.”

  Larry chuckled before walking over to Pratt and putting an arm around her shoulder. “Her brother almost rivals you from what I’ve heard about you, Carter. You two actually have the same score according to Gene.”

  “Apparently you boys never saw Red here shoot,” Diesel laughed, looking over at her teammates that arrived in the room. “I think Redhead wound up with a red ass when squidward found out wifeypoo sniped two bad guys with one shot in Texas, ohh six years ago?” Diesel phased her statement like a question as she looked over at Pratt smirking.

  “Alright!” Alvarez and Swift high-fived Pratt, causing Carter to stare at her and Highlander to growl.

  “Aye, my lass did make that shot and got into some major trouble with me because she was seven and a half months pregnant with the twins then.”

  “Six months pregnant!” Pratt corrected her husband before glaring at Diesel, “And no, I didn’t get spanked. He just withheld the dick even more. You’re a twatsnifflingfuckingcuntasourus for bringing that shit up again.”

  Highlander grabbed his wife’s arm and pulled her into him wrapping his arms back around her, laughing at her growling at Diesel and her small attempts to get away from him.

  “How far away were you when you took that shot?” Ian asked, amused at what he was hearing.

  “My lass was nineteen hundred yards away,” Highlander proudly announced, smiling down at his wife.

  “What was Reaper’s record?” Larry asked, in shock.

  “Two thousand one hundred yards away.” Pratt looked at Larry confused.

  “Same as Carter’s.” Alvarez beamed at Carter.

  “You were six and a half months pregnant? How hard was it to lay on her stomach?” Swift started throwing out a barrage of questions to the amusement of everyone in the room.

  5

  “Our team sergeant just called. When they got to Candy’s place to act on the warrant to search her place, it had been trashed.” Swift walked into the large conference room at Trident Security headquarters, where everyone had converged to look over everything that had been gathered on the whole case the next day.

  “Which means she’s being watched, and they know she’s been arrested.” Alvarez commented as she leaned her elbows onto the conference table.

  “Carter, you seem to know everyone. Is there a chance you have heard of or know this person?” Ian asked his friend.

  Carter looked at Ian, cocked an eyebrow and smirked. “I know a few with a connection to the name Ares. A few are companies, a few use the name as a call sign and a few use it to protect their real name. Without more information, I couldn’t really tell you which one is which.”

  “Are any all connected to Tampa or is it a world-wide connection?” Diesel fished, trying to figure out who Carter really was.

  “What the hell?” Swift mumbled out loud, looking at her phone.

  “What?” Ian asked concerned.

  “One of the officers sent me several photos found at Candy’s place. Is Candy part of the BDSM lifestyle?” Swift looked over at Alpha Squad as she handed them her phone to see the photos.

  “Not a full-fledged member. From my understanding, she liked to play with certain aspects but could never handle a real dom. We found out she applied for membership at a couple of the exclusive clubs in San Diego, but her applications were denied because no one would sponsor her.” Pratt looked towards York and Cortez, nodding at them.

  “Two of the ‘open door’ clubs kicked her out for harassing one of their doms when he turned her down for a contract after a scene. She wasn’t happy. We did find out the only club she hasn’t been banned from, Charles Manson wouldn’t have been kicked out of.”

  “Diesel seriously had to use the Charles Manson idea?” Rameriez mumbled to Raso.

  “Well, she didn’t use the Jeffrey Dahmer idea.” Raso reasoned with Rameriez.

  “As much as I hate to admit it, she has a point. Hannibal Lector and the lotion on the skin dude could walk in the club, do what they normally do, nothing would get them kicked out of that place. This club has wanna be doms who claim the title to smack women around and cause pain to women. We call it ‘Club Reject’.” Pratt leaned back into her chair, crossing her arms, then tapping her fingers onto the opposite forearm.

  Carter chuckled. “Club Reject?”

  “The ones that go there can’t get into the exclusive clubs for one reason or another.” Sgt. Brocard clarified their nickname for the club.

  “Do they even do memberships at that club?” Swift questioned the team.

  “No, it’s an open-door policy. We’ve helped vice with calls there a few times. Even had a few human trafficking cases connected to the club.” Brocard nodded at the rest of her team.

  “So, they don’t follow the true meaning of BDSM, safe, sane or consensual,” Ian commented, upset.

  “No, we’ve dealt with a lot of nonconsensual cases there. Somehow they always manage to skirt the legalities of the situation.” Rameriez got up and walked over to Diesel and handed her a piece of gum.

  “Only two of the five reported rapes associated with Club Reject have successfully been prosecuted. The jagoff who committed the other three has gotten away with it because of his association to the club owner.”

  Ian looked at Pratt, waiting for her to finish her sentence. “His association?”

  “The jagoff is reportedly the owner’s ha
lf-brother.”

  “Hmmmm”

  “Toss a coin to your Witcher…” Diesel sang off key.

  “I will fucking stab you in your eye ball and walk way.”

  Highlander laughed at his wife’s threat to Diesel after his hum. He pulled his wife out of her chair toward him, causing her teammates to laugh when she glared at him.

  After glaring at Highlander for a few more minutes, Pratt looked over at her team leader. “Forensics and Tampa PD say the place was tossed, how about sending a few of us over there to see what we can find?”

  “Our forensic team is one of the best. The men that are there now searching the apartment are very thorough.” Swift defended her department.

  “I have no doubt about that, Swift. I’m not doubting your department at all…”

  “Head, heart or gut?” Gene interrupted, looking at Pratt intensely.”

  Pratt looked at Gene for a moment, as if trying to figure out which one to answer, “I want to say all 3, but something keeps tingling in the back of both my head and my gut that something is in the apartment.”

  “Alright, myself, Carter, and Alvarez will go with you and have a look around. Officer Swift, can you please inform whoever is in charge that we are on the way. We want to look around.” Gene addressed Swift, nodding at each person he named.

  Brocard stood up, looking over at Pratt. “Cortez, go with Pratt. The two of you have more experience in this kind of stuff. Better yet, York, join them too.”

  “I’ll join them too, sergeant.” Highlander stood up, joining his wife, Cortez and York.

  “If it’s alright with you all, I’d like to join too?” Ian requested.

  “You’re asking?” Pratt asked, shocked.

  “Not really.”

  Pratt, Cortez, and York laughed before heading out of the room with Highlander, Ian, Carter, Alvarez, Gene and Larry behind them. Shaking her head, laughing, Sgt. Brocard looked over at Swift.

  “Officer Swift, let’s go meet with Candy and her attorney. I want to see what new bullshit feeds us now.”

  The small entourage arrived at Candy’s apartment complex, gathering in front of one of the SUVs. Highlander placed his hand on Pratt’s shoulder, making sure he always had a connection with her.

  Ian, Carter, Alvarez, Gene and Larry watched the three women look at their surroundings after they stared at the complex building. Ian and Carter exchanged a look that only the two of them understood.

  Pratt, Cortez and York exchanged a look for a moment before York nodded to the two women and disappeared around the building.

  “Where is she going?” Gene watched as York moved with ease, very aware of her surroundings.

  “What she does best.” Pratt answered after York retrieved her bag out of the back of the SUV.

  “That is?” Carter looked at Pratt and Cortez then to Highlander, waiting for someone to answer his question.

  “I’d tell you, but I’d have to kill you. I’m sure Uncle Gene likes you…or is that needs you?” Pratt pretended to ponder which one before shrugging. “Eh, besides I actually like Alvarez here, since she’s fond of you, I’m going to be a good girl.”

  “I like her.” Alvarez grinned at the same times as she winked at Pratt.”

  Highlander swatted Pratt’s ass as she walked away from him. “Brat, be nice.”

  “Knowing Laura, she was,” Gene laughed, following behind Pratt and the others.

  Pratt stopped and turned around. “Ian and Carter, can you two blend in out here? Help York check things out here? The hairs on the back of my neck keeps shifting…”

  “Say no more.” Carter and Ian disappeared into the surroundings.

  “I have to agree with her. It feels like we are being watched.” Alvarez surveyed her surroundings, “Are you sure you never dabbled in spook life, redhead?”

  “Nope, it wasn’t for Uncle Gene’s lack of trying either. He taught me well to trust my instincts.”

  Pratt, Cortez, Alvarez, Gene, Larry and Highlander walked up to Candy’s apartment and knocked on the door. When it was answered, Pratt and Cortez flashed their badges, identified who they were to the officer who answered the door.

  First thing Pratt noticed when she walked into the apartment was the open floor plan of the living room and the kitchen. The large sectional sofa and curtains in a soft peach color were all slashed to shreds. The pillows that had once been white were now thrown about, shredded with the stuffing all over the place.

  The walls in the living room were bare of any photos nor were there any plants in the living room. It held no personal attachment. It made Pratt feel like it was barely used. The wall by the front door had a spot where it appeared that the large screen tv, that was now laying on the floor smashed, had one hung above the black entertainment center. The black entertainment center had been turned over and busted.

  Pratt stood in the middle of the room and watched as Cortez walked into the living room from the kitchen. “Well, I think it’s a given Candy isn’t going to be getting her security deposit back.”

  “Yeah I’d say that’s a pretty safe bet. The kitchen was trashed also. The dishes were all broken, food taken out of the fridge and thrown everywhere.”

  “This feels more like a warning than a search.”

  Pratt, Cortez and Alvarez walked into the bedroom to see it was trashed just like the kitchen and the living room. Everything in the room had literally been destroyed. The blinds had torn off their slider and torn to pieces, the sheer curtain had been slashed and shredded. The mattress upended and slashed.

  The bedding, pillows and extra blankets had all been slashed and thrown about the room. The nightstands had been overturned and busted apart with the items in the drawers thrown about the room. The lamps and their shades were destroyed.

  The dresser against the wall near the sliding glass door had been overturned, the drawers thrown about the room, broken. The mirror on the wall near the door had been shattered as well as the tv that had been on the wall above the dresser in the same condition as everything else.

  “Well, someone is gonna have bad luck for the next seven years.” Cortez pointed out the broken mirrors in the bathroom.

  The master bathroom looked like a blast went off inside with the broken mirror pieces all over the vanity. The glass shower doors had been shattered all over the floor. Candy’s make-up had been busted up and thrown about, making it unrecoverable.

  Pratt took photos of everything and sent them back to Sgt. Brocard. She kept staring at the walls in the closet, then walked into the bathroom to look at the walls in there.

  Highlander, Gene and Larry watched her for several minutes, confused at why she kept doing that. After the third time, Gene had to say something.

  “I know that look, what’s up?” Gene looked around their surroundings, trying to follow Pratt’s line of sight.

  “Taz, Alvarez, as females, doesn’t this closet look kind of small to you? Candy is conceited, only half her clothes are in here. The closet in the guest room is way larger than this one. This room is considered the master bedroom, so therefore this closet should be way larger than it is,” Pratt rattled on.

  The two women walked around the men towards the closet to see what Pratt was looking at. The women started removing the damaged clothes and shoes that were thrown about to get a better look, using their flashlights since the light in the closet had been damaged by the perpetrators.

  The three women started knocking on the walls, making the CSU and officers rush into the room, confused by the noise. The men held up their hands to keep the people out of the room, nodding at them that everything was ok, and they could leave the room.

  “Candy may act like a Class A bitch, but the woman is smart as shit!” Cortez said out loud as the panel in front of her, slid to the side like a sliding glass door. The three women looked at each other for a moment before looking back towards the men.

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” All three women said in union.

  “The fuck?�
�� Highlander echoed.

  “This is some fifty shades of fucked up,” Cortez mumbled to herself, louder than she thought.

  “What the hell is this?” Alvarez picked up a device that looked like a mouth guard, only opened wider with black Velcro lace.

  “It’s a special kind of ‘ball’ gag for those with a gag reflex and can’t use the actual ball gag during play,” Cortez answered without looking at anyone as she moved towards the back wall.

  “Don’t look at me squidward, I just work with her!” Pratt ignored her husband when he growled at her over the nickname.

  “Alrighty then, so, this Candy chick has her own sex dungeon. Is she submissive or dominant?” Alvarez looked around the room trying to get a feel for what they were dealing with.

  When Alvarez looked between Pratt and Cortez for an answer, she became confused when both women looked back at Highlander for an answer.

  “Word among the teams is she’s a sadist, but none of the men in the lifestyle would get with her. Her desire was to take men she knew were Doms and control them,” Highlander answered everyone’s unspoken questions.

  “Ruiz was a Dom?” Cortez laughed, holding her stomach.

  “No, he thought he was. Liked to act like it. That was one of the issues he had with his team and his marriage. He had to be in control, even when he wasn’t the leader.”

  “I bet that was the appeal. Candy preferred to be in control, like Ruiz. It was a huge turn on and a game between the two, who could control who the best.” Pratt looked up when Ian walked into the room and looked around.

  “What the fuck?”

  “That was my question, what the fuck is this?” Cortez asked the room as she held up a hand carved wooden stick with what appeared to be sharp spikes, placed sporadic around the end of it.

  “I have the same question about that…” Pratt pointed to a long wooden box with a small cut out at the top of the box with a mesh like caged screen covering the cutout square.