Page 28 of Dark Angel
Surprised by his reaction, Beth shook her head. “I called Spike, and he took him away, which is just as well. He was stinking up the place. I helped him lift him out of my room, is all.”
“Right.” Styles didn’t look convinced. “So, what did Spike do about that? I don’t recall seeing the paramedics arriving.”
Leaning back in the chair and stifling a yawn, Beth shook her head. “He wouldn’t have risked anyone seeing his setup, would he? His only concern was getting rid of the body as soon as possible. He mentioned dumping the judge into the bay, so we can assume Spike disposes of bodies there. He was very distracted, trying to work out a way of getting the judge out of the house without anyone seeing him, so I pushed a little harder, and discovered he gets his girls from an auction on the net, so the dark web. He denied knowing the Pied Piper. He guessed he was a pimp on the street.” She met his hard gaze with a smile. “That’s why I took his laptop.”
“Seems to me that you’re leaving out a large hunk of this story.” Styles rubbed the back of his neck. “You saying that Spike dumped the judge in the bay” He narrowed his eyes at her. “How did he get him out of the house without being noticed?”
Needing to keep the truth of her involvement to herself, Beth shrugged. “Look, I don’t know for sure what he did with him. I was locked in a room, remember? There were clients there. I only caught a glimpse of one at the top of the stairs. They held open the door for Spike when he carried the judge out of the cellar. That was the last time I saw Spike. His vehicle wasn’t in the alleyway when I left. There are two ends to the alleyway. If you saw him go in that way, he must have driven out toward the bay. The place was deserted when I came out.” She stared at Styles. “Look, you knew at the get-go that someone was going down tonight. I figured it would be Spike, but it was lucky the judge collapsed because, when Spike left, I had the chance to get the girls out. How else do you figure I freed the girls from that hellhole?” She stared at him. “You know darn well we weren’t going by the book on this one, and if you believe it will come back on us, you’re mistaken. Nobody knows I went there. I was wearing a disguise and left no trace of me behind. Trust me, we won’t get any blowback on this. As far as the local bureau is concerned, we came here to collect the body of a victim and take it to the ME in Black Rock Falls.” She held out her hands wide. “If anyone at the hotel desk did notice our coming and going, they’d say that after dinner I came back and never left my room. No one was on the desk when I returned and there are no cameras in this hotel. Trust me, I’ve checked it out.”
“It seems I’ll be in a world of trouble if I report this incident.” Styles stood in the middle of the room staring into space. “What I don’t understand is how you can sit there looking so calm, after watching a judge die, attacking a guy in the alleyway, and setting fire to a crack house.” He sighed. “Is this the lack of empathy Mac mentioned in your report?”
Beth gave him an incredulous stare. “Am I sorry a judge that not only protects pedophiles but indulges himself to the extreme died? No, I’m not, and before you ask about all the other stuff, yeah, I would do it again in a heartbeat.” She shook her head slowly, her eyes fixed on his face. “After seeing you administer street justice in town the other night, I believed you and I were on the same wavelength when it came to what’s right and wrong.” She stood to face him. “It’s fortunate the world is free of that monster because, as sure as heck, he’d never have been charged. Trust me, predators are in every walk of life and they protect each other. I wager if we investigated his cases involving pedophiles, we’d discover he allowed most of them to walk.”
“I hate to say this, but as much as the cop in me is screaming injustice, I happen to agree with you.” Styles rubbed both hands down his face. “Get some sleep. Order room service for breakfast. I’ll meet you downstairs at seven-thirty and we’ll grab a cab back to the airport. I want to be as far away as possible when the shit hits the fan.” He turned to go and then stopped and looked back at her. “Tonight never happened and we’re donating the cash to the church in Black Rock Falls. The father there runs homeless shelters.” He waved a hand around the room. “We might be safe talking here, but we never know who is listening at the office.” He glanced down at the bag of clothes beside the door, hair from the wig sticking out of the top of the bag. “Wrap your disguise better. We don’t want anyone seeing it. There’s an incinerator in our building. It’s there for destroying the protective gear we wear on crime scenes. You can burn it when we get back to the office. It’s too risky leaving it here.”
An incinerator? This must be my lucky day.Beth nodded. “That works for me.” She flopped back down on the sofa as he closed the door behind him.
It had surprised her that Styles had accepted her story about the judge without too much of an argument. Telling him the judge had died, even if she’d bent the truth some, was important because sooner or later he’d show up and questions would be asked.Beth stared at the door and shook her head.What is your angle, Styles?If he figured he could give her enough rope to hang herself, he was very mistaken. She’d feed her rope out very slowly, giving him tidbits and waiting for a reaction. To be honest, she didn’t need to trust anyone, but working this close, it had become a necessity. Being comfortable alone worked for her, but for some reason, not one she understood yet, she kind of liked Styles.
TWENTY-NINE
SATURDAY
Black Rock Falls, Montana
The midday sun reflected on the rivers and lakes like a million diamonds as Styles pointed the chopper toward Black Rock Falls. The far-spreading forests never ceased to amaze him. The scenery in this area was breathtaking and beside him it was obvious that Beth was enjoying the view. She hadn’t said more than a few words since they left the stopover for refueling and it had given him time to think over what she had told him about the night before. She was indeed an unusual woman. In fact, he’d never met anyone quite like her before. In the back of his mind, he had concerns that she’d completed a dangerous mission without batting an eyelid. Her lack of emotion must be the same problem that had worried Mac, although he regarded her lack of feeling a little differently, having seen the same in soldiers under his command during many tours of duty. It was rare for a soldier to think twice about killing the enemy when under fire. It was a fight for survival, and if Beth used the same method as a coping tool to endure the pressure of her experiences on the job, it was something he could understand.
In her opinion, she’d taken the only option available by removing the girls from a dangerous situation. He’d asked himself if he would have done in the same situation. The answer was in the affirmative, but he’d have included the incident in his report. He had to admit, many times he’d used street justice to deal with a problem and just walked away, leaving broken bodies in his wake. It had been the best solution at the time, and he guessed her reason to withhold the information was probably to protect him, as he’d allowed her to go undercover without backup. He flicked a glance toward her, seeing her calm and serene as if the last few days hadn’t happened. She didn’t seem to have any problems whatsoever and carried on as normal after an extremely stressful situation. He rubbed the scar on his chin. At first, he’d believed she would be a liability, but maybe she would become the asset he hadn’t expected.
The outskirts of a town came into view. A small number of ranches spread out across the lowlands, and as they got closer to the center of town, habitation was spreading in all directions. Stores lined the main street from one end to the other, and prosperity was obvious by the hustle and bustle around the town center. He took the chopper in a full circle and passed over the hospital, the college, and the high school before the large redbrick building came into view with a helipad on the roof with a clearly visible large white stenciledME. There were three chopper bays. He slowly dropped the nose down and landed one bay away from the ME’s helicopter. Turning to Beth, he caught her staring at him. “Is there a problem?”
“Nope.” Beth’s lips twitched up into a smile. “Wolfe is as smart as a whip. It’s very difficult to conceal anything from him whatsoever.”
As the engine noise cut out, Styles removed his headphones. “Why would I want to conceal anything from him? We need him to assist us with our case. Do you have anything you need to keep from him? If so, I suggest you tell me now.”
“No, not exactly.” Beth hung up her headphones. “It’s just that we deal with sensitive information sometimes. No one can know I have Spike’s laptop. If you let that slip, everything will come out. If someone accidentally alerts the wrong person and it gets back to whoever is running this pedophile ring, everything will shut down and start up again somewhere else. This means the pathway to the dark web on Spike’s laptop will be useless.”
Nodding, Styles met her gaze. “What laptop?” He opened the door and lifted a hand in greeting as the man himself walked onto the helipad.
“It’s so nice to see you again, Dr. Wolfe.” Beth held out a hand. “Thank you so much for assisting our investigation again.”
“That’s what I do.” Wolfe shook her hand. “Please call me Shane. It’s Beth, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, and thanks.” Beth smiled at him.
Styles shook Wolfe’s hand and nodded to a man pushing a gurney he recognized as Wolfe’s assistant, Colt Webber, before turning his attention back to Wolfe. “We have the body of Scarlett Chester. The San Francisco PD found her floating in the bay”
“Okay, we’ll take her down to examination room one and take a look at her. My assistant will get her ready for examination. You’ll be wanting the autopsy report on Brooklyn Daniels?”
Glad Wolfe was so organized, Styles nodded. “Yeah, that would be great.”
“Okay, we’ll wait in my office and you can bring me up to date with the new cases.” Wolfe went to the back of the chopper and slid open the door. After negotiating the black body bag onto the gurney with the help of Webber, he turned to Styles. “Did you bring the report from the first-on-scene officer and the local medical examiner?”
Styles whistled to Bear and then followed Wolfe into the elevator with the body. “Unfortunately, we didn’t receive any cooperation whatsoever from the local FBI bureau or the PD. The only information I have is verbal, although the local medical examiner gave me a thumb drive with all the information he had on the case. I haven’t had time to go over it yet. Our main concern was to get the victim to you without delay.”
“This is a problem I often deal with, although not in this town. The Black Rock Falls Sheriff’s Department has an impressive team that includes the Snakeskin Gully FBI field office.” Wolfe led the way down a tiled passageway and into an office. “Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that in some places people are treated differently depending on their social background. People go missing all the time and are found murdered, but only a very select few make the press. You can be assured that anyone who enters my examination room is treated with equal respect.” He waved them into seats. “Tell me what you know.”
Styles noticed the dog basket, food, and water in Wolfe’s office. He rubbed Bear’s ears and the dog’s soft brown eyes looked at him waiting for his next command. “Ah, before we start, will my dog, Bear, be a problem in here with your dog?”
