Wired Justice Page 14

  The last thing she wanted to do was speak with Connor—but she did want to know who had killed that family. And it would be great to have something to share with Freitan that would lend her and Jake credibility.

  But was it worth it to have to talk to him?

  “No way.” Marcella’s voice said in her mind. “Don’t talk to him. Don’t give him a way in.”

  Sophie quickly texted back. “I want the information. Send a file to me through DAVID so I can inform the detectives of anything that will be useful. I know everyone on the investigation will appreciate it.”

  She wasn’t going to say she would appreciate it. She wasn’t going to say anything personal.

  But a little part of her was glad that something would be done about that breach in security that was leading to so much loss of life and legal implications.

  Jake arrived and unlocked the Jeep. “You didn’t have to be so hard on that woman. She was probably afraid to pick up someone acting crazy on the side of the road when she was all by herself in her car. Lotta meth heads around here.”

  “I have a bad feeling about what happened to Julie Weathersby after Mandig saw her. Why is Julie still gone? Why hasn’t there been a ransom demand if someone has her? I think she’s dead.” Sophie got into the Jeep. Doggy smells surrounded her. Wagging tails thrashed the inside of the car.

  “I’ve had a bad feeling ever since we found her backpack and boots. I thought we’d find her body after that.”

  “We still might. And now we know where to look.” Sophie folded her hands on her lap. The last of the good feelings left over from being with Jake that morning had evaporated.

  They drove in tense silence to the turn off they had last made in a pouring rainstorm. The area looked much prettier in sunshine; spears of light penetrated the jungle canopy overhead and trailing vines made decorative curtains from the trees. Sophie noticed ripe passionfruit growing wild, the yellow spheres as random and eye-catching as Christmas tree balls against the shades of green.

  “There’s the mile marker.” He pulled the Jeep over onto the shoulder near the mile marker Mandig had named, being careful not to get too close to the drainage ditch beside the road. “She said it was on the right.”

  “Let’s let the dogs out,” Sophie said. They were at least a mile from where they had found Julie’s backpack. This would have been rough terrain for Julie to traverse, barefoot and at night.

  The stream gurgled beside the road, and the streetlights along the way were far apart. Sophie could imagine the young woman’s terrified flight after fighting off attackers, getting to the road, and trying to attract the attention of a passing car. “If I were her, I would want to stay off the main road in case my pursuers came after me. I would work my way along the edge of the road, hidden, and come out to try to flag down cars but stay hidden unless I was sure they were not the perps.” Ginger, on her leash, nosed in the long, tangled grass beside the road. She tugged toward the ditch hidden by the grass.

  “Sounds reasonable.” Jake let Tank out, but kept him on his leash. The two of them walked slowly along the road, stopping to look around the area periodically.

  Ginger gave a sudden, sharp bark, and yanked hard on Sophie’s arm, displaying the same intensity she had when she had discovered the body dump. Sophie’s stomach knotted around her breakfast as the dog dragged her down the road, several hundred yards from the mile marker. Ginger jumped off the pavement toward the overgrown ditch and thrust her face down into the trench, digging at the shielding growth with her paws.

  The smell of decomp hit Sophie’s nose, and she recoiled, covering her mouth and nose with a hand.

  She didn’t want to look.

  She didn’t want this to be the outcome of their search for a vibrant young woman.

  Jake arrived. He pushed her back. “Let me see.”

  Sophie let him, giving in to cowardice. She hauled Ginger back and sat on the nearby pavement.

  Jake parted the heavy plant growth, looked down into the ditch, and turned back. His eyes were the dark gray of storm clouds, and his mouth was tight. “It’s her.”

  Ginger leaned against Sophie, panting, her jaws open in a happy grin, her tongue lolling. The dog had found what Sophie was looking for, and expected praise. Sophie stroked Ginger’s chest, her shoulder, her silky ears. “Good girl.” She couldn’t say that phrase without hearing it in her mother’s voice. “Good girl.”

  Jake took his phone out, checking for signal, and called the detectives. Sophie could hear his voice but the words were jumbled, a distant thunder, meaningless.

  She took a few more deep breaths of fresh air, braced herself mentally, and moved forward to look.

  The body lay face down, an inch or two of water running over it. Good-sized rocks had been used to hold the corpse down beneath the flow. The nude, bloated body was dressed in a black bra and panties. Long brown hair streamed like water weeds. The water somewhat quenched the smell, but not entirely.

  Guessing by the bloated level of decomposition, Julie had been dead a week or so. That fit with the timeline they’d established. “May her killer be broken on the wheel of karma, frying in hell for eternity,” she cursed softly.

  Ginger, nosing around beside Sophie, lifted her head to sniff the air. She gave a loud bark and charged off again, yanking her leash so hard it tore the skin of Sophie’s palm. The dog galloped down the road, the leash bouncing off the pavement. Tank, excited by this new game, broke loose from Jake and ran after her.

  Sophie stood up. “Ginger!”

  Jake shook his head. “That dog is ridiculous.”

  “Not if she is finding another body,” Sophie said. “She seems to have a nose for cadavers.”

  Jake shot her a quick glance, and then squeezed her shoulder. “This happened long before we got here. We’re helping by finding them.”

  “Too little, too late. A good American saying,” Sophie muttered.

  “Go. Fetch those dogs. I will stay with the body until the detectives get here,” Jake said. “Call me if you find anything.”

  Sophie nodded, and jogged down the road.

  When she caught up with her dog, half a mile or so away, Ginger was down in the ditch, splashing, barking and digging at the grate of a culvert passing beneath the road as Tank looked on.

  Sophie caught her collar, and Tank’s, and pulled both dogs back and away from the ditch. She tied the animals to a nearby tree.

  She needed to see what was down there. There was a good chance something had washed down the ditch and come to rest against that grate, and the flowing water and overgrown bushes hid what it might be. She took off her shoes and socks, rolled up her yoga pants, and pushed down through the bushes toward the grate shielding the culvert.

  The pile of submerged human bones pressed against the metal by a flow of water was anticlimactic after the intense emotion of finding Julie’s body.

  Sophie got out her phone to try to call Jake or the detectives, but couldn’t get a signal.

  She climbed back out of the ditch, smoothing her muddy clothing and rinsing her scratched hands, and sat down with the dogs.

  Was the stream a dump site? It certainly seemed possible. Maybe they were about to solve some of the disappearances. But who was behind them? One serial killer, or some kind of crime ring?

  Julie had been dumped off by the couple who robbed her. Then she’d been attacked and stripped of her clothing. She had escaped, and been captured again. Was it the same couple doing all of it, or multiple perpetrators?

  No one had benefited from Julie’s death that Sophie could tell, at first glance at least. Her parents hadn’t paid a ransom; they’d never been contacted. Chernobiac had been fishing to extort but hadn’t implemented his scheme yet; and who were the people driving the black SUV that took Chernobiac’s cash?

  The unmarked SUV that Freitan and Wong drove sped by, a light flashing on the dash. Sophie continued to wait as the medical examiner’s van and a squad car soon followed.


  Finally, Jake jogged down the road toward her. Sophie rose and walked toward him, and he saw the answer on her face. He lifted a walkie-talkie they must’ve given him and said, “Sophie found something more.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jake took his sweatshirt out of the Jeep and wrapped it around Sophie’s shoulders. She was hunched in on herself, clearly taking the girl’s death hard.

  Jake felt it too, a numbness in the extremities, a lead ball in his belly. They watched from a distance as Freitan and Wong directed the uniforms to secure the area and the ME, clad in rubber boots and a coverall, got down into the stream with the body.

  More vehicles arrived. Several police officers, dressed in waders, started down the narrow stream with poles in hand to probe for more remains.

  “This could be major,” Jake said.

  “Yes. There might be more bodies here.” Sophie’s phone dinged and she glanced at it. “Can you give me a ride back to town? I’m supposed to meet Dr. Wilson for a counseling appointment I set up yesterday.” She sighed. “I should have taken my own car.”

  “It’s no problem.” Jake really didn’t want her going off on her own without him. “Well, you’ll have even more to talk to her about today.”

  “Yes, unfortunately. I had planned to . . . do more research before I met with her. But I haven’t had time.”

  “It’s been nonstop, yeah. Hop in the Jeep. I’ll tell Freitan where she can reach us if she needs anything more.”

  Sophie nodded and headed toward the Jeep with the dogs.

  Freitan was conferring with the ME on the muddy creek bank as Jake walked over to the detective. “Hey. We have to go back to town for an appointment. Anything else we can do to assist?”

  “Nah. You two have done quite enough. Or I should say, that Lab has,” Freitan said. “She could be a cadaver dog! Was she trained or something?”

  “Not that anyone can tell,” Jake said. “She’s a rescue dog, and generally badly behaved.” He pointed to the waterlogged corpse as it was being lifted into a body bag. “That was our client. How would you like us to inform the parents?”

  “It’s a murder investigation, now. We will do the informing. Preferably in person. What you can do is get the parents over to the Big Island. Tell them there have been some developments and the police need to talk to them personally, ASAP. We’ll take it from there.” Freitan was abrupt but no longer condescending as she met Jake’s gaze squarely. For once, she wasn’t eying him like a steak at a barbeque.

  “Really appreciate your breaking this open.” Wong said. “Can we get the contact info for the witness that tipped you to this location?”

  Jake scrolled through his phone to Mandig’s contact information and sent it via text over to Wong. “We’d like to keep helping however we can. And please let us know of any new developments—like if you find any more remains in this stream. Sophie’s really into solving some more of the missing persons cases.”

  “We’ll let you know,” Freitan said. “Stay close.”

  Jake headed back to the Jeep.

  Sophie was already seated inside, texting, but she put her phone away with a furtive gesture as soon as he arrived.

  Not good. He’d lay money that she was in touch with Alika right now. His mood darkened.

  “Just partners with benefits,” he muttered as he got in and slammed the door. “Not a bit fucking jealous.”

  “What did you say?” Sophie’s eyes had dark circles under them and her honey-brown skin had that gray cast it got when she was stressed. He checked the digital clock on the dash—it was two p.m. Time had flown when they weren’t having fun.

  “You need something to eat before I take you to Dr. Wilson,” Jake said. He turned on the Jeep and the engine roared in a satisfying way. “You look peaked.”

  “You are not my parent to worry about my eating habits. And what is peaked?”

  “No, definitely not your parent. Peaked is . . .” His mother had used that term when he was little. “A Midwestern thing. Means you seem weak. Sickly, I guess.” Jake pulled the vehicle off the shoulder, frustrated. “My mama thought food was the answer to every illness, and I like to see you eat. So, sue me.”

  “I see no purpose in suing you for such a silly thing.” Sophie petted his leg like he was one of the dogs. “Your mama was likely a wise woman to raise such a competent son.”

  “Is that a compliment?” Stupid as it was, her petting and praise perked him up. “I live for the crumbs of your positive regard.”

  “Such big words!” Sophie batted her eyes. “You astound me, Jake.”

  “I may be a Neanderthal, but I did go to college. Majored in political science. I even read several Cliff’s notes of the classics.”

  “I like big words, Jake.” Sophie petted his leg a little too close to the groin this time, and he almost swerved off the road.

  “Watch those hands or you’ll have to pay the price,” he warned. She laughed, and it was good to see a little color come back into her face.

  “I am hungry. Perhaps we could buy one of those nutritionally unsound musubi things on the way to Dr. Wilson’s office,” she murmured. “I do wish we could have a more active role in the investigation. I am annoyed by this private role. But I could not stay in the FBI when they were trying to take ownership of DAVID. And I got frustrated there too, with the kinds of cases I had to keep working.”

  “Tell me more about that.” Keep her mind off the bodies, keep her talking. “What’s going on with your patent application?”

  “It’s moving ahead. The FBI has relinquished its bid for ownership with the advocacy of my very competent lawyer. But it’s a slow process. And the issues of consent and confidentiality . . . I don’t know if they will ever be resolved.”

  Jake patted her leg this time. “I have faith in you, my intellectual logophile.”

  Her smile was his reward. He was definitely going to be throwing around more big words.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Sophie was somewhat restored by an energy drink and convenience store musubi by the time Jake dropped her off for her appointment at Dr. Wilson’s office on a side street near Hilo Bay.

  Sophie waited in the tiny anteroom with its rattan loveseat, potted fern, and walls painted a soothing blue. She picked up her phone and continued the text Jake had interrupted. She had started to reply to Alika’s inquiry asking how things were going on her hike. “I have not had the restful trip I hoped for when you dropped me off. Jake and I found the body of our client today. Very sad. I dread telling the parents. And there are many missing people here. We might have found another body dump.”

  “What the hell?”

  “Yes. This island has too many people who have disappeared for it to be a normal pattern. I suspect a serial killer. We have just begun to scratch the surface with finding the body of our client, and some additional bones. Ginger is quite a cadaver dog, it turns out.”

  “Do you need help?”

  The question mark of Alika’s inquiry pulsed at her. Did she need help?

  Yes, and no.

  She didn’t know what to do about her personal life, and he would do nothing but confuse her further. She shuddered to think of Alika and Jake in the same room. The lunch her father had hosted on Oahu at the Honua Pub had been barely tolerable; the two seemed to have taken an instant dislike to each other; unusual particularly for Alika, who got along with everyone.

  The inner door opened, and Dr. Wilson stuck her head around the corner of the jamb. “Please come in, Sophie.” The psychologist looked tidy and composed, her blonde bob feathering around her face. “How are you today?”

  Sophie entered the room. She was still muddy and sweaty from wrestling the bushes near the stream, and her scratches itched. She resisted an urge to rub the sore places. “I have had an eventful day.”

  “As if yesterday were not enough.” Dr. Wilson seated herself in the lounger and picked up her clipboard, pen poised. “Have you had a chance to investigate y
our mother’s secret organization? I was Googling around last night, and there was a rumor of something, some kind of palace guard, that was established to take care of the Thai royal family millennia ago. Maybe this is a modern version of that.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to do anything further.” Sophie shook her head, smiling slightly. “After I left your office, I picked up Jake at the police station. We got my rental car, which I haven’t even had a chance to drive, and went to the motel here in Hilo where I’d rented a room. I admit I collapsed. Had a relapse of my depression.”

  “Tell me more about that. Since you are a new client, it would help me to know a little bit of your history with the disorder.”

  Sophie filled the psychologist in briefly, describing her episodes of depression since she was a teenager, and how it manifested.

  “Yesterday evening I went to bed in the motel before it was even dark outside. I was deep in it, not really able to do anything else. Jake left me alone, but in the morning, he . . .” To her embarrassment, Sophie felt her cheeks and neck heat up.

  “He did what?”

  “Jake got in bed with me. Just held me. We fell asleep, then I woke up, and I felt better. I wanted to . . . be with him. Physically.”

  Dr. Wilson definitely had what Sophie had heard called a twinkle in her eye as she leaned forward, smiling. “I take it that some sexual healing took place.”

  Sophie rubbed a scratch on the back of one hand. “I’m not familiar with that phrase, but I could imagine it being called that, yes.” She struggled to find words to explain. “It was very good. Very healing as you say. Jake has agreed to my terms that we are merely partners with benefits. We are not a couple. We talked about it this morning.”

  “Oh, he’s agreed to that, has he?” Dr. Wilson’s eyebrows had raised high in a skeptical way. “Tell me more about Jake. He seems to be quite a character.”

  “Oh, indeed he is. Jake is large.”

  Dr. Wilson burst into laughter.

  Sophie fanned hot cheeks with a hand, smiling. “I didn’t mean that as an innuendo. But Jake is large physically and he has a commanding personality and presence. He has always irritated me by getting too personal. He is intrusive and bossy, and used to try to control and protect me. He made sexual comments and overtures that I declined. But as time has gone on, I find that I like him more than I ever thought I would. And he has learned that being treated like a sex object is unpleasant. Detective Freitan has been harassing him and he has learned a lesson from it.” Sophie glanced at the clock over the psychologist’s head; they still had plenty of time. “I have always found Jake physically attractive.”