Tyler never showed. He was my rock, the one person I could rely on.
Hadn’t he told me last night that he’d find a way to let me go?
My mind swam, and nausea rose. I pressed my fingers to my mouth. Tyler wanted to let me go, and he’d walked away when I needed him most. Except when I looked at it from his point of view, I was making myself independent. Claiming my name.
Maybe all I’d done was shown him I didn’t need him after all.
Misery stayed with me.
Lovelyn joined us, talking about Lex. About how Cassie was leading the way in looking at his last movements. Then she shared further research she’d done on Austin’s accounts.
“There are more payments out than people. But I can’t find a list of accounts. It has to be bribes, right? A hidden company, opaque cash.” She heaved a breath. “One of the names you got from the prisoner interviews last night is someone high up in the police. No wonder they aren’t pushing the case.”
“You think that’s the blocker?” Mila asked.
“I guess there’s one way to confirm it. I’ll ask my father.” Lovelyn dialled a number and set her phone on the coffee table, loudspeaker on.
“What is it?” her dad answered.
“Hello to you, too. Are Mark Bigelow’s dirty and illegal habits the reason theEdencase is stalled?”
The policeman spluttered. “Why—? Ah fuck. Probably.” His tone changed to interested. “What have you got? Say it’s something good. I hate that fucking cretin.”
Lovelyn’s eyes sparkled. “Something good.”
“It needs to be better than that to make any waves. Orders from the top have already buried one lot of evidence, and your witnesses are hours away from being released with no charge.”
The Marchant-Smythes? Damn. We’d messed up by simply handing them over.
Lovelyn hung up and lowered the phone. “That can’t happen.”
Mila’s words rushed in. “How can they do that? Women died, and corruption is just going to cover it up?”
Anger stirred in me. “Because they’re in control of the case. Men who used the system and bought women from it. Screw all of them. We can’t let them get away with it.”
Mila and Lovelyn talked, but an idea came into my mind. I raised a hand, and both ceased.
“If we hand over the prisoners, the same thing is going to happen again. They’ll find a way to sweep the evidence under the carpet. But if we get recordings of their confessions first and threaten to publicise them, they’ll have no choice.”
Mila’s eyes went round. “Meaning we share the confessions with names uncensored if they don’t press charges?”
Lovelyn’s brow creased. “I like it, but that means some evidence could be negated by a court. We’d need to do it carefully.”
My mind rushed over the problem. “What do we actually want from this? We can’t punish Austin. He died without seeing any part of his empire fall. But we know, or suspect, that family members and his friends pushed him into and supported his path. They need to go down. Then the cops can prosecute the Marchant-Smythes, the boat’s captain, the others they’ve arrested, but there’s nothing for the buyers, or the middle men.”
Lovelyn cocked her head. “We hand over Jacobs and Salter so they can’t resurrect their networks. Even if the cops don’t take them down, others will for fear of their names being spread.”
I liked that. “But that still leaves the buyers.”
“And Denise,” Mila said.
My heart thumped harder. The last one standing in the trusted companies. Oscar Sullivan was dead, and so was Paul Debrock. Denise had to pay, and all we’d constructed should lead the police to her door. “Then the cops need the financial evidence, too. The network is finished, and the families who lost loved ones will see justice. It will work. I’m sure of it.”
Lovelyn’s smile set the plan in stone. “I have just the person we can ask.”
She dialled another number, explaining it was for the detective in charge of the case. “Lyle? Listen carefully. You have the chance to make your career, but it means going against someone in top brass. Do you want in?”
A pause followed, then a male voice returned. “Define making my career.”
