“And he’s done this since high school?”
“Yeah.” He sniffed, wiped his nose.
“Complaints filed?”
He shook his head. “There was a rumor once that the father of one of the women who was putting in a complaint was offered a top position at Raddison Industries. The complaint was dropped. There were also some sexual harassment complaints at his previous job, but they were also dropped for whatever reason. When he joined Killion’s campaign, he knew he’d be in the media spotlight and that he’d have to keep it in his pants, or at least under the radar. That’s when he heard about the Bacchanalian Club—a sex club, where you could get ... different things in an exclusive environment, for a price. Classy, clean girls. Excellent food and entertainment. Sadomasochistic stuff.” He wiped his mouth.
“Zach went a few times as a guest, became a member, and then he took me. You get a bonus girl, something really special, if you bring in a new paying member.”
“Why you?”
“It was a birthday gift. Zach figured I wasn’t getting enough, or good enough.” A moment of silence besieged him, and when he spoke again, there was a marked shift in his tone. He sounded utterly defeated. “I think ... he just liked an audience. He wanted someone who was connected with his real world to see and know what he was doing at the club. It’s the exhibitionist in him. It gives him a thrill. Sexual and ego.” He cleared his throat, glanced at the two-way mirror, hesitated, and his eyes went to the door.
“Go on, Jayden,” Angie prompted softly, adrenaline thumping in her blood. She also glanced again at the two-way mirror. She figured Fitz or Vedder would have given Holgersen the word by now to move on Raddison and bring him in.
Jayden scrubbed his face with his hands. His legal counsel had an odd look on her face. “Jayden,” she said, placing her hand on his arm again.
He shook his head. “No. I don’t care what my dad says. Or my mom. I ... Ineedto do this. All of it. For Gracie.” He heaved out a chestful of air. “Zach took me for PPN. Members who subscribe to the B.C. notifications receive a special text alert a few days before, if PPN is to happen. The message comes from an anonymous server, all mysterious. It makes members feel like they’re part of some underground sex movement. At least that’s what Zach says. The PPN girls are young.”
“How young?”
“Gracie had just turned sixteen when she started. She said there are three others, at least, who are younger than she was. But those three aren’t local. They came in on theAmanda Rose. The others maybe just look very young, and they play it up with makeup and pigtails, and they dress in school uniforms with really short skirts and no panties, and wear things like dildos shaped like baby pacifiers around their necks.” He cleared his throat and stared at the table surface. “They sit around in the cabin using the pacifier dildos while some of the men watch and have drinks or whatever.” He fell silent for a few seconds. “That kind of thing.”
“And those young girls who are not local—where do they come from?”
“I don’t know. They live on the yacht, I think. TheAmanda Roseonly stays in port for about three months at a time. She returns annually for what the B.C. club calls the Victoria Season. The previous stop was Vancouver, and before that it was Portland, I think. TheAmanda Rosewas off South America prior to entering US waters, according to Gracie. Those other young girls could have been picked up in any one of those ports. I never saw or spoke to those three.”
“What about the local women who work on the yacht?”
“There was Gracie.” He inhaled deeply and blew out a heavy breath. “Lara. Eva—I don’t know if those were real names, but they’re the two Gracie mentioned to me. She helped bring Lara and Eva in. She got a lot of money for that.”
“And why did Gracie tell you all these things, Jayden?”
His mouth tightened, he gagged, and for a moment it seemed as though he was going to throw up.
“Like ... I said, I ... I was given Gracie that first night I went with Zach. We made love. I—”
“You didn’t make love, Jayden,” Angie snapped. “You paid for sex.”
Maddocks shot her a hot glance. She gave a tiny shrug of her shoulder.
“It felt special. I ... I returned with Zach the following week. For Gracie. And then every week that PPN was held, only for her. She liked me. We got talking. She saw my Saint Christopher and asked about my faith, and she told me about her own rekindled faith. Her choir. Some nights I paid and we just talked. She liked that.” He looked down and began to trace little circles on the table with his index finger. “We began to talk about ... after.”
“After?”
“The future. After she quit the B.C. After she’d made enough money. We spoke about traveling, living abroad. The cities she wanted to visit. How we could go together once I’d finished my degree.” He hesitated, looked up. “I wanted her to stop. To be with me. I told her I’d support her financially if she quit.”
“You ever get jealous of her being with other men?”
“She was better than the job, and I told her so. She deserved more. I could have given her more.”
“But she didn’t trust you, did she, Jayden?” Angie said. “You were just another john.”
“We were special.”
Yeah, right.Nothing like an orgasm as reinforcement to make you think it was love.
“Shedidwant to get out. But it wasn’t so easy.” His hands began to shake, and his voice quavered. “She was getting scared, because the B.C. was becoming more controlling, and it was being made clear that if she did speak, or violate their confidentially agreement in any way, she’d be dead.”
