Page 39 of Final Inning

“It’s extreme. He’s told her things about her body—personal things he has no business saying. She says he watches her constantly. And…she tries not to be alone with him. She won’t admit it aloud, but I think a part of her is afraid, maybe even terrified, of him. I want to help her somehow, but…how do we do that? He will act on this, it’s almost inevitable, but he hasn’t done enough yet for an arrest. We both know he will. But he’s started putting his hands on her. We both know what’s next.”

Knight thought about it for a moment. There were channels, but without indisputable proof, Lindhour would face an uphill battle. But…PAVAD, in general, had some seriously strong avenues of their own.

Johnson had no business wearing a badge.

There were things that could be done—and Knight would see they were, as soon as this case was finished.

“Document and report anything you see. We’ll go from there after this case wraps. We can contact the attorney general or the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation. Use the proper channels. Or talk to one of the corruption units at PAVAD.” Chances were good if Johnson didn’t give a shit for the law in regard to how he treated his employee—there was a high likelihood he had disregarded the law in other areas. Using his authority to cover for himself ranked up there on the list that those corruption units covered.

“Why is it always the good ones who are hurt the most?” She was quiet again. For the longest time. “She truly wants to help the people she serves. And he doesn’t seem to really care about much of anything.”

“You can’t solve all the world’s problems, Sunny. It just doesn’t work that way.”

She was rubbing her arm again. Damn it. She really was upset. It was the biggest tell she had. “Tell me. What about this situation is bothering you. The lack of resources for Lindhour? The case? The harassment?”

She was quiet for so long he was almost certain she wasn’t going to answer.

“I watched and listened while she was in her office with him. The entire tone he used with her was quietly menacing, to put it bluntly. And he had his hands on her. I was about ready to go in and lay into him myself. He left. And she told me some things. Everything she described shows a clear path of escalation with him. He shows all the signs of a narcissistic sexual predator. He’s using his authority against her and it shows a pattern. I think…he’s probably preyed on women before. Maybe…even succeeded in his goal. There was experience, confidence, in his demeanor when he had Hagan cornered. He has definitely done this kind of thing before. He gets off on having women in his control. Literally.”

Which meant there were more victims out there.

“Have Dani run everything on Johnson she can find, going back to his teens. Check for out-of-county reports of sexual assaults that have gone unsolved. Check restraining orders, too.” Because if Miranda saw a pattern there—there was one. And Knight agreed. It wouldn’t be the first time they’d stumbled into another series of criminal acts while working cases. It wouldn’t be the last. Criminal deviant behaviors tended to overlap. Especially in smaller areas. If Johnson had attacked women while working as a cop—it might just have not been reported.

Who would the victim report it to around here? They would have felt powerless and afraid and would have left town, or just lied low until Johnson focused on someone else.

“It took me a while to get her to tell me. But finally…I’ve been there, Knight. In her shoes. With a superior.”

“At PAVAD?” He would find the son-of-a-bitch and rip his fucking head off. And he wouldn’t even break a sweat. “Who?”

“Not at PAVAD. Before. St. Louis office. I’m not even sure he’s still there—I deliberately didn’t keep up. Jac and I were recruited for PAVAD straight from the academy, you know.”

“I know.” He knew every bit of his people’s work histories. Including his co-leader right here. He knew right where to start hunting.

“There was that fourteen-month gap between the academy and the beginning of PAVAD.”

“You were with CARD, though.” Child Abduction Rapid Deployment, then she’d switched to another team. “Who?”

“Four months, on a white-collar team out of the St. Louis field office. I was a newbie. He wasn’t. He liked what he saw.” She was downplaying, he knew it. She used that particular tone when she felt uncomfortable with what she was saying.

“What happened?” Knight was going to find the bastard. He just was.

“He escalated, kept making comments. Started making demands. Started lying about things I’d said or done to others. Isolating, trying to groom. As if I was too young and stupid to recognize what he was doing. He followed me out to my car one night. And then he tried to kiss me, trapped me against my car. That…didn’t last long.”

Knight did everything he could to keep his rage from boiling over as she spoke. He still heard the hurt. “What happened?”

“I can defend myself, Knight. I can defend myself. The long legs come in really handy at times. I got him off of me, went back inside, and demanded to speak to the head of security. To get the camera footage immediately. He didn’t even give a damn that he’d basically assaulted me on camera—because he was pals with the guys in security. He’d been around St. Louis for a long time and I hadn’t. But…the director’s daughter was also in the parking lot. With her partner. And they had seen it all. Heard it, too. I was transferred out of his unit the next day, and he was on leave after that. I never really saw him again. Rumor has it he put in his papers, and went back to practicing law in Joplin. But if the director’s own daughter hadn’t been there—that footage would have disappeared. And I have always wondered—how many other women didn’t get so lucky where he was concerned?”

It wouldn’t be hard for him to find out who that bastard was. To find out where he was. To…do some discreet digging himself. Because she was right—a man like that didn’t just start trapping women in dark parking lots. He’d probably done it before.

And a man like Ted Johnson didn’t just start harassing his deputy out of nowhere. He’d harassed women before. Most likely done more.

“Tell me his name.”

“Not going to happen.”

“I can find out anyway.”

“But you won’t. Because you respect me enough to know I handled myself just fine.” Well, she had him there. Knight just grunted. He glanced at her quickly. She just smirked at him in return. “What would you do, anyway? Would you go all caveman for me? Be my Knight in tarnished armor?”