Maximum Guilt (Hidden Guilt Book 2) (21 page)

Stacy parked in a shopping center across the street, and they made their way over on foot. They’d had brief phone conversations with Marci but hadn’t seen her in years, so they were both extremely nervous.

Stacy knocked on the door, and they waited what seemed like an eternity. Marci opened the door a crack and peeked out in amazement.

“Get in here,” she said to them.

“It’s so good to see you, Marci,” Stacy said as the three of them hugged each other.

“I’ve been reading about you two. Think you might be moving a little too fast? I can’t believe you came here; you shouldn’t have! The last thing I want this asshole Porter to do is nail us all. The work you’re doing for the movement is amazing, though, I must say.”

“We were careful. We parked far away, and we haven’t been tailed. Come on! Who do you think you’re talking to here? And where’s your better half? I was hoping to see him, too,” Stacy said.

“Well, I have neighbors, too. I’m sure at least one of them just saw two young women enter my home and close the door behind them. I never have guests here—ever. You know how fuckin’ nosy people are, Stacy. It is good to see you, though. Both of you. And he’s at work. He’ll be sad he missed you, I’m sure.”

“We actually have a meeting tonight.”

Marci gave Stacy a look of disapproval.

“Don’t worry; it’s the last one for a while. Then we’re going to disappear,” Brittany said.

“How are you finding these guys anyway?”

“We just go to a hookup site and then do a cross-reference on criminal backgrounds,” Stacy said.

“You’ve played this same ruse a few times now. How are you double-checking to make sure they aren’t sending a fuckin’ cop in on you?”

Stacy and Brittany hadn’t thought about that.

“You’re right,” Stacy said. “It’s a public website, though. What are the chances we’d be targeting their guy?”

“Little sister, they have IT guys who can manipulate data. It’s not that hard to tweak some profiles and force you into one or two choices. You should see some of the things I can do with the programs I run here. Or better yet, they could hack a website and make every choice you click on correspond with them. I could do that in five minutes. Security isn’t number one on the agenda for a hookup site.”

Marci was a self-taught hacker who’d turned into a big deal in the hacker world.

Stacy thought about it for a minute. The number of sex offenders
had
dropped dramatically in her last search.

“We just wanted to drop in and say hi, but now you’ve got me worried. How long would it take you to check out the guy we’re meeting tonight?”

“Shit, that’s easy. Less than ten minutes. Do you have a picture of this guy?”

Marci loaded Bo’s picture into facial recognition software used by the FBI. The program was scanning the picture, looking for a match.

“This will only take a minute. We’ll have his Social Security number, DOB, and every other piece of information available.”

The screen flashed and a name popped up; it wasn’t Bo. The name on the screen was Franklin Shuppe.

“Well maybe he just goes by Bo, or maybe Bo is his middle name,” Brittany said.

Marci put Franklin’s Social in another FBI database program to find out more about him.

“Who are you, Mr. Shuppe?” Marci said.

The next image on the screen stunned them all into silence.

Franklin Shuppe was an undercover cop for HPD.

“Holy fuck!” Brittany said.

“Holy fuck is right! You were about to walk into a booby trap. Did you notice anything out of the ordinary when you performed your searches?”

“Sort of. There were a lot fewer perverts to choose from. We even talked about it. That fucking Porter,” Stacy said.

“He has a great police mind, Stacy. You know that already. This is what cops do, and, for the most part, they’re really, really good at it. Don’t take it personal.”

“So what do we do now? If we back out, they’ll know we’re onto them,” Brittany said.

“Well, we sure as hell can’t meet him at his place like he suggested,” Stacy said.

“Yeah, his place will be wired to the max and surrounded by a SWAT team,” Marci said.

“We need a plan. I still want to meet this guy and put two in his skull. Teach Porter a lesson,” Stacy said.

“I can help you, but are you sure you want to go through with this? Killing a cop raises the ante,” Marci said.

“Yes.”

The three of them spent the next hour devising their plan for getting Franklin away from the trap that was set for them and into a trap of their own.

“I have an idea, but I’ll need a sample of his voice. Can you send him a message and get him to call you? I only need about ten seconds. A few sentences would be good. Basically, I’ll use a program similar to the ones they use in Hollywood movies. We’ll need it for the cops and anyone else who might be listening in.”

Stacy logged in to her laptop and sent Bo a message and the number to one of her burner phones.

“You think he’s going to call?” Brittany said as they waited.

“Yes. Remember, they think they’re setting us up. He’ll call,” Stacy said.

She was right.

“Hello?” Stacy said, answering her phone on the second ring. Marci was recording on her phone.

“Hey there, beautiful! It’s me. Bo.”

“Oh, hey, sorry to bother you. I’m sure you’re probably busy, and I actually have an appointment here in a bit. I just had to hear your voice. I keep looking at your pictures over and over again.”

“No problem. I’m actually about to meet with a client myself. I may be tied up for a few hours, so I wanted to call you now.”

“What a gentleman. Well, I’ll let you get to it. We still on for tonight?”

“Hell, yeah! See you soon, sexy.”

Stacy ended the call and looked at Marci.

“Good job. That’s all I need. Actually, that’s more than enough,” Marci said with a smile.

Chapter 50

I needed to see the bank records on Bubba and Claude. I wanted to know exactly where they’d been the last few days. Before long, I had an email from Fingers.

“Where was the last charge made, David?” Lafitte asked.

“Looks like a bar in Gulfport, and I’m betting they weren’t alone. We need to call the manager and see if they have surveillance video they can send us.”

“We can narrow it down by asking for the times between his first and last charge, give or take ten minutes,” De Luca said.

“It’d finally give us a look at Miss Brittany and confirm our suspicion that these two are indeed behind those murders.”

I called the bar. This wasn’t a gentlemen’s club, so I hoped for a lot less resistance with this request for video footage.

“This is Detective David Porter with the Houston Police Department. I need to speak with a manager, please.”

“I’ll do you one better. This here is Ron Willis. I own the place. What can I do you for, detective?”

“I’m investigating the murders of Bubba and Claude Jenkins and need a little help. For starters, I need surveillance video from two nights ago. I have bank statements that show both men used their debit cards at your bar. Actually, it’s the last place either of them was seen alive.”

“I was here that night. Hell, I’ll help in any way I can. I should be able to get those files pulled quickly and emailed over to you. There any questions I can answer for you? I liked Bubba and Claude. I felt terrible when I heard the news. They were both good guys—real good guys. They’d had their troubles in the past; don’t get me wrong. But they’d turned it around and were doing right.”

“I’d bet you guys get pretty busy. Probably a few hundred people in a place that size. Did you happen to notice any new faces that night?”

“Actually, I spend a lot of time serving drinks at the bar during busy nights. And yes, we were busy. Bubba and Claude were regulars, though, so when I noticed them with those two girls, of course I was curious. Hell, to be honest, everyone was. Bubba and Claude weren’t exactly what I’d call lookers, and those girls were both
A
material, if you get my drift.”

I was afraid of that. Bubba and Claude could have picked up two different women killers that night, but it wasn’t likely at all.

“Yes, sir, I believe I get your drift. Can you describe them for me?”

“Well . . . you’ll see on the video, but they were both blonde, about five three-ish, pretty large . . . you know . . . up top, short skirts. Real pretty little things. People was asking me where the hell they came from. I have three  cameras here in the bar and one at the door. All four of them left together, I know that for sure. You think those girls had something to do with this? Bubba and Claude were grown men, detective. I don’t know if those girls could’ve brought them big boys down.”

“Alcohol and drugs have a way of leveling the playing field, Mr. Willis. I’ve reviewed their autopsy reports, so I know they’d both drunk to excess.”

“I sure am sorry to hear that. If those two girls are behind this, I hope you catch ’em.”

“Thanks for your time. I’ll be in touch.”

Chapter 51

Franklin’s meeting with Stacy and Brittany was a go. I’d cleared the op with the brass back home, and the Lake City PD was on board as well. They were lending us a few of their SWAT-trained officers, as they didn’t have a full-fledged SWAT program. Stacy and Brittany wouldn’t be expecting any company, so a few would be more than enough

“Franklin, you did well on the phone. You okay? You seem a little nervous,” I said.

“No, I’m good. I just get really excited when I get an assignment.”

“We’ll have the place surrounded, and we’ll be in a van parked at the end of the street.  Lake City PD is working now on securing a location. We’ll go over and check it out here in a bit. I don’t want any surprises tonight. I know you looked at those crime scenes, but I want you to go back and look at the photos again. These girls are the real deal, and they’re getting better and becoming more violent.  We’ll need a code phrase for you to use when they’re in a position for us to breach the room. Got anything in mind?” I said.

“I don’t know; let me think for a second. How about this:
are you girls into bondage?
When you hear me say that, it means all systems go.”

“I think that’ll work, David,” Lafitte said.

“I agree. You have a concealed weapon? What are you carrying?”

“Glock G30 Subcompact, .45mm. Holds ten plus one, sir.”

“Each of the guys they’ve killed so far has been four to five times over the legal limit. Apparently they take it slow and warm up to each other, so don’t rush it. We’re having a special cup brought in for you to use. Do not drink anything from any cup they give you, no matter how persistent they are. Otherwise, you’re going to find yourself at the bottom of the Mississippi.”

“My wife wouldn’t like that. We’re expecting our firstborn here in a few months. Definitely not drinking anything they have to offer.”

“Listen up, everyone. The chief does not want this on the local news tonight. Everybody needs to be on their game. We can’t fuck this up,” I said.

I’d gotten the call from Lake City PD that the location was picked out and being wired. I gathered the group and we drove over.

“So, we’ll have a unit parked there,” I said, pointing to a spot down the street from the house, “and we’ll be here in the van, Franklin. If something goes wrong and you need to abort at any time,
Schlitz Malt Liquor
is the phrase.”

“David, that’s the best you could come up with?” Lafitte said, poking fun.

“It’s fitting,” De Luca said.

I smiled. “And what in the hell does that mean?”

“I think it was a black joke, sir,” Franklin said.

I shook my head and didn’t bother to tell Mr. Clueless that I was fully aware of what it meant.

We climbed out of the van. A few curious neighbors milled about, which I didn’t like. But I guess on such short notice this was the best they could do. I would have preferred somewhere a little more remote in case shit got hairy.

We walked inside and scanned for entranceways and exits. I wanted to be overly familiar with every way in and out of the place. I needed to be sure Franklin was comfortable as well.

I put a hand on Franklin’s shoulder. “You good, Franklin?”

“Piece of cake. I’ll try to get cozy with them on that couch. You guys can bust in the front door, and I’ll act equally surprised to see you.”

De Luca put a wire on Franklin. Then she checked out the coms to make sure everything was working as expected.

“Officer Porter, I’m Tony Davis with Lake City PD. My team and I will be ready to go on a moment’s notice. I’m honored to be working here with your crew for tonight.”