Dancing In Darkness (17 page)

Each tiny fiber was breaking off between her teeth. Every so often she would stop to drink a few drops of water. Her very core was telling her that she needed to hurry. With no way to tell how much time had passed, she began biting into it, counting one second per bite. Sixty bites would tell her it had been about a minute. Thirty minutes had passed and she was almost three quarters of the way through the first rope. If she could free one hand it would be much easier to free the other. Her only concern was getting through it before he got back.

Her body was shaking by the time she managed to get through the rope. Her mouth was bleeding and sore, her tooth was broken, but her hand was free. It had taken over ninety minutes to free herself and now she had the other hand to contend with. Fumbling with the knot near her waist, she was able to loosen it enough to slide her wrist out. Now to find a way out. She picked up the water and took a longer drink. Not much in case there was no more around, but enough to wash the fibers and blood from her mouth.

She knew that she probably only had a short time to find a way out. The door was locked from the outside but it had panels on it. She could feel them in the dark. She was a dancer, her legs were strong so she began to kick. She kicked the panel until it had splintered allowing her to reach up and unlock the door.

“You planned well but not well enough you fucking asshole.” She said out loud.

Making her way through what she could see looked like an old hunting lodge, she quickly scanned the kitchen for anything that she could use as a weapon. She found the knife that he must have used on her still covered in her blood. Peeking out the window she couldn’t see any vehicles. She had to go now and not look back. It didn’t matter where she was or where she went as long as she got as far away from here as possible. Opening the door of the cabin, she ran into the woods away from the road. There was no way she wanted to risk him driving in as she was trying to escape. She ran as fast as she could in a straight line and she just kept running.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

As she was waiting on the forensic results from the car, Det. Tony was thinking of every possible way to either eliminate or include people. Any people. She had to contact Linston to get a list of all of his club members, anyone that might have had contact in some way with Priscilla Barnes. If he wouldn’t allow access to that information, she could request a search warrant for those records. There wasn’t a judge in the county that wouldn’t sign off on it.

“Mr. Linston?” She asked when he answered her call.

“Yes? Did you find anything?” He replied immediately.

“No, I do have a question for you though. I’m trying to piece all of this together somehow and I need your help.” She said.

“Anything, what can I do?” He asked her.

“I need a copy of your club membership list. We have to go through the names on that list and see if there is any connection to Ms. Barnes and possibly the other girls.” She continued. “I understand the intimate nature of the club and I understand the confidentiality of such an undertaking. I assure you that everything will be handled as discreetly as possible.”

“Do you honestly think someone in my club could be responsible for this?” He questioned her. While he wasn’t angry, he was certainly upset. Not with her, but the thought that someone who had been in his own home was a person like this.

“There is no definitive answer to that, I have to narrow down the names on that list.” She urged him.

“Of course you can see it. Do you want me to meet you somewhere?” He asked her.

“When can you get it?” She wanted to know.

“I can pull it up through a PDF file right now.” He replied.

“Where are you? Can I meet you there in say, fifteen minutes?” She asked.

She was already on her way out the door before he had answered. Knowing that he would willing give her the list at least to look at made her feel better about the entire case.

“We are at the little restaurant that looks like a stone house on the corner down from Priscilla’s apartment. You’ll know it when you see it.” He said. “I’ll be here waiting.”

As he hung up the phone Nina asked him what was going on.

“Det. Tony wants to meet us here so that we can go over the membership list for my club.” He told her.

Picking up the mug of coffee that had been in front of him, he looked into the cup before tipping it to his lips. “She has to be out there, Nina. Somewhere. Alive.”

“Yes she does.” Nina replied, but the uncertainty played in her voice.

Neither of the two had taken more than two bites of the breakfasts they had ordered. Food wasn’t on the menu. Adam, who hadn’t smoked in almost two years, walked across the street to the convenience store and bought a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. He couldn’t deal with the stress. Lighting up gave him an instant high feeling. A sea of dizziness hit him and for a brief second he thought he was going to fall down. A few drags from the filter and he knew he was okay. The nicotine hit his system and he felt that old familiar release of all the tension. Nicotine was a hell of a drug.

While he was standing outside, Det. Tony pulled into the tiny parking lot. When she got out of her car he started to put his smoke out.

“No, not on my account. You deserve it if anyone does, although why sucking on something that will eventually kill you makes anyone feel better I don’t know.” She said with a smile.

He liked her. She meant business but she still had a heart and treated people with dignity and respect. He smiled back and told her, “It’s not like I’ve got anything else right now and people generally frown upon drinking at eight-thirty in the morning.”

“You have a valid point.” She returned.

“Let’s go in. Nina is inside and we can get some coffee.” He suggested.

“Yes, the sooner we can get through this the better I will feel.” She agreed.

The waitress brought coffee refills for both Adam and Nina, while she added a new cup for Det. Tony.

He opened up his documents on his smart phone and found the club list. “Please promise me that these names will not get out.” He said to her.

“You have my word.” She promised him.

Each name they scrolled past was nothing. They kept going until they were on the very last page of names.

Walker, John

Wallace, Anthony

Wallington, Robert

Wanett, Steve

Ward, Michael

Warford, William

Tony saw the list and instantly took a sharp breath. Before Adam could understand what was wrong, he noticed the names.

Picking up her phone, Tony called her partner. “Hey Ward, where are you?”

“I am getting ready to leave the apartment area to go to the park. Sheriff’s deputies have cleared the entire park and are going to grid out to the outskirts.” He told her.

“There is something that I need to ask you.” She hesitated briefly. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were a member of this club out at the Linston place?”

“I didn’t think I was required to get approval from anyone that I worked with, in relation to my personal life.” He said flatly.

“Don’t you think that might have been an important piece of information to share in direct relation with this case?” She demanded. “I have to turn this in to the supervisors, you know that right?”

“You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to. It’s no big deal really.” He replied, shrugging it off.

“We need to talk face to face, alone and we need to do it now.” She hissed.

“Fine, where are you?” He asked.

“I’m at a restaurant having a coffee. If you come here, this conversation is going to have to be taken outside.” She told him.

“Look, I don’t care where we have it, I don’t even understand why we have to have it.” He responded.

“If you don’t know now, you never will. Just get here. There is nothing we can do at the park or at the apartment right now.” She was beyond angry.

“If the two of you will excuse me, I need to meet with Ward.” She said sounding disgusted. “I am going to have to print this list out. This could be imperative. I’ve been tossing something around in my head for a couple weeks, but when Ms. Barnes disappeared I couldn’t shake the fact that something was really wrong.”

“Could you clarify your definition of wrong?” Adam asked her. “This is where I knew him from. I couldn’t put my finger on it but I knew I had seen him before. It’s been driving me crazy.”

“I don’t want to say right now. If I need to get in touch with you I will call right away.” She said.

Adam looked at her for a minute and then said, “Is there any way we can get him into a low light shadow situation? I need to see his profile and movements.”

“What are you talking about?” The detective asked him.

“When Priscilla danced at the house for the last two parties, there was a man that always sat in the back corner of the stage room. He was never in the light and you couldn’t make out his features, but his profile and movements were extremely noticeable. I know this sounds crazy and I am not saying that your partner is involved at all, I just have to be able to do this, to put the idea to rest.” Adam told her.

“You don’t know how far from crazy that sounds at the moment.” She answered.

“Wait, what?” He asked.

“Nothing. I have to go. Either you two can go now or wait until we are through outside.” She told them. “It will make things less awkward and I can play off anything that I need to.”

“We’ll go. Let me get the check so we can leave.” He told her.

“No, I’ve got it.” She said.

Nina had been sitting at the table listening to everything that they were saying. She hadn’t interrupted and allowed the two to talk. She had a lot to say once they were in the car.

“You do realize that she suspects her own partner?” She asked him.

“No, I don’t think so. I think she’s upset because he put himself and the department to have issues if the person responsible ends up being a member or having connections to the club.” He replied.

“No Adam. You are not seeing this clearly. That detective is involved in the disappearance of Priscilla and not only that, he’s responsible for the deaths of Zena, Diamond and Megan.” She was adamant that she was right. “I told you that I didn’t like him and now I know why. He treated us like shit because he has her or he knows where she is.”

“Nina, I think we need some sleep. It’s been a long day and night, our minds are exhausted and we could think up any type of solution to the problem.” He said.

“You mark my words. Mike Ward, being a cop or not, is responsible for all of this.” She said as the tears started to fall.

Beth was waiting in the parking lot next to her car when he pulled in. She didn’t want to let on that she suspected anything because she was just forming a hypothesis on the scenario. This wasn’t a new idea, albeit a novel one. She had thought for some time about the possibility of a cop being involved. Only once for a brief second had she ever put the spotlight on Ward and then she brushed it away immediately. “Tony, you might have made a tragic mistake, sister.”

Ward got out of his car and asked her what the hell was going on.

“I had coffee with Adam Linston this morning after realizing that I needed to check for any possible connections between his sex club and Barnes. That’s when I found your name and digging deeper into that list, your birthdate.” She continued, “I don’t care what you do personally, I only think that you should have said something both to not incriminate yourself or the department if this doesn’t end well.”

“I’m not incriminating anyone or anything. I live my life. It is of no concern what I do in my private time as long as it isn’t illegal or disruptive to departmental functioning.” He snapped.

“That’s fine. I don’t give a shit what you do or who you fuck or how you do it! I care that being this closely connected to this case could cause you to not use sound judgement. Does that make any fucking sense to you?” She was trying to avoid screaming in public.

“Do with it what you want. Personally, I do not care anymore. I am tired of putting up with your female mouthy bullshit. Run it all damn day like any other woman. The departments all screwed up when they let women in. If it wasn’t for this you would be just like the rest of them sucking dick for a living.” He spat on the ground when he was through.

“Kiss my ass. I’m going to ask you this one time and one time only, if you say no, it’s dropped forever. Did you have anything to do with or do you know anything about the disappearance of Priscilla Barnes, or about the deaths of Zena Wilkins, Diamond Jacquere or Megan Dryer?” She asked him point blank.

“Fuck you.” Was his only response. He got into his car and backed out.

Beth knew that she had only one option. She had to go to her superiors with her suspicions and she had to do it quickly. Before that, she had to contact the uniformed officers without him knowing so they would be in the loop. She was going to need them at some point.

Dialing her phone she called Adam. “Mr. Linston, I need to talk to you seriously and now it’s your turn to use the utmost discretion. There could be lives at stake over this.”

“Anything, what is going on?” He asked, full of concern.

“Between you and me, I believe that Mike Ward is involved in this. I believe that he knows what happened to Priscilla, I believe he may have killed the others.” She said.

“Oh shit, now what? I’ll kill that bastard.” He told her.

“No, I need you to remain calm and act like you don’t know any differently. I am going to the higher ups as soon as we are done here. If he shows up at the apartment, treat him as you normally would. Discreetly shoot me a text and let me know. I need to know if he has any change of plans.” She replied.

“Of course I will.” He told her.

“I hate to get anyone outside involved, but I have no other open options at the moment.” She said, the pressure building on her and causing a massive headache so early in the morning.

She called her supervisor and scheduled an emergency meeting with him. It had to be done immediately. If in fact one of their officers was responsible for this, he had to be taken off the streets like any other criminal. This was deplorable. She already knew the answer with his reply. In her mind she had already known from the time that she originally questioned it.

“Nina, I think you are right. She does suspect Ward. The problem is, he’s on his way over here and we have to act like everything is just the way it was.” He told her. “If he tries to engage you, answer his questions directly and honestly I guess. What the actual fuck, we are going to be sitting in the room with a cop who is a killer. This is insane. All I want to know is, where is Priscilla?”

“I told you. I knew it. I hate him. I might have to leave. I don’t know if I can be in the same room as him and not open my mouth.” She replied.

“Yes you can, do it for her.” He said. “Remember, you told me once, that she needs us. Well, she needs us now more than ever.” As he said those words his heart was falling apart in tiny pieces.

Det. Ward was in and out of the apartment all day. He was completely unaware of the meeting that was taking place downtown concerning him and his actions. If Adam and Nina were aware of the situation they were acting completely oblivious. He was so sure of himself that he wasn’t contemplating the possibilities of someone believing he was responsible for anything. His ego wouldn’t let that thought even cross his mind.