Chapter 12
CHAPTER TWELVE
The sky had gone dark while we were inside with Sheri, clouds rolling in low and fast from the west, the kind that turn the July light green before the bottom drops out.
By the time Jack found Clement Street in King George Proper and pulled up in front of a white colonial with black shutters, the air was already wet on my skin without any rain to show for it.
Zoe Brown answered on the second knock. Doug had not been wrong about the license photo.
She was tall and dark haired with bangs that framed light gray eyes with a trace of violet in them, and she was wearing jeans and a blouse with reading glasses pushed up on her head.
She looked at Jack’s badge and took a half step back.
“Ms. Brown?” Jack said. “I’m Sheriff Lawson. This is Dr. Graves, the county coroner. Do you have a few minutes?”
She looked at me when he said coroner. “What’s happened?”
“We’d like to come in, if that’s all right,” Jack said.
She stepped back and held the door.
The house was cool inside and smelled like coffee. She led us to the kitchen without being asked and sat down across from us with her arms folded on the table.
“I work from home,” she said. “So I can take a few minutes. What’s this about?”
“Do you know a man named Wade Rivers?” Jack asked.
Her jaw tightened. “Yes. He was my Pilates instructor.”
“Mr. Rivers was murdered two nights ago,” Jack said.
She unfolded her arms and put her hands in her lap. “What does that have to do with me?”
“We found a notebook in his studio safe,” Jack said. “Your name is in it. Next to a dollar sign.” He held her gaze. “Can you tell me what that means?”
She looked at him steadily. “I don’t know anything about a notebook.”
“Ms. Brown,” Jack said, “we’re going to find out what the connection is either way. It’ll go a lot easier if you help us understand it.”
Something closed off in her face. “I’d like to know what this is actually about before I say anything else.”
“We’re trying to understand the nature of your relationship with Wade Rivers,” Jack said. “And how your name ended up in a safe next to a significant amount of cash.”
“I was a private client. I left the studio. That’s all there is.”
“Ms. Brown,” Jack said, “we’ve identified pharmaceutical compounds in his condo that aren’t legally available in the United States. Compounds that were likely administered to clients without their knowledge. We’re trying to understand if you were one of those clients.”
The kitchen was quiet. She looked at the table for a long moment.
“I’ve dealt with what happened to me,” she said finally. “My husband knows. We’ve been in counseling. I’m not interested in reopening it.”
“I understand that,” Jack said. “But we have forty-one names in that notebook. And a man who is dead. Whatever you’ve dealt with privately, it’s part of a criminal investigation now.”
She looked at him. Then she looked at me.
“He put something in the smoothies,” she said.
“But I could never prove it. You never think these things can happen to you. That you’re too smart to let it happen.
But he was supposed to be a professional.
He’s got all these initials after his name.
His studio is full and popular. Everyone loves him. ”
“You weren’t the only one,” Jack said, softly. “And someone killed him.”
“It sounds like justice to me,” she said, anger blazing in her eyes.
“There’s all kinds of justice,” Jack said. “But do you think Wade was a one-man show? Where’d he get the drugs? Wade was a piece of the puzzle. You can help us. There are other victims out there who haven’t put their life together.”
She let out a slow breath through her nose. “I was a group member for a few months. Then he invited me to be one of his private clients. It’s a big deal. He only teaches advanced students and his list is always full. I jumped at the chance.”
She took a deep breath and rubbed her palms on the top of her pants.
“He taught out of his home studio,” she continued.
“It’s a nice place. Safe. So I didn’t think twice about going.
He was professional when he answered the door, and he started talking about a holistic experience.
He didn’t only care about the physical aspect of my health journey, but also internal.
He gave me one of his green smoothies and we talked a few minutes about my diet and upping my protein intake. Things like that.
“Then we went into his studio and started the workout. I still don’t know what came over me. I thought it was the workout—your blood is pumping, you’re in a small space with a man who is overtly sexual, and he was attractive. I told myself that’s all it was.”
She shook her head. “But it wasn’t that.
It was like my body wasn’t mine. Like I had to have him or I would die, and at the same time I felt like I was watching it happen from somewhere else.
Underwater. Like I couldn’t surface. We had sex.
I don’t know how long it went on. When I came back to myself another hour had passed and I couldn’t piece together the details. I still don’t have full memory of it.”
She looked up, and there was desperation in her eyes.
“I was ashamed. I didn’t know what had come over me and I have never cheated on my husband.
Never wanted to. I love my husband. And Wade acted so completely normal afterward that I started to think maybe I’d imagined it or had some kind of hallucination.
I was dressed when I came to. I was so confused. ”
“You went back,” Jack said.
“I went back for my next lesson. He handed me a smoothie as I walked in the door, but he had this look on his face like he knew exactly how I felt. Almost a smirk. But I drank it anyway, and we never made it into the workout room. We went straight to his bedroom. I remembered everything this time.” The last words choked out on a sob, but she quickly got herself under control.
“I went back three more times. Each time more intense. The smoothie was like a reward for showing up. But I was going crazy inside. In my mind, I knew I didn’t want it.
I knew that I loved my husband. And I knew that what I was doing was wrong.
And somewhere inside I knew I didn’t want to keep doing it. I know it sounds crazy.”
“We don’t think you’re crazy,” Jack said, sympathy in his voice.
“Thanks for that,” she said, sniffing.
“Keep going.”
“I finally confessed to my husband, told him everything. I was a mess. I literally felt like a crazy person. Matt, that’s my husband, you can imagine how he felt.
But he didn’t leave. I immediately cancelled my membership and private sessions, and I blocked Wade’s number.
He never texted me inappropriately. That was always the weird thing about him.
He could compartmentalize. When it was time for sex, that’s what we did.
But any other time you’d think we barely knew each other. ”
“You never had contact with him again after you left the studio?” Jack asked.
She hesitated and then said, “A week after I cancelled, I found an envelope on the seat of my car. Photographs. Explicit photographs of me and Wade. I knew they’d been taken of that first time we were together.
But those photographs shocked me.” Her voice trembled and rose in pitch.
“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me. Things I’ve never even done with my husband. ”
I reached out and took her hand. Seeing the torment on her face was hard to watch. She gripped my hand in return.
“There was a note with the photographs,” she said. “He told me to leave $1000 cash in the envelope he’d included and to leave it at the front desk of The Windsor. He said if I didn’t then he had a friend who knew how to make sure all of my pictures would end up on the internet.”
“Did you pay it?” Jack asked.
She looked down and let go of my hand. “Yeah, I did. I was too scared not to. Matt was furious when I told him. He said we needed to go to the police, but I knew Wade would make sure those pictures would somehow go live. Matt waited for him one day before he left the studio and told him we weren’t going to play his blackmail games, and that as long as those pictures stay off the internet then we wouldn’t go to the police.
Matt’s in good shape, so I knew Wade couldn’t intimidate him physically.
That’s the last we heard of the blackmail or anything else. ”
“We’ll need to confirm with your husband,” Jack said.
“I understand. Like I told you, he knows everything. We’re working through it.”
“Where does he work?” Jack asked. “We can stop by on our way back.”
“VantageCore Technologies,” she said. “He’s an analyst. But he works the midnight shift. He’s asleep upstairs.”
“What time does he usually go in?”
“He usually leaves here around eleven, and then he gets home around eight thirty in the morning. If something major happens he sometimes has to go in early. He’s the senior supervisor.”
“How long has he worked nights?” Jack asked.
“About six months,” she said. “It’s been an adjustment for both of us. But he usually wakes up around two o’clock if you want him to contact you.”
Jack got a card out of his wallet and slid it across to her. “That would be great, thanks.”
“I hope you find the truth,” she said. “Whatever it is. I can’t say I’m sorry Wade is dead after what happened to me. But I’d like to know what happened. That I wasn’t actually crazy.”
Jack nodded. “We’ll be in touch.”
We were back in the car before either of us spoke.
“That’s convenient,” I said.
“The husband being an IT analyst and working nights? Yeah, I thought so too.”
“He’d have more than cursory tech skills and it would be nothing for him to stop by The Windsor, disengage the locks and the cameras, commit murder, and then head to work.”
Jack started the car and then handed me his phone. “Plank sent a text. See what he’s got.”
I looked at the screen and said, “Lynette Nickles has a clean alibi.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s one more we can take off our suspect list.”
I handed him his phone back and he immediately dialed Doug and put him on speaker.
“I’m awake,” Doug said, stifling a yawn.
“Sounds like it,” Jack said. “How was your raid?”
“Successful. Oscar and I are going to meet up with Kayla tomorrow for the fireworks. She said she’d pick me up.”
Part of Doug’s restrictions with the FBI, along with the ankle monitor, were that he couldn’t drive until he turned eighteen. King George County wasn’t known for its public transportation system, so this had been a challenge.
“What can you tell me about VantageCore Technologies?” Jack asked.
“From a surface check or a deeper dive?”
“Surface,” Jack said. “Zoe Brown’s husband works the midnight shift there.”
“Ahh, the dots connect,” Doug said. “And how was my future wife in person?”
“Married,” Jack said. “And too old for you.”
“Small obstacles,” Doug said, his fingers clicking the keyboard. “Here we go. Oscar, don’t eat that.”
“Is Oscar eating in your bedroom?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the phone screen.
“He found a pizza crust,” Doug said. “Don’t worry. I’ll clean it all up. VantageCore Technologies headquarters is based out of DC, but they’ve got a satellite office in Newcastle.”
“That’s very convenient,” I said, looking at Jack. “What do they do?”
“In simple terms, they monitor other companies’ information systems that can’t afford to have their computers go down.”
“So he’d be more than well versed in the technology it would take to shut down the cameras and front door lock system?”
“Oh, yeah,” Doug said. “Matt Brown’s LinkedIn profile says he’s got a Bachelor of Science in information technologies from Virginia Tech, and a master’s degree in cybersecurity.”
“Thanks, Doug,” Jack said. “Find out anything else on the security camera footage?”
“Not so far,” Doug said. “Other than that building is like Melrose Place. Everyone is sleeping with each other.”
“With our victim?” I asked.
“Not unless he’s sleeping with all of his private clients.
So far he has one to two per night, but it looked like it was dependent on the girlfriend’s schedule and when she got off work.
She works on Saturdays so I show three Saturday clients.
I will say I get why the girlfriend was surprised he broke up with her.
Cameras caught them going at it in the pool area last Saturday night.
They must’ve known where the cameras were though because they moved just out of reach. ”
“Keep searching,” Jack said. “Do you have a way to identify the residents on camera?”
“Sure,” he said. “No problemo.”
“Have Margot make a list of any illicit hookups that you can find,” Jack said. “Maybe this is a case of simple jealousy.”
“Oscar, stop eating that!” Doug yelled, and Jack disconnected.
“We’re going to have to fumigate that room,” I said. “I’m afraid to walk by without getting sucked into the black hole.”
“Ahh, the teenage boy bedroom,” Jack said. “I’m sure my mother could tell you stories. Best to stay out. I’ll get him to shovel it out before he leaves for the fireworks. Once he realizes that Kayla might actually want to hang out there he’ll be more conscientious.”
“Men will do anything for the right woman.”
Jack picked up my hand and kissed it. “I know. We’re about to be the owners of a Greek Revival mansion that’s going to need some major renovation. But I’d do it again every day to see that look on your face.”
“I’m not crying,” I said. “It’s the pregnancy hormones.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”