Chapter 21
L isa slid into the seat across from the man handcuffed to the table, glad that he couldn’t put his slimy hands on her. The look in his eyes was far too close to what was always in Benton’s for her to relax.
“You aren’t a cop,” he said with a smirk, his eyes glittering with malice and she drug in a deep breath to calm herself enough to speak.
“No, but you already knew that considering you broke into my parents’ home and then into my daughter’s bedroom in the middle of the night. So tell me, Marcus Shaw, how long have you been following me? Are you the one that took the pictures of me and Corey in New York that I was sent last year? How about the ones from California? How long have you been supposedly ‘working’ for that sick bastard huh?” she demanded.
“I was hired to gather evidence against you, starting oh, a little over thirteen years ago,” he answered making her nearly retch. “Not full-time of course, which is the only reason I never got photos of that pretty little girl of yours until now. Such a shame. I’m sure those would have been some very popular ones, almost as popular as certain ones of you from when you were just a little older than her,” he added making her anger boil over.
“You sick son of a bitch, is that what you were trying to do tonight? Hoped she was asleep so you could take pictures of her to share with the other twisted psychopaths like you out there? That’s how he found you to start, isn’t it? Sharing illegal files?” she questioned, her hands balled into fists, her nails digging into her skin to stop herself from jumping over the table and beating him with them.
“You’d be thanking me if that’s all I was supposed to do tonight,” he mocked making her entire body shake with her rage.
“You really are just as sick as him, aren’t you? Is that what he pays you with to follow me around, take photos of me in compromising states within the privacy of my then boyfriend’s residence? He gives you photos of underage girls?”
“Photos are just the mementos. He might have liked the ones of you still, but you’re not my type at all now. He was furious to learn about her, enough so that he was willing to let me have my fun before doing as he requested and ‘taking care of the problem’ however I wanted. It would have been so easy to make it look like an accident and no one would question anything else about it. After all, like mother like daughter right? I’m sure she’s as much of a slut as you were at her age. Well, maybe more of one since you were a little older than my tastes when he got his hooks into you. Her now…well, she’s perfect for me, and I’d have enjoyed every second of it before arranging for her to have an ‘accident’, but unlike you, I know how to make sure the accident kills them. That was his mistake, not taking care of you—or having someone else do it while he was indisposed. I guess he’s learned more than just what you’ve been doing and with whom from me. After all, dead girls can’t talk,” he crowed and Lisa couldn’t stay there a second longer, looking or listening to the bastard.
“You’ll never get near her or anyone else ever again, I guarantee that you stupid idiot. Gloating about what you’ve done. In a police station? You have to be the dumbest PI there’s ever been,” Lisa said reaching the door.
“You’re not a cop, nothing you can do to me,” Marcus said, leaning back in his chair with a smug smile.
“No? You’re in an interrogation room, in a police station. You were arrested and Mirandized. Remember that little tidbit about anything you say can and will be held against you? You really should have thought about that and asked for a lawyer, but because you didn’t, there is no assurance of privacy, and every word that you just said was recorded and can be used because there’s no laws to protect a conversation between us. Guess that part of law slipped right out of your head while you were thinking of all the vile, disgusting things you’d hoped to do to my daughter. You’re done and so is he,” she stated, moving out the door and straight into Corey’s arms, burying her face in his chest.
“Shh, it’s okay, baby. I’ve got you. I’ve got both of you,” he promised, brushing gentle kisses to her temple, holding her as tightly to him as he dared.
“Lisa, who is he working with?” Sheriff Hayes asked when she could finally stand on her own, her body no longer shaking.
“Benton,” she got out, dragging in a breath as she shook once more.
“Johnson?” the sheriff clarified, and she nodded, pulling a dark curse from him and Judge Henry. “And Abby was the result of…”
“A rape, yes. He forced and blackmailed me to have sex with him for over a year.”
“Beyond Abby, is there any other proof? Things we should look for? If he’s had this Shaw person following you for thirteen years…” the sheriff said and she filled them in on everything, including the photos she’d received last year of her and Corey in his bedroom, the photos that Benton threatened to release of her when she was fifteen he still had, as well as the two recordings.
“I gave him a chance to just walk away from all of this, to leave me alone, stop having people follow me and I wouldn’t tell the police about the kit, but he just couldn’t let me be and to tell that lowlife that he could…if you contact the Mason City police department, they have the report and the kit,” Lisa managed to finish with as her stomach rebelled. “I’m going to be sick…”
Corey hurriedly grabbed the nearest trash can, holding her hair back as she threw up. She took the little cup of water from the sheriff and rinsed out her mouth while Corey rubbed her back gently, soothing her.
“Do you think some crackers or toast will help?” he asked her quietly as he settled her into a chair letting the judge sign off on a warrant to search Benton’s home on top of an arrest warrant for him that the sheriff printed out.
“I don’t know, I don’t know what’s making me sick right now…or maybe I do,” she groaned before another round of bile made its way up and she was thankful that Corey was next to her the entire time.
“Maybe you should take her home,” Judge Henry suggested when she struggled against the third round. “We can handle this from here.”
“Peppermint tea and toast,” her mom said, surprising her as she came into the space behind them. “There’s some butter if it’s too dry.”
“Thanks Mom,” she said, taking the tea first, the warmth comforting but the way it calmed her stomach was even more of a relief.
“Let me know if you need anything else, we’ll be with Abby,” she assured her, dropping a kiss to the top of her head before heading into the side room once more.
“Celebrating something extra this New Year’s are you?” Judge Henry asked looking from her to Corey and onto the toast curiously.
“We are…I’m pregnant. It’s why I knew it was time to tell the rest of the family about Abby. In order to be with Corey, have this baby, it meant having them in my life, and I didn’t want to be away from Abby again, which meant them being in her life. So, we came out and I told everyone—more than I intended, but Kirby figured out a bit of it and the rest just sort of spilled out. I didn’t want this trip to turn into this but…it’s one thing to try and kill me because he blames me for his accident. To send someone after Abby…”
“She’s safe, baby. She’ll always be safe, I promise,” Corey assured her, holding her tight as she managed to get the toast down.
“Is his accident why you never said anything back then?” Sheriff Hayes asked. “Did he try and make you feel like you would get in trouble for it?”
“I punctured his tire before going in to confront him because I didn’t want him following me, getting back to the main part of the resort before I did. I knew he’d do whatever he had to in order to get that tape,” Lisa admitted, shuddering at just how twisted Benton truly was and what he might have done to her if he hadn’t had the accident.
“Even if that was what caused the accident, no one would have done anything to you because of it, Lisa. But just so you know, you weren’t responsible for the accident. The flat tire wasn’t responsible for it and most of his injuries didn’t happen because the car went off the road. A deer hit him on the driver’s side. That impact was what broke his back, severed the nerves in his spine when the jagged edge of the door cut into his back because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. You aren’t responsible for him being in a wheelchair now, so don’t begin to blame yourself,” Sheriff Hayes said making her heart stutter a bit with relief as the guilt she’d been carrying around for so long lifted. “We never could figure out why he was up that way to start but he claimed he didn’t remember anything around the crash and since no one came forward with any other information on it, it was dropped. If we’d had any idea, this would have happened a long time ago, Lisa.”
She nodded, staying in Corey’s arms until late morning when both men were locked in cells, allowing her to take Abby back to the resort with her, breathing much easier. She didn’t fully drop her worries, knowing that Benton was capable of hiring someone else, but with Corey, the security guards, and the rest of her family there she managed to get through the rest of the trip without breaking down.
Once in Chicago, Corey surprised them with walkthroughs of five different places, three houses and two penthouses that were all for sale, and all of them fell in love with the last house they viewed the moment they stepped inside it. With Abby in private school, it didn’t matter where they lived, but the house wasn’t too far away from Jazz and David’s place, or the school, especially not compared with LA traffic.
They were moving in by the end of January and the night of the school’s Heart’s Dance, she spent with Jackie who was in town visiting. The girls enjoyed the dance immensely and she loved the way Corey and Abby were together. There were no worries that he would do something to her, hurt her or upset her. She’d been cautious with guys she’d gone on dates with when Abby was younger, but with everything from Benton and then seeing Abby getting older, her worries about what some might try had her refusing dates more and more—until Corey came into her life.
He was incredible and she was more than happy to go back to working with him, reviewing the reports rather than doing them all herself as she had been before she left the company. Instead of finding a building for an office, he had one set up at the house for them to work in, and her hours were more part-time than full-time, but she loved it, especially with their baby growing, filling out her stomach more and more.
The shock from everyone in New York when she and Corey stopped into the office for a visit at the end of March made her chuckle, especially when Donald had to do a double-take as he walked into the office, finding Corey giving her a kiss, his hand resting on her stomach. The questions and whispers as to exactly how she’d gotten her new job didn’t bother her at all. She was completely content with knowing that Corey wanted her working with him, and that it wasn’t solely because she was great at it. She didn’t mind in the least, not when it meant she could make her own hours, especially after the baby got here.
Not having the time with Abby as a newborn, had her wanting every moment of it she could get with their new one. Corey was fully onboard with it, and even told her she didn’t have to work at all if she hadn’t wanted to. She enjoyed having a mental challenge though, so she’d happily accepted working with Corey again, as well as the agreement that she could take as long as she wanted with her maternity leave—something that wouldn’t have happened with her old job.
It was closing in on the end of May, Corey was in New York for the day, Abby was out with Jazz, David, and Jackie—who’d recently moved to town—when the doorbell rang surprising her since they didn’t get many unknown visitors. She pulled up the text on her phone, finding the message from the security guard that Corey insisted they keep on, especially with having another little girl coming into the family. He’d been happier than even her learning the baby was a girl. She hadn’t cared overly but knowing how much Corey wanted another girl to love made her extremely glad they were having one.
Her stomach tightened seeing the ‘I’ve confirmed they’re really FBI Agents’ in the message as she slipped to the door to answer it.
“Can I help you?” she asked the two agent there. She hadn’t met either back in January when they came out to take over part of the investigation against Benton and Marcus.
“Mrs. Cantwell, I’m Agent George, and this is my partner, Agent Nichols with the FBI. We have an update on the case and a few questions,” the woman said giving her a light smile. “I know you spoke with Agent Wilson while you were in Colorado, but as we’re based here in Chicago, they asked us to stop in instead.”
“Come in,” she said, ushering them to the front room, hoping whatever it was, meant this all was nearly over. The last thing she wanted was to deal with more crap related to Benton, especially once the baby got there.
“We thought you might like to know that Benton Johnson took a plea deal. He agreed to hand over all of his files, his contacts, in return for being housed at one of the federal prisons that are more accommodating to his disability. He’ll be sentenced to twenty-five years for all of the child abuse materials he has, in addition to soliciting Marcus Shaw to kill Abby. Within the additional files that were discovered were some from when you were still under eighteen, which we tied back to Shaw’s camera, so he’ll also be charged for those. We couldn’t identify the man in the photos with you. If he participated in helping arrange for them to be taken, we can charge him for it too,” Agent George said as she showed her a photo that made her fume. It was one thing for her to have some fun publicly with someone, but for that cretin to have photographed it for Benton…the two were the lowest scum possible.
“I can guarantee he didn’t know anyone was taking photos of it. We were dating at the time, he was eighteen so there’s no reason to involve him,” she told the two.
“Alright, that makes things easier,” Agent Nichols said. “Now, as for Marcus Shaw, he hasn’t taken a plea deal yet, however, thanks to the information that Johnson gave us, he’ll never see the outside of prison. We’ve located six victims of his, his DNA was still on their bodies so there’s nothing getting him off. He’s looking at life in prison. Kidnapping charges alone would have him there, add in everything else that’s adding on top of them, and that’s a guarantee.”
“And there’s no way that Benton could try to hire someone else to come after Abby?” she asked the two.
“All communication will be screened, phone calls monitored, visitors scrutinized further than other inmates since he’s guilty of solicitation. He’s not likely to end up housed with other violent inmates and if he would try to go through anyone else, it’s highly unlikely anyone would accept the offer. Most criminals have their limits and thankfully, for the majority it’s harming kids,” Agent George assured her.
“And if the other inmates learn what he’s there for, he’s not likely to last long, so it’s in his best interest to keep his mouth shut,” Agent Nichols added, leaving her far calmer when they left after a few more questions.
That stayed long after that night as well, and she laid in Corey’s arms, their little Izzy in hers later that summer.
“She’s perfect,” Corey said softly against her ear. “Thank you, baby. This…you, Abby, and Izzy…you make my world so much better.”
“We feel the same about you, Daddy,” she said, grinning at the pride in his eyes at being called that.
“So what do you think about having another sometime in the future?” he teased, making her laugh because she’d definitely been saying not a chance the last few weeks.
“Well, I love Abby and our little Izzy completely, but I do kind of still want a little boy, so maybe we can try for one more,” she stated, earning a soft lingering kiss that lasted until Izzy woke hungry, and she gladly put her on her breast, so ready for the days to come with her family.