Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
To Do:
- Ask sketch artist for copy?
- Prep interview questions
- Hack into Brad’s Pinterest and lock him out?
“You’re not going inside.” The lights from the dashboard cast a blue glow over Luke’s stoic face. His jaw clenched.
A mere eight hours had passed since the incident at the ranch. Although Brycen had pursued the man to make sure he left ranch property, the attempted assailant had escaped into a dark sedan with the license plate removed. The zip ties and chloroform had been confiscated by the police, and Claire and Mindy had been taken to the station to provide statements.
Claire didn’t have time for this nonsense. Brad had emailed four times while they dealt with the fallout. Although she was more exhausted than she could remember being in her entire life, she couldn’t rest. After a rather heated discussion, Luke had reluctantly agreed that it was better to strike while ESA least expected it. And so they had impulsively jumped into the car and traveled to the nearest abandoned ESA frat house at the San Fernando University campus.
Streetlights glowed overhead, accenting the Greek letters Epsilon Sigma Alpha that were fixed over the porch on a building down the street. The windows were dark, and everything was still. There was no telling what lay beyond that front door. Would they find clues, or would they be up to their elbows in discarded beer cans and crunchy Kleenexes?
Claire slammed the glove box closed and adjusted the black latex gloves she had just donned—perhaps the first time in modern history that the compartment had been used for its intended purpose.
“Respectfully, this is a Code Purple. And as the Safety Czar for the group, my attendance is mandatory.”
“You know you just made up all these rules, right?” He stared dubiously at her.
This man was going to be the death of her. She laid a hand on his arm. “First of all, how dare you. And second, I know this makes you uncomfortable. But I’ll be safer inside with you two than out here by myself.”
He sighed. “Fine.”
“What do you think? Purple or red?” Mindy stuck her head into the gap between the front seats and swapped between two wigs.
“Red,” Luke and Claire said together. Mindy slapped the purple one on Claire’s head.
“Is this really necessary?”
“What, you don’t think ESA has cameras monitoring their abandoned frat houses just in case? Wigs are mandatory. For you too.” She tossed a short, black bob at Luke.
He grumbled and put it on. They made quite the trio.
It wasn’t Claire’s finest plan. There was no time to make a binder or dig for blueprints. They had barely found time to get the lay of the land via Google Maps. But, using a complex system of garters and headbands, she had managed to affix four different Tasers to her body.
“I wish we were there with you.” Nicole’s voice said. She, Kyle, and Sawyer were crammed into the same frame on Mindy’s phone.
“For the record, I do not support this,” Sawyer said. Kyle nodded and crossed his arms.
Claire tugged the wig down over her gargantuan bun. “This is the least dangerous thing we’ve done all day. ESA’s gone. The worst thing we might come up against is a group of wily cockroaches.”
“I thought we decided the frat brothers had left the building?” Mindy asked.
“Ha!” Claire and Mindy high-fived. Luke didn’t seem to appreciate the joke.
Mindy popped an earbud in. The audio from her phone cut out. “Ready?”
“Let’s get the bastards.” Claire flung her car door open and stepped out into the night.
The streetlights buzzed overhead. Music bumped from a different frat house down the block. A group of three girls in crop tops opened the door and stepped inside, but otherwise everything was silent.
Claire glanced over her shoulder and scanned the dark street. There was no sensation of being watched, but that didn’t mean anything. ESA had been ready to take her today, even with Mindy in tow. It was impossible to say if they had been followed. Was there a creep in a car watching them right now? She suppressed a shudder and turned back to the task at hand.
Claire and Mindy had both traded in their heels for sneakers. Luke looked over his shoulder every few seconds, short black bob lining the edge of his chiseled jaw. Was her manic pixie dream boyfriend expecting ESA to reach out and grab Claire at any second? They hadn’t talked much about what had happened, but it was clear that it was weighing on him. During their brief stop at home, Luke had applied WD-40 to the garage door and sanded down a chair leg.
They approached the building. It seemed to yawn at them, windows an abyss. Claire’s stomach clenched. Measured breaths whooshed through her nostrils. She pulled out her phone and checked the live camera at the doggy daycare. Rosie chomped on a bone while Winston was curled up beside her. They, at least, were fine.
As she went to exit the app, she paused. Doggy daycare. It was a relatively new concept. There weren’t any in the greater West Haven area. Would Sam and Gloria be interested in the idea? It would require a different license, but it could add a permanent revenue stream. She quickly typed the idea into a note and pocketed her phone. If ESA wasn’t brought down, nothing and no one in her life was safe. If they burned down the shelter, she would never forgive herself.
She rolled her shoulders back and set her eyes on the house. When they had infiltrated the ESA frat at Venor, they had utilized the university’s underground tunnel system. Unfortunately, due to California’s penchant for shaking the crap out of its residents, there were no tunnels under this frat house. They were going to have to resort to good old-fashioned breaking and entering.
Grass crunched underfoot as they stepped off the sidewalk and skirted around the edge of the house. They followed a six-foot privacy fence to the backyard and flanked the backdoor. A small yard with a scorched fire pit sat before them. The concrete path dead-ended at a shed. A beer pong table that looked virtually untouched was askew next to it.
“Let me get the kit.” She rummaged in her purse and handed a small lock picking set to Luke.
“Here goes nothing.” Luke, a lifelong student, had spent a long weekend the previous summer learning how to pick locks. He snapped a pair of gloves on and crammed a tension wrench and rake into the keyhole.
Claire stepped around him and pressed herself against the window. Moonlight streaked across a suspiciously clean kitchen. No sign of life inside.
Mindy stepped into the shadows and pointed the phone up at the rafters of the house.
“Any cameras?” Claire hissed.
Mindy listened intently for a moment, then shook her head. “Sawyer says he doesn’t see anything obvious.”
“Tell him to keep looking. I don’t trust them.” She shuffled to the edge of the building and peeked around the corner. A car drove by but didn’t slow down.
“Got it.” There was a click, and the door swung open.
Claire stepped back to the door and took Luke by both arms. “You are a sexy genius.” She kissed him, then dragged him inside. Mindy followed.
The door closed behind them with an unnerving thunk . The inside of the house was dark and completely silent. For a frat house, it was almost suspiciously nice. Hardwood floors stretched back to a cushy-looking living room with leather sofas. The kitchen they stood in was full of gleaming stainless steel appliances. Maybe the university had hired a cleaning crew after ESA had disbanded. There was no way a bunch of twenty-year-old dudes lived like this. Where were the cartoon penises and dented walls? There wasn’t even a single broken bifold door or overflowing trash can.
“Where do we start? Bedrooms?” Claire leaned forward and glanced into the dining room as though she was rooted to the spot. Was there anything worse than the prospect of digging through a bunch of frat boy’s bedrooms? Hopefully the quart of hand sanitizer she had packed would be enough.
Mindy panned her camera around the room. “Sawyer says don’t forget the floorboards.”
“Great. I’m sure we won’t find any weird sex things at all.”
A brief survey of the first floor revealed little. Paintings hung in the hallway. A couple of bags of rice were left in the pantry. There were shadows on the wall where what looked like plaques had once hung. No doubt they had had ESA brothers’ names on them and were removed in case anyone came snooping.
“Welp, that explains all the paintings,” Mindy said. She held up her phone. “They’re Gauguin prints. He was a misogynist who ‘married’ multiple underage girls.”
Claire pursed her lips. “Yeah, that seems right.” She slapped the nearest painting off the wall. Glass crunched underfoot as she moved past.
“What the hell was that?” Luke’s head popped out of a room.
“Just shattering the patriarchy. What’s this?”
Her shoes clacked over the living room floorboards as she approached a set of French doors. She gripped the handles and turned. Locked. Luke arrived next to her and wrenched at the doors. They didn’t budge.
He grunted. “Let’s do the bedrooms first and circle back.”
The wooden stairs creaked as they made their way to the second floor. Numbness tingled up and down Claire’s arms. Everything about this house was unnerving. She had been in a fair number of frat houses during her tenure at Venor, and none of them had looked like this. The almost military-like cleanliness was creepy. Headlights flashed past the windows, and her breath caught in her chest. The last thing she needed was to be caught breaking and entering by the group of people trying to murder her. Or worse, the cops. She paused on the last step, but the lights moved on.
More ghosts of plaques long since removed lined the walls. Could they have forgotten one somewhere? Maybe somewhere in this house was the name of an ESA brother. It would be a start.
“I’ll take this one. You take that one.” Bossy Luke was back. He was probably still mad about the attempted kidnapping incident from earlier.
Claire and Mindy made a face at each other and disappeared into the bedroom Luke had indicated. A nondescript room appeared in the beams from their phone flashlights. A bare mattress sat on a wooden frame. Thick maroon curtains hung from the windows. Mindy immediately began opening dresser drawers. Claire headed for the desk. There was nothing—no discarded paper, no writing utensils. It was like no one had ever lived there.
After ten minutes of jamming her metal nail file into floorboards, Claire jumped when Luke stepped into the room.
“Nothing?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing here either.” Mindy said. She stood and dusted her gloved hands off. “I did find a dried out Cheeto under the desk, but I don’t think that helps.”
Claire reached out a hand, and Luke pulled her to her feet. They searched the remaining bedrooms together, but there was nothing. Not even a discarded sock. All evidence of the ESA brothers had been erased. How many of them had lived here, plotting evil things? Where were they now?
“I guess the mysterious locked room is our last shot. Come on.” Claire led the way down the stairs to the locked French doors. Was this all going to be a bust? There were other abandoned ESA chapters in town, but they didn’t have time to search them all.
Luke stood next to her and pulled his lock picking kit out. Thirty seconds later, the doors popped open. He shined his flashlight into the room.
“Oh, hell.” His voice echoed off the walls. Floor-to-ceiling velvet drapes lined the room. A two-foot-tall golden statue with a massive erection stood on a pedestal in the very center.
“We meet again, Priapus,” Claire growled. Barney had very thoughtfully carved Priapus’s symbol into her neck when he had abducted her. It had largely faded, but the memory would always sting.
“ Ha !” Claire roundhouse kicked the statue. It fell onto the carpet with a thump. A golden penis rolled out from underneath it.
“Shit.” She clutched at her ankle. It burned like the statue had been made out of lava. Not her finest moment.
“Sawyer says ‘good form.’ Are you okay?” Mindy stared at her over the edge of her phone.
“I’m fine.” Tension was welling in her belly again. She took a pained breath and swiveled. A bulletin board was tacked to one wall. Holes riddled the surface, but no scrap of evidence had been left behind.
What did they use this creepy-ass room for? And why had they stripped the house of everything but left this stupid statue behind? She was drawn to it like a magnet. She dropped to her knees and picked it up. It was heavier than it looked. There was a hole where the penis had popped off. A glint of white caught her eye. Was there something inside?
Her heart raced. She shook the statue. A shuffling sound came from inside.
“Guys. I think I found something.”
Mindy popped out from behind one of the velvet curtains. She sneezed and dropped her phone. Luke stormed over, expression broody and unreadable.
“There’s something inside. If I can just—” She twisted the base in her hands. It unscrewed and popped off. A tube of paper slid into her gloved hand.
“Holy shit.” Luke and Mindy crowded around her. Claire held her breath and unfurled the paper. Two things emerged—a flyer of some sort and what appeared to be a handwritten list of topics.
She spread them on the floor and glanced over them. Unfortunately, the handwritten list didn’t have names—just weird topics.
“The Dangers of Women in the Workplace, Reclaiming Your Sacred Masculinity, Women and the ‘Five Acceptables.’ What the hell is this about?” Luke’s voice was sharp. One hand curled protectively over the small of Claire’s back.
Her breath caught in her chest. “The flyer. Do you see this?”
“Men’s Rights Conference. Los Angeles. May thirteenth,” he read.
Shockwaves coursed through her body. “Guys, this is it. Our chance to catch ESA.”
“You mean the FBI’s chance to catch ESA,” he corrected. His grip on her tightened.
“Right, the FBI. Shit. I better call Jack.”
Mindy carefully tucked the flyer and paper into a ziplock bag as Claire dialed Jack’s number.
Tingles ran up and down her arms. For the first time in days, there was a tiny glimmer of hope. Maybe things would work out after all—ESA would be remanded into custody and she could finally go back to her busy and beautiful life of being a proposal planner.
“What’s wrong?” Jack’s voice was sharp.
“We’re at the ESA house at San Fernando University.”
Jack swore. “What are you doing there? We already swept that house.”
“You did?” She made a face at Luke and Mindy. “Well, then your guys did a shitty job. We found something.”
There was a pause on the other end. “What is it?”
“A flyer. For a men’s rights conference in Los Angeles. Two weeks from now.”
Jack sighed. There was another pause. “We’re aware of the conference.”
“And the fact that we found a flyer for it in an ESA house is not at all suspicious to you? Come on, this one is a no-brainer. ESA’s going to be there.”
“We’re going to handle it, Claire. Now please get out of there before you get arrested for breaking and entering.”
The call disconnected.
“He hung up on me. Did you hear that? He basically told me to shut up. I didn’t even have a chance to tell him about the handwritten note?—”
“He just wants you to stay out of it,” Luke said. “Come on, let’s go. You have a therapy appointment first thing in the morning.”
“I do?”
“You do now. In case you forgot, you were almost abducted today.” Luke tucked his phone into his jeans.
Her stomach tightened. Breaking into the ESA house had been a wonderful distraction from the events of that afternoon. Now she was going to have to speak to Dr. Goulding and hash through everything. Was she even ready to talk about it?
Claire allowed him to steer her out of the house and back into the car. ESA was in the FBI’s hands now. Probably.