32. Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Melanie
The elevator doors slide open and we hurry toward the conference room, where Law and Farris are already bent over scattered papers. Even from the doorway, I can sense the weight of whatever they've discovered. It radiates from their tense postures and grim expressions.
“Ladies,” Farris greets us, holding the door. The tone of welcoming and laughter from earlier is gone.
“What did the twins find?” I blurt out, then catch myself.
“Sorry, I just—”
“Don't apologize,” Law interrupts. “You should be anxious. Please, sit.” He waits until we're settled before continuing. “Sorry for the early wake. Mouse and Keyboard have been working non-stop. What they've uncovered is more than disturbing.”
When this man who regularly faces down hardened criminals says the ladies found something disturbing, it makes my stomach clench.
Beside me, Evelyn reaches for my hand and says, “Tell us, we can take it.”
Sebastian and Maxwell slip quietly into the room as Law spreads several papers across the table. The atmosphere grows heavier, if possible. “The ladies hacked a private site that had traces to Emperor Maikeru. Once they got by and we're able to move around undetected they found a lot of things.” He takes a seat and Farris follows. “Michael, aka Emperor Maikeru, operates what appears to be a highly sophisticated dark web operation where,” Law's knuckles whiten around his coffee cup as he moves it to the side. “Where the site hosts live bidding, where members view a woman and then bid money. The one with the highest bid, well.” Law looks at me and my stomach drops.
“What?”
“Members of the site bid on what acts happen to the woman.”
My mind stutters over his careful phrasing, making me almost afraid to ask, but I need to know. “And what is it that happens to the woman?”
“If you can think of something bad, that's what happens,” Sebastian says bluntly, ignoring Law's warning look. “They bid on methods.”
“My Lord and savior,” Evelyn breathes.
“The highest bidder dictates what happens,” Law continues, his voice clinically detached. “Tonight, we witnessed a set-up scene where the woman was dressed up like a maid. A group of men broke into her fake home. They proceeded to smack her around, strip her, then tie her to the kitchen table where they.” He stops talking, looking from me to Evelyn, then back. “Let's just say it wasn't good. They had multiple rounds with her, some included household items that were, ah, made to fit.” Law blows out a breath. “The ladies also found stored footage. Evelyn was right, this has been happening for a long time. And I'm afraid to say, it looks like if the bidder was willing to pay big bucks, then sometimes women didn't survive. There is always assault, there are always some sort of sexual acts, and the woman is always in distress.”
The fluorescent lights suddenly seem too bright, the room too small. I grip the table's edge as bile rises in my throat.
Evelyn asks in a small voice, “Michael did this?”
“Michael owns and runs it.” Law slides over a document dense with financial data. “The site's announcer matches his voice patterns with ninety-five percent accuracy. He introduces each session, declares winning bids, and describes their chosen activities. He's not just aware. He's the architect of all of it. All of it.” Law leans back against his chair.
Mouse appears in the doorway, her usual bouncy demeanor absent. “The missing teacher from Boulder Canyon.” She glances at me, eyes haunted. “We found her. The librarian too. We're trying to get into the mainframe so we can operate all the cameras. Also, the finance search only has ten more minutes.”
“Good job, thank you,” Law nods at Mouse, who pivots and leaves the room. Sebastian excuses himself, and I watch him jog down the hall the way Mouse went.
I remember the families at the press conference begging, pleading for any information on their loved ones. The husband, moms, dads, sisters, all of them in tortured agony while Michael sat right there knowing exactly where they were and what was happening to them. The room tilts slightly, and I have to sit back in my chair and grip the armrests.
Evelyn's face has gone chalk white; her hands clenched so tight her knuckles match the color of her face. “For years,” her words barely a whisper. “That man has been in my house,” her voice shaking with rage, tears streaming down her face. “He's held my granddaughters. Stared at my girls.” Her voice breaks. “That monster sat at my table, ate my food, slept under my roof, all the while he knew women were being hurt.” She can't finish.
“Mom?” I touch her arm gently.
She looks at me and speaks through clenched teeth. “My family, our family, he played us, he played all of us.” She raises her face to look at Law. The mix of fury and revulsion in her voice cuts like a knife. “Whatever it takes. Whatever you need, Charlie and I will help. Michael has to be stopped.”
“We will stop him, I promise,” Law assures her. “The twins found that, in the beginning, it appeared Michael was taking homeless women. They're easier, no one to go to the cops when they go missing. But his recent victims fit a different profile. Regular women, more professional. No signs of drug use. We found three other missing women in a two-hundred-mile search.”
“Better women,” I echo hollowly, Michael's words taking on horrifying new meaning. “He told me that's what his clients wanted.”
“Wallace, you watched these sessions?” Evelyn asks him sharply.
“Yes, we had to. The judge needed firsthand evidence before issuing the warrant. The ladies had to provide recordings of sessions.”
“Did you obtain a warrant?”
“We have a condition for a federal warrant—we need to tie the business to Michael himself. The voice match is a good start and Melanie's testimony is enough for the judge to allow us to hold Michael, but we need something else.” Law leans forward. “I had to wake a judge, but timing is crucial. We can't have Michael find out the ladies have cracked his security, and they believe the longer it takes, the more likely he will be to catch them. If he suspects we're closing in, I have no doubt he'll run. We've seen it. People like this have detailed plans for every possible contingency, escape routes, fake identities, unknown homes. It's imperative we catch him completely off guard. When we're ready, we'll set a trap and catch him.”
“Use me.” The words emerge with surprising steadiness.
“What? No!” Evelyn protests. “Melanie, Michael's far more dangerous than we imagined.”
“But it has to be me. He has a vendetta. He said this was supposed to be a quick chase so he could get his jollies. But I figured out he was cheating. He knew where I was all the time. Don't you see?” I hold the back of her hand. “I'm the one who got away. The woman who outsmarted him.” My gaze shifts to Law. “Michael's ego can't resist. He'll come get me wherever I am.”
Law studies me for a long moment. “It's incredibly risky,” he says finally. “But you're right. You're the best chance we have of drawing him into the open. If we can get him somewhere public, we can be there the whole time. As soon as we have him, Tobias can move in on the warehouse.”
“I can't sit by and let him hurt anyone else,” I shake my head, “not when I can help stop him.”
“The girls have gotten into the warehouse cameras,” Sebastian announces, entering the room. “Facial recognition has already identified six missing women.”
“That's fantastic! I'll call the judge.” Law picks up his phone just as Keyboard bursts in, her usual playful demeanor replaced by cold fury.
“WE GOT IT! Just as we finished identifying the last woman, the other program finished.” She runs to Law and hands him a stack of papers. “Look,” she points to one of the papers. “And here,” she switches the sheets. “And there too,” she moves another sheet to the front of the pile.
I can feel the anxiety and anxiousness from everyone in the room. Please let this be what we need, I say to myself over and over.
Law grabs his phone and stands. “Show them,” he says, then leaves the room.
Keyboard sets her laptop down on the table. “The program found three transactions. All three came from an Emperor-owned property to Michael's private bank account. Plus, we got every viewer IP address of his, every bank account transaction, everything. Including all the records from the website. That ugly bastard keeps records of everything.”
The screen comes to life and Keyboard shows us the transactions, all hundreds of thousands of dollars. Each time I see Michael's name on the screen, my heart skips.
Maybe there's hope. Just maybe.
“Proof of any murders?” Sebastian asks quietly.
“Multiple.” Her fingers fly across the keyboard. “According to his records, there have been twenty-seven confirmed deaths in the last five years.”
“Five years?” a visibly shocked Evelyn asks.
“Yes, but those are just the deaths. He's been operating this site for longer. We're not sure of the exact length because we would have to spend some time in Michael's personal records, and Boss man just wanted us in and out. But if I were to guess, I would say he's been running this for either eight or nine.”
“Years?” Evelyn and I speak together. Keyboard nods her head.
The number hits me like a physical blow. Twenty-seven women. Twenty-seven families wondering what happened to their loved ones and having no idea, no closure. And those are just the ones Michael bothered to record.
“And I would have been one of them,” I whisper. The room goes silent as the full implications sink in. If I hadn't run, if I hadn't trusted my instincts about Michael... Evelyn takes my hand in hers.
“But you weren't and you're not going to be. Nor will anyone else,” she says as everyone in the room nods their agreement.
Law enters the room, even more commanding than before he left. “We have a federal warrant for the arrest of Michael Thorne. Farris, you, and Maxwell be at the judge's chambers at seven-thirty to pick it up.”
Both guys give a single nod to show they understand.
“The fog's lifted. The pilots will be here at nine,” I read aloud when my phone pings with a text.
“Then that's our go time,” Law tells the group. “Be prepared to be gone for at least two days, probably three. I'll let my mom know we're on our way.”
“I love Miss Cora,” the quiet Maxwell speaks up. It's easy to see Farris and Sebastian feel the same.
“She's a dear friend of mine,” Evelyn smiles.
While everyone else seems to be smiling, for me the air is heavy with purpose. This is really happening. We're going after Michael, not just the monster I fled from, but a creature far more terrible than I'd imagined. A man who orchestrated unthinkable horrors while playing the role of charming friend and successful businessman.
I think of all his victims, the ones whose names we know and the ones we'll never identify. I think of the teacher's sister, still hoping for answers. I think of my mom and aunt, whom Michael used as leverage to force my compliance. His smirking face appears in my mind, and my resolve hardens into steel.
“Time to end this,” I say quietly to myself.
Looking around the room at Law's team. From Mouse and Keyboard's righteous anger, to Sebastian and Maxwell's determination, and Farris's protective stance. I feel something I haven't experienced since this nightmare began: hope. With these people at my back, maybe, just maybe, we really can bring Michael to justice.