Chase couldn’t help but wonder what brought about this sudden change in behavior. If it was something he said, she wasn’t revealing it. She sat in the passenger side of his car staring straight ahead and thinking intently. He could almost see numbers and lines of computer code scrolling across her brain.
Delia flew into her apartment and started connecting wires and turning on machines in a flurry of movements. After several minutes, she finally sat back and took a deep breath.
“Okay, do you want to tell me what’s going on now?” Chase asked as he stood uncomfortably by the bed. He felt unnecessary.
She looked at him for the first time since she’d entered the apartment as if she’d forgotten he was even there.
“My senior year of college, my honors thesis for my computer science degree was on code cracking. I developed a program that could enter established computer code and enter new lines of code. With a few modifications, I should be able to change it into a password stealer, email it to Locke’s account and it should allow me to circumvent the needed ‘key.’ I had forgotten all about it.”
Delia sat in front of her computer and began typing.
“What made you think of it all of the sudden?”
Without taking her eyes off the computer screen she said, “A few days after my thesis presentation, Jason ordered take out and we had a romantic dinner in his apartment. He told me that even with my tutoring, he was still in danger of failing a class he needed to graduate. He wanted me to use the program I’d written to change his grade.” She stopped typing and stared down. “I told him, I wasn’t sure if it would work. That it was a theoretical ‘key’ and that I wasn’t comfortable trying it out for real. If I messed up, I could get expelled or worse go to jail. He then told me that I was the smartest person he knew.
That I could do it.
That he believed in me. The exact same words you said to me a few minutes ago.”
Chase sat on the bed. He thought those words would encourage her. Instead, they brought up sore memories. He hoped she knew that he really meant them. That he wasn’t using her like Jason was.
“I changed his grade,” she continued. “But I never felt right about it. I think a part of me forced myself to forget that the program existed. That’s why I didn’t remember it until you fed me the same lines Jason did. I’m such an idiot. Do you men have a book or something? How do you all know just what to say to get me to do whatever you want? You’re using me just like he did.”
“Delia, I’m not
— ”
“There. That should work,” she exclaimed as she moved from her personal desk top to Locke’s.
They both were completely shocked by what was behind the ring icon.
“Oh, my God,” she said, her eyes scanning the computer screen. “These are some of the highest ranking politicians in the city.”
“Yeah, I know. A lot of these people, we’ve suspected, but you can’t arrest people on suspicion, especially people in their positions. Even these files will probably get thrown out in court. We have to catch them in the act.”
“Look at this. Thomas Bennett is a client,” Delia noted pointing at the screen.
“The White House press secretary?”
“And he hired someone the night Lena was killed.”
“Okay, Delia, don’t jump to conclusions about anything. I know you want to catch whoever is responsible for Lena’s murder, but we have to do this the right way.
The legal way.
We have to have evidence. Hopefully, we can get all the men on this list and the man behind it all.”
“What if the girls testified against them? Wouldn’t that be enough?”
Chase shook his head. “It would just be he said, she said. Besides, we can’t get any of these girls to talk. I don’t understand what would lead them down this path so that they end up as prostitutes.”
Delia grew silent and reflective. He could tell something was wrong.
“I feel so sorry for them,” she said after a moment. “I think I know what they are going through.
Especially Lena.
Whoever is behind this is using their entire self-image or lack thereof to control their actions. They feel trapped. And they get into that position because they have such a low estimation of themselves in the first place.”
“Is that why you let yourself be mistreated by Jason for so long?” He shouldn’t have said that. Why did he insist on opening up old wounds? He just really wanted to know how someone as special as Delia could end up with such a jerk of a husband.
She nodded slowly. “Donna Lee thinks it has something to do with the fact that I was adopted. But she was adopted as well and she has so much confidence. I guess I’m just … I just felt for so long that I wasn’t worth anything to anyone.”
He couldn’t take it anymore. He had to show her how much she meant to him. He pulled her out of her seat and brought her body close to his. “You’re worth everything to me.” Then he placed his lips on hers in a hot passionate kiss.
Chase picked her up and gently, lovingly, cradled her in his arms. He placed her on the bed while he whispered his words of devotion into the soft folds of her neck. He knew it was the worst possible timing for the encounter, but he also knew that he couldn’t stay away from her any longer. He wanted her. He needed her. And after years of thinking only of his career he deserved her. But if Sammy found out that he was fooling around while he was supposed to be working, it might be the end of his career.
He unbuttoned her shirt and kissed down the center of her body. He felt the tension in her muscles relax as she finally gave into her true feelings. Chase knew she had to love him as much as he loved her even though she had never said it. Her life with Jason had made her emotionally stunted and she just couldn’t admit how she really felt. But the way her body responded to his, he knew the truth.
“Let me love you, Delia,” he said as he kissed her stomach and probed her navel with his tongue. “Just open your heart and let me in. Don’t fight it.”
Chase knew nothing would stop him from having her this time.
Nothing but the dreaded cell phone.
He reached for it, rejected the call,
then
shoved it under a pillow. He was serious about letting nothing get in his way. Seconds later it buzzed again.
“Wait, Chase,” she said, pushing him away. “It may be about Donna Lee.” She grabbed the phone and handed it to him.
“Donovan,” he sighed as he answered the call. “It’s for you,” he said, handing her the phone.
“Delia,
it’s
Sam. Were you able to find out anything from Locke’s computer?”
“Yeah, we have a list of clients, dates, times, locations. With a couple of more hours we should know even more.”
“That’s excellent. Do you think you could leave Chase to it and get down here to the hospital? Donna Lee is coming around and she’s asking for you.”
Delia didn’t hesitate to hang up and get herself together to be by her sister’s side. The guilt she felt for putting her sister in danger would never subside; the least she could do was be there for her.
They were silent as Delia buttoned her clothes and left the apartment with the keys to Chase’s car. Soon he was alone with his thoughts. To get his mind off of Delia, he poured himself into the information on Locke’s computer.
One name kept popping up as Chase studied Locke’s computer. Something clicked inside Chase’s mind. Al. AL. Amanda
Langren
. Everything now made sense.
Lena and Levi had basically raised themselves. Their father was a workaholic and their mother went on a shopping trip to Europe when they were thirteen and had yet to return. They were surrounded by the finer things in life: nannies, rich private schools, horse riding lessons, even fencing. But it wasn’t what they wanted or needed. Over the years they became extremely close. Levi could sense when something was wrong with his twin sister.
It wasn’t too hard to figure out what Lena had been up to. He just wished he had taken time away from his homework and paid more attention to his sister earlier. He’d hoped it was just normal teenage girl stuff that had been bothering her. She had a crush on a boy, but he was dating her best friend or something trivial like that. Never had he imagined that his twin sister had turned into a prostitute. And the reason she did it was even more heartbreaking. She just wanted to get better grades so that she could go to a good college with him.
Levi closed his sister’s diary when he felt the tears coming. He would cry for her later. Right now, he had to get revenge on the person who did this. Thankfully, Lena wrote down every little thing that ever happened to her. He knew about her first ‘trick’ and how she got nervous and how after drinking something he gave her she didn’t remember anything. He reasoned it had to be some sort of Rohypnol or GHB. He knew exactly the type of man Thomas Bennett was. The man who had taken away his sister, the only thing Levi had in the world. And he knew just how to get to him.
***
The next day Chase showed up in Donna Lee’s hospital room. He stood in the door way for a moment and watched as Delia slept uncomfortably in an arm chair. She was completely exhausted and unaware of her surroundings. A mass of dark brown curls hung messily over the side of her face. One foot dangled precariously over an arm of the chair. Her mouth drooped open in an unladylike fashion. But to Chase, she was absolutely beautiful.
“What are you doing here?” Donna Lee said from the bed.
“I have good news for you, for both of you and I couldn’t wait to share it. Are you feeling better?” Chase spoke softly so as not to wake Delia.
“Yeah, much better.
Whatever that dickhead gave me really kicked my ass for a while. They tell me I was out cold for 6 hours straight.”
“Did they tell you what he gave you?”
“Some concoction of GHB probably whipped up in his grimy little bath tub.” Donna Lee sat up in the bed and indicated that Chase should sit on the edge.
“Well, he’s
gonna
pay for what he did to you. We already have him in custody on possession charges and from the stuff we found on his computer … well, Delia found it really.” He smiled proudly in her direction and wondered if she had ever considered working for the police. “From the stuff she found on his computer, he should be in jail for a long time.”
“So, you’re really a cop, huh?”
Chase looked down shyly. “Sorry, I lied to you.”
Donna Lee shrugged. “I really didn’t care how old you were. I can tell by the way you look at her that you’re completely in love with her. One look at you and I knew you would treat her right.” He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Donna Lee noted that he probably had a problem accepting compliments just like her sister. They had more in common than they knew. She decided to change the subject. “So how long have you been a cop?”
“Six years. I graduated high school when I was fifteen. I was kind of a prodigy.” Chase swept his floppy hair out of his face. “I went to college then, during my junior year, my uncle dared me to take the police academy entrance exam. I passed and the rest is history. I spent a year as a beat cop, but it didn’t work out. I looked too young. Citizens never took me seriously. So that’s when my superiors decided to try me out in undercover work. People find it much easier to believe that I’m a high school kid than a police officer.”