Her Dark Web Defender
“That’s fair.”
Tony was relieved that his words came out as something more than squeaks. He wasn’t a seventh grader. He was a grown-ass man, and he needed to start acting like it.
“Okay, then.”
He could have let it go at that. She’d made it easy for him to avoid answering any questions, but he couldn’t accept the gift. Besides, he wanted to close this case as much as she did. Like she kept saying, it was personal to him, too.
“About yesterday, I was just having a bad day. Can we start over?” He stood and extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Special Agent Anthony Lazzaro. Tony, for short.”
She stared at his hand instead of lifting hers. He couldn’t blame her. He’d made a point of not greeting her properly the day before. Still, she reached out and gripped his hand.
“Trooper Kelly Roberts. Good to meet you, sir.”
Her handshake was firm, professional and a mistake, he guessed from his tingling palm as he pulled away. He couldn’t worry about that now. He’d told himself he would focus on the case, and he planned to keep that promise.
“Well, if I’m going to get started on my job, I will need my seat back.”
Cory’s cell phone buzzed again as it had been all morning. He’d silenced the ringer and turned it face down on his desk so he couldn’t see the display, but it had continued to buzz about every thirty minutes. Mom never gave up when she wanted something. He was like her in that way.
At first, he’d been too focused on the messages scrolling up his laptop monitor to pay much attention to his phone, but the sound was distracting him now. The chat rooms weren’t much fun today, anyway. Just screen names he’d seen before, seeming to talk to themselves or each other. No titillating flirtations. No potential Cinderella or Snow White or even a beautiful Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.
He couldn’t ignore his mother forever. She might turn off the Internet. He couldn’t risk that. When the phone buzzed again, he answered.
“What is it?”
“Excuse me?”
“Sorry.” He cleared his throat. “I saw that you called a few times.”
“If you saw, then why didn’t you pick it up? It’s not like you have anything better to do. Like go to work.”
Cory straightened in his chair just as he would have if she were in the same room instead of in Boca Raton. At least she hadn’t video-dialed in this time. He hadn’t showered in a day or two. Or three.
He switched to his best cajoling tone. It had always worked before. “Come on, Mom. I told you that job wasn’t a good fit for me. Grocery-cart collector? I hated it. I’ll find something better. Soon.”
“You’re right you’d better. And I don’t care if you like it. Why do you think ‘work’ is a four-letter word? In fact, I’ve been considering tapering off my financial support. Clearly, it isn’t helping you to get on your feet.”
His chest tightened. This wasn’t going the way he’d planned.
“Please, I promise I’ll find something. And I’ll keep it this time.”
“You said that last time. And the time before that.”
His hands fisted, but he forced his fingers to loosen and flattened his palms on the desk. He couldn’t afford to lose his cool. Not now. This was too important.
“If you could support me for once.”
“I’ve supported you, all right, in more ways—”
“Or believe me,” he interrupted.
At that, she stopped. But his pulse pounded as it always did when he even thought of the forbidden topic.
For a long time, a dropped-call kind of silence filled the line. He might have gone too far in dredging up the past, but she’d pushed him, too. It was her fault.
“You know I believe you.”
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They both knew she hadn’t always believed him. When it counted.
“One month.”
“What?” He at least had to sound like he didn’t understand what she was saying, though optimism broke through the shroud draping his thoughts. He’d won for now. But at what cost? The darkness was peeking out again. He would have to bury it before it consumed him.
“You have thirty days to get a job you plan to keep and begin taking over some of your bills.”
“Sounds okay, I guess.”
“That’s my last offer.”
His mother, who’d spent the morning trying to get in touch with him, seemed anxious to get off the phone. He was in a hurry himself. Before, he hadn’t taken his search seriously. Now he had a deadline.
One month to plan, to woo her, to win her hand. It was terrifying yet exhilarating. The timing wasn’t optimal, he decided, as he chose from among his favorite chat rooms. He would have to search more diligently just when he needed to keep a low profile because of the incident. But he would be careful. So careful.
He would find her, too. She would be perfect. And young. And his. Then he and his princess could disappear together forever.
Chapter 6
Kelly’s eyes burned and her head throbbed from the hours she’d spent staring at the screen, but it couldn’t be helped. She’d needed space from Tony after their conversation that morning. Though he’d never told her what he had against her, it wouldn’t matter once they found a way to put it behind them.
If only she could get past her odd reactions to him, as well. How was she supposed to keep her edge as a fellow law enforcement officer when she could only think about his long lashes and the way his biceps strained against the sleeves of his dress shirt? He might have been older than she was, but he probably could have taken on most of the guys she’d met. And maybe he could take her on in a much more satisfying way.
“Hey, are you available?”
Kelly startled, a humiliating squeak escaping from her throat before she turned back to find Tony standing at the doorway of her cubicle. Why did he always have to show up when she was having off-limits thoughts? Also available? Was he a mind reader?
“The conversations get intense, don’t they?”
She didn’t bother looking at the screen for anything new on the feed.
“I wouldn’t know. The chat rooms you gave me have been dead. I even wrote a few notes to draw out lurkers, but nada. Just a lame hello from somebody called STARGAZER. He said, ‘Greetings,’ and then nothing else. I half-expected him to follow it up with ‘Greetings, Earth people.’”
“I told you those boards would be easy. We haven’t seen much action on them lately. But things are starting to heat up on a few other chats, so I wanted you to take a look.”
She pointed to her laptop screen with its slow-rolling posts. “Are you sure I shouldn’t stick with these? You never know. Something might come up. About a spaceship maybe.”
He shook his head. “This one’s hot,so I could use your help. I might need a voice for this one.”
He stared at the floor when he said it. How he’d managed to not to choke on those words, she couldn’t imagine. He was trying.
“Since you put it that way.”
She exited the chat room, grabbed her notebook and pen and followed him to his desk.
“You’re sure I’m ready for this?” She could have kicked herself the moment those words were out of her mouth. How was she supposed to convince him that she belonged there when even she was questioning?
“Only one way to find out.”
He’d already arranged a chair next to his, so she sat, and he handed her a headset. He pointed to a printout on the corner of the desk closest to her.
“The conversation so far.”
At first it seemed so strange reading the private chat between INVISIBLE ME and some guy with the unfortunate name BIG DADDY. She had to remind herself that the screen name wasn’t her. She was only lending her voice to an online persona, one of a few identities the task force was using. She tried not to be shocked when the conversation quickly turned sexual, just as Tony had predicted.
Hold up. I gotta pee.
Kelly couldn’t help but smile as she read the last line. “You make a great teenage girl. That last line is golden.”
“You never saw his answer, did you?”
“It wasn’t on the printout.”
He pointed to the final line from the private chat on his laptop screen.
Don’t make me wait too long. Never do that.
The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, but she somehow managed to sit still. Memories of those bicycles, two little girls and spilled blue slushes pushed forward in her mind, but she ruthlessly shoved them back. She couldn’t go there. Besides, she wanted to ask Tony how he could keep returning to these same lewd conversations when the number of creeps online remained static. Now wasn’t the time to think about either of those things.
“It looks like he left the chat room.”
Tony nodded at the screen as he closed the chat screen. Soon he had navigated back to one of the larger threads.
“But if I’m right about him, he’ll find her again.”
Kelly appreciated the way he referred to INVISIBLE ME as “her.” It reminded her that even if the suspect was pursuing someone whom he believed to be an underage girl, it wasn’t Kelly. She needed to remember that those hands reaching out for this imaginary girl weren’t the same ones that had grabbed Emily, either.
“He’s back.”
At least Tony was too busy studying his screen to notice her shifting in her seat.
“He’ll pretend to be disinterested for a minute, and then he’ll suggest the private chat again.”
He typed a hello message back into the public discussion. Responses from three different screen names appeared below it. One even immediately asked her age.
“What are you going to do?”
“Wait for it.” He continued to watch the screen. “Wait…for…it.”
Then, as if by magic, a comment from BIG DADDY appeared.
BIG DADDY: So, you decided to come back?
INVISIBLE ME: Told you I’d be right back.
Kelly could only stare as Tony continued to type. He could’ve been writing an email to his mother, as easily as the words poured from his fingertips. Would she ever be that comfortable with all of this? Did she even want to be?
By the next exchange, the suspect had suggested a private chat again. It didn’t take long for him to mention how nice it would be if they could have a voice chat. He promised it was all he would ask for, just the chance to hear her voice.
Tony stalled through a few more comments, talking about how INVISIBLE ME didn’t like her voice because it sounded like a little girl, but finally he turned to Kelly.
“Ready?” he whispered as he moved the microphone closer.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.”
He tapped the microphone and mouthed, “You’ve got this.”
She squeezed the button. “BIG DADDY, are you there?”
Nothing. She slid a glance to Tony. He made a circular gesture with his index finger, indicating for her to try again.
She cleared her throat and pushed the button a second time. “Are you there, BIG DADDY? I was hoping to get to talk to you.”
A crackling sound from another microphone filled her ears. “Lovely. Your voice is sweet. I knew it would be sweet.”
Kelly’s breath caught, a scream expanding like a helium-filled balloon yet trapped inside her chest. That voice. Those words. It was him. Sweet. So sweet. The words replayed in a torturous loop, reminding her of the other time she should’ve screamed. She’d failed then, too.
“Say something,” Tony whispered.
The sounds around her were too loud. The printer in the next cubicle. The buzz of the fluorescent lights. Tony’s voice. Her gaze shot to the microphone button, but her clammy hands had already released it.
“INVISIBLE, sweetie, are you still there?”
She could only stare at Tony and the microphone by turns, panic building, twisting, maiming. It was him again, and she was frozen, rooted in place by her own cowardice. Just like before.
Tony grabbed the microphone and crinkled the printout over the top of it. Then he yanked the cord from the USB port. Immediately, his fingers shifted to the laptop’s keys.
INVISIBLE ME: Sorry. My bad. I must have messed up the microphone. I’ll have to have my dad look at it.
BIG DADDY: Oh. Okay. You might want to clear your searches and your cookies first.
INVISIBLE ME: Right. :) Wouldn’t want him to know anything. None of his damn business.
Tony wound down the conversation, promising to talk again later when her computer was working better. The suspect threw in a parting comment that he hoped they’d get to meet, which Tony volleyed with the promise of “soon.”
With that, he exited all the chat rooms open on the desktop. He turned to face her, crossing his arms just as she had earlier in the same chair.
“What the hell was that?”
Kelly stared at her clammy hands as she gripped them together. Her racing pulse refused to slow.
“I’m sorry,” she managed to whisper.
“I don’t want sorry. I want an explanation.”
“I can’t. Not now. I need a minute.”
Without giving him a chance to ask more questions, she hurried out the office door and down the hall to the public restrooms when she could easily have visited the facilities inside the office. She didn’t care if someone else saw her ruddy cheeks in the mirror or caught her splashing water on her face. As long as he didn’t see it.
She had to get away from the chat rooms, from Tony and from the truth. It sounded crazy, sure, but she was convinced she’d just spoken to the man who’d ripped away her childhood and caused her best friend a lifetime of pain.
“You’re going to have to talk to me eventually.”
Tony followed a few steps back as Kelly hurried down the walk to the nearly empty parking lot. She’d barely given Dawson enough time to reach his car and drive off before she made her own escape, leaving Tony behind with the rest of the stragglers. He already would have asked his questions earlier if she hadn’t avoided him all afternoon.
“That’s how we’re going to play it?” He picked up his pace.
This time, she whirled to face him. “Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“That you’ll have to talk to me,” he repeated, though he was positive she’d heard him.
“Isn’t that what I’m doing?”
“I meant about what happened this afternoon.”
“You mean about the novice freezing up, just like you predicted I would? Or about the FBI agent swooping in on his white horse?”
“Who’s giving away white horses? I didn’t get one.”
His attempt at humor fell flat, but it gave him the chance to watch her. After the call, she’d been terrified. At least her flushed skin and wide eyes had led him to believe that. Now she lifted her chin and pursed her mouth, as if she dared him to question her. But he wasn’t going to let her off that easily, even if technically he already had.
“What happened? Really?”
“Does it matter? You probably told Special Agent Dawson your story the moment I stepped out of the office.”
“Stepped out? You practically ran—”
“I didn’t run. I walked. Anyway, when you did your duty to report that I froze and proved I shouldn’t be here, did you also tell Dawson that you’ve been trying to scare me off since yesterday?”
“No.” Though he would have done the team a favor by exposing a possible weak link.
“You didn’t share what a welcome committee you’ve been?”
“I didn’t talk to him at all.”
“I don’t understand.”
That made two of them. “I was waiting to speak to you first.”
“Now that you have, what are you going to do?”
“I plan to stand here until you answer my question.”
She puffed up her cheeks and blew out a breath. “I guess you got in my head. You set my nerves on edge after all those horror stories you told me.”
“I was just trying to prepare you.”
“Why? Did someone prepare you for this assignment?”
“Not really.” It was the most honest thing he’d said all day.
“Then I should feel privileged?”
Tony shrugged. He could no more explain why he’d pushed her so hard than he could tell her why he hadn’t gone to Dawson over what had happened earlier.
“It’s okay, you know. Some people just aren’t cut out for this assignment.”
“You should know.”
At first, he wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly. “Wait. What?”
“You should know that some people aren’t cut out for this task force, since you don’t want to be here, either.”
“What are you talking about? I don’t know where you got that idea.” He kept his expression neutral, but he swallowed involuntarily. Who’d told her? Would Special Agent Dawson have shared that information with her? No one else at the office knew.
Kelly shrugged and continued down the walk. Could he blame her for not telling him how she knew so much about him? She was right. He’d set her up to fail, and he might have done it on purpose.
“Wait.”
She stopped and turned back, her posture stiff.
“What now?”
“Let me make it up to you. For messing with your head.”
“You mean ‘start over’? We tried that. Guess it didn’t take.”
He lifted a shoulder and lowered it. “Come on. Let me. Please.”
“How?”
“We could go for coffee. I’ll buy.”
He could see the “no” in her eyes before she moved a muscle or spoke a word.
“That’s not necessary.”
“I think it is.”
“I’m a police officer. Do you think this is the first time I’ve put up with crap from a male law-enforcement officer?”
“Probably not.”
“I’m used to having to do twice as much to be taken seriously. My colleagues respect me because I’ve earned it.”
“Now I really feel like an ass.”
The side of her mouth lifted this time. “You’ll get no argument from me.”
“Please let me buy coffee. As a peace offering.”
She blew out a breath. “Fine.”
He decided not to analyze why he was so relieved that she’d relented.
“Good. How about Casey’s Diner?”
“Not there.” She cleared her throat. “I mean there’s no reason to go there when we’re only getting coffee.”
“Okay.” He dragged the word out as he studied her. “You have another place in mind?”
She waved her hand, but her elbow remained rooted near her rib cage. “There are plenty of coffee shops around.”
“You pick, then. You lead. I’ll follow your car.” Technically, he wasn’t supposed to drive his FBI rental except on duty and to and from work, but this was on his way home. Sort of.
She nodded and continued to her car. What had made her so nervous? And why did she want to avoid the diner? Those were just two small questions among many he had about Kelly Roberts. At a time when he should have been focusing on his final case and preparing to walk away from the task force, he was too curious about a young police officer who seemed to be hiding something. Too curious for his own good.
Chapter 7
Kelly parked in the near-empty lot adjacent to Mill Pond Park just as the headlights from Tony’s task-force-issued sedan darted in after her mini SUV. She’d left her own assigned rental back at the office and would have to figure out a way to get it home later. As he stopped next to her, she slid her drink from the cup holder and climbed out. He caught up to her near the playground area, but she didn’t stop until they reached a plastic-covered steel picnic table outside the play area’s picket-fence enclosure.
“This place is great.” He set down his drink and slid on the bench across from her. “I haven’t been here in a while.”
She wouldn’t have come this time if she could think of a better idea to avoid taking Tony to Casey’s. After the ribbing the guys had given her the other night, she couldn’t show up at the Brighton Post’s after-work hangout with a certain FBI agent. Even if there was nothing going on between them.
The park wasn’t a much better choice. It was too hot outside and too quiet now, so near closing time. Well, absent of human voices, anyway. The bullfrogs and cicadas were still performing their nightly chorus. The cloud-covered sky caused the streetlights to cast too many shadows as well, making it appear as if they were sitting closer than they were. Too close.
“I still can’t believe there wasn’t a single coffee shop open after nine.”
She’d driven to three, with him tailing her, before he’d passed her car and led her to a twenty-four-hour convenience store. He’d gone straight for the self-serve slush machines once they were inside.
“Slushes were a better idea, anyway.” He took a long pull on his straw, with frozen azure liquid flowing up the narrow tube. “It’s too hot for coffee.”
She sipped her own cherry drink and managed to swallow. At least hers wasn’t blue.
“I still can’t believe you don’t like raspberry. I thought every kid did.”
Not every kid. “I’m not a kid,” she said instead.
“I know that.”
“Anyway, I don’t like the way it stains your tongue.”
“My tongue?”
“You know what I mean.”
He grinned, and she tried to ignore the weightlessness in her belly.
“Anyway, red slush stains, too.”
He pointed at her mouth, which in daylight would have looked like Santa’s suit by now.
“Good point. I’m not really a fan of any flavor.”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“How could I when you looked like an excited kid filling up your cup?” Or when he might have asked her why.
“Oh. I forgot.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and held out a five-dollar bill. “I said I would buy yours.”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it was. Is. I always keep my commitments.”
His words were a little intense for a promise to buy a drink, but she let him press the bill into her hand.
“Thanks.”
“It’s the least I could do.”
His mouth opened again, as if he might do more than that, like ask her what really had happened that afternoon. She spoke up before he had the chance.
“Why do you want to leave the task force?”
“I never said I did.”
Instead of answering, she waited. It was none of her business, just as her reason for losing it that day wasn’t his. Still, she couldn’t help wondering why someone who appeared to care about his work could walk away from the victims.
“Fine. I requested a transfer. The double murder will be my last case with the task force.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Sometimes people need a change.”
“Do you know where you’ll be transferred?”
He shook his head and looked toward the water, though the fence in front of him probably blocked his view of it.
“Did Dawson mention I was being transferred?”
“No, he didn’t say anything.”
“Then how’d you know?”
“You just seemed like somebody who needed a change.”
It wasn’t the whole truth but as close as she could get. She could no more tell him the rest than she could share her own experience with a predator and her suspicion that BIG DADDY and Emily’s abductor might be the same person. How could she admit that she sensed a desperation in him? Or that the feeling was so strong it squeezed inside her own chest?
“Because I’ve been grumpy lately?”
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