James Swain - The King Tides

“I’ll let you pick.”

A half hour later, there was a knock on his door. They had run two hundred names of male nurses through the DMV’s database and not gotten a single hit. If she was frustrated, she refused to let it show. He excused himself and went to meet the driver.

Uber didn’t want customers to tip their drivers, but he slipped the guy ten bucks anyway. Taking the food to the kitchen, he doled out fried lo mein and crispy duck onto two plates, stuck some cutlery into his pocket, grabbed two paper napkins, and returned to the study. Daniels glanced up from the computer and thanked him with a smile. She balanced the plate on her lap and dug in.

“This is good,” she said. “Want to bet we find our guys at the end of the list?”

“Is that how it usually works?” he said.

“It does for me. When I do a search, the needle is always at the bottom of the haystack. I must have been born under an unlucky sign.”

“Nothing good ever comes easy,” he said.

The food was soon a memory. He stacked their empty plates and was heading to the kitchen when his cell phone rang. It was Karissa. He didn’t have time to speak with her right now and hoped she would understand.

“Can I give you a call back tomorrow?” he asked.

“Oh my God, Jon, he’s going to kill me,” she replied.

Karissa was screaming, her voice so loud that it came through the speaker in Lancaster’s cell phone. Daniels looked up from the computer.

“Who the hell is that?” the FBI agent asked.

“One second.” Holding the cell phone against his chest so Karissa couldn’t hear, he said, “Her name’s Karissa Clement. She helped me get my hands on her ex-boyfriend’s cell phone with the Cassandra videos, which led me to you. I’m guessing the ex-boyfriend found out and is threatening her.”

“Do you need my help?”

“I just might. Let me talk to her and find out what’s going on. I’ll be right back.”

He walked outside to the balcony and shut the slider behind him. He had lost track of the time, and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the night. There was a storm churning out in the Atlantic, and an invisible moist cloth swept across his skin. He brought the cell phone up to his ear and said, “Sorry about that. You still there?”

“Yes, Jon,” Karissa said. “I’m still here. Who were you just talking to?”

“There’s an FBI agent in my condo. We’re working on a case together.”

“Sounds important. I don’t mean to interrupt whatever you’re doing, but I need your help. Zack figured out that I spoke to you, and now he’s after me.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Zack was waiting when I got off work. The hospital parking area is being paved, so everyone has to park across the street in an empty lot. I came out to my car and he appeared out of nowhere, and started talking to me in a low voice so no one else could hear. He said that someone had gone online and downloaded pornographic videos that he kept stored on his cell phone. Zack said that you’d confronted him and mentioned my name, and he put two and two together. He said that he was going to kidnap me and rape me and then he was going to kill me. He promised to make me suffer.”

“Did you call the police?”

“I sure did. They went to see him, and he denied the whole thing. There aren’t any surveillance cameras in the lot, so it’s my word against his.”

“Meaning the cops aren’t going to do squat.”

“That’s why I called you. What am I going to do?”

He stood at the balcony railing and wrestled with how to handle her question. Karissa had gone out of her way to help him, and now she was being repaid by a madman’s threats. He had to make this right and prove to her that she’d done the right thing. “You need to leave Fort Lauderdale right now. I have two gay friends in Marathon that own a motel called Captain Pip’s Hideaway. Go there and hide out. You’ll be safe. I’ll deal with Zack.”

“But I don’t have the money for a motel,” she said.

“You won’t need any money. Roger and Frankie used to be cops. Tell them I sent you, and that I want you to stay in the guest bedroom in their house. Zack won’t be able to find you there, and if he somehow did, their dogs would rip him apart.”

“Your friends have dogs?”

“They raise German shorthaired pointers and always have a pack.”

“What about Zack? I can’t hide in Marathon forever.”

“I’m going to have Special Agent Daniels arrest Zack for being a pedophile.”

“She’ll do that for you?”

“I’m sure I can talk her into it. You need to jump into your car and get on the road right now. Call me when you get to Marathon and are at Captain Pip’s. Does that sound like a plan?”

“It sounds like a great plan.”

“One more thing. Special Agent Daniels is going to need evidence so she can arrest Zack. Can you remember any other devices that he used to store his porn?”

“I sure can. Zack had an iPad that he kept locked in a desk at his apartment. He told me that he used the iPad for work, only it never left his place. I’m certain that’s where he keeps most of his dirty pictures and videos.”

“That works. Now, get out of there.”

“I’ve got one foot out the door.”

“And call me when you get there.”

“I will. Thanks, Jon. I knew I could count on you.”

He ended the call and stared into the darkness, hoping that Karissa would be safe. A tapping sound broke his concentration, and he went to the slider. Daniels stood on the other side of the glass wearing a triumphant look on her weary face. The DMV database had come through, and he pulled back the glass and stepped inside.

“You found our killers,” he said.

“They were the second-to-last names on the list, if you can believe that,” she said with a tired laugh. “You were right about their driver’s licenses being like a trail of bread crumbs. They’ve moved around a lot, and every time they relocate in a new state, they get new licenses.”

“How long have they been in South Florida?”

“They both got their Florida driver’s licenses on the same day seven years ago. Did I mention that they both have criminal records for being perverts?”

“You have their rap sheets?”

“Yes indeed. Want to see them?”

“I do. Before you show them to me, I need to ask a favor.”

“Let me guess. You want me to arrest your girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend.”

His face grew warm. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Let me rephrase that. You want me to arrest your soon-to-be girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. What have you got on him?”

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“You care about her. I could hear it in your voice when you answered her call. And she called you because she trusts you and knows she can depend on you. Sounds like the start of a beautiful relationship.”

Daniels was reading the situation wrong. He kept his personal life and his work separate, and didn’t date women he met during investigations, even if he found himself attracted to them. His mission was to serve and protect, not sleep with. He decided to move on and said, “Her ex-boyfriend’s name is Zack Kenny and he has an iPad in his apartment filled with porn of young girls. I can give you the address.”

“Consider it done.”

“Thank you. Can I ask another?”

She lifted an eyebrow suspiciously.

“During my investigation, I stumbled across some dirty cops stealing cocaine from the sheriff’s office property stockade and selling it on the street. I can’t go directly to the sheriff’s office with the information without revealing my source, and that would put his life in jeopardy. I was hoping you could help me out.”