Jeffery Deaver - Solitude Creek

He squinted slightly. A kinesic tell that meant she’d struck a nerve. He’d made a mistake there.

‘And the venues that were attacked, Solitude Creek and the Bay View Center? Grant’s complaint was with the government . He would’ve hired somebody to attack state buildings, not private ones, if he’d really wanted revenge.

‘Which meant maybe Otto Grant had been set up as a fall guy. You went online and found somebody who’d been posting anti-government statements. A perfect choice. You made contact, pretended you were sympathetic, then kidnapped him and stuck him in that cabin until it was time to finish up here. Made his death look like a suicide. All the texts and the call-log records we found? About payments and what a good job his supposed hitman had done? They were both your phones; you just called and texted yourself, then planted one on Grant.’

She now placed her hands flat on the table. ‘So. Grant was a set-up. But then who was the real client who’d hired you?’

She’d eliminated Michelle Cooper’s husband — Frederick Martin. Brad, the fireman. And Daniel Nashima.

Another suspect had arisen briefly. Upon learning that it was Mexican Commissioner Ramón Santos’s mercenaries who’d orchestrated the arson of the warehouse in Oakland, Dance had wondered if he’d been behind the entire plot, suspecting Henderson Jobbing and Warehouse, at Solitude Creek, to be one of the hubs for illegal-weapons traffic in Central California, and Santos of taking his own measures to shut them down and cover up the crime as the work of a psycho.

She remembered the sign she’d seen the day after the attack at Solitude Creek:

Remember your Passports for International trips!

She’d assigned Rey Carreneo to look into the matter. But he’d learned that Henderson did serve international routes, yes — but only to Canada. The owner didn’t want to risk hijacking or robberies south of the border. No reason for Commissioner Santos to send a mercenary to destroy the company.

So who, she’d struggled to understand, was the unsub working for? Why was he killing people and filming it?

And then, finally.

A to B to Z...

Now another sweep of the so-very-handsome face.

‘The violent websites on Stan Prescott’s computer. That’s your job, Andy. Yours and Chris Jenkins’s. This wasn’t about revenge or insurance or a psychotic serial killer. It was about you and your partner selling ultra-violent images of death to clients around the world. Custom ordered.’

Dance shook her head. ‘I honestly wouldn’t think there’d be that big a market for this sort of thing.’

Antioch March gave her an amused look. He remained silent but his eyes chastised, as if she was bluntly naïve. They said, Oh, Agent Dance. You’d be surprised.

‘You didn’t kill Prescott because he drew attention to the murders in Monterey. It was because your website, Hand to Heart, was on his computer. He downloaded graphic images of corpses from it and re-posted them. You didn’t have any pictures of Solitude Creek on your site, of course, but Prescott did on his. That made a connection between Heart to Hand and the roadhouse.’

Hand to Heart was the key to the men’s operation. It seemed to be about humanitarian aid — and visitors could click through to tsunami relief or ending hunger sites. But most of Hand to Heart was pictures and videos of disasters, atrocities, death, dismemberment.

She speculated that the men noted who downloaded the most pictures and discreetly contacted them to see if they might be interested in something more... graphically violent. She was sure that, after sufficient vetting of both parties, and for the payment of a huge fee, clients could order specific types of videos or images. It answered the question they’d wondered about at the beginning of the case: why not just burn down Solitude Creek? Why not just shoot people at the Bay View? Because this particular client — whoever he was — wanted pictures of stampedes.

March tilted his head, brows dipping, and she had an idea what he was wondering. ‘Oh, how we found you at TJ’s? You used prepaid cells in the cameras and routed through proxies, but the video ended up at the Cedar Hills Inn server.’

Jon Boling had explained how the signals could be traced. She hadn’t understood a word but kissed him in thanks.

‘That just sent us to the hotel, not your room. But I correlated all the guests’ names with anyone who’d rented a car in Los Angeles just after the panic at the theme park. Yours popped up. We hit the room at the inn and found a note with TJ’s address.’

The same technology that was so integral to their perverse career had betrayed him.

He sat back, a clink of chain.

She was struck again by how handsome he was, resembling an actor whose name she couldn’t summon. He had no physical appeal to her but objectively he was striking — dipping lids, careful lips that weren’t too thick or too thin, noble cheekbones. And a cut, muscular physique. Even the shaved head worked.

‘I want your cooperation, Andy. I want the names of your clients. Those in America, at least. And any of your — what would you call them? — competitors.’

The cases would be tough to put together, though she, Michael O’Neil and the FBI’s Amy Grabe would try. But, in fact, what Dance wanted most was to understand this man’s workings. He was unlike any other criminal she’d ever come up against; and, experience had taught her, if there was one with his proclivities toward the dark edge there’d be others.

‘Before you answer, let me say one thing.’

‘Yes?’

‘Texas.’

His face gave a minuscule twitch. He knew what was coming.

‘If you agree, I’ve spoken to the prosecutor here, and he’ll accept a death penalty waiver.’ She gazed at him steadily. ‘And will guarantee no extradition to Texas. We subpoenaed your credit-card statements, Andy. You were in Fort Worth six months ago, finding clients for your website. The same time of the stampede at the Prairie Valley Club. You used that homeless man for your fall-guy there. But there’ll be some forensics tying you to that incident, I’m sure. They’ll go for capital murder. And they’ll get it. The daughter of a state politician was killed in that stampede.’

The tip of his tongue eased against a lip and retreated. ‘And here? I’ll get life.’

‘Maybe a little shorter. Depends.’

He said nothing.

‘Or call your lawyer.’

March’s eyes scanned her, from the top of her head to her waist, leaving a chill repulsion in the wake of his gaze. ‘You’ll guarantee that?’

‘Yes,’ she told him.

‘Personally.’ He dragged the word out, almost seductively.

‘Yes.’

‘I have one condition.’

‘What’s that?’

‘I can call you “Kathryn”.’

‘That’s fine. Now, what’s the condition?’

‘That’s it. You let me use your first name.’

He can call me whatever he wants. But he’s asking my permission to use the name? The sensation of ice brushed the back of her neck.

She forced herself not to react. ‘You can use my name, yes.’

‘Thank you, Kathryn.’

She opened her notebook and uncapped a pen. ‘Now. Tell me, Andy. How did you meet Chris Jenkins?’

The two men had become acquainted in one of the snuff forums online.

Dance recalled the websites that Jon Boling had found: they featured not only pictures that could be downloaded but forums where members could post messages and chat in real time.

Jenkins was former military. While on tour overseas, he’d taken a lot of pictures of battlefields, bodies, torture victims. He himself had had no interest in the images but he’d learned he could make good money selling them to news media or, even more lucrative, private collectors.