True Deceit (Blindsided Book 1) (6 page)

She gave him a small smile.

“Here.” He held out a mug for her. “I hope you don’t mind that I made coffee.”

“Of course I don’t, thank you.” She took a sip enjoying the taste of the roasted beans.

“I would have let you sleep longer but I’ve found something you really need to see. I couldn’t believe it when I found it, I still can’t.” He attention had left her now and he was tapping away excitedly on her laptop.

His words chased away any lingering tiredness and she felt her stomach tighten. “What? What have you found?”

Moving from the chair he came and sat next to her on the couch putting the laptop on the coffee table in front of them. “This.”

On the screen there was a webpage with pictures of about a dozen different women. Each image showed a fully clothed woman standing with her back against a dark screen staring straight at the camera. None of the women were smiling though and each face was etched with fear.

“What on earth is this site?” she spoke aloud as she read the information posted in a box below each woman’s image.

“From what I can see it’s a store where sick bastards do their ‘shopping.’” He clicked on one of the images which took him through to a full page profile of the woman in question. By the time she had finished reading what was on the page, Sarah felt sick. On it a full and intimate description of the woman was given and, most sickening of all, there was a price list. The more depraved the act you wanted to do to this woman, the higher the cost.

“This has got to be some sort of sick joke, right? You’re not telling me that this is real?” She couldn’t drag her eyes away from the woman’s face. She wanted Mitch to tell her that it wasn’t real but she knew that it was. No one could fake the amount of fear she saw in that woman’s eyes.

“It’s real, alright.”

“But how?” she couldn’t get her head around it. “If something like this is on the web for all to see how has it not been reported and closed down?”

“Ah well there’s the thing, it’s not there for all to see. Have you heard of the deep web?”

Sarah nodded. “Yeh, it’s like a huge chunk of the Internet that you can’t just find through a normal search engine.

“Exactly. Sites like these, and believe me there are thousands, are hidden deep down and are often encrypted and only accessible if you know where to look and how to get in. It takes skill to find them so your average Joe just surfing the Internet is never going to come across something like this.”

“So I’m guessing they’d be damn near impossible to trace, too, then.”

“Absolutely, these people don’t take any chances. They know what they’re doing and if anyone tried to trace the website they’d hit brick wall after brick wall.”

Sarah frowned. “It’s truly horrifying and I’m glad you showed me but what does this have to do with my sister?”

“Well, to be honest, I don’t know that it has anything to do with her but while you were sleeping I did a lot of digging. I managed to find about a dozen reports across the country of accidents just like your sister’s.”

“As many as that?” she was shocked.

“Those are just the ones where the circumstances are almost identical that happened over the past five years. Here, take a look.”

He switched screens and showed her a list he’d compiled. “A bit more digging and I was able to come up with photos for most of the victims,” he pointed to where each entry had a photo next to it.

Sarah’s blood ran cold as her eyes landed on the picture of a smiling woman with long blonde hair which had been taken on a beach somewhere. “That’s her! That’s the woman on the website!”

Mitch nodded. “Yeah, that’s why I woke you. Three of the women who supposedly died in these accidents are on that website. I’ve checked and double-checked; there’s no doubt.”

Sarah let out a long breath and leaned back on the couch. “My god, we have to tell someone about this. I knew there was something weird going on but I never imagined this.”

“Sarah...”

“We have to contact the police, immediately. Now we can prove a link between these accidents they’ll have to re-open my sister’s case too.” She said almost to herself, lost in her own thoughts.

“Sarah!”

His raised voice got her attention. “What?”

“You can’t go to the police.”

“You’re joking?” she gave a little laugh “Of course I’m going to the police.”

“Listen to me, will you?” The expression on his face was deadly serious. “You can’t. These people,” he waved his hand at the laptop “the kind of people who do this kind of thing, do you think they’re going to just sit around while you mess it all up for them?”

The thought hadn’t even occurred to her. “You don’t seriously think they’d come after me do you?”

Mitch sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know, Sarah, but is it a chance you really want to take?”

He had a point. From what they’d found out, these people were ruthless. Even if it the women weren’t killed in car accidents, there were bodies and they had to belong to someone. “Okay I take your point but I can’t just undo what I’ve seen, what if my sister is caught up in this?”

“I don’t know Sarah, I really don’t.” He stood up. “Look, I’m sorry but this is where I have to bow out.”

“What do you mean?”

He picked up his jacket from the arm of the chair and slipped it on. “I mean I’ve done what I can but I can’t do any more. I’m sorry, Sarah. I’m sorry about Jennifer and I’m sorry about having to bail but I have a family and I can’t get any further involved in this, it’s just too risky.”

“I can’t believe you’re walking away from this,” Sarah spat as she stood and faced him. “You’re actually going to just leave and pretend this never happened?”

He had the courtesy to look ashamed. “Yeah I guess I am. I’m not that guy Sarah, I’m a hacker. I’m not some macho guy who deliberately goes looking for trouble, you know that.”

“Well if I didn’t before, I certainly do now. Go on, get out.” She couldn’t even bring herself to look at him as she went to her front door and held it open.

He put his hand on her arm as he went to leave. “Don’t do anything stupid, please.”

She shook his hand off. “Just go.”

He went to leave and she was just closing the door behind him when he turned back. “Sarah, it’s probably best if you don’t call me again.”

She didn’t answer choosing instead to just slam the door in his face. Her hand shook with anger as she poured herself another coffee in the kitchen before returning to the couch and staring at her laptop.
What now?

Sarah threw her cell down on the couch next to her. She’d been trying most of the day to get hold of Michael but his phone had been switched off since her first call that morning. The house phone kept going to the answering machine too and she’d left more than one message on both.
Damn him.
If there was anyone else she could talk to about this, she would. But she couldn’t go to the police, it was too dangerous, and besides what would she say? There was no evidence that this involved her sister in any way it was just her gut telling her that it did. Anybody else would just think she was plain nuts. So it had to be Michael.

Decision made, she stood up and grabbed her laptop and car keys. If he wouldn’t answer the phone, then she would just have to drive round there and bang on the door until he opened it. He couldn’t ignore her then.

***

His car wasn’t out front when she got there but that didn’t mean anything, it could have been in the garage. As soon as she pulled to a stop, she jumped out of the car, raced up the path and the steps of the front porch and started banging on the front door. Nothing. Crouching down she lifted the letterbox flap and peered through but couldn’t see anything more than an empty hallway. Frustrated she stood up and went to the window to the right of the front door. Cupping her hands against the glare of the sun she pressed her face to the glass but again she saw nothing other than the empty living room.

“Can I help you?” The voice made her jump back from the glass guiltily though she was doing nothing wrong.

“Oh, hi. Mrs Berner, isn’t it?” She recognised the neighbour from a previous get-together in her yard. She stood peering over the hedge that ran between the properties.

“Sorry, dear, I didn’t recognise you. It’s Sam isn’t it? Jennifer’s sister?”

“Sarah,” she nodded. “Actually, I’m looking for Michael.”

“I don’t think he’s here, dear, I saw him putting a bag in his car yesterday and he hasn’t been back since. Terrible business. It will probably do him the world of good to get away for a few days.” She looked at Sarah with a concerned look on her face. “And how are you coping, dear?”

The look of concern on the lady’s face and the question itself threatened to reduce Sarah to tears again. Swallowing hard she held them at bay and managed a small smile. “Oh, you know, just taking things one day at a time. I don’t suppose he told you where he was going, did he?”

The old lady shook her head. “I’m sorry, dear, he didn’t.”

“Not to worry, I’ll give him a call.” She turned to walk back to her car and then paused. “Thank you. I know my sister really enjoyed having you as a neighbour.”

She didn’t look back as she walked towards her car, not wanting to see the tears that she knew were running down the old lady’s face.
Now what?
She was fuming. How could he leave town without telling her? And where would he have gone? She slipped her cell phone from her pocket and once more dialled his number. Yet again it went straight to voicemail but she didn’t bother leaving a message this time. Frustrated, she flung the cell phone onto the passenger seat and hit the steering wheel with her hands.

Taking a deep breath she made herself calm down.
Think, Sarah, where would he have gone?
If he’d just taken off somewhere random for a few days, she had no hope of finding him. But the chances were that he’d gone somewhere familiar, but where? Suddenly it hit her. His mother’s house. She remembered Jennifer telling her about his mom’s passing and the empty house that needed clearing. She knew it was fairly nearby, certainly driving distance, but she didn’t know exactly where.

Looking out the car window she saw that her sister’s neighbour had gone back inside. Quickly getting back out of the car she hurried up to the house avoiding the front porch this time and letting herself through the gate and into the backyard. Keeping her fingers crossed that it was still where Jennifer had told her it was, she lifted the heavy plant pot that sat just to the right of the door.
Yes!
Grabbing the key, she opened the back door and went inside.

Heading straight for the study, she paused briefly at the door. What she was about to do felt like a complete invasion of privacy and something she would never normally consider doing, but what choice did she have? Going to the desk, she went through the drawers until she found what she was looking for. Folding the letter that had his mother’s address on it she shoved it in her back pocket and left the house.

Punching the address into her satnav she put the car in drive. She didn’t know if he would be there or not, but it was worth a try.
When he sees what I’ve found he’ll change his mind. He has to.

It had taken Michael several hours to go through the papers in the desk. Long, boring hours. Most of it was junk that he put straight in the trash, but some were important documents that he needed to keep, mostly relating to the house. Sliding his hand into the last drawer to check that it was completely empty, his finger brushed across what felt like a button protruding at the back. Curious, he pulled the drawer out completely and set it to one side. With it out of the way he was able to peer inside the cavity and see what it was that his fingers had felt. Surprised, he realised it was in fact a button. Not knowing what to expect, he pressed it. There was an immediate sound, a definite thunk, before another draw popped open. Stunned, he slid it all the way out, revealing a small wooden box nestled in the cavity.

Gently he lifted it out and placed it on the desk in front of him. It was about the size of an envelope and about 4 inches deep. The lid was intricately carved into a design depicting a crown. The box wasn’t locked and he gently lifted the lid. It was filled with letters, and lifting out the first one, he started to read.

At first the doorbell didn’t register as he sat staring into space the letter still clutched in his hand. It rang again and this time the shrill tone pierced the fog in his brain. Folding the letter quickly he put it back in the box and the box in the drawer, pushing it closed and checking that it was once again invisible to the naked eye.

Sarah was the last person he was expecting as he opened the front door and she didn’t give him chance to speak as she pushed past him and into the house.

“So this is where you’re hiding,” she said angrily as she turned to face him. “Care to explain why you’re ignoring my calls?”

He ignored her question. “How did you know I was here?”

She waved him off. “It doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re clearly avoiding me. How could you? Now of all times?”

Michael sighed. “I just needed a bit of time, to be on my own.” He turned and went into the kitchen knowing that she would follow. “Coffee?”

“Coffee? Really?”

He was getting cross now. She wasn’t his wife, he didn’t owe her any explanations. “Look, I told you I needed a bit of time. I was going to let you know where I was. What’s so urgent that you had to follow me up here?”

Sarah had put her laptop on the kitchen table. “I asked a friend for help and we found something.” She lifted the lid of the computer and started hitting keys. “You didn’t believe me when I said something weird was going on but I was right and now I can prove it to you.”

Michael knew he had no choice. All he could hope was that if he humoured her, she wouldn’t stay too long. His mind was on the box in the desk and his fingers were itching to get back to it.

“Okay, show me.” He placed two steaming cups of coffee on the kitchen table and pulled a chair up next to her.

His coffee went cold as Sarah showed him the website they’d found during the night. “And these are definitely the same women that were supposedly killed in these accidents?”