Kate sighed, squeezed his hands. “I just want this to be over. I want Lucy to feel safe again. I want to get my life back.”
“Quinn said you and Merritt had it out.”
“Merritt’s an asshole. He honestly believes that I intentionally brought Paige into a dangerous situation and did nothing to save her. And I told him the truth-that Paige had assured me he’d authorized backup. I thought there were agents surrounding the building, ready to act. He didn’t believe me.”
“But Quinn does.”
“I think so.”
“You’re doing the right thing, Kate. And no matter how long it takes, I’ll stand by you.”
She touched his face, then dropped her hand when Quinn Peterson walked into the room. “Morton’s here,” he said.
Dillon stood. “Are you going to be okay?”
She nodded, gave him a quick smile. “I’m okay.”
Dillon asked, “Did they find the girl in the video?”
“Not yet. I sent the file to the lab to see if they can find any personal information from the images. It appears to be her own bedroom, very feminine. A double bed. She’s likely single, so unless an employer or relative calls, or she has a roommate who wasn’t home last night, we might not find her for a couple of days.”
Dillon followed Quinn down the hall, around the corner, and through a secure door into another interview room. Two guards stood next to a chained and seated Roger Morton. Quinn motioned for them to step out.
“Where’s my lawyer?” Morton sneered as the cops closed the door.
“I’m sure he’s on his way. We informed him of this meeting.”
Morton’s dark hair had begun to gray and he sported the beginnings of a beer belly. He was muscular with a thick neck and hands. He played with a class ring on his left pinky finger. He was neither handsome nor ugly, an average guy who worked out to build the muscles, but as he aged the muscles were turning into flab. Purple and black bruises had formed on his face from Dillon’s attack the day before. Dillon couldn’t muster any sympathy for his injuries.
“I’m not talking. Told you that.”
“I know what you told me yesterday,” Quinn said. “I’m giving you a chance to make a deal.”
“Talk to my lawyer.”
“I will.” Quinn tapped his fingers on the table. “But if you cooperate and help us find Adam Scott, we’ll make a deal. A good deal. If you don’t, it’s special circumstances murder. Death penalty.”
“Bullshit. You don’t have me for murder.”
“We have a witness from five years ago who has given us a sworn statement regarding the events in the warehouse that resulted in the deaths of two agents.”
Morton leaned forward, chains clinking. “If you have a sworn statement that is at all accurate, it has a criminal stating that Adam Scott killed that guy in the warehouse, not me. I know that Kate Donovan is not a reliable witness.” He snorted.
Quinn tensed. “You were there. You are an accessory to murder. We have you on tape raping eight girls.”
“Women,” Morton corrected. “Consenting women.”
“Lucy did not consent,” Quinn said. “Paige Henshaw did not consent.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t kill them. What’s rape? Five to seven?”
“Kidnapping, use of a weapon during the commission of felony rape, you’ll be getting far more than seven years.”
Morton stared straight ahead.
“You don’t get it, do you? Adam Scott is leaving you to take the blame. The evidence at the cabin on the island points to you as being an equal partner in Trask Enterprises, including murder, rape, kidnapping, money laundering, e-crimes, and that’s just the major-ticket items.” Quinn leaned forward. “Scott gets away with your money to sun himself on some Caribbean island and you are left having to answer for his crimes.”
For the first time, Dillon saw a flicker cross Morton’s face.
“So Scott gets away and you go to prison. Seem fair to you? Especially since, as you say, you didn’t kill anyone.”
“I didn’t,” Morton insisted. “And you’re not going to get me to say I did.”
“You attempted to kill Agent Kate Donovan.”
Morton snorted. “She was trespassing.”
Quinn stared at him and shook his head. “That’s not going to fly, Roger. You had kidnapped and raped a girl on the premises. Probable cause.” He leaned forward again. “Mick Mallory survived. I already have a statement from him. So between Mallory, Donovan, and Lucy Kincaid, I have three eyewitnesses.”
“Mallory?” Morton looked skeptical.
Dillon spoke for the first time. “You didn’t know he was an undercover FBI agent?”
By the look on his face, this was the first Morton had heard of it. “That’s a fucking lie.”
Quinn shook his head. “We had an undercover agent inside and Scott learned his identity. He left the island with Mallory with the purpose of killing him and luring Donovan into a trap, but someone saw the attack and got Special Agent Mallory to the hospital in time.”
“Bullshit,” Morton said. “Mallory watched Trask whack that bitch-” He stopped himself.
Quinn raised an eyebrow. “Continue.”
“Fuck you.”
Morton leaned back in his chair and glared at them.
Dillon glanced at Quinn, then said to Morton, “I understand why you want to protect Adam. You’ve been covering for him for a long time. Ever since he killed Trevor Conrad.”
Morton’s eyes flickered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” There was no passion in his words.
Dillon didn’t have all the details, but he’d begun to piece together the complexities of Morton’s relationship with Adam Scott. He started fishing, knowing that the waters were ripe. “You, Adam, Paul, and Trevor were best friends. Palled around together at Stonebridge, rich boys with the world in your palm. Cocky. But Adam was always a little different. He had a dark charisma. You did things you probably wouldn’t have done because of him egging you on. After all, you wouldn’t be a man if you didn’t push the envelope.”
Dillon leaned forward, stared Morton in the eye. “Trevor balked. I think he knew something about Adam that he didn’t like. Planned to talk to the authorities about it. And Adam killed him. The explosion in the science lab was to cover up the murder.”
The look on Morton’s face told Dillon he wasn’t far off in his analysis. He pushed deeper, putting himself into Adam Scott’s mind. What would he have asked his best friends to do? What would have repelled one of them so much that he would have risked everything to talk to the police?
“You all raped a girl, but Adam killed her. Probably strangled her while having sex. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe not. But Trevor freaked.”
Dillon watched Morton closely. He was off this time. Damn, he thought he’d nailed the connection, what Adam lorded over Roger Morton and Paul Ullman to get them to commit felonies. Morton himself wasn’t hard to sway; he was already predisposed to a life of violence. He was a classic power rapist. Without Adam Scott, he probably would have ended up in prison at some point in his life. He was abusive and treated women as objects. But he wasn’t the brains behind Trask Enterprises, merely a figurehead.
But Adam Scott. He had dark fantasies that had developed early in his life, fueled by strict parents. But that wasn’t the reason Adam turned to murder. He was sexually dysfunctional. And if he had killed a woman during sex when he was in high school, that meant the cause of the dysfunction had occurred even earlier in his childhood, likely at the onset of puberty.