Broken Falcon, page 28
She would reach out to her therapist—the woman who’d helped her so much when she was sixteen and who remained an important fixture in her life—and discuss what was healthy in that regard.
It crossed her mind she could probably talk to her fellow grad students—
Her mind killed the idea off mid-think. Tobias had been murdered, and Chase was, in theory, a suspect, even if Tobias’s fitness data, combined with Eden’s alarm system data—which had logged the time Chase had left here yesterday—and Chase’s SUV and cell phone data, which had his GPS location at the same time, would exonerate him eventually.
It would take time for that information to be released by investigators. Until then, there would be no turning to her fellow grad students. She might not even return to grad school.
She didn’t believe for a minute that Chase had murdered in cold blood, but until the FBI named a different suspect, no one in the department would believe anything else.
Personally, Eden’s money was on Sling Man as the shooter.
Tobias had been a pawn in this whole little nightmare, and like many a pawn, he’d been the piece taken in a move aimed at checkmate.
With Chase being the king who was blocked in from all sides.
She shook off the miserable thoughts. They would just have to find Tobias’s real killer. Now. Today. Not the guy who pulled the trigger, but the guy who pulled the strings. Hank.
She settled in front of the computer in the workroom and opened up the payment app. “I’ll download the transactions and send everything to you.”
“Will you let Mothman have access to your account?” Chase asked. “I can guarantee he’ll be able to track things down faster if he’s legally authorized. He’ll leave the money alone, of course.”
Eden gave him a sharp nod. “Also of course. Anything that gets us answers faster works for me.”
“I need evidence that’s valid in a court of law,” Seong said in a clipped tone Eden had grown used to. The Asian American agent had a brisk, no-nonsense style that was comforting. She’d said she’d worked the Parks investigation last year, and Eden guessed no one else in the FBI knew more about Dr. Elizabeth Parks than she did. There had been enough evidence to put the death penalty on the table, and that had been what pushed the psychologist to plead guilty and accept life without parole.
“It’ll be a hundred percent legal if Eden authorizes Mothman’s access and a thousand times faster than the FBI could get a warrant and access.”
Seong nodded. “Do it.”
While Eden showed the agent her transaction register and pointed out the payments from Hank, Chase texted Mothman.
In a matter of minutes, she’d given a stranger whose real name she didn’t even know access to her online bank account. She should be terrified by this, but strangely, it wasn’t even a blip on her fear radar.
She trusted Chase, and that was enough.
“Tell me everything you know about Hank,” Seong said.
“I kept a profile on each of my clients,” Eden said. “It’s in my file cabinet.” She rose to grab it, then saw Chase’s face.
It hit her then, what she’d just said and what it would mean to him.
“It wasn’t psychological. It was to help my memory so I would know what to ask and talk about. Know their preferences. Even preferred language.” She lowered her voice and said, “But yeah, I made notes on what I suspected would fit in their psychological profile too.”
It had been an interesting exercise for her, and she’d developed a lot of theories about men and their relationships with camgirls in the process.
“You have one on me?”
She had no choice but to say the truth. “Yes.”
His face was unreadable, but he said, “Get your files for Seong.”
“If you’re certain Mr. Roboto is Hank, that’s the only one I need,” Seong said. Eden would laugh that the woman had adopted her nickname for the monster, but the moment was too fraught with the strained look on Chase’s face. He was struggling with this new information.
“No,” Chase said. “Get Falcon’s file too. There might be information there that can help us.”
Eden ran to her office, passing by the Raptor operatives who showed no signs of leaving. Not that she minded. Protection was a good thing.
She unlocked the top drawer of her cabinet and pulled out her client files. Seong could have them all as far as she was concerned. She wouldn’t be going online again. Desiree was history.
She returned to the workroom and dropped the stack on the bed. “This is everything. Do what you will with them. I’m not a psychotherapist, and there’s no confidentiality requirement or even expectation.”
Seong nodded. “We’ll start with Hank.”
Eden grabbed his file, which was thicker than the others. He’d been one of her first fans.
“Do you think he’s one of the executives at CamDames?” she asked Chase and Seong.
Seong shook her head. “I know squat about CamDames because somebody didn’t give me a hint about what he was up to.” Her irritated tone was clearly directed at Chase. “But that doesn’t feel quite right. Might be someone lower than an executive. CamDames is extremely profitable. It’s hard to understand why the CEO or anyone making the bigger bucks would risk screwing that up with trafficking when the legal stuff was making bank.”
“I wondered about that too,” Eden said. “From the minute Chase told me about the trafficking, I wondered why the hell they’d do that when there were weeks I pulled in ten K in twenty hours.” She glanced around at her very nice townhouse. “I wouldn’t be broke except I only worked for them for sixteen months part-time and used most of the money to buy this place and set up my own site.”
“So what are you thinking?” Chase asked Seong. “It has to be someone connected to CamDames. The guys who tried to abduct Eden were security guards there.”
“Definitely connected. I think an investor. Someone who made money from the site, but didn’t work there,” Seong said. “I think there’s another connection to Eden.” She paused and studied Eden. “It’s no mistake that a grad student found out about Desiree and threatened you at just the right time that you would threaten him back with Chase.”
Eden had confessed to that earlier, before Chase arrived, and now she focused on the connections Seong was making.
The text from Tobias had been sent after the man was dead. It was bait, obviously. But how had anyone known to clue Tobias in in the first place? There was only one answer. “You think it’s someone in the psychology department.”
Seong nodded.
“It makes sense,” Chase said. “Parks was a psychologist. She could have known faculty there. Even students. And as I already told you, we’ve long suspected she was having an affair with a married man. Anyone who fits that bill?” Chase said.
Eden’s gaze jerked to his. “You mean like my advisor, Dr. Elliot Dearborn?”
Chase’s brow furrowed. “Maybe. I never heard his name. But I saw his face.”
Eden crossed back into her office. Chase and Agent Seong followed. She reached for a hardcover book from her shelf and flipped it open to the back, where the author photo was printed in crisp color on the flap. “Is this the man you saw?”
Chase’s face went pale, then he gave a slow nod. “That’s him. That’s Hank.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Eden’s files were spread across the coffee table. After a private discussion between Eden and Chase about how much of his history with Desiree and how much of the abuse he suffered he was willing to share, he’d decided he trusted everyone in the townhouse: Seong, Rav, Isabel, Ian, Sean, Hawk, Tricia, and of course Eden. Nothing was off-limits, and everything would need to be discussed openly if they were going to figure out exactly how Dr. Elliot Dearborn was involved and find proof of who really murdered Tobias Redford.
Likewise, nothing was off-limits as far as asking Eden about her work with CamDames and her solo enterprise. None of her sessions were recorded, so all they had were her notes.
Each person in the room was given a file to examine. Chase took his own. Eden and Seong were going over Hank’s file together, talking softly as they sat on the barstools at the kitchen counter.
Chase would read through his file before anyone—even Eden—took a look at it, and he would have the final say on if it would be shared with the others.
He settled in a plush recliner with the file on his lap and braced himself for Eden’s psychological observations based on their conversations over the last eight months.
The first notes were just the simple facts of a new follower: screen name along with any details offered as far as background, amount of time he was in the chat, and amount spent. He hadn’t paid for a private session for several weeks. It had taken that long for him to build up the courage.
In those first weeks, she’d noted his language preferences—did he like to talk dirty or preferred to say nothing at all—and he marveled at her memory because she’d been on camera the whole time, but then he realized she’d had the transcript of the chat for reference when the shift was over.
“Eden, do you have access to the chat transcripts from CamDames?” he asked.
She looked up from where she’d been scrutinizing something on the page with Seong. “No. They would let me view them right after my shift, but that was it. The minute I left the building, it was their data, not mine.”
“But you have the files from the last six months,” he confirmed.
“Every word.”
“Is there something you’re thinking of?” Seong asked.
“Nothing in particular. Mostly I was wondering if there was a shift in Hank’s behavior when Parks was arrested and again when she pled guilty.”
“How so?”
“Given my memories of the night I told you about, there was a messed-up dynamic with him and Parks. A love-hate thing. But the events of the last twenty-four hours, right down to the letter that Eden read that was supposedly from Parks, feels like revenge against me for what happened to her.”
“Why do you say supposedly?” Hawk asked.
He was the only person in this room aside from Isabel who had known him in Alaska, before he’d been changed forever. And even Isabel hadn’t really known him, because he’d been too shy to talk to her. The few times he wanted to, he’d been afraid his stutter would embarrass him, and so by the time he did speak to her, he was no longer himself.
Given his history with Hawk, he probably trusted him more than anyone because he was one of the only people who knew who he’d been once. Or maybe it was because Hawk knew who he could have been.
“I don’t think Parks wrote that letter.” Chase hadn’t listened when Eden read it online, but he’d scanned the text before settling in to read his file. The FBI had allowed Eden to make a copy before they claimed the original as evidence. “And now that I think of it, I don’t think she wrote the one I received in my mail a few weeks ago either. It’s not quite…her speech pattern. One thing I know is Parks’s words. And Agent Seong has confirmed the FBI has no idea how she would have gotten the letter out. She hasn’t had any visitors or any mail in or out since she was transferred to the max facility in July after sentencing.”
“So you’re saying someone who knew the intimate details of what Parks did to you wrote the letters, but they didn’t get her language usage quite right,” Seong said.
“Yes. And maybe the transcripts that Eden does have will bear out the language part.”
“Good idea,” Seong said. “We’ll look at those after we go through Hank’s file.”
Chase nodded and turned his attention back to Eden’s notes on Falcon.
He jolted when he read the summary after their first private session.
Falcon is probably white, midtwenties, and socially adept. Online, he knows how to talk to women and isn’t the type to send an unsolicited dick pic, not even to a camgirl. I don’t think he’s visiting my room to get his engine revving for a date. He was hesitant and reserved during our private session. I think he wanted to take it sexual but was concerned about moving too fast, almost like it was a first date. He might simply be shy, but it’s also possible he’s recovering from sexual trauma. Either way, he’ll need coaxing to attempt explicit sexual play, if that’s what he wants.
She underlined the last sentences.
If he indicates he wants explicit play but seems reluctant or hesitant, that is when he can be coaxed, not before. Do not push him. Every sexual step must stem from his wants and desires. He needs to feel in control at all times.
Holy crap. She’d gotten all that from their first session alone, for which there had been no transcript because he’d been on voice for the first time.
He wanted to tell her she was very perceptive, but this wasn’t the place or time, so he kept reading.
And then the weirdest thing happened. Over time, Eden went from describing Falcon’s words and their interactions to her reaction to their deepening sexual relationship. The entries became more and more about Eden’s thoughts and feelings as he dominated and bossed her around with words, and how much it turned her on because his style wasn’t that of an overbearing dom. No, she’d been drawn to how he commanded her pleasure, and she grew frustrated that he didn’t masturbate with her. That she was alone in her apartment with just a voice that was always in control.
Her notes were more about her physical and emotional reaction to their sessions than they were about him and his psychological makeup.
Had she been falling in love with him even then?
But how was that surprising when he’d been falling in love with her at the same time?
It was entirely possible to fall in love with someone you’d never met in person when you could communicate as deeply—even have sex as they had—online.
He looked at her, sitting at the counter, head close together with an FBI agent, and realized he’d probably been in love with her before he ever stepped foot inside that coffee shop, and now he knew that she’d already been falling for him.
Had they both tapped into that chemistry that night? She hadn’t known who he was, of course, but he had, and maybe he’d emitted the right pheromones to tip her off or something?
Somehow, she’d picked up on Falcon’s vibes.
He’d dreaded reading these notes. He’d feared she was looking at him like a lab rat, as Parks had done, but the gift he’d received was the opposite. He’d gotten to read the opinions she’d had about him and how they’d grown into deeper feelings. There was nothing objectifying or scientific about the words she wrote. It was all feeling and a gift.
How many men were lucky enough to know all the best parts about their partner’s emotional journey to falling in love? To read the admiration and desire in her own neat script?
And all this was including, not in spite of, the fact that she’d guessed at some of the abuse he’d suffered and worked hard to make sure her words and actions always felt safe for him.
Was it any wonder he was in love with her?
He turned to the last page of the file and saw it ended before he went to Portland. She hadn’t taken notes after their session the night he returned to her room. He smiled at that. She’d kept it intimate and personal by not adding him to her client notes.
Every person in this room except Tricia and possibly Seong—they’d never discussed her personal life—was in a happy, committed relationship. He’d spent the last year wondering if such a thing was even possible for him.
Now he knew he could have it all. As soon as they nailed Dearborn.
It was difficult to read the notes she’d kept on Hank now that she had Dr. Dearborn’s face in her mind. But the more she read, the more she knew Hank and Dearborn were one and the same. And she hated herself for never guessing.
But then, she hadn’t guessed Chase was Falcon. It had never crossed her mind that anyone in her real life would visit Desiree. She’d felt stupidly safe due to the IP address blocking she’d learned how to do. It never occurred to her that everyone apparently utilized VPNs when accessing online sex sites. But still, she didn’t think so many could employ the kind that bounced to a different location halfway around the world to work around her locational blocks. She should probably be banging her head on the counter at her failure to predict any of this. The majority of her clients probably didn’t use virtual private networks, but clearly the important ones had.
Earlier, she’d wondered aloud why she hadn’t recognized his voice. She’d started working for CamDames just weeks before starting in the master’s program, and she’d listened to Dr. Dearborn give lectures at least twice a week at the same time Hank was visiting Desiree’s CamDames room with the same frequency.
Seong suggested that Dearborn had used software that changed the pitch of his voice, which made sense. Unlike Chase, Dearborn had known from the start it would be necessary, as Eden had been his student. In her notes, she had the date of Hank’s first private session with her, which was just six weeks after she began classes.
She read through the notes, pointing out phrases that connected to her advisor. The FBI agent needed a solid legal basis to connect them, and it might be possible to get a search warrant and seize Dearborn’s computers. One was bound to have evidence of the many, many visits he’d made to her site as Hank. And maybe it would have information on his affair with Parks too.
It was a long shot. But long or not, it was still a shot.
She read through the notes she’d jotted after a particular private session and jolted. “Chase, when did you say you think the memory of Dearborn at the cabin happened?”
“It’s hard to say, it’s all so muddled, but my guess is around eighteen or twenty months ago? Parks had been abusing me for some time—I’m certain of that. But I think it was the first time he witnessed it. Parks mentioned that I was twenty-five at the time.”
