Hollywood Lust (22 page)

The only thing that saved my sanity turned out to be a fight for my life and for the lives of those around me. One of the guards managed to use a pry bar to open the door to the interview room. Dawson and the others immediately went over to check on Taylor and her attorney.

“They’re both dead,” Dawson said, turning to me. “You okay?”

I was about to answer and tell him what Taylor had said when we heard the sound of automatic weapons firing somewhere in the building.

John Greer said. “It sounds like it’s coming from upstairs.”

Dawson turned to one of the guards. “Guns…we need guns.”

We were unarmed due to courthouse security measures. If someone was coming into the building with guns, we wouldn’t stand a chance.

“There’s an emergency arsenal upstairs,” the guard said. We heard more shots being fired somewhere above us. “I’m not sure if you can get to it.”

“Show us.”

We followed the guard upstairs and through a doorway. The sound of gunfire was louder here, but it sounded like it was coming from the floor above this one. In a moment, the guard unlocked a small cache of weapons and handed them out.

Another guard came up from the basement floor we’d just left and said, “I just got a radio call. There’s a bunch of people with automatic weapons upstairs. They managed to take over the first floor.”

John Greer had been on his phone. He ended the call and said, “The perimeter of the building’s been breached. There are mass casualties upstairs but the building is surrounded by our side. We think there’s a couple dozen of Taylor’s followers, all on the next floor up.”

“Taylor?” Greer said to me, at the same time I noticed Rob Nelson. The commander looked like he was ready to pass out. “Did she tell you anything?”

“Just that The Swarm is coming and…”

My words were interrupted by a loud blast of gunfire. I realized our assailants were coming down the stairway, firing as they came.

“Spread out and take cover,” Dawson yelled. “Wait until we have visual contact before returning fire.”

The firefight that followed was bloody and violent. The smell of gunpowder filled the room, along with the screams of those who went down during the assault. Bullets flew all around us as we fought off the attackers and defended our ground. 

The battle for the United States Federal Courthouse in Denver lasted almost an hour. In the end, all of Janice Taylor’s followers were killed, along with two casualties on our side. One of the courthouse guards had gone down, along with Rob Nelson. The commander had seemed unprepared for the assault and had been shot through the head in the early stages of the gun battle.

After we secured the scene I told Dawson and Greer what Janice Taylor had told me about Lindsay and Ice. My voice rose to a frantic pitch as I added, “We’ve get to go to Boston. Now!”

***

The plane ride to Boston seemed to take forever, even though we’d gone directly from the courthouse to the airport. John Greer had called the local FBI office in Boston, as well as the police, and told them to respond to Lindsay’s apartment. In the meantime, I repeatedly tried my sister’s number, not getting any response.

When I’d given up on the calls Dawson came over to me. He put a big hand on my shoulder. “Hang in there.”

I tossed my phone on the empty seat next to me. “I can’t believe this is happening. If Ice is part of Taylor’s group, it means this has been planned for weeks, if not months.”

“You think he’s one of The Swarm?”

I shook my head. “I think he’s higher up than that. He could even be one of the original seven.”

Dawson was quiet for a minute. He rubbed a hand over his wide jaw. “Why do you suppose Taylor killed herself?”

My chest rose and then fell. “She probably knew the assault on the courthouse would fail and she’d being going back to supermax. She took the easy way out.”

“She had to have help, from the inside.”

He was talking about the improvised weapon and whatever drug Taylor had taken to end her life. It seemed likely that one of her recruits was working inside the courthouse, helping her. It all seemed unimportant now, especially in view of what she’d said about Lindsay.

John Greer came over and joined me and Dawson, asking me, “What do you know about this Ice person?”

“He and my sister have been together a little over two months. His real name is Brody…” I took a breath. “I don’t even know his last name. They’d recently moved in together, but he’d battered her. I arranged for her to come back to Hollywood, but Ice had convinced her to come back and live with him. She recently told me that she’d fallen in love with him.”

Greer tried to sound encouraging. “We’ll get his full name and run all the background checks. We’ll eventually find them.”

When we arrived at Logan International Airport in Boston, there was a car waiting for us. Twenty minutes after landing I was standing in Lindsay’s apartment. The other FBI teams and local police had beaten us there. The small flat was empty. There was food on the kitchen counter, making me think they’d left in a hurry.

I wandered aimlessly around the apartment, noticing a sweater and a pair of shoes that belonged to my sister. I blinked hard when I found a necklace that I’d given her. It was an inexpensive trinket that I’d bought for her when we’d gotten together on a trip to Catalina Island.

“We talked to the neighbors,” Dawson said after coming over to me. “The couple down the hall think they left sometime early this morning.” His eyes held on me for a moment and I knew there was more.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“They said there was lots of yelling over the past couple of weeks, people arguing.”

My shoulders slumped as I thought about Ice battering Lindsay again.

One of the Boston cops came over to me, removed his cap, and introduced himself. “I’m Wade Dempsey. We spoke about your sister a few days ago.”

“You took the original domestic violence report.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry about what happened here.”

“What was…” I tried to gather my thoughts. “My sister, Lindsay…what was her state of mind when you took the original report?”

Dempsey was around thirty-five, with dark hair and green eyes. He had a build that made me think he worked out a lot. “She was pretty upset at the time. It was obvious she’d been hit and was afraid of her boyfriend.”

“Do you remember his last name?”

He shook his head. “Sorry.”

“Ice…or Brody…what can you tell me about him?”

Dempsey rubbed his forehead as he considered my question. “He seemed…” He exhaled and found my eyes again. “I won’t sugar coat it. He didn’t show any remorse. He was one of those guys who was pretty full of himself.”

“Was there anything else, anything out of the ordinary that seemed important?”

“Not really. I’m sorry.”

I thanked him. He started to walk away but then came back and said, “The neighbors…I got here just a couple of minutes ago. Did you talk to them?”

“The other officers did. They pretty much confirmed there was a lot of commotion and arguing going on.”

He nodded. “I know this area well. I went to Boston College just up the street. The coffee shop downstairs was my favorite hangout back then.” He put on his cap. “I’ll ask around about your sister.”

I thanked him and went over to Greer and Dawson. The apartment was still being dusted for prints, and teams of agents were going through the personal belongings. I held Lindsay’s necklace in my hand and said, “Where do we go from here?”

Greer glanced at Dawson, then back at me. He tried to sound encouraging but I’d seen that look before. It told me we had nothing to go on. “The taskforce will meet here in Boston first thing in the morning. We’ll map out a strategy and take things from there.”

After my long, fruitless day searching Lindsay’s apartment and coming up empty, I collapsed onto my bed in a Boston Holiday Inn. After unwinding for a few minutes, I used my iPhone to FaceTime my friends. After getting them on the line I took some time explaining about Lindsay. I then told them, “I’ll be here at least another day, if you can watch Bernie for me. I should know more about my schedule tomorrow.”

“And you think that asshole Ice is somehow connected to The Swarm?” Mo asked.

“That’s what Janice Taylor told me before she died.”

My friends were in their living room. Natalie raised her voice, startling Bernie, who had been sitting at her feet. “We heard that grot-bag drank the Kool-Aid, took the easy way out.”

“That’s the way it looks.”

“Watcha gonna do ’bout Lindsay?” Mo asked. “If that monster’s got her, there’s no telling what he’ll do.”

“The taskforce is meeting in the morning. Hopefully we can come up with a plan.” Even as I said the words, I doubted that was likely. We had nothing to go on regarding my sister’s whereabouts.

Natalie tried to bolster my spirits. “Lindsay’s tougher than she looks. My money’s on her.” I saw her wince and she said, “Ouch.”

“What’s the matter?”

Mo answered for her. “Baby sis spent the night with Izzy, preparing for Armageddon. They seemed to come through it with just a few muscle strains here and there, if you know what I mean.” She looked at Natalie. “But I didn’t get a wink of sleep.”

Natalie explained, “It was just a little slap and tickle session. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t leave nuthin’ on the table in case it was the end.”

Mo yawned. “Nuthin’ was left on the table, and that includes baby sis.”

I started to end the call when Natalie mentioned our meeting with Lana Palmer, adding, “Me and Mo checked out that Kellen Malone bloke. He’s bad news, Kate. He could be the one that ordered your love-dad whacked.”

“What do you mean by bad news?”

Mo answered. “I got some information on him from the streets. He’s a player going way back. He’s still into a lotta bad shit. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he took out Jean Winslow and then your dad.”

If Kellen Malone was a major player in anything illegal, I’d never heard about it. I made a mental note to talk to Leo and some of the other detectives about him. “I’ll try to get more information about him when I get home. Take care of my dog and I’ll see you soon.”

“Bernie’s in hog-heaven,” Natalie said. “There’s a boxer that moved in a couple of apartments over and he’s ’bout ready to bust his hump.”

I ended the call, got something to eat from room service, and collapsed back into bed. I had a restless night, before finally dozing off a little after four in the morning. I awoke with a start, the memory of yesterday’s events trickling back into my consciousness. My sister, out there somewhere, being held captive by a mad-man who was in league with Janice Taylor, sent a wave of cold fear through my blood stream. I vacillated between feeling hopeless and restless, knowing that I had to do something but having no idea where to even begin.

***

Our taskforce meeting was held the next morning at the FBI headquarters in downtown Boston, in a high-rise building located between the Boston Common and Paul Revere’s house. The area was full of history and I understood the attraction Lindsay had to the city.

John Greer chaired the meeting, which was attended by most of the agents and experts that had been in Denver, including Jeremy Spender, who was the head of a think-tank group in the city. I took a seat next to Dawson; Before the meeting began he asked me about my night.

“I just stayed in and tried to get some sleep but wasn’t entirely successful. And you?”

“Met an old friend who lives here for dinner. It was a nice evening, but…” He rubbed his brow. “I think I stayed too long at the party.”

Agent Greer was calling the meeting to order as I said, “I’m glad you were able to unwind.”

The meeting began with Greer giving us a recap of yesterday’s events. “There were a total of twenty-three casualties at the Denver Courthouse yesterday, including three civilians and two of our own.” He took a moment, paying tribute to Rob Nelson and the fallen guard, before mentioning Janice Taylor. “The cause of death was a cyanide capsule, no doubt smuggled to her from the inside, along with the improvised weapon. The security system was also overridden, resulting in the door to the interview room being electronically locked. As we all know, Taylor’s attorney, Gwen Macy, also succumbed to her injuries.”

“Do we have any information as to how The Swarm was notified to begin the assault on the courthouse?” Jeremy Spender asked.

“It was probably something pre-arranged, just like with the thwarted attacks that were set in place through the website we eventually took down. It could be that Taylor’s attorney’s announcement about her client confessing to her crimes was the signal to begin the assault as soon as she was brought to the courthouse.”

“Have we gotten anything out of those who were planning to set off the bombs in the cities? Dawson asked.

“Nothing worthwhile. They appear to be radicalized individuals who were in communication through social media sites to attempt the attacks.”

“Just as I previously predicted,” Jeremy Spender said. “This is domestic terrorism in its purest form and it won’t be stopped.”

“Why are you here?” Dawson demanded.

Spender’s usually pasty face flushed. “What do you mean?”

“If it can’t be stopped, why are you here? Why don’t you go back to playing spin the bottle with the neighborhood Boy Scouts?”

Spender looked at Greer. “I simply won’t put up with any more of his insults.”

“Fine,” Dawson said. “Pull up your tighty-whities and go home.”

“Enough,” Greer said. He glowered as Dawson. “Let’s stay on task.”

I was annoyed with the banter and asked Greer, “What do we know about Ice or Brody?”

He referenced some paperwork and said, “Brody Carl Archer is a pseudonym. Archer was a false persona, apparently one that was purposely created to become involved in a relationship with your sister. It looks like she was specifically targeted for weeks as a means to get back at you.”

I did my best not to give into the depression that threatened to overwhelm me. “What about prints or other evidence taken from the apartment? Do we have any leads on who he really is?”

“The prints were run through AFIS, and all the other databases, but there were no matches in the system. I’m afraid Brody Archer, or Ice, is a ghost.”

My shoulders slumped as I now gave into the depression.
A ghost.
It seemed an apt description for the monster that had my sister. We had no leads, nothing to go on. I couldn’t begin to imagine the horror my sister was going through. I silently cursed myself, thinking I should have seen everything coming. Why hadn’t I been more forceful and proactive? Why had I let Lindsay go back to that monster?

Greer must have seen my despondency. “We will, of course, follow-up with those already in custody from the original attacks and question them about Archer. Maybe we’ll get something.”

“Where do we go from here?” Dawson asked. He glanced at Spender. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think Jerry’s right, these attacks aren’t over.”

Spender fumed. “It’s Jeremy.”

“Whatever, Jer.” Dawson looked at Greer, raising his brows.

“We continue to work the case, wait for…” The head of our taskforce cleared his throat, searching for something positive to say. “You’re right. These people aren’t just going to go away. As soon as there’s any further indication of activity we’re prepared to respond immediately.”

It was all fed speak for wait for the worst to happen and then we’ll clean up the mess. It angered the hell out of me. “We’ve got to do more. If we’re not proactive on this, my sister will end up dead.”

“We’re doing everything…”

Agent Greer’s words were interrupted by Jeremy Spender. “There’s another possibility.”

“What’s that, Jerry?” Dawson said.

He ignored Dawson and turned to me. “Your sister might have been taken as part of a larger plan. I think there’s a reason she hasn’t been killed.”

My eyes narrowed on him. “What do you mean?”

“It could be that they want to turn your sister. They want her to become one of them. As we speak, it could be that Lindsay is being radicalized and weaponized. And, if that’s the case, she’ll eventually be coming for us just like the others.”