Chapter 3

The next morning Lisa entered Captain Moore's office. One benefit from her previous night's insomnia was a plausible cover story all ready to go.

"How did the meeting go?"

"Pretty good, he's a private investigator who believes there may be some blackmail going on. He doesn't have anything concrete, but I want to re-interview family and friends of our bank robbers. Although there has been no connections so far, we may be able to track down where they were meeting with the blackmailer. Then, if we're lucky, we might be able to get some video."

"Even for longshots, this is a longshot."

"I know, but it's all I have."

"Okay, I'll authorize the interviews, but be gentle. If you come up with something, let me know and we'll get a warrant for any security footage you need."

"Thanks, Captain. I won't let you down."

"Good luck." He said, as she left.

"You're gonna need it." He added after she was gone.

It took almost two weeks of interviews and pouring over files and personal effects before Lisa was sure she had the meeting location pinpointed. As promised, she made a call to Walter. The first call in all that time. Even as the phone was ringing, she found she was still undecided about him.

"Lisa! It's good to hear from you." Walter said, enthusiastically when he answered the phone.

"I've got it narrowed down." She told him, careful to keep her voice flat.

"Where?"

"Pontiac. There's a group of shops on Auburn, near Woodward, not far from the Phoenix Center. That's the only place all three of them have been. I'm going there today with warrants to view security video.

"Great. I could have helped you with this, you know."

"I know, but I wasn't ready – I'm still not ready. Please understand."

"I do. I'm so sorry I fucked this up – but it's real. I wish you could trust me."

"I wish I could too."

"I can be of help with those warrants."

"I've served warrants before."

"Then you know how some of those rent-a-cops can be when bigger fish jump into their little ponds. I can make it go a lot smoother."

"You do have a point there. Fine, I'll meet you at the StarBucks at three."

She hung up before he could say good-bye. It was rude and uncalled for, she knew, and tears briefly stung her eyes at her childish attempt to to hurt him.

She was there well before three, sipping a latte on a bench in front of the StarBucks. The early June day was a little warmer than was comfortable, but memories of the tenacious Michigan winter were still too recent for her to not enjoy the sun.

"Are you Detective Benson?" Said a large, well built, well dressed man approaching her.

"Yes," she replied, suspiciously, "and who are you?" She turned a portion of her attention inward, looking for signs of a control attempt.

"Jim Zeigler," he stated, handing her a business card and sitting down next to her, "I'm head of internal security for Striker Personal Security. I understand you are investigating alleged blackmail concerning a recently deceased executive at our company."

"I'm going to do you a favor and not ask you where you got your information, but that's an ongoing investigation and I'm not at liberty to discuss any details."

"I understand, I'm just here to assure you that the behavior of Mr. Lopez was absolutely impeccable. However, should your investigation turn up anything that may prove embarrassing to the company, we would appreciate it if it is kept out of the media."

Lisa knew there would be no embarrassing information, but the guy's arrogance ticked her off.

"That won't be my decision to make, Mr. Zeigler. Furthermore, the existence of any such information would more than likely be used at trial."

"That could be unfortunate." he said with a frown, then his expression brightened, "You know, our clients come in all shapes and sizes and, by necessity, so do our bodyguards. There are always positions for an attractive female operative on our staff ... very lucrative positions."

"I doubt very much I would ever be interested, and now, if you don't mind, I have some important navel gazing to return to."

"Very well," He said, standing, his frustration poorly concealed, "if you should change your mind, my number is on the card."

"Asshole." She muttered, as he walked away.

She didn't have too long to wait before Walter showed up. There was no unexplained urge to stand up and greet him with a hug – she considered that a point in his favor.

After a awkward hello, he sat next to her and got to business.

"So, what did you find out? Who went where?"

"Mr. Phillips was returning from a business meeting in Flint and bought his wife flowers for their anniversary. The receipt she was able to dig up shows he bought them in that shop over there. That was three months ago, two days before he robbed the bank. I'm not hopeful about getting any video that old, generally only banks or casinos invest in that kind of storage, but we might get lucky. Mr. Lopez's appointment schedule indicates he had lunch with a prospective client in that restaurant, again, two days before he robbed the bank. Two months is still a long time to expect a restaurant to retain video. Our best bet is this very coffee shop. Mr. Jackson was apparently a Starbucks junky and worked at a repair shop right around the corner. He stopped in almost every day during his lunch break."

"That sounds promising, especially since it was the most recent."

"This entire shopping center is owned by one entity and they run it like an open air mall. A small security staff and cameras everywhere. There's practically no corner of this courtyard that isn't covered. I want to start there, Since they all visited different places, I don't think our guy is approaching his victims inside any of them."

"Makes sense. Where's the office?"

"Over there, behind the flower shop. But first, how, exactly, do you intend to ... smooth things along?"

"Two ways I was thinking. One, I could make them so intimidated by you that the mere thought of not cooperating will make them shit themselves. Or, two, if you'll go along with it, I play on their wanna-be cop mentality, you act like you're impressed with their operation and they give you whatever you want in order to prove they're 'on the same team'. If they're all men, I can throw in that they are ... impressed by your appearance and if you so much as bat your eyes, they'd give you their bank cards and pins if you asked them to."

"As fun as plan 'a' sounds, let's go with plan 'b'. But keep the eye batting in reserve – only if we need it."

It worked like a charm. Unfortunately the hard drives on their DVR's were only big enough to keep six weeks worth of video so they had to search for and watch Mr. Jackson's lunch visits, as he walked across the courtyard, disappeared into the Starbucks and then, like clockwork, he would emerge twenty minutes later and walk back across the courtyard. They started with two days before the robbery but there was nothing out of the ordinary. After reviewing the recordings for a week before and after the robbery they still had nothing.

"Well, we could go and take a look at whatever video Starbucks has." Sighed Walter.

"No," drawled Lisa, "Something's not right. We're missing something."

"What?"

"I don't know." She started thumbing through her notes.

"the second robbery was four weeks after the first, we got both vic's here two days before they rob, murder and kill themselves. The third robbery was five weeks after the second, and Jackson is here every day."

She looked at Walter, puzzled, "A four week interval, then a five week..."

Both their eyes lit up at the same time.

"He had to buy a gun first." Said Walter.

"We want the day or two before he applied for the purchase permit."

That got a hit. A man approached Mr. Jackson as he exited.

"Hold on," cautioned Lisa, "it could just be someone asking the time." She checked her notes, "but it's the right day."

"That's him, no doubt about it."

"Do you recognize him?"

"Doesn't ring any bells, but see the look on Jackson's face? Sort of slack? That tells me two things, he's gonna walk away with him, and we have more than one perp."

"Why?"

"See! There they go. Oh, yeah – his ability isn't that good. It takes a little extra finesse to keep your subject looking normal. If he can't get his victims to maintain a normal facial expression, there's no way in hell he convinced those otherwise good men to commit murder, never mind suicide. Not on his own, anyway. When multiple people's abilities are focused on the same subject, the effect is big time synergistic. You know, like barbiturates and alcohol – one plus one doesn't equal two, it equals four or five. With a partner backing him up they would have more than enough juice to pull it off."

"This is just getting better and better. So if you don't recognize our perp, I guess our only option is to stake out the courtyard and wait for him to show again. Could be a problem if his partner shows up for the next contact."

"There is another option. I go see our record keeper."

"Who is that? And don't you mean, 'we' go see this record keeper?"

"We may be loosely organized, but that doesn't mean it's a free-for-all. The various councils like to keep track of those of us with the ability – for situations just like this. And to answer your question, I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to come with me. You won't like this guy."

"It wasn't a question as much as it was a correction, and I can be diplomatic. I'm going and that's that."

"Fine, don't say I didn't warn you. Lets get a copy of this video and get moving."

In short order, they had transferred the video clip to a thumb drive.

"Thank you, gentlemen." Said Lisa to the two security officers. "The Greater Metro Detroit Task Force appreciates your cooperation."

"No problem," replied the senior officer, "anything we can do to help. I mean, hey, we're all in this together. We're just like you cops ourselves, granted, with a smaller beat, no arrest powers and we don't carry weapons of any type. But we do have these badges."

"And you're doing a fine job. I'll make sure everyone knows it."

They left the beaming rent-a-cops and headed for the parking lot.

"Okay, I'll admit, that was the easiest video surveillance warrant I've ever served."

"See, I'm not useless."

"Walter, I never said you were useless. It's just with your abilities, I don't know what's real and what's not. Yeah," she added, waving off his protests, "I know you said that your power can't make me feel love, but I'm still on the fence as to how far I can trust that."

They walked in silence until they were almost at their cars.

"So where is this record keeper?"

"Actually he's about twenty minutes north of here. We're going to have to come back through when we're done. It would make sense to carpool – that is, if you can stand being in the same car with me."

"That's not fair."

"Isn't it?"

She stopped and grabbed his arm, bringing him to a halt alongside her.

"I don't hate you."

"Then why are you acting like you do?"

"Because I love you – at least I think I do. And that's the problem. Part of me says love should be built on trust and you're starting out in the hole in that regard. You have to earn it back."

"How can I do that if you won't let me near you?"

"How can I trust you when you're near me? Anything I think or feel could be coming from you instead my own head."

"You'll know it if I try something like that."

"So you say."

He blew out a big sigh. "What about the carpool?"

"Fine."

They didn't talk much during the drive. Lisa kept thinking about their tryst and wondering if Walter was reading her mind. If he was, she decided, he had a great poker face considering some of the things she'd been thinking.

When they were almost there, he finally spoke.

"It's honesty time again."

"Shit, what now?"

"It's not about us – you and I, it's about my shadow-community."

"Okay, go on."

"Look, some of the morals and ethics are different, especially when it comes to sex."

"Yeah, I already figured that out."

He pulled into a parking space.

"When we get in there, I don't want you making any waves. He's has a live-in girlfriend with him."

"I'm not a prude."

"I mean, he's going to have a very attractive girlfriend. A 'way the hell out of his league' type girlfriend. Think about it."

"Are you talking 'picture on the milk carton' missing person sex slave? 'Cause if you are, I'm going to start shooting."

"If that were the case I would have already taken care of it. We don't tolerate that, it can attract attention for one, and, more importantly, it makes me sick."

"That's good to know, you just scored another point. So, what 'are' you talking about?"

"Bobby keeps it pretty simple. He finds some gorgeous co-ed and uses his ability to get her to move in with him and share his bed. She still has her life, and he'll let her go when she graduates. To be fair, Bobby's girls are usually better off. He's quite the geek and in addition to sex, he gets them to focus on their academics."

"I don't care if he's pulling hookers off the streets and turning them into valedictorians, it's still rape."

"Some would say it is, some would say it isn't, either way, there's nothing you, or I, can do to change it."

"Oh, isn't there?"

"This is why I wasn't thrilled about you coming. No, we can't change it. If you start a stink it blows back on me for bringing you in. With your ability to resist control, you'll be marked for death if you won't back off. The most important thing to my community is secrecy. You threaten to blow that and the gloves are off."

"They kill people in the name of secrecy?"

"As far as I know it hasn't happened in a very long time, we're real good at keeping secrets. Usually, someone with a powerful ability, someone like me, is used to alter attitudes and memories – sort of like a post hypnotic suggestion to forget. That won't work on you.

"So ... you'd let them kill me?"

He grabbed her shoulder, "Lisa, they'd have to go through me first, but I would only slow them down. I wouldn't be able to stop them. If you make an issue of this, we both die."

The truth of his words were undeniable. She knew that he would die to protect her, but he also truly believed he couldn't save her.

"I'll reserve judgment until I get a chance to talk to this girl. If it's what you say, well, I can probably live with that. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna like it."

"Thank you. For what it's worth, realize that most of us come onto our ability gradually, during our mid teens. Our morals, our consciences, are sculpted in such a way that we can live with what we did during those early years."

"You too?"

"I'm a guy, I'm human. Of course me too."

"I didn't see a girlfriend at your house. What did you do, send her out for the night or do you keep her in the closet and only bring her out when you want to wear her?"

"Very funny. I don't have a live-in, I can't do that, not anymore."

"Why not?"

"My job. It's too dangerous. A few years ago, a guy I was hunting got away from me and took it out on my girl. I caught up with them before it got too bad, but ... it was bad enough."

His voice trailed off, Lisa saw the pain creep back into his eyes. She wanted to hold him, to comfort him, but held back despite there being no alarms in her mind.

"Anyway, I haven't had a live-in since. But most guys, and girls too, we're about a sixty-forty split in favor of male, most of us do something alone those lines. The general guidance is, if the person is going to sleeping with someone anyway, and we don't disrupt their lives too much, well ... no harm, no foul."

"So no 'mind wiped sex slaves'?"

"I won't lie and say it doesn't happen. We are like any other population and we have our deviants. Most of them can find an outlet with normal folks who share their predilections, they use their ability there just like the rest of us, going outside of their league and getting a bit more than their fair share. Most of them, anyway. There are real assholes out there. They're the ones making mind wiped sex slaves. They're rare but they happen, and when we find out about it, guys like me deal with it."

"I don't know. I still don't like subverting free will."

"I'll admit, we're not the Rotary, but we're not a bunch of evil mind controllers running around with our cocks hanging out corrupting high school cheerleaders either. We police our own according to what we feel is a decent balance. Shit! You try controlling a population with our ability, it's like trying to herd cats, for God's sake."

"Okay, okay, I get your point. I don't like it, but I'll live with it. Is this why you said I wouldn't like this guy?"

"Partially."

"What's the other part?"

"He's a randy son-of-a-bitch, expect something. Think of it as ... training."

The door opened to reveal a tall, painfully thin man with a fading hairline and a generally nondescript appearance.

"Walter, long time, no see. What brings you here."

"Hi, Bobby, trying to locate someone."

They followed him into a medium sized home with a well furnished living room.

"And who do we have here?" he said, leering at Lisa, "My, my, aren't you the tasty little morsel."

Lisa felt a powerful wave of lust wash over her, a near sexual frenzy focused on Bobby. Fine, if she couldn't deal with this guy by shooting him, she would have a little fun with him instead. She easily resisted the sudden urge to fuck his brains out and gave him a broad, sensual smile.