Fear No Evil

Qui

“Women,” Morton corrected. “Consenting women.”

“Lucy did not consent,” Qui

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.” Qui

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.”

Qui

“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.”

Qui

“Bullshit,” Morton said. “Mallory watched Trask whack that bitch-” He stopped himself.

Qui

“Fuck you.”

Morton leaned back in his chair and glared at them.

Dillon glanced at Qui

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. Pla

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 co

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.

Morton wouldn’t know how to cover up a crime. That was all Adam, the genius. And maybe it was strictly Adam’s crime that they were covering up.

“Maybe you had nothing to do with the rape. Maybe Adam told you about it. Boasted. Maybe he needed help getting rid of the body.”

Morton squirmed. Dillon didn’t smile, though he felt some small pleasure in weaving through the facts and conjecture and nailing Roger Morton. He certainly would lose at poker.

“What was her name?”

“You’re fishing.” Morton’s voice was weak.

“We’ve reopened the investigation into Trevor Conrad’s death,” Qui

That wasn’t always true, but Morton didn’t know that.

“It was an explosion. Not much left of Trevor.”

But Morton was losing some of his cockiness.

Qui

Morton frowned. Didn’t say anything.

“What we want is your cooperation. We want the names and whereabouts of Scott’s victims’ remains. We want every known hideout of Scott. Bank accounts, property, the works. Everything you know.”

He didn’t say anything. Thinking.

Dillon glanced at Qui

“Why what?” Morton asked.

“Why Lucy?”

He shrugged. “She’s hot. Just like-” he stopped.

“Like who?”

Something clicked in Morton’s head. He straightened his back. “If I give you something, something really good, that will solve a major case for you, what do I get in return?”

“It depends on the information,” Qui

“I need something better than that.”

“You give us everything on Adam Scott, tell us what happened with Trevor Conrad, and cooperate from here on out, I’ll put in a good word.”

“A good word?” Morton laughed, leaned back. He knew he had them on the hook. Dillon feared that the conversation was turning away from them and that they wouldn’t get anything.

“I’m not a U.S. attorney,” Qui

Qui

Morton squirmed. “I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you one thing, then I want an attorney in here who can make me a deal before I give you everything. Got it?”

Qui

“Does the name Monique Paxton mean anything to you?”