The Predator (14 page)

Lily leaned over the counter and gave his hand a squeeze. “Tell me, Brandon. What happened?”

“Jakarta,” he whispered. “That’s what happened.”

Lily regarded him with a mixture of surprise and acceptance when he finally finished his story. “Did you explain any of this to Alex?”

Brandon shook his head. “I was in no state to provide explanations. The whole way home on the plane from Jakarta, there was only one thought going around and around in my head. I never wanted to be put in a position like that again—where I had to choose between the commitment to my wife and the commitment I had to my men and their safety. I knew what I had to do. Extricating myself from my marriage and the responsibility that came with it seemed like the only way.” He sighed raggedly. “I wish I’d known how much I’d come to regret it.” Silence settled around them. It was finally broken by Lily.

“Sam’s a nice-looking little boy.”

Her comment snapped Brandon out of his dark reverie. “Yeah. He looks just like his mother.”

She pursed her lips. “He certainly looks like Alex, but I was talking to him for awhile and I kept catching glimpses of someone else.” She looked at him intently. “Is there any chance he could be yours?”

Brandon ignored the stab of regret. “No. Alex said he’s two. There’s no way he could be mine.”

Lily shook her head. “Two? I don’t think so. He’s way more articulate than that. If I’d had to guess, I would have said at least three. Besides, look at the size of him. He looks more like a four-year-old than a two-year-old.”

Brandon frowned. Why would Alex lie about Sam’s age? It didn’t make sense. There was no way she wouldn’t have told him if the boy had been his. He’d meant it when he’d told her she had more integrity than anyone he’d ever known.

No, Lily must be wrong. After all, not all kids fit the average model.

“Maybe his father is extra tall. It does happen,” he said.

Lily looked unconvinced, her expression thoughtful. “Who knows?” she murmured as she began stacking dessert things, including bowls and spoons and fresh napkins, onto a tray.

“I’d better get back to the rest of our guests before they begin to think we’ve abandoned them.” She picked up the tray and headed toward the French doors that led outside.

“Tom, can you bring the tub of ice cream and the apple meringue pie?”

“Yep.”

Brandon pushed back his stool and stretched. “I might call it a night, mate. As tempting as that pie sounds, I have to be at work first thing in the morning.”

“No worries. Thanks for coming.”

The brothers embraced. Tom pulled away, concern lingering in the depths of his eyes. “Take care, all right?”

Brandon smiled wryly. “What, no well-meaning advice to stay away from Alex?” He shook his head. “Don’t worry, bro. After tonight, I got her message loud and clear. Besides, she told me she was seeing someone else.”

Tom’s brow furrowed. “Really? So, why did she come?”

Brandon shrugged. “Maybe it was to see you and Lily. Then again, I did find her deep in conversation with your favorite brother-in-law. What’s that loser doing here, anyway?”

Tom exhaled. “It was Lily’s doing. She still feels guilty for the way her family has kind of written him off. She tries to make up for it by inviting him over whenever he bothers to return her call. I haven’t seen him for more than twelve months. Who knows what brought him out tonight?”

“Yeah, well, Alex seemed to find him palatable. They looked very cozy when I happened across them.”

“I guess there’s no accounting for taste,” Tom said, a sly grin curling his lips. “She chose you, didn’t she?”

Brandon thumped him in the arm. “Low blow, bro.”

“Hey, I thought it was funny.”

“Yeah, about as funny as a condom in a convent.”

“Now look who’s being obscene.”

Brandon smiled, feeling better than he had for awhile. “See you later, mate. And thanks…for everything. Give Lily and the kids a kiss for me.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cassie Munro’s fingers flew with two-fingered speed over the keyboard of her laptop. She’d waited all day to speak to him. School had gone on forever. She’d even skipped netball practice so she could get home quicker and go online. It had been more than a week since he’d been in the chat room. It was driving her crazy.

Had he gone away? Somewhere weird where there was no Internet access? Was he sick? Lying on death’s doorstep in one of the city’s hospitals? Or maybe—and this was the one her mind kept shying away from—maybe he’d moved on, forgotten about her. Found someone prettier to chat to.

Her stomach clenched and she felt sick. God, please not that. She’d rather find out he was dying from some rare, incurable disease than to discover he’d passed her over for someone else.

Especially after she’d shared him with her aunt.

Not that she exactly
shared
him, but she’d told Alex more about him than she’d told anyone, except her two best friends. Madeleine and Lucy were wild with envy. They’d squealed with jealousy when she’d showed them his picture. They couldn’t believe how lucky she was to have such a hot guy talking to her online.

Cassie began to key in the strokes that would allow her to enter the chat room. Her fingers faltered. Holding her breath, she forced herself to complete the actions.

Oh, God.
He was there
.

She let her breath out on a gasp of excitement. Her heart thumped erratically against her ribs. She couldn’t believe her eyes. After nine days of nothing, there he was. In bold, black type.
Justin
.

Would he say hello to her? He’d know by now that she was there. Should she make the first move? Oh, God, she didn’t know what to do. Indecision gnawed at her belly.

Hi, there, Lady G. Great to see you here.

Cassie read the words on her screen and almost collapsed with relief. He’d said hello! He’d acknowledged her! She hurried off a reply.

Where have you been?

She hit enter without thinking and then worried that she sounded too accusatory. She didn’t want him to think she was keeping tabs on him. After all, they weren’t exactly going out.

A reply came right back.

Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve been at my mom’s in the boondocks. She lives like, miles from the nearest town. I don’t think they’ve even heard of the Internet out there. It was the longest week and a half of my life.

Relieved, she smiled and shot off another reply.

I was worried you’d been taken off to hospital with some rare disease. Glad to hear it was nothing more serious.

Nothing more serious? I couldn’t check emails, surf the net, talk to you—for a whole nine days! What could be more serious?

Cassie went warm all over. He’d counted the days, just like she had.

I missed you.

There, she’d said it. Put it out there. She waited with bated breath for his response. And then it came.

I missed you, too.

Giddiness swept through her. She collapsed back against her bed and clutched her laptop close to her chest. All that worry for nothing. He’d been away, that was all. And, he’d missed her.

Are you playing netball again this week?

She sat up and typed back.

Yes, we’re at home this week. Down at Manly Oval.

I’d love to come and watch you play. Hopefully, Dad won’t have a list of chores for me this time.

Cassie’s smile couldn’t get much wider.

I’d really like that.

I can’t wait to meet you.

She nearly burst with happiness.

Me, either. See you on Saturday.

Counting the days. Again.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Alex stared at the list of names on the piece of paper near her keyboard and frowned in concentration. The FBI techies had managed to hack into the email account of Nicolas Janssens and had provided the dozen or so international agencies involved in the investigation with thousands of email addresses. The addresses originated from all over the world. One hundred and sixty-five of them had come from computers using an Australian Internet service provider.

Patrick had divided the list up between the members of the CPU. Alex had scored ten of them. She’d been laboriously tracking through each one since she’d arrived at work that morning. So far, she’d only managed to cross one entry off her list.

It was tedious and time-consuming work. Each email address had to be tracked back to an owner. That owner’s credit card and banking details were then retrieved and examined, cross-referencing any possible link with their Belgian suspect. Mind-numbing and monotonous, yes, but it was the only way to build evidence against their list of suspects and ultimately make arrests.

A soft sigh escaped. Her gaze flicked to Brandon. He sat a few feet away, totally immersed in the information on his screen. At least, that’s how he appeared.

From the corner of her eye, she saw him lean back and stretch his arms over his head. She stilled and kept her gaze firmly on her screen, trying to ignore the rush of emotions that pumped through her veins, bursting into bloom across her face.

She’d been ignoring him since the barbeque. She was determined to put him back in the past, where he belonged and focus on her future. With Phillip. Maybe. Or Jason. Maybe. Or Andrew. No, not Andrew. There was something about his profile that just didn’t feel right.

She glanced at the clock on the wall in front of her. It was nearly lunchtime. Six more hours to go and she’d be out of there and getting on with her new life. She’d agreed to meet Phillip for brunch the next day. She’d read somewhere that brunch was the safest option for a first date. It wasn’t meant to last as long as lunch and if the date wasn’t going well, you had a valid excuse to leave after an hour or so.

On the other hand, if sparks were flying and you wanted to spend more time together, brunch could move into lunch with very little effort and you still had the safety of daytime to conduct the entire operation.

Her mother had been happy to look after Sam and had even congratulated her on finding the courage to take the next step toward her future.

Alex didn’t feel quite as confident about it. Phillip looked pleasant enough in his picture and based on the information he’d provided in his profile, they certainly seemed to have a lot in common, but still, she couldn’t help but feel just a little bit cynical.

The picture could have been taken years ago, or worse still, be a complete fake. The profile could have been made to say whatever he thought would take someone’s fancy. Or maybe he was an axe murderer? There had to be some reason why a good-looking guy who seemed to be what every girl was hoping for was still single.

But, then again, what about her? She prided herself on staying fit and attractive and had a healthy self-esteem. She wasn’t some mad woman with baggage that would overload Mascot Airport.

Okay, she had a couple of tiny trust issues, but who didn’t? Nobody got to be her age without someone letting them down. That was life. Sometimes, it sucked.

More movement on the periphery of her vision snagged her attention. Brandon had pushed away from his desk and was now headed straight toward her.

Alex’s heart rate accelerated and she fought to get it under control. She was being ridiculous. He was just a man. A man she worked with. Nothing more. She sucked in a deep breath and held it.

Brandon was frowning when he casually propped a hip against her desk. “Alex, I was wondering if I could ask you some questions about what we’re doing. I’m a bit confused. You’ve been at this a lot longer than I have.”

Alex let her breath out. See, it was a work thing. That’s all. Just like she’d been telling herself.

“Er…um… Yes, of course. Fire away.” Her gaze flitted between his handsome face and the designer tie that was knotted with perfect precision around his neck.

“It’s like this. I understand these addresses have come from a suspected pedophile in Belgium, so obviously the owners of the accounts have had contact with the slime, but how is going through their credit card histories going to help us work out if they’re part of a pedophile ring or if they’re just ordinary people? Surely, he must have friends and acquaintances that he emails that aren’t caught up in this?”

Alex nodded, her breath coming easier. “Of course, that’s what makes it so difficult. Someone has to comb through every single email address and decide which ones look suspicious and which ones don’t and it all has to be done anonymously. We don’t want any of the people involved getting a whiff of what we’re investigating or there will be no hope of tracking them down. Accounts will be closed, ISP addresses removed—they’ll disappear into cyberspace without a trace.”

“So what are we actually looking for? I was assuming if there were a number of transactions between the suspect and the email account holder, that would be enough to put them on a suspect list, but that might not be true. This Janssens guy in Belgium owns a legitimate online sex toy shop. How do we know if these shoppers aren’t buying dildos or strap-ons or adult movies…or whatever, as opposed to child pornography?”

“Yeah, it’s tough. And the truth is, there are times when we don’t know. Sometimes it comes down to gut instinct. Knowing when something doesn’t look right. The other difficulty is that a lot of these slime balls share their images for free. They join an online club for a minimal fee and share kiddie pics around the table, so to speak.”

Brandon’s jaw tensed. “I had no idea how many of these sick fucks are out there.”

Alex understood how he felt. It turned her stomach every time she thought about it. That was one of the things that kept her going after finishing a string of all-nighters. Someone had to put the scum away.

She cleared her throat and reached for a piece of paper and the pen that lay on her desk. “Okay, here’s a rough guide on how these things work. As I said, once upon a time, no one made any money out of kiddie porn. They just got together online and shared their sick fantasies with each other—pictures and all.

“But recently, we’ve had some budding entrepreneurs stick their heads up. People who are so depraved, they’ve decided to turn child pornography into a business. It’s bad enough that pedophiles exist; it’s stomach-turning to know that someone’s getting rich from it.”