The activists desired more than to make their behavior legal and protect their privacy. They really wanted to transform society’s view of reality by eliminating any judgment that such actions were wrong. Heck, not only was this activity normal and natural, they claimed, children should be taught in schools this was an acceptable standard of behavior. And any troglodyte who continued to insist such actions were wrong must be silenced or legally forced to embrace it.
In other words, once “child love” became legal, perpetrators still should rally to compel legislation that any resistance to it must be made illegal.
Eventually Shad had enough of the misguided defenses and he clicked around to see what other offerings were available. Both a chat room and a bulletin board were accessible. Shad was particularly wary of the chat room, especially this late at night. So he surfed to the bulletin board to see what messages had been posted.
The wording was somewhat cryptic and evasive, but Shad knew exactly what was being offered. There were announcements for buying, selling, and swapping pornography. But worse yet, there were posts of times and places other children would be available for access to members of this website – and any other takers informed of the opportunity.
Shad’s blood ran cold. Merciful God, he’d uncovered a sex ring.
Part of the bond for this particular group of offenders was location. Most of the places advertised were in the St. Louis area. Others were scattered across the state or the neighboring state of Illinois. For Shad’s purposes, they had the quality of providing information that would allow law enforcement to track down their identities and save their victims sooner.
Shad began copying pages of the bulletin board to the flash drive in the USB port. As he moved further back in the board’s timeframe, a particular message from about a week ago caught his eye.
“Need assistance concerning a former candidate. May try to upset the apple cart. Any suggestions that can be offered will be greatly appreciated monetarily.”
Shad recognized Wally’s alternative messaging address. Had he just found the link to attempted murder?
He copied the message and exited the website. When Shad opened the folder for the messages, however, he was disconcerted to discover most of the correspondence older than a couple of days had been deleted. But nothing was really deleted unless....
Shad delved deeper into the computer’s files and managed to uncover the remnants of discarded data. There seemed to be significant activity associated with Wally’s message.
At first Wally seemed to solicit several responses to his post, but Shad determined there was one that Wally had more contact with than the others.
“I can’t help you myself, but I know of a couple of people who could do whatever you need done. Location is Jefferson City, what travel is involved?”
Wally responded. “Jefferson City would be perfect. Target actually lives in that area. Time to come to the end of his road. Can your people do that?”
The reply was, “I’ve talked it over with someone. If the price is right he’ll take care of it for you.” It listed a phone number and time to call, but no name.
Looking up the phone number would be child’s play for Shad, but he needed to save that task for later. Incredible. Not only had he proven Wally was still an offender and a participant in a sex ring, Shad also had evidence Wally really was connected to trying to murder him. This was enough to put the man away for a very, very long time. This was for Dulsie and their child.
Shad copied the messages. He glanced at the clock in the lower right corner of his computer screen and was surprised to see it was already after four o’clock. He’d better get out in case either Wally or Lynette was an early riser. The rest of what he needed to do, he could do on his own computer.
When Shad looked up the phone number, he was disconcerted again to see it was one of the business lines of a local department store at the mall, and the time given would have been after hours. That wouldn’t give him any name. But he could look up the identity of the correspondent in the messages. That person would be complicit in the conspiracy of murder as well.
It required some more of his hacking skills, but Shad finally uncovered the information that revealed the identity and location of the person Wally had been in contact with. Shad already knew he was in Jeff, but when he saw the name, his blood ran cold again.
Victor Phillips. Victor Phillips? Vic Phillips?
The same Vic who was helping out with Charissa?
Chapter Twenty-One
Ordinary people may settle for the appearance of truth more often than truth itself.
--Rene Descartes
Hoping he was wrong, Shad dove into confirming Victor Phillips’s identity and to his horror discovered he was right. He looked at the time and debated whether anybody would be up this early at either Monica’s or Eliot’s home.
If Shad remembered correctly, Vic would sleep at his apartment in the mornings after getting off work at the hospital. He didn’t get to Monica’s until late morning, in time to help prepare lunch.
How would Vic fit into a molester’s profile? Did he actually have a preference for children? Or, more worrisome, was Vic a situational offender? He might take advantage of a helpless adult just as easily. That would make Monica a target as well. And then there were those patients at the hospital Vic would have access to.
Shad could have crawled out of his own skin as he thought about Dulsie being in the hospital. No, no ... Karl and Jill were keeping a tag team vigil on her. Besides, she was probably too alert for someone who wanted to keep his activity hidden. Dulsie should be all right.
Dulsie had to be all right.
Shad looked at the clock again and noticed it still wasn’t long after six o’clock. He couldn’t stand it any longer. With his cell phone Shad called the number to Eliot’s house.
It was Tess who answered, and she definitely sounded like Shad had roused her from bed. “Hello?”
“Tess? This is Shad Delaney, Monica’s attorney. Listen, I’m sorry to be calling so early, but I really need to talk to Eliot. Is he available?”
“Eliot? No. No, he got called out for a calving complication or something like that.”
Of all the.... Even Shad knew he couldn’t tell Vic’s sister what he had just discovered. There could be a variety of reasons why she wouldn’t take the news very well. Shad did make a mental note to tell his child one day never to marry a veterinarian.
“All right. Okay.” His mind raced for a solution. “I’ll try his cell phone. But in case I have trouble reaching him, would you still give him the message to call me?”
“Is there something I can help you with?”
“No, no, except – why don’t you call Vic and tell him he doesn’t need to go to Monica’s today? I’m gonna be there later. And there’s something I need Eliot’s help with, so Vic doesn’t need to go there. You got that?”
“Well ... yeah.”
“Thanks, Tess. Thanks a whole lot. And I’m sorry again if I got you up.”
Shad did try Eliot’s cell phone number after he got off with Tess, but as he suspected Shad had to leave a message with voice mail. If Eliot had an armful of newborn calf slime right now it might be a little while before he returned Shad’s call.
He took a deep, cleansing breath, and Shad returned his attention to his original purpose for being here. After freshening up in the bathroom and making sure everything was packed back up to leave, Shad made a call to Wally’s home. Luck finally favored him when the person Shad was trying to reach actually picked up at the other end.
“Hello?”
“Good morning, Wally,” Shad responded casually. “This is Shad Delaney. Remember me?”