“No. There was a similar incident when Madden was a sophomore. It wasn’t a gang rape, but he was accused of sexual assault by the police chief’s daughter.”
“What happened to those claims?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. Madden had to hand over the keys to his Pontiac, and he joined the military, but I don’t know what happened to…” I lose my train of thought for a moment. I usually have a knack for remembering names, but Madden’s first victim is slipping my mind.
Victim… such an odd word for me to use if I believe Madden’s recollection of events.
Clearly, I don’t.
Ignoring my dead ass from sitting on a concrete floor for three hours straight, I stand to my feet before making my way out of the supply room. “If I forward you some info, could you work it through the pipelines on your end? It could be nothing, but it’s rare for my father to place his hat into a ring he can’t benefit from. This all occurred around the time he started his push for office. It could be one of those threads we’ve been seeking the past few years.”
“Yeah, of course,” Grayson replies without pause for thought. He knows the less my name is associated with the information I’m hunting, the better it will be for all involved. “Just prepare yourself, Brandon. When you’re digging for shit, you immerse yourself in it.”
“I can handle it.”
I hear his smile through the phone. “I have no doubt. Send me what you have. I’ve got a few spare hours tonight, and from what I’m hearing, so do you.”
Stealing my chance to question if he bugged my office, he disconnects our call.
I dump my cell phone onto my desk before logging into the official Bureau search engine. It only takes me a few minutes to remember the name of the girl who accused Madden of assaulting her in the middle of a movie date. I only had to search for the police chief in Saugerties the year Melody officially became my girlfriend. I’ll never forget that night. Not even years of grief have faded the memory I’ve worked on repeat the past seven years.
After forwarding Annie’s details to Grayson, I dig a little deeper into Annie’s father’s bank records. Money has been my father’s bribery tool for years. Ever since his inheritance from his great-grandfather’s oil refinery hit his bank account, he bought respect more than he earned it.
I hit a dead-end in Mr. Langfield’s bank records not even twenty minutes later. They ceased to exist five years ago. His family withdrew every penny they had a month after he was killed during a random traffic stop and left Saugerties for dust.
I’m about to commence a hunt for their whereabouts now, but before I can, a deep, moody voice scares the living daylights out of me. “What are you working on?”
“Ah…” I scratch my face, my ability to lie on demand long forgotten since I’ve rarely used the skill the past six years. “Just some stuff for another division. They wanted to see if there was any correlation between these bank records and Isaac’s.”
Alex purses his lips. He doesn’t want to believe me, but he has no reason not to. “I need you to stop that for now and jump onto surveillance with Reid. Facial recognition picked up a positive match for Isaac at an airstrip near The Hamptons.”
When I jerk up my chin, acknowledging I heard him, Alex balances his hip on my desk, announcing our conversation isn’t over just yet. “Did you speak to Isabelle before she left?”
“Yeah, briefly. She unearthed the identity of the mysterious female in the yellow car outside of Isaac’s nightclub.” I don’t know why I’m sugar-coating Isabelle’s investigative skills. It’s a habit I can’t seem to let go of, much like my inability to remove Melody from my mind.
Alex scrubs at his jaw like Grayson always does. His is just minus the scruffy beard he had before he took a five-month hiatus from the Bureau. “Did she happen to mention where she was going this weekend?”
“Ah… not in full detail. She said she and Harlow were going away for the weekend.” I’m not sugar-coating anything this time around. Isabelle either believed her weekend getaway was solely with Harlow or she’s more skilled in lying than I once was. “Why are you asking? Is she in danger?”
“No,” Alex denies with a shake of his head. “I just figured you were friends, that’s all, so I’m trying to