Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,4
was happy. Noah deserved a good woman. It wasn’t the life for Perry, though, and that was something he had accepted years ago. It wasn’t jealousy he felt for the leash and collar, but more so the fact that his old friend sounded less stressed because he was getting some every night. They didn’t make women Perry could stand living with, though, only having sex when schedules matched up and then amiably parting ways.
Perry grunted. “Trained her well, did you?”
“You know it,” Noah said.
“You sound so happy that I hate bringing up why I called,” Perry added, and accelerated on the interstate toward his exit. A drive-through would be his usual stop, but for some reason tonight he didn’t have an appetite. After interviewing the Wrights last night and then spending hours on the computer afterward searching and finding Web sites that possibly were the reason some jerk was stalking Sally Wright, Perry couldn’t eat or sleep. He needed his head on straight, if he was going to find whoever it was who was stalking teenage girls. Maybe after taking a shower and changing he’d get a burger and a twelve-pack.
“What’s up?” Noah asked.
“Just thought I’d see if you’ve heard anything through the grapevine.”
“About?”
Perry knew Noah wouldn’t tell him anything confidential. But there were times in the past when a case had turned haunting and knowing an old buddy who was FBI helped out. Occasionally, Noah had tips that cracked a case wide open.
“We’ve got a sexual predator in town,” Perry began.
There was silence on the other end of the line, which meant he had Noah’s attention.
“There’ve been two cases so far,” Perry continued. “Two teenage girls, lured in by someone they thought was a boy from their school. They chatted online, agreed to meet, and then the girls disappeared. We’ve found one of the girls, but not the other.” He took a breath and heard Noah curse under his breath. If anything, unloading on his old friend helped Perry focus. The attitude at the station that he might be chasing ghosts, or that this wasn’t something that merited anyone being assigned the case full-time, pissed him off. “Last night a third girl snuck out of her home to meet a boy she’d been chatting with online. Her father followed her and watched his daughter park the family car at a pizza place. As she started toward the restaurant a man got out of his car and went after the teenager. If the father wasn’t there to run after his daughter, he would have lost her.”
Noah cursed again. “I haven’t heard anything. You been assigned the case?”
“Nope.” Perry ground his back teeth together, forcing himself not to unload his frustrations over his conversation with his Chief. “Keep your ear to the ground for me, though. Will you?”
“Will do,” Noah said seriously. “Keep me posted as well. If there’s anything I can do, let me know.”
“There is something,” Perry said, and turned at his exit, then slowed on the off-ramp as it rounded and merged into the main street of his neighborhood. “I found some Web sites.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of Web sites.”
“Pornography. The kind where the girls are barely legal, if that.”
“They’re a dime a dozen, my friend.”
“Tell me about it,” Perry growled, images of the pictures he had printed for the Chief turning his stomach and twisting it into a ball of pissed-off rage. “These Web sites are a bit different, though. They’re worded carefully, as most of them are, but they look as if you could bid on these girls, buy them off the auction block. I need help understanding ISPs and domains and crap. Because from what I can tell, and if I’m right, the Web sites were created here in the Kansas City area.”
“No shit.” Noah must have put his hand over the phone at his end, because he mumbled something too muffled for Perry to hear. More than likely Noah was explaining to his new lady, who Perry knew was a cop up in Lincoln, Nebraska, what the conversation was about. “Let me get back to you on that one. I might be able to e-mail a file I have on a flash drive that explains domains and web hosting.”
“Appreciate it, man,” Perry said. “Sure hope that lady of yours doesn’t come to her senses.”
“She’s got it bad for me, what can I say?”
“Lost cause,” Perry mumbled, again feeling that pang of jealousy before hanging up.
The police radio installed under his dash beeped and chirped