Touch of Red (Tracers #12)(76)

“I get some of that stuff, too,” Callie said. “That doesn’t make the account holder a guy.”

“True. But as far as the username, the one attached to this account is a John Green.”

“Sounds phony,” Sean said.

Alex nodded. “I agree. So, we’re basically left scouring the account itself for clues. Thing is, there’s no record of an email from Samantha Bonner’s Gmail address in here. So, if she ever sent a message like the one in her drafts folder, it looks like johnjohn9987 deleted it. However—”

Sean was beginning to like how Alex said that word, and he watched with interest as she clicked into another screen.

“I found this interesting message in johnjohn’s junk folder. Looks like it got caught in the spam filter, so johnjohn might never have seen it.”

Sean leaned forward as he read the message:

Clock’s ticking. You know what you have to do. We have the proof so don’t make us go public.

“Now that definitely sounds like extortion,” Ric said.

Sean read the sender name, JMJFlowergirl. “Those are Jasmine’s initials. Jasmine Michelle Jones.”

“And her name is a type of flower.” Callie looked at Sean. “The second victim sent this. And it’s almost identical to a message in the first victim’s drafts folder.”

“And look at the timing, November second,” Sean said. “That’s right after the draft message. Samantha and Jasmine were working together to extort this guy. Wonder what this ‘proof’ is they’re threatening to make public. Maybe pictures or video or something?”

“But where’s the money demand?” Callie asked.

“Maybe a separate email that got deleted. If this message ended up in the Junk folder, maybe they emailed him again sometime later.” Sean looked at Alex. “Is that possible?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, but who are they trying to shake down?” Ric asked. “We have no link to our prime suspect, Eric Mahoney. Or am I missing something?”

All eyes turned to Alex, and Sean liked the satisfied look on her face.

“I traced the IP to find out where these johnjohn emails are being pulled. Only two locations came up. One is a location in Marshall County, about a hundred miles south of here. The second location is in Burrville. The specific network is maintained by the county justice complex.”

“That’s the courthouse,” Sean said. “That’s our warrant right there.”

“Hell yeah, it’s our warrant.” Ric pushed back his chair. “I’m going to go call Rachel, give her the update, see how fast she can move on this. Alex, will you talk through all this with the DA?”

“Of course. But are you sure you’re ready to bring her in? I mean, yes, the courthouse is on this network, and that would include Eric Mahoney’s office. But I can’t trace this to him specifically. At least not yet. I know you guys are in a hurry, but I’ve got some more work to do here.”

“Keep working.” Ric got to his feet. “But in the meantime I’m going to see what we can do with what we have.”

He left the room, and Alex watched him go with a look of concern.

“Don’t worry,” Sean told her. “Rachel makes a habit of dotting all the i’s and crossing all the t’s.” He turned to Callie, who was staring at the screen on the wall. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m still not convinced.”

“How can you not be convinced? Alex just linked both victims to our prime suspect with an extortion scheme.”

“Walk me through it,” Callie said. “I want to play devil’s advocate.”

Sean summoned all his patience, when what he wanted to do was race over to the courthouse and drag the judge off in handcuffs. “Okay, so we know these victims knew Judge Mahoney when they were teenagers. And Mahoney associates with crooked cops who have been known to hook up with underage prostitutes.”

Alex looked startled. “He does?”

“Allegedly,” Callie said. “But fine, keep going.”

“So, say he somehow manipulated these girls while he had control over their cases. It’s a classic abuse of power. These girls are isolated and vulnerable, they’re in trouble with the law and have zero credibility. So he demands sex from them.”

“Where?”

“Could have been a lot of places. I’ve seen some sick stuff over the years when it comes to abuse. The point is, these were troubled teens, and that’s why he picked them. A lot of kids like that end up on the streets or on drugs, in jail, you name it. They slip through the cracks, which is why they appeal to predators like Mahoney.”

Callie shuddered. “That’s twisted.”

“I see it all the time with internet predators,” Alex said. “They have a knack for finding victims who are trapped in bad circumstances, and they manipulate them into keeping quiet. You wouldn’t believe how often it happens.”

“But then these two girls crossed paths at some point,” Sean said. “Maybe they compared notes along the way, maybe through AA, and realized they’d been abused by the same man, who’s still sitting in his position of power, probably still doing it. So, they decided to confront him and shake him down for money. We know Jasmine was nearly broke. Maybe she convinced Samantha to help her, and together they confronted Mahoney. When threatened with exposure, the man snapped and killed them. First Samantha. And then Jasmine.”