Page 39 of Devil's Hour
“Oh fuck,” Sawyer said, then covered his mouth.
“No one hearing this would know for certain the identity of the man with her. Hell, no one can even prove it’s the mayor in there having sex,” Chief said. “It could be the maintenance crew taking advantage of her empty office after hours.”
No sooner had the words left her mouth, the screen changed again to show a montage of images. All of them featured Lynette Goodwin and Ryan Tedrick in provocative positions. Some looked as if they were taken through the cracks in the window curtains to capture them mid-coitus. Royce could pinpoint the ones from her home based on the fussy fabrics and prints. Others were taken when the couple had engaged in car sex behind a building or a secluded spot, or so they thought. The rest were images they’d snapped of themselves as a couple or selfies they’d taken in various stages of undress, including solo sex acts they’d sent to each other with some very bold messages.
“My eyes,” Kelsey said, covering her face.
Royce would never be able to look at dildosaurus again without thinking that Sawyer and the mayor liked to use the exact same dildo. He and Sawyer exchanged brief glances before refocusing on the video. As much as he wanted to shut it off, Royce couldn’t. It might contain valuable clues or hints about what they planned to do next.
Royce didn’t think it could get any worse until the montage changed to show images of Lynette and Ryan together over the years from when he was just a little kid until present day when he was engaging in sexual acts with her, painting the mayor as a child predator. Until Royce had evidence to the contrary, he would believe the mayor’s statement that she hadn’t begun her affair with Ryan until he was an adult. It didn’t make it less gross to Royce, but there was a difference between morally questionable and illegal acts. The video continued, depicting family gatherings and sleepovers Ryan had with her daughters, who were only a few years younger than him, and special occasions like birthdays and graduations. During the entire time, the soundtrack of them having sex continued to play until the last picture came up, which showed Ryan standing on the stage with her family on election night while she gave an acceptance speech. The look of adoration on his face was evident even then, but without knowing the truth about their relationship, he just looked like a young man who was proud of his aunt. The audio switched to her addressing the crowd. She touted her family values and commitment to all the citizens of Savannah, even the forgotten ones. The audience began chanting, “We all win with Lyn.”
The video faded to black once more before the flames appeared again along the bottom and sides. A message started scrolling in the center. The Purists outed Ryan’s relationship to the mayor for those who didn’t already know, referring to him as her nephew and conveniently leaving off the part about there being no biological connection between them. Royce disliked the bullshit, half-truth tactics prevalent in politics, and he hated them when they were used to stir up an angry mob. Peaceful protests were one thing, but riots were a completely different beast.Thiskind of propaganda triggered hostile environments where people got hurt and property got damaged or destroyed.
The Purists went on to recap their sentiments from the letters about how the mayor betrayed the citizens and her family. They vowed to play the footage on an endless loop until she resigned, promising the entire world would know about Lynette Goodwin’s misdeeds before they finished with her.
“Goodwin’s career is over,” Sawyer said. “Maybe she’s being honest about their relationship not starting until recently, but no one is going to believe her after this. People are going to flay her alive.”
“And leave her for the fire ants,” Kelsey added.
Noticing the chief hadn’t responded, Royce turned his head and looked at her. “What do you want us to do, Chief?”
“I want you to kick over every fucking rock until we’ve rounded up The Purists. The mayor will be calling or dropping by any minute now, so is there anything I can tell her?”
Royce had nearly brought her up to speed about their three persons of interest before her assistant buzzed to let her know the mayor was on the phone.
“Please close the website, Ms. Hightower,” Chief said as the video began to cycle through again. “I can’t take seeing or hearing it a second time. Let me talk to the mayor in private, then I’ll discuss our next steps with you, Locke.”
“Yes, ma’am,” all three said before making a quick exit.
Once they reached the bullpen, Kelsey realized the mistake she’d made when they saw several of the MCU detectives gathered around her computer. All of them wore expressions in various stages of shock and horror. “I didn’t close the browser before we went into Chief’s office,” she said, groaning and covering her face with her hands. The mayor’s moaning got louder in the recording, drowning out Kelsey’s misery.
“How the hell were you to anticipate a pornographic video would pop up?” Sawyer asked.
There was no way she could have since Royce hadn’t given her all the facts, but maybe he should’ve predicted it. He’d known the mayor’s secret, and he’d known how angry The Purists were about it. Still, predicting it wouldn’t have changed anything. The detectives were going to find out eventually because this situation wasn’t going to just go away like the mayor hoped. A particularly loud moan made the detectives jerk and snapped Royce out of his thoughts.
“Shut that shit off and get back to work,” he commanded. There was no mistaking his outrage and disgust, and the other detectives scattered.
Kelsey skirted by him and headed for her temporary workstation, quieting the computer, then dropping in the chair. Royce followed her, leaning against the corner of her desk.
“What can we do next, Kels? Is there anything you’ve found that can help us identify this group?”
“Not yet, but the program is still tracking the site. We’re not talking hours, Royce. We could be talking days or weeks,ifwe get any viable information at all.” She released a long sigh. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I think we need bigger guns for this.”
“Such as?” Royce asked, dreading her response.
“FBI,” Sawyer said quietly. “We’re looking at cybercrimes that could involve multiple states at best and have international reach at worst.” Royce knew Sawyer was right but hated dealing with the feds.
“Come on,” Royce said, shaking his head. “We’re not dealing with some asshole in Moscow who has an ax to grind with Goodwin. We’re looking at some local fuck face who is power tripping right now because they think they have the mayor right where they want her.” And they did. There was no way in hell Lynette Goodwin was going to wait this out. Even so, he wanted to minimize the number of people who saw it. “Is there any way to shut this down?”
Kelsey shook her head. “The only person who can take it down is the domain owner.”
“And they haven’t used the normal avenues,” Royce said, recalling what Kelsey had said in the chief’s office. “How can we minimize the impact?”
Kelsey cringed. “We can hope word doesn’t spread faster than a wildfire. People will only stumble across it if they go searching for it.” She gasped. “Unless…” She pulled up Google and began typing ferociously. One search after the other brought up a link for the site. Anyone searching anything to do with Savannah would see it at the top of the page. “This is worse than I expected.”
“So much for keeping this as quiet as possible,” Sawyer said.
“Locke,” Chief said firmly from her doorway. Royce snapped his head up, noted her pinched expression, and didn’t keep her waiting.