Page 34 of Into The Rabbit Hole

Chapter 7

Regina

* * *

“I’m amazedat what you can do. How did you get this information?” Detective Fray askedCora.

Regina watched her, wondering what she was going to say. She’d tried to keep Cora behind the scenes because her methods weren’t exactly legal, but desperate times had arrived and they needed everyone who couldhelp.

Thankfully, Cora had agreed to come along to the station today with Regina and Ben. She’d been working solidly to track Aaron and thought she’d managed to findsomething.

She smiled at him sweetly. “I have myways.”

“Okay, just to let you know, this won’t be on my head if things blow out of proportion,” Detective Frayreplied.

Cora shook her head. “It won’t. Your cameras and recordings in here won’t work. As far as anyone knows, this meeting neverhappened.”

“How?”

“I’m scrabbling your equipment. It’ll look like your system’s switched off but I’ll switch it back on once we’redone.”

Detective Fray simply stared at her inwonder.

Regina glanced over at Ben. He sat still with an expressionless look on his face. A look that nearly made her feel sorry for him. Nearly. Every time she was nearing the threshold, she reminded herself that Ben was a murderer, and she knew about it. She knew that he’dkilled.

So she didn’t feel any sympathy yesterday when Aaron released the information to the press that Ben had rigged the votes for Zachery, and she felt nothing as she watched the news and saw a new release stating that Ben had tampered with evidence in the Portercase.

Aaron had been true to his word, and now Ben had been suspended from work, suspended from his office as state’s attorney, and was underinvestigation.

Him and anyone in his office that was associated withhim.

Other than telling Detective Fray about the head in the box and the phone call from Aaron, neither of them had revealed anything else about what they had discussed. Regina hadn’t said anything because, for once, she was protecting herself. She thought of how things may look if it was assumed that she knew what Ben had gotten up to. She didn’t want to be implicated in any of it. To protect herself further, she’d spoken to her divorce lawyers and her publicist, who issued a statement to the press about her intention to divorceBen.

Regina had no sympathy. He was getting what he deserved and Aaron was destroying him slowly. She just wished she knew what would happen next. Was theremore?

She had a feeling there were a lot of things that Ben did that he wanted to keep secret. Now they were venturing down the rabbit hole and discovering all sorts that could actually destroy themall.

She looked back to Detective Fray and Cora. They were all sitting around a large boardroom-style table in an office near Detective Fray’s. This one had two windows and just seemed like a standard meetingroom.

“Okay, so you’re technically doing what our new friend can do?” he askedher.

She nodded. “But better. I’m just localizing it to this room, so the rest of the station isfine.”

“Right, okay.” He looked really apprehensive but continued anyway. “So, show me what youhave.”

Cora opened her handbag and pulled out a file. She opened it and revealed a map. It was of L.A. She had red dots on certain areas and a massive yellow one near HuntingtonBeach.

“He’s based in one of the old warehouses in Huntington,” Cora said simply. “He moves around a lot and goes as far as San Diego, but that’s where he’s doing all his work from. And there is absolutely someone else working with him. I picked up the same code being used in two different locations: one at Huntington, the other in San Diego. Can’t be in two places at once. They are also using a device to hack the systems. I still don’t know the full extent of what it does, but it’s some seriousshit.”

“You were able to track thecode?”

“Yes. It was difficult, but I did it. A word of advice, don’t rush in just yet. Youcan’t.”

“Why not?” Regina asked. “We can’t allow him to conjure up something else that may take usdown.”

“I agree. Can’t we just arrest him?” Benadded.

“This guy works with technology. The best thing we could do is disable his systems, disable him. He’s getting by because he can see everything. If we take that away, then you have achance.”