My eyes tear up and I drop my head.
The four of us all stay silent as our thoughts go to our beautiful Natasha.
“Where is your office from here?” he sighs, defeated.
“In LA,” Ben replies. “I will drive you and then drop you back here to get your car.”
He thinks for a moment and hesitates. “I will just follow you. I am staying in LA tonight anyway,” he murmurs.
Ben looks back at us. “You two go and see Joshua and I will go with…” he frowns and his eyes flick back to the man. “What’s your name again?” he asks.
“Jesten,” the guy replies. “Jesten Miller.”
Cameron and I go back inside to see Joshua and go back up to the counter. “Can we go in and see him again now?” Cameron asks.
The receptionist looks up from her computer. “What was the name again?” she asks.
“Joshua Stanton,” Cameron snaps, annoyed that she doesn’t remember.
“Take a seat.” She gestures to the waiting lounge and we both sit down.
Fifteen minutes later we hear her voice. “Excuse me, gentlemen,” she calls. We both stand and immediately go to the desk.
“I’m sorry. He has declined your visit,” she says flatly.
“But I didn’t tell you who we are. I didn’t give you my name.” Cameron frowns.
“He is not accepting any visitors.”
We both frown at her in horror. What does that mean?
“He doesn’t want any visitors,” she repeats.
“He would want to see me,” Cameron says softly. “He’s not thinking right. I’m worried about his safety in here,” he mutters.
She rolls her eyes. “Sorry.” Her eyes go to the man standing waiting in the line behind us. “Can I help you?” she calls.
The drive back to LA is made in complete silence. Both Cameron and I are filled with fear for Joshua. Why wouldn’t he see us? Has something happened overnight? The weight of our thoughts are apparent but neither of us want to say anything out loud for fear of making it come true. He’s on the edge, we know that. How much can a man take before he hits breaking point? We pull into the undercover carpark of our offices and head up to level 33, the new headquarters for our security team as we try to unravel this conundrum. Who killed Natasha and why has Joshua been framed?
Joshua’s large office now has chairs and tables scattered throughout and there are five whiteboards at the front with notes scribbled on them. Each board is for a different suspect, and each board is filled with evidence. Why can’t we work this out? We walk in to find Ben standing in front of the boards and Jesten, Max, Nicholas and six of the security team seated as they listen to Ben speak. He nods as we enter the room and sit.
“You weren’t long.” Ben frowns.
Cameron’s angry eyes flick to Jesten. “He wouldn’t see us. What did you fucking say to him?” he sneers.
Jesten screws up his face. “Don’t speak to me like that or you will be eating through a straw.”
“Will somebody please explain to me why this fuckwit is sitting in my brother’s office?” Cameron yells, outraged.
Max shakes his head and Ben pulls his hands through his hair in frustration.
“Fine,” Jesten snaps. “I will go.” He stands angrily. “I don’t want to be here anyway.”
“Sit down, ” Nicholas yells. “You are not going anywhere until I question you about Allender. Do not dare start this shit now. All of you!”
The room falls silent and my heart does a double beat. Nicholas is taking charge. Finally someone is taking charge.
Jesten sits down angrily.
“Go on,” Nicholas says calmly to Ben.
“Ok.” Ben nods and pulls himself back into concentration mode. “Here are the suspects that we know of.
Suspect one: Coby Allender. Natasha met him at the prison and he took a liking to her.” He gestures to Jesten. “Hopefully Jesten Miller who was a prison guard at the prison he is in can shed some light on this situation. Allender has an accomplice on the outside and Natasha had her apartment broken into before we left Sydney and some very personal things were taken. Allender told her he had them and it was brushed off as scare tactics, however the items were returned months later and we now know that this man…” He puts a picture from the security vision up on the screen of the dark-haired man leaving Natasha’s apartment. “Has gone to see Allender in jail and a definite link was made for the first time. When police went to arrest him he wasn’t there but they found photographs of Natasha and the other victims strewn all over his apartment. These men raped, tortured and killed twelve young women.” Ben points to the photos of the dead young women along the bottom of the whiteboard; their bodies were mutilated.
My eyes flick to Nicholas as he frowns in horror at this news.
Jesten shakes his head in disgust.
He runs his finger over the photographs of the dead women. “The other women in the photographs have all been murdered along with Natasha but…” He hesitates as he takes a drink of water. “Natasha’s disappearance does not fit the murders of the other young girls and, to be honest, I am having a hard time believing that this murder was carried out by the same men.” He shakes his head. “It was a different country and we know that this particular man is not wealthy and he hasn’t left the country on his own visa. However, he could be travelling under an alias.”
Jesten rubs his hand over his face.
“Natasha’s murder involved drugging, a boat and getting around security guards. I think it was out of their league.”
We all nod.
“Suspect two,” Ben continues. “James Brennan. Joshua recently found out that his father is not his biological father, and that his biological father has been blackmailing his mother and beating her for many years.”
“Bloody hell,” Jesten whispers and I bite my bottom lip to stifle my smile.
“He has extorted millions of dollars from her and Joshua had recently demanded the money back or he was going to the police. This man stands to lose everything and with Joshua in jail for murder, he is a free man. He hasn’t been seen for five weeks by his family as he is on a business trip. He has the money and motive to carry something like this out. We have just this morning traced his visa to London and we have consequently hired intelligence to try and find him over there. They will be trailing him until we find out more.”
We all nod. I think it’s him.
“Suspect three,” Ben continues. “Joshua was mugged in a suspected hit just over twelve months ago.” He plays the security tape from the garage and we all sit and watch it. God, it’s violent. Jesten rearranges himself uncomfortably in his seat as he watches. The three men attack Joshua, he fights back and then one of them pulls a gun but the police siren sounds and they jump in his Aston Martin and speed away. “We don’t know who ordered that hit.”
“How do you know it was a hit?” Jesten asks.
Ben replays the tape and points to the man at the back of the screen. “See, he has a gun.”
Jesten frowns. “He was just pissed that Joshua was whipping their asses. If it was a hit they would have just shot him straight up.”
Nicholas nods as he thinks.
“True,” Ben replies. “But then when Joshua was in hospital four days later they showed up-the same three men showed up there.” He produces photos of the three men in the hospital. “If it was random why were they at the same hospital unless they were looking for him? It could just be a coincidence but we have no way of knowing.”
We all nod.