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“I’m good. Thank you for asking. I think we need to consider our own press conference,” she said. “Give me a few of the documents that you retrieved from the house, and I’ll claim that I had them in my possession but was unsure of who to trust in the government.”
“Harlow, are you sure, honey?” asked Nathan.
“If I want a life, I need to do this.”
“Hold on,” said Nine. “I’ve got a call from someone who might be able to shed some light on this.” He handed the phone to Pigsty, who connected it to the speakers.
“Sir?”
“I’m here, Tyler. Our whole team is here. What have you got?”
“Well, sir. I had a lot of information on Justice Morrison but thought it was a moot point at this stage. Then, I went back and reviewed it. It’s still relevant.”
“Go on.”
“Justice Morrison and Spencer Judge didn’t attend the same law school, but they were best friends in high school. In fact, they pulled a Chappaquiddick.”
“A what?” frowned Nate.
“Years ago, when he was a young man, Teddy Kennedy was accused of letting a young woman die in a creek. He’d been drinking. She’d been drinking, but they weren’t a couple as far as anyone knew.”
“So, what does that have to do with Morrison and Judge?” asked Nate.
“I’m getting there. They were both seniors at a preparatory high school in New England. They’d been to a Christmas Eve party for the upper-classmen and, on the way home, stopped at a party being held at a classmate’s home. While they were there, witnesses saw them with a young woman, Victoria Demais. Very elite, very rich. Her family was from big European money.
“When the party ended, they saw Victoria leave first, then Morrison and Judge. This is where it gets sticky. According to them, she asked for a ride home. But when another kid was questioned, he said that Victoria was so drunk she could barely walk or speak. He said he’d never seen her like that, and he thought they’d put something in her drink.
“Anyway, the next morning, the cops are out searching for Victoria and can’t find her anywhere. They got search teams together and dog teams. They found her body in an old feed shed on a farm. She was naked, raped, beaten. It’s pretty awful, sirs.”
“You don’t have to tell us the details,” frowned Nine.
“When they started questioning all the kids at the party, Morrison and Judge were tops on the list. Unfortunately, they had the same alibi as every other kid. The party.”
“What about her parents?” asked Harlow.
“Well, ma’am, this is the really weird part. Her parents said that they knew both boys and they were good kids. No trouble, never done any harm. In fact, they said that the boys had attended a party at their home just a week before. Funny thing is no one at the party remembered seeing the boys.”
“Maybe it wasn’t that kind of party,” frowned Nate. “Maybe her parents were in debt to someone within this group, just like now. Maybe the daughter was payment to the boys for their debt.”
“Bingo, sir. The Morrison and Judge families were both in some serious debt. Both fathers were up to their necks in the stock market, investing, hedge funds, you name it. They’d apparently mismanaged a large account, and everyone expected they would claim bankruptcy. Then suddenly, they’re flush with cash again. I can’t believe it was just lucky investing.”
“Neither can I,” frowned Harlow. “What was the name of the account they screwed up?”
“Tennison Dynamics,” said Tyler.
“Holy shit,” whispered Harlow.
“Harlow? Does that name mean something to you?”
“Uh. Yeah. Tennison Dynamics was owned by my mother’s father and uncle. It closed its doors when I was little, but I remember hearing that name all the time.”
“What did they do?” asked Nate.
“I can answer that,” said Code. “Tennison Dynamics was a company providing military-grade technology to the U.S. and Canada. In the early days of REAPER, we used a few things they had, then realized what we could create was far superior. About a year after we dropped them, the Canadian government discovered that they were trying to tap into their security systems from the backend. They were slowly discredited and then closed their doors.”
“That’s right,” said Tyler. “After all the questioning, it was determined that Victoria was killed by a passing stranger, a hobo or hitchhiker. The entire incident was wiped from the records of any student questioned because, of course, they were all minors.”
“They’ve been doing this for years,” said Harlow. “Decades of rape, beatings, brutality. It’s all a game. There are no consequences to the male of the family if he screws shit up. He can just hand over his wife or daughter. Do you have a list of others that could potentially be involved?”
