AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Laura Lee couldn’t read his tone. She nodded that he was correct. “A part of me hoped I was wrong.”
“This is why you made the appointment with me for right after this meeting,” Lassiter said. “Did you seek counseling after it happened?”
“No, I’ve never discussed this with anyone,” she admitted.
“We’ll work through it now,” Lassiter said.
“I know.” Her gaze slid sideways and met his. She thought she’d see anger in his return stare because she had not disclosed this to him previously. She was surprised to see compassion.
“This is a serious allegation you’re making against West,” Shepherd said.
Her sincere gaze locked on his. “Yes, it is. And it is one hundred percent true.” She clicked on a few keys, bringing up her research into the other young women at the college. “After the case the agency worked in New Orleans, it occurred to me that I couldn’t have been West’s only victim. As that case pointed out, abusers are abusers. They don’t change, they just leave more victims in their wake as the years go by.”
“What are we looking at?” Shepherd asked.
“I spent the last few days doing research. The names on the left are the young women who committed suicide while enrolled at Mary Washington over the last ten years. I, of course, have no way of knowing if any of them, or which of them could have been in West’s classes. The four I have starred were in the ROTC. I know because I traced where they were from and found their obits in their local newspapers or on funeral home websites. The list on the right are the dates of the rape reports to the campus police where no assailant was identified.”
“Has West ever been investigated by the campus?” Shepherd asked.
“Not that my review could ascertain. But I didn’t get into any records at the school, not student enrollment or class records, not HR records, or into any police records that were not in the public reporting domain.” She watched Shepherd’s jaw tighten. Her gaze swept across the table to Cooper and Madison. Cooper’s jaw was clenched, and his trademark smirk was on his lips. Madison looked like she wanted to say something. Then she glanced at the monitor where BT’s face was in one corner. He looked concerned, as did Lassiter.
“What do you want to do about this?” Shepherd asked.
“I’d like the agency to investigate him. If he was the cause of either group I have listed, he has to be stopped and held accountable.”
“Even if he wasn’t, if he is still preying on college students, he has to be stopped,” Madison added.
Shepherd looked thoughtful. He was considering it. “You did well with this research. I think we just found your secondary assignment. The Digital Team.”
Laura Lee smiled, relieved. “Thank you. I enjoyed the digging into records and finding the information.”
“Another data set you need to look into is women who were in West’s classes that left the university abruptly in the middle of the semester,” Doctor Lassiter said. “And search back five or so years prior to your assault. Certainly, you weren’t his first victim. Perps tend to be sloppier the first few times they commit the crime before they’ve perfected their play.”
Laura Lee had never considered that he’d done it to other young women before her.
“Are you going to reach out to Whiting and tell him of our investigation?” Cooper asked Shepherd. Leonard Whiting was the Deputy Director of the FBI, and he was Shepherd’s contact at the bureau.
“Not yet,” Shepherd answered. “But I want to see if West makes a move after Saxton submits that coursework.” He nodded to her laptop. “Submit it today. I’ll bring Garcia up to speed. You’ll be assigned to him while this case is ongoing. You tell him about any contact from West. And you do nothing without Garcia’s blessing. Don’t even answer your phone if a call originates from a number you don’t recognize without Garcia standing beside you. And we’ll have him tap your phone so all calls will be recorded. Open it as an official case and assign yourself as lead.”
Laura Lee was shocked that she would be listed as lead on the case. “Yes, sir,” she replied. She was sure she had just been dismissed, and it was confirmed when Lassiter came to his feet.
“Give me five minutes before you meet me in my office,” Lassiter said to her.
Laura Lee disconnected her laptop from the monitor feed and then closed the lid as she stood. “Thank you,” she said to Shepherd.
Shepherd nodded. “Please close the door on your way out.”
Laura Lee followed Lassiter out of the office. Lassiter went to the stairs, and she veered in the other direction, heading towards the exit to the public space of the building. Thankfully, Angel was not sitting at her desk as she passed. She left the Shepherd Security suite, exiting into the public hallway. She went directly to the public ladies’ room and locked the door once she knew she was alone in the three-stall room. There, she did some deep breathing to calm her racing heart. Now that the meeting was over, she could unlock the emotions she had kept tamped down during it. Her hands shook. It took the entire five minutes to calm herself.
“You believed her?” Cooper asked Shepherd.
“Yes,” Shepherd said. “You didn’t?”
“Yes, I did,” Cooper replied. “And I was impressed that she had made an appointment with Lassiter for immediately after our meeting.”
“She should have had that meeting with him a year ago, or as soon as she saw West’s name on Michael’s paperwork,” Shepherd said.
“I get why she didn’t,” Madison spoke up. “But she did now when it mattered. That took a lot of courage on her part to tell us about West.”
