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“This person is so sorry that she didn’t report it then, but she truly believed that her life would be ruined if she did,” Laura Lee said with much emotion.
“Again, why hasn’t law enforcement been notified?” Michelle’s mother pressed, clearly becoming more agitated.
Laura Lee stared at Garcia, urging him to display his badge. If she’d been issued FBI creds, she would have already pulled them. Garcia reached into his back pocket. He pulled his wallet out that contained his badge and creds.
“This is actually a law enforcement case,” he announced.
Thankfully, neither woman looked closely at the badge or credentials.
Tears swamped Michelle’s eyes. She nodded. When she spoke, her voice was a whisper. “Do you really think you can stop them? And make them pay for what they’ve done?”
Them? Laura Lee’s gaze went to Garcia. Her thoughts were reeling.
“The more people who will band together and press charges, the better the chance,” Garcia said cautiously. Obviously, there was more going on than they thought. He didn’t want to give her the doubt that they truly had a handle on the scope of this.
Michelle nodded.
“Are you sure you want to do this, honey?” her mother whispered after seeing her daughter’s head nod.
“I was so stupid,” Michelle said softly. “I walked right into it. But when a professor offers extra credit, you’d never think he was setting you up.”
Laura Lee’s heart sank. Damn. She’d been right. He was still doing it and doing it exactly the same way he’d done it to her. “No, you weren’t stupid, Michelle. You were set up by a master who’s been running this play for years.”
Michelle wiped her cheeks. “Okay, so how many of us are willing to come forward and press charges against Professors West and Liu?”
Laura Lee’s stomach dropped. She couldn’t tell this poor girl that, including her, the number was one. And who was Professor Liu? Though she supposed it would be easy enough to figure out by reviewing the college’s staff roster.
“Another set of our colleagues are interviewing three other women, and we have several more interviews to conduct as well. After all interviews are concluded, we can give you the firm number,” Garcia said. “I’m sorry to ask this of you, but we need you to make a full statement. If you’d prefer, I’ll leave if you’d feel more comfortable speaking with just Laura.”
Michelle shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’ll have to talk about this in court, won’t I?”
“Unless we get him to plead guilty,” Laura said, but she doubted that even when confronted with solid evidence, Harrison West would admit what he’d done.
Laura Lee gazed out the side window as Garcia pulled the car away from the curb. Only after Michelle Kesler’s house was out of view did she allow her many emotions to wash over her. Tears crested her eyes. She was thankful she wore sunglasses, so Garcia didn’t see. Part of her was elated that she had been correct, as wrong as that was. Another part of her felt utterly devastated that the crime had escalated to two assailants.
Hearing Michelle Keslar recount how she was raped and then blackmailed by both men actually turned her stomach. Yes, she still felt as though she would throw up. But thanks to the prepping she received from Joe Lassiter, hearing the narrative didn’t trigger a panic attack. She would reach out to Joe Lassiter and schedule a video meeting with him later from the hotel.
“James Liu,” Garcia’s voice intruded on her thoughts. She’d forgotten he’d called into HQ as soon as he’d closed his car door. “Thanks, Smith. Push his bio out to the team as you investigate him. Don’t wait until you’ve completed the deep dive.”
“So, Caleb confirmed a Professor Liu at the college?” she asked.
“Yes, get this. He’s a legal professor who’s been on staff for seven years. Most senior level legal majors are enrolled in both West and Liu’s classes the same semester because of the way the class schedules are laid out is what Smith said.”
“Michelle Keslar was only a junior. I wonder why she was in that class,” Laura Lee wondered aloud.
“I don’t think it’s an accident they’re targeting seniors.” Garcia said. “If Shepherd’s right, and he rarely isn’t, they’re targeting specific people they want something from into their future careers.”
“Many legal majors get recommendation letters from their professors for their law school applications. It could get a person disqualified from a law school if there is an academic dishonesty claim made by one of their professors who originally recommended them. But I still don’t understand what Shepherd thinks West can hope to gain from an unknown future career to blackmail them for.”
“I can think of a lot of reasons. Getting information from or impacting trials through either the defense attorney or the district attorney, or hell, even the judge means you own the justice system. There would be a lot of money to be made by West if he was selling verdicts.”
“Would he really have been able to get away with something like that for this long?” Laura Lee asked, doubting it was possible.
“Stranger things have happened. And let’s face it, rape and blackmail are two under-reported crimes. Victims are reluctant to come forward.”
“Me included,” she admitted.
“Don’t second guess how you handled it a decade ago,” Garcia said. “You did what you had to at the time.”
