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“Most likely,” Garcia replied. “Though it didn’t start that way. It started as a set up by a college professor. He downgraded targeted students artificially placing them in academic peril and then offered them extra credit to raise their grades. It was a set up to charge his students with academic dishonesty. That, of course, was the blackmail leverage after he sexually assaulted them, so they wouldn’t report the crime. But the blackmail didn’t end there.”
The color drained from Zelda Dobson’s face.
“Or the favors, going both ways if we’re not mistaken,” Garcia added. “The last woman we spoke with was just hired at a prestigious law firm right out of law school and it looks like that was arranged by said college professor. What this man will call on her to provide him regarding the firm’s clients is anyone’s guess.”
His stare at the ADA was intense, combined with his rough tone of voice had Zelda Dobson looking like she wanted to bolt from the room; probably to go throw up somewhere. Laura Lee almost felt sorry for her. Almost, until she remembered the ADA’s case dismissal record. She was responsible for countless drug dealers not being prosecuted.
The silence stretched for several uncomfortable moments. “Is she here in the Miami area?” Dobson finally asked.
“No, his victims are scattered in every big city across the country,” Garcia answered.
In her eyes and across her face, Laura Lee saw the realization of how many others had been victimized by West. Had she thought she was the only one, as Laura Lee herself had over the last decade?
“I see,” Dobson said. “I’m not sure what you think I can do.”
“Yes, you do. We can offer you a deal. But that deal walks out the door with us,” Garcia said.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Dobson insisted. “I think you have me confused,” she began.
But Laura Lee interrupted her. “There is no confusion. Do you really think we’d come in here with this accusation without having our facts straight? Fact number one, you attended and graduated from Mary Washington University. Fact number two, you took a class from the professor we’re talking about during your senior year and the records indicate your grades were less than stellar, right up until the last major exam, where you miraculously pulled your grade up to an A. Which, by the way is the pattern with all his victims. Fact number three, you were treated by the campus medical center for injuries consistent with rape during the last week of the semester. Fact number four, this professor wrote you a letter of recommendation to law school, another pattern we’ve noted. It gives him more leverage. And fact number five, there’s a sketchy financial trail between the two of you.”
Zelda Dobson rushed to the corner of the room and proceeded to throw up her stomach contents into the trash bin. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she stood after she’d stopped retching. “I need to use the ladies room.”
Garcia stepped in front of the door. He pointed to her chair. “Sit.”
“Come on,” she groaned. “Let me at least freshen up.”
“Sit,” he repeated.
Laura Lee took a few tissues from her purse and handed them across the table to Zelda. Then she offered her a stick of gum, both of which Zelda took from her.
“In a way I’m relieved it’s out. These last ten years have been hell.”
“Did you know there were others?” Laura Lee asked.
“I suspected,” Zelda said. “The network is too well established to have been put in place just for me.”
Network? This was new information. Laura Lee nodded before her gaze drifted to Garcia.
“We’re going to need particulars to corroborate what we know,” he said.
“What deal can you offer?”
“No prosecution if you give up all you have and testify if it comes to that, but you resign. You’re compromised,” Garcia said.
This was the first Laura Lee heard of this deal he was offering. Had it been pre-arranged with Shepherd during a conversation that only he had with Shepherd? Or was he making it up? She didn’t doubt for a second that Shepherd would have the connections to offer such a deal.
Zelda Dobson nodded. “Can I keep my law license? I think I’d like to practice some sort of law that would help the victims I helped to create over the years.”
“We’ll see what we can do,” Garcia said. She had brought a portfolio in with her he pointed to it. “Write your statement and make it thorough.”
As Zelda Dobson wrote, Garcia tapped out a text message to Shepherd. Thirty minutes later when Zelda Dobson completed the lengthy confession detailing out this network and how it influenced her prosecution of cases, as well as the money she received for doing so, she tore the pages from her pad of paper and handed them across the table to Laura Lee and Garcia. One thing her narrative lacked were names.
“You get the names when I have the offer including complete immunity for me in writing.”
“You’re taking the rest of the day as a sick day. The three of us walk out of here together,” Garcia said.
“Where are we going?” Dobson asked.
