Divorced! Now what?
Chapter 127

Jacko POV

Listening to Bethany read what is in that journal has my stomach turning; we had all judged that girl as the same as her mother, yet here she is shown to have been dragged into it and has found it hard to survive. We have so much information now that if any of those manage to get out of jail after this, I need to hand in my badge; we have done all we can to ensure it all sticks. That sick Judge has my anger rising and higher, and we have the Gutter Boys leader; he won't be escaping this time, marrying Cynthia so he can easily travel between countries. She was still considered a minor, only sixteen. Indeed, there is a rule somewhere about marrying a minor. Or does that get canceled out by the mother's agreement? There is no way Bob would have allowed it.

Bob will be shocked when he hears about everything happening under his nose. I know he did a lot of work and overtime trying to keep the peace with Wendy, but after hearing this, he would never have found the peace he sought. He will be embarrassed that all that happened under his watch. I remember him saying his wife was always away with girlfriends, living the high life since she gained all that money from her mother's death. She grumbled that the kids each got a home and money; she thought the whole lot should have been hers.

'This book is dates, times, how and where she had killed someone, the payment she received, and who she was paid by. Bethany's voice took me out of my muses, and I looked at the book with new interest.

'Talk to me, explain the color coding.' Pam asked as she moved to hover over Bethany and pointed to the different markings on the journal and the book.

'This P would be Peter, the J being the Judge?' Pam asked, and I had thought the same question. Now that we had names and identifying cues to look at, the book was starting to make more sense. Pam had turned off the recording, as this book was not a journal but a log book. It seems that some sentences in this chapter require you to read the complete chapters on Jo b n i b.com in order to avoid an incomplete reading experience. We headed out of the room and went to a new whiteboard, and Pam added the color coding, numbers, and names beside the letters. The room of people still there working on the books looked at the whiteboard, and understanding started to show on their faces; everyone was suddenly talking at once, trying to tell us what they had found faster than Pam could write it on the board. Everyone was excited about this new piece of the puzzle. 'Let's call it a night. It is two am, and I need my bed. Pam called. We managed to do almost everything we had planned, and I emailed the prosecutor, informing him we had more information that he should see and to come by my office tomorrow after ten; I needed to get a few hours of sleep before I saw him.

'Pam offered to take Bethany home, and I crawled back home for some much-needed sleep; I did not even get out of my clothes; I pulled my shoes off and fell on the bed, and sleep found me almost immediately.

My phone woke me up a little after nine. I grabbed it from the floor where it had fallen and groggily answered it. 'Hello.' I was struggling to wake up. I had not had enough sleep over the past week, and it was catching up with me. 'They have taken Bethany!' Pam's upset voice was on the other end of the phone.

'Who took her?' I was up now and walking to the bathroom to wash my face and void my bladder.

'I left her at the door of the building, and as I was turning around, I saw two men fighting with her, trying to get her into a van. A third man jumped out and helped push her in, but they took off before I could reach her. I followed for a while but lost them near the warehousing part of town. 'Did you radio it in?'

'Yes, and gave the rego number. We have an eye in the sky, and I hear that Bob is on his way over and is fuming; it will take him a couple of hours to get here. I hope we get some answers by the time he gets here.

'I thought we had everyone in jail; who is left? We had to have missed someone. I am racking my brain to think who we missed, and the only person I can think of is Bret; he was released from jail, and the judge gave him leniency for assisting us with our inquiry. Was he deeper in this than we thought? Nothing so far in Cynthia's journal says otherwise.

'Where are you?' I asked as I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.

'At the precinct, organizing a larger search pattern.

'Try the back warehouse on the new main street. I suggested as I drove my vehicle out of the underground car park.

'On it.' Pam typed away on something, but I had another thought.

'Call Bob; he might have a new tracking device on her, and where are Scott's men?'

'I sent Scott's men away; I said I could get her home safely.' She barked back, and I had a brief moment where I did not trust her, but then I brushed that aside. If she were in on this, I would have found some evidence of liking her by now.

'I will call Bob; this is on me; I will take his wrath. Pam hung up, and I continued down the highway, heading to the office. My stomach was growling, reminding me I needed to eat something or at least get a drink. I pulled into a drive-through and ordered a burger and coffee, and I was on my way again. It was not worth getting to work hungry and growling at everyone; I needed my A-game head-on.

Everyone ducked their heads as I came marching through the office; word was already out that we lost an important person in this case while under the protection of one of our own. Pam will not hear the end of this for a long time to come. I could not afford to lose my s**t right at that moment. I headed to the communications room and walked in. Heads turned to look to see who stepped in and then returned to their screens.

'Talk, someone, fill me in,' I went to the room in general, wondering who did it. Could you give me answers now? 'Bethany was taken outside her penthouse building at three this morning. We have footage of the men involved, and we can track her to other parts of the city, but our cameras are fewer out there; we lost her around here. A young officer pointed to a spot on the large overhear map.

'This traffic camera picked them up going south, but none of the other cameras have sighted them, so they must be somewhere in that area.

'Not necessarily. There is an old underground sewer system in that area; they could have gone to ground, I replied. After the tunnel situation, I studied all the tunnel systems around the place, refreshing my memory.

'You are right, sir, but surely we would have seen the van in the streets by the helicopter? We had it there fast!

'Pull up grid section thirty-nine and enhance! I lowered my voice, gaining more attention than I had raised it.

I watched the screen, looked at the enhanced imagery, had the tunnel overlaid to see where any intersected, and got lucky. 'There! I pointed to the screen, and the man on the radio gave directions to where I had shown him. It was a long shot, but it was the best I could come up with on short notice. 'Bob should arrive at any moment; he is coming by chopper. ' Pam's voice came over the speakers, and I cursed softly. I wanted to have some positive news before he arrived.