Caught: In A Case by C.M. Steele
Chapter 9
We decided to meet at my house, so we could go over the shit they got. I was starting to trip about what they had on my girl, and what the fuck it meant.
“What do you got, boys?”
They had two manila envelopes, over-filled with documents. The one that caught my interest was the one labeled “dupes”. On the inside were photos of prominent officials and lawyers in the area. One photo was of me and that last chick I took out for a screw and bailed on. I could see that there was writing on the back that had pressed through the image.
It read: the best candidate – young, handsome, wealthy with a string of one-night stands. Moving to Seattle in a few weeks. Will be perfect.
“Jackson, we hacked into the computer there,” Duke said. They had a flash drive I imported to my laptop, and it opened up to a file folder with a set of private emails in it. “It seems that when she was arrested they did not let her take everything with her, and the police have done a shitty job of looking for evidence.”
“Unless she purposely left them there to be found,” countered Mike.
I looked at the emails that transpired between two people, starting from the day after Elizabeth’s dad disappeared.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Monday, February 18th 12:52 pm
Subject: On target
It’s going according to plan. We meet tomorrow, and the evidence is already starting to be planted. Mrs. Homan will look guilty of murder.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Monday, February 18th 1:10 pm
Subject: Re: On target
I made all of the arrangements before I left. Make sure you delete these. I want nothing to trace back. Love you.
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Date: Friday, May 24th 5:26 pm
Subject: Out on bail.
I have the lawyer in my sights. He has taken the case and the bait. All I need is a little act to get the ball rolling. We met already and things are going to plan.
I couldn’t read anymore. If this was to be believed, I was being set up by my innocent little love. Fuck, I tossed everything and smashed the fucking computer to the ground.
The guys stopped me before I went fucking ballistic. “Sir, calm down. We don’t think it’s her sending these emails; in fact, it looks like a set up to me. First, look at the time stamp on the emails.” Luckily the guys had a paper copy of the emails; smart fuckers. “Isn’t your girl in school at that time? When the investigation started, the detectives looked into her whereabouts, and she was at school at the time.” They showed me the information that was gathered from the detectives working the investigation.
I almost lost it again, and I’m glad my girl wasn’t here because she would hate me for good if she knew that I even thought she was playing me. She gave me her virtue for crying out loud.
There was more information gathered. Apparently, Laney Homan was running an undercover brothel from her, supposed, legitimate spa in the city. They managed to access some secret number they had found that linked them to the brothel office phone, and they dug deeper. This was where Jacob Homan had been losing his money for the last year. He had been helping his wife fund this illegal whorehouse while tasting the goods on the side; not just the whores, but also with the coke they gave the girls to perform with their customers. Messing with the candy was never a good thing, it would fuck up your world; it was too addicting. I would never play with that shit, well any drug for that matter; I loved my body too much. I would ask Elizabeth if she was given any drugs, ever. He was getting more coke than he could afford to pay back, based on a threatening note that had been among the files. The problem was, it looked like they were mixed up with some unsavory types that didn’t work with “I OWE U’s”. We haven’t found out who they were on the hook to, but we had an idea. There was the local mob run by a Sicilian named Anthony Franchetti, he was deadly and a no nonsense motherfucker. He wasn’t the kind you double-crossed.
What I couldn’t understand was why they used Elizabeth’s name in the email address. I had the fucked up feeling that the “jh” in the address stood for Jacob Homan. That fucker, I was told, was a cocky SOB, but I didn’t have time for this shit, I had to go pick up my girl. Despite this fucked up stuff implicating Elizabeth that turned out to be complete bullshit, I missed my girl. The fact that somebody was trying to pin something on her had me fucked up in the head, and all I was thinking about was choking the shit out of that bitch stepmother of hers. The guys had to calm me down because I wasn’t being my level-headed self, and never would be where Elizabeth was concerned.
