Chapter 7
Ed sat at the table and motioned for Betty to sit opposite him. He took the 3 sheets of paper that he had been working on earlier and pushed them in front of her. She read each of the papers slowly. After reading them she looked at Ed quizzically.
"What is this?" she asked.
Ed looked at her, "This is about all that I know about George Bynum, you and the murder. If I am to help you, you have to tell me everything that you can remember from the night you were drugged until last night. Do you feel well enough to answer a lot of questions?"
Betty nodded her head and started. "As I told you George asked me to a party Horizon was having and he gave me a drink. I don't remember anything until I woke up the next morning next to him in a motel room. We were both naked and I dressed and slipped out before he woke up. That's about everything that I can tell you about that night. About 2 weeks later, he called me and said that I had better come to his office. I was avoiding him and I didn't want to see him anymore, so I told him I couldn't come to his office. He told me that I better come or he would spread some pictures around the building that he knew that I would not want people to see. I didn't know what he was talking about but I was afraid that I had done something wrong the night of Horizon's party. I went to his office and that's when he showed me the pictures of the 5 men and me. The pictures showed me doing terrible things to them and them doing things to me that I would never allow a man to do to me."
"What kind of pictures were they, I mean were they glossy photos from a photo shop or maybe computer pictures?" Ed asked.
"I have one of the pictures in my bag, but I can't show it to you," she said, "I'd be too ashamed."
"I have to see the pictures if I'm going to help you," Ed said.
Betty got up and went to the bag she had brought her clothes in and looked for the picture. The picture wasn't in the bag. Betty got a worried look on her face and then her face brightened. She went to her purse and searched for the picture. After a minute she pulled a piece of paper from her purse and brought it to Ed. Ed unfolded the paper and Betty put her face in her hands to hide her shame. The picture showed Betty on her hands and knees with one man behind her and another pushing himself into her mouth.
"OK, this makes it easier," Ed started, "This is a computer copy on plain letter paper. So there's a computer somewhere with these pictures on it or a disk with the pictures. We'll have to find that if the police haven't already."
Betty moaned, "Oh, what if they have? I heard that they show pictures like this to everyone in the office."
Ed patted her hand, "I don't think the police have these yet. Why would they even be looking for pictures yet? They have no idea why Bynum was murdered. They are looking for you to find out if you killed him because of jealousy or because he wouldn't marry you."
"I'd never marry that scum," Betty spat.
"OK, tell me about after the meeting in George's office, ' Ed asked.
Betty continued, "George made me have sex with him that day in his office. I told you he said that he would tell my family and destroy my father's ministry. He made me have sex with him several times a week and then started making me have sex with friends of his. Last night he set up a date for me to have sex with a man he said was a business acquaintance. I realized that this was going to go on and on and I got off of the bus as soon as I made up my mind to quit and went into the diner."
"Do you know any of the men in the picture?" Ed asked.
Betty shook her head, "All of them. They work in the building. One works for the same company I do and the others work for Horizon. The one that works for the same company I do has never said anything to me about that night and George never made me have sex with that man after the night of the party."
Ed pushed the legal pad to her, "I want you to write down the names of every man that raped you. Next to his name, write the name of the company that he works for. After that, write down everything that you know about the men. Everything."
Betty wrote for over an hour. Ed had to give her 2 more sheets of paper. Betty finally pushed the papers toward Ed and sighed. Ed looked at the papers and saw that a lot of the information would be of no interest to him, such as one man's ties never were right for the suit he was wearing. He took another sheet and started to write questions as he read Betty's notes.
Ed looked up at her, "You haven't put down if any of them were married. Do you know?"
Betty nodded her head, "They all are."
Ed continued the questioning, going over the same information several times. Betty started to get annoyed and Ed explained that he had to know everything she knew in order to help her. Ed questioned her about the building she worked in, the layout of her office, the layout of Bynum's office and where the 5 men worked.
"Have you ever been in any of their offices?" he asked.
She shook her head, "I walked by but I've never been in their offices except for the man who works with me and George's office."
Ed made her tell him everything she could tell him about the 5 men's offices. Betty didn't feel that she knew much about the offices of the 5 men who had raped her but when she started to talk she described enough about the layout of each office that if Ed had to, he could make his way around the office to look for clues.
By the time that Ed had asked Betty every question that he could think of it was almost six o'clock. He asked her if she could eat Chinese food and she told him she thought she could hold it down. Ed pulled out an old menu from a local Chinese carryout and had Betty make her selection. Ed called the Carryout and placed an order for delivery. He was told that the order would be there in 1 hour or less.
Ed picked up the phone and called an ex-con who had turned his life around because of Ed. The con owed Ed big time. Ed could have sent the con away for life on the 3-time felon law, but had decided to use him as an informant. About a year after Ed let the con off, Ed and the Department parted company. The con was a wiz on computers and had started a successful computer consulting company. Ed waited for the phone to ring.
"Yeh," the voice said.
"This is Ed Harold," Ed told the voice, "Bob, I need a favor. I need to borrow a laptop computer, a good one, and photo software. OH, I'll need a printer if you have one. You know where I live. I need it tonight."
"You got it, pard," the voice said as he hung up. Bob Jones was called "Preacher" because of his name.
The Chinese food was delivered about 1 hour after Ed had placed the order. Ed got some dishes and silverware out and he and Betty sat down and dived into the dinner. Betty was feeling much better and put away a good dinner.
As Ed was cleaning up the doorbell rang. He motioned for Betty to get into the bedroom and went to the door. After making sure that she was out of sight, Ed opened the door and stepped into the hall pulling the door almost shut behind him. The man at the door looked like a computer nerd in his senior year of high school. At one time he had been one of the best thieves in town. He would steal on order, taking orders for specific brands and models. Many times the item or items were delivered within hours. The young looking man was actually 31 years old and a 3-time felon; only he hadn't been caught for the 3rd time or 300th time.
Ed looked at the man in the hall holding 4 boxes, "I see you got what I asked for."
"Yeh, no problem," the young man answered trying to look in the apartment, "Can we go inside. I get antsy out here where somebody can see us."
"I got a lady inside and she isn't dressed for company," Ed replied.
"OK, pard," the young man said as he set the boxes on the floor, "See ya later. Call me when you're done with the stuff."
"We're even," Ed said as he walked away.
The young man waved his hand over his shoulder as he walked down the stairs and disappeared. Ed picked up the boxes and took them into the apartment and called for Betty. He set the boxes on the table and cut the tape on the boxes with a kitchen knife. The boxes contained a top of the line business laptop and PhotoShop software and a laptop carrying case and a good printer, all brand new. Ed unpacked everything and shoved the boxes out of the way.
"Can you set this up and load the software?" he asked Betty.
"I work with computers all day," she said as she started unpacking the software.
Ed put his hand on hers and stopped her, "We have to talk first. I'm going to go and get into Bynum's office. The Crime Scene boys should be done there by now and the office will be cordoned off with crime scene tape. Horizon will want to get into there soon and clean the office and move Bynum's stuff out of there. I want to see if I can find anything that they might have missed."
"What are you going to be looking for?" she asked.
"I've got some ideas," he replied.
Ed got serious and Betty looked at him afraid of what he would say, "If I'm not back by 2 A.M. I want you to get out of here and head for Iowa and never talk to anyone back here. The cops don't know your name and they would never think to look in Iowa. There's money in my top dresser drawer. If I'm not back by 2, buy a plane ticket with it and get out of here."
Ed turned away and went out the door without saying another word to her.