“Ha-ha. Funny.” He took two gloves out of the box and handed them to Blake. “Put these on. We sure as hell don’t want our fingerprints anywhere around here.”
They both donned the disposable gloves. Harper unlatched his car door, his heart pounding. “Let’s go.”
Blake nodded. They crept stealthily toward the door of the townhome. Harper tried the door. Locked, just as he’d feared.
Well, at least they weren’t stupid criminals. Would’ve made their jobs a lot easier though.
“Let’s go around to the back,” Harper said.
They walked around the row of homes to the back door of the unit in question. Also locked. They looked down the basement window well, but the window was covered.
Damn.
They’d been doing this for so long, Harper had hoped they’d gotten careless. No such luck. Course if they’d gotten careless, chances are they wouldn’t still be getting away with it. Amber’s photos had been taken almost three years ago according to her, and still they were using the same MO.
“I was just thinking,” Blake whispered.
“About what?”
“Bernie’s gonna get into a hell of a lot of trouble with his brother for giving me that information about the site. Course he isn’t the brightest bulb.”
“I’d say he’s not,” Harper said. “But neither is Lance for giving the stuff to Bernie.”
“True enough. Lance may be a whiz with computers, but he’s got no sense when it comes to anything else.”
“What does this have to do with anything?”
“How long do you think it’ll take these thugs to find out Lance took down Amber’s photos? They’ll go to him, he’ll produce that paper you wrote up, and they’ll know something’s up.”
“And?”
“Maybe they’ll take the site down themselves.”
“Are you crazy? They won’t take the site down. They’ll off Lance. Maybe Bernie too. And they’ll come after us.” Harper’s pulse raced. His words were true.
Blake let out long sigh. “It was just a thought. Since it doesn’t look like we’re getting in here tonight.”
“I guess we should give it up,” Harper agreed. “This place is as secure as Fort Knox.” His heart fell. He’d really wanted to get something on these guys. Not for Amber, of course. They’d already gotten her photos taken down. But for all the other innocent girls.
His conscience nagged at him. For Amber. You know it’s for Amber. She was the one who didn’t want to leave the other girls exploited. He’d treated her unfairly. He had a lot to make up for.
Course it didn’t matter anyway. They’d accomplished nothing.
Well, not nothing, actually. They knew the address. Likely the girls never remembered exactly where they’d been as well as not remembering what went on.
“You’re right. Let’s get back to the car,” Blake said.
They walked to the car and got in. Harper discarded his gloves and grabbed a notepad and pen from the glove compartment. “This is number three hundred. What’s this complex called?”
“We’re in Peaceful Pines. It’s an expensive upscale retirement community.”
Harper jerked his neck around until it hurt. “A retirement community? Seriously? Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
“I meant to, but we got off topic talking about how well the porn industry pays. I forgot.”
“Nothing like hiding in plain sight. No one would look for a porn ring in a retirement community. They must have soundproofed the place. But how in hell did Marta get into a retirement community?”
“Duh,” Blake said. “Through an elderly relative or friend. Or with fake IDs. It’d be pretty easy.”