Behind the Secrets (Behind the Lives #4)
Read Behind the Secrets (Behind the Lives #4) Online
Authors: Marita A. Hansen
BEHIND THE SECRETS
By Marita A. Hansen
Copyright
Behind the
Secrets
(Behind the
Lives #4)
Kindle Edition
Copyright 2015 ©
Marita A. Hansen
Edited by John
Hudspith
Cover Art by Marita A. Hansen
Kindle Edition,
License Notes
All rights reserved. No part of
this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means whatsoever without the written permission of the
author, nor circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which
it is published. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. For
subsidiary rights enquiries email: [email protected]
All characters, names, places, and
incidents in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination or
are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or real
persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
UK and
Commonwealth English used due to the New Zealand setting.
Any other variation in spelling is
also due to where the book is set.
*
A
special note:
This book is set in 2010 and 2011,
prior to same-sex marriage being legalised in New Zealand.
*
Beth
Beth headed into the police station, the
building reminding her of a cheese grater, with its multitude of windows,
strange shape, and grey exterior. Nervous as hell, she weaved through the
throng of people, the station busy. Although she was assisting the police with the
Ant Torres case, it didn’t lessen her anxiety. Instead, it amped it up, to the
point that she felt like turning around and heading right back out the door. She
was afraid she would say or do something wrong, ruining their case. But she continued
forward, knowing she was just being paranoid, especially since there was no way
that Ant could get off. He’d kidnapped her brother, shot Corey’s friend, assaulted
her boyfriend, and forced her to play a Russian roulette game, along with numerous
other heinous things.
She came to a stop behind a line, hoping
the wait wouldn’t be long. Her legs felt like jelly, while her stomach was a
mess, her morning-sickness giving her no end of trouble. After several minutes,
she finally reached the desk, giving the policewoman on the other side a weak smile.
“How may I help you, ma’am?” the policewoman
asked. She was an athletic-looking blonde with a plain face, soft grey eyes,
and a friendly smile.
“I’m here to assist with the Ant Torres
case,” Beth said, rubbing her stomach, her loose blouse hiding her small baby
bump.
The policewoman’s face lit up. “My
friend Saul was involved in that. He was the undercover officer who helped
bring Torres down. Are you here to speak with him?”
Beth shook her head vigorously,
definitely not wanting to speak to Saul. Although he’d helped save her and her
brother, he’d also sexually assaulted her. The day prior to arresting Torres, he’d
pushed her up against a wall and put his hand down her pants, and if she hadn’t
screamed, she was sure he would’ve raped her too.
“Ma’am,” the blonde policewoman said, now
looking concerned. “Are you all right? You look a bit faint.”
“I’m fine, I’m just pregnant.”
The policewoman indicated to a row of
chairs lining the wall. “Then take a seat while I call the inspector for you.”
“Do you know how long the interview will
be? I’m not feeling too well. I would really like to go home.”
“Sorry, I have no idea, but I’ll inform
the inspector of your condition.”
“Thank you.”
Beth headed for the seats, taking one in
between a teenager and a middle-aged woman, the latter wearing a white supermarket
smock. The woman was biting her nails while staring at the clock across the
room, anxiety coming off her in waves. Beth inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying
to quash her own anxiety. Just the thought of seeing Saul again made her want
to throw up, the man a nightmare she wished she could forget. Since there were
so many police stations in Auckland, it hadn’t even occurred to her that she
could bump into him. Although, she should’ve known, especially since he was involved
in the case. But then again, her morning-sickness was making it hard for her to
think straight.
She removed her iPhone from her denim skirt,
needing to distract herself from her thoughts. A couple of texts were sitting
in her message box, the first an advertisement, the second from her mother,
asking how she was. She’d lied about having the flu after she’d thrown up on
her parents’ lawn. Due to not being married, she’d kept her pregnancy a secret
from them, although she knew she couldn’t keep it a secret for much longer,
especially since her body was starting to fill out faster than she’d expected.
She texted her mother back, saying she
was fine, which was another lie, everything about today a huge mess.
“Miss Connor?”
Beth looked up. A man in his late forties
stood a few feet away from her. He had grey hair and a moustache, resembling
the sergeant major out of
It Ain’t Half Hot Mum
, an old British comedy
her dad loved watching. He was wearing a dark blue tie and ranks on his pale blue
policeman’s button-down shirt, reminding Beth of the defence force. There were
three silver star-like pendants on both his shoulders, a multi-coloured bar and
name tag on his chest, and a police badge at the top of each arm.
Slipping her phone into her pocket, Beth
rose to her feet. “Yes, that’s me.”
He held out his hand. “It’s nice to meet
you. I’m Inspector Joseph Monroe. Thank you for coming.”
Beth shook his hand. “You’re welcome,
it’s nice to meet you too,” she said, relieved Saul wasn’t with him.
He let go of her hand and indicated to
the far door. “This way please.”
They headed through it, down a
passageway, and into a sparsely decorated room. It had a table and a few chairs,
looking like it was purely used for interviews.
“Would you like a drink?” the inspector
asked. “We have coffee, tea—”
Beth held up a hand. “No, I’m fine,
thank you.” She sat down, not sure if she could stomach anything, especially
coffee, the smell too strong.
The inspector took the seat across from
her. “As you know, the trial for Anthony Torres will be in just over six
months. At the moment, he’s under house arrest.”
Beth sat up straighter, his words
upsetting her. “He should be in prison. He could come after my brother again.”
“He can’t leave his estate. His home
is
his prison.”
“But, he could still get out.”
“No, he’s being monitored closely, and
if he tries to escape, he’ll be transferred to prison.”
Beth sank slowly into her seat, relaxing
a little. “Good. I don’t want him anywhere near my brother.”
“I can assure you, your brother is safe.
Though, if he wants to stay that way, you need to convince him to testify. Torres
has hired incredibly talented lawyers, who are picking the case apart. We’ve
already lost a number of witnesses due to them—”
“That can’t be allowed! How can they
stop people from testifying?”
“They’re not stopping them. They’re
making them look so unsavoury it’ll weaken our case if we put them on the stand.”
“It doesn’t matter if we lose some
witnesses. What Torres did is enough to put him away for life.”
“I agree, but—”
“There are no buts,” Beth said
forcefully. “He shot my brother’s friend in the head. He also kidnapped my
brother as well as sexually assaulted him. He did the same to my boyfriend
and
forced me and another woman to play Russian roulette.”
“His lawyers are claiming that the
Russian roulette game was purely his father’s doing—”
Beth shot out of her seat. “That’s a
lie! It wuz just as much Torres’s fault as his father’s.”
The inspector waved a hand for her to
sit back down. “I know, but we can’t prove that.”
Shaking with anger, Beth lowered herself
into her seat. “It doesn’t matter whether we can or not; the jury can’t
overlook what he did to my boyfriend and brother. Kidnapping
and
assault
should get him locked away for years—”
“Unfortunately, your boyfriend is one of
the witnesses who can no longer take the stand.”
“Why?!”
“Dante Rata has a long rap sheet. He’s
seen the inside of a jail cell more than I can count on both hands, while
Torres has had only one issue prior to this, which was in his teens. And
because of his age at the time, the lawyers are working to suppress what he did.”
“What wuz it?”
He frowned. “I can’t divulge too much,
other than it was a sexual offence.”
“The one against my boyfriend’s
brother?”
The inspector nodded. “Plus one other
person, but unfortunately that person refused to testify, which meant Torres avoided
being charged under the adult system.”
“That still shows he’s committed a
sexual crime before, so the jury should believe my boyfriend.”
“Again, your boyfriend is a known criminal.
Not only that, he has a facial tattoo, which will affect the jury’s opinion.”
“But that’s wrong.”
“I know that, but I can’t do anything
about it. Also, I hear that Dante is currently in a psyche unit. That further
weakens his word. Torres’s lawyers will cut him down within seconds.”
“But there’s video evidence of Dante
bein’ forced to have sex with another female to entertain Ant’s clients.”
“His lawyers claim that Dante
participated willingly.”
“He didn’t!”
“I know that, but the video of him
performing is damning.”
“What ’bout my brother?”
“That’s why you’re here. As I said
before, I’d like you to convince Corey to take the stand. I also would like you
to make sure that your mother doesn’t interfere again. Because your brother
broke down in tears at the first interview, she won’t allow us to talk to him
again. She also said that there are other good witnesses we can use instead of
him. I agree; we do have other good witnesses, just not ones that can guarantee
a longer sentence like your brother can. I explained this to her, but she
wouldn’t listen to me, saying that I don’t know what I’m talking about.”
“When it comes to Corey, my mum’s
extremely overprotective.”
“Well, if she truly wants to protect him,
she needs to understand that Corey
has
to take the stand. There’s no way
around it.”
“I agree. Plus, if anyone can get the
jury’s sympathy, it’ll be him. Not only is he adorable-looking, he also cries
when he’s scared, which makes people melt. It’s why he gets his way so much.”
“Good, so can you talk your mother into
letting him testify? Although the trial isn’t for a while, the preliminary work
is well underway.”
“I’ll make sure she stops interfering,
and Corey needs to grow a backbone. Even if he doesn’t want to stand up for
himself, he should at least do it for his best friend. After all, Sledge has
brain damage cos Torres shot him.”
“Torres claims he didn’t do it.”
“But Corey saw—”
“From his original statement, Corey said
he didn’t actually see Torres fire the weapon. He looked away when it happened;
scared he was going to die. Not only that, your brother’s friend can’t remember.
We also have no other witnesses, or even have the gun. It’s gone missing.”
“Missing?!”
The inspector started rubbing his temples.
“I’m suspecting Torres has someone on the inside working for him. We haven’t discovered
who it is, but we will; it’s only a matter of time.”
“If we can’t get him on the attempted
murder charge, what will he go down for?”
“Underage pornography. The nude photos
he took of your brother while Corey was drugged will be used against him. Also,
if Corey tells the jury of how he was sexually assaulted by Torres, as well as
forced into the porn trade, we’ll have something on Torres he can’t get out of.”
“How much time would that get him in
prison?”
“Most likely ten years.”
“That’s not enough!”
“I agree, but at the moment, that’s all
we have.”
“What about your undercover officer?”
Beth said, not wanting to think about Saul, but knowing she didn’t have a
choice. “Can’t he get that bastard more time?”
“Possibly. I’m just hoping he hasn’t
done anything that Torres can use against him. Often undercover officers break
the law so they don’t blow their cover.”
Beth’s mind went to Saul molesting her,
knowing it wasn’t needed to keep his cover, especially since no one else was
around at the time.
The inspector continued, “At the moment,
my officer’s being investigated to make sure he’s clean. The results are due
back today. Knowing Saul, it should be fine. However, we still need to be
prepared for the worst, since nothing’s foolproof.”
“Which is why I should also testify. I’m
not afraid to answer questions, if anything, I want to.”
“Unfortunately, most of what happened to
you is being attributed to Torres’s father.”
“Torres wuz equally responsible.”
“I know, but again, his lawyers will rip
you apart. Corey’s the only one they’ll have trouble dealing with, plus we have
another witness who saw your brother drugged and being taken advantage of by
Torres. He’ll back up what Corey says. My officer will also take the stand. It’ll
ruin his undercover career, but in this case, I agree, ten years isn’t enough for
what Torres did, and since Saul can expand upon Corey’s testimony, it could get
Torres a much longer sentence.”
“What happens if Saul’s found to have done
sumpthin’ wrong?” Beth asked, her mind once again returning to the assault.
“His testimony can be thrown out.”
Beth refrained from grimacing, knowing
she couldn’t report him now – or at least not until after the trial.
“I’m sorry for the bad news,” the inspector
said. “Which is why it’s imperative that you talk your mother around into
letting Corey testify, and of course, to make sure Corey knows how important it
is for him to do so.”