Charlotte stared at her, speechless.
"For what?" Max asked.
"It was Madison's idea," Emily said quickly. "She said that we-the five of us-could do so much more than just donate to the women's shelter where Louise worked. She said we could punish the men who got away with abusing their wives and kids."
Charlotte sat frozen. "Punish them? How?"
"Madison said that we could perform what she called takedowns. The targets would be selected from the files at the women's shelter."
"Louise had access to those files?" Max asked.
Emily nodded. "She often interviewed the women. She was in a position to get the details we needed to go after the ones who got away-the men who went unpunished by the system. We were just trying to get some justice for the victims, you see."
"What kind of justice are you talking about?" Max asked.
"We did everything online. There's so much damage you can do and remain anonymous. We went into the chat rooms that the men used to find their victims and we did what we could to expose them. We ruined credit ratings. We even got two men fired from their jobs."
"You hounded them," Charlotte said.
"Yes." Emily raised her chin. "Our goal was to make sure the abusers never had a moment's peace. We wanted them to be afraid all of the time. We tried to ensure that they never got close to another potential victim."
"Jocelyn never told me any of this," Charlotte said.
She sounded as if she'd had the wind knocked out of her, Max thought.
"Of course not," Emily said. "Jocelyn considers herself your big sister. She thinks she needs to protect you. And, although we were careful, we all knew that what we were doing was potentially dangerous."
"Why did Jocelyn disappear?" Max asked.
"None of us knew that she had disappeared," Emily said. "Not at first. We really did believe that she was off at some retreat in the Caribbean. But after Louise died, Victoria and I started to wonder if something had happened to Jocelyn, too. Then someone sent the warning code. We assume it was Jocelyn. It has to be Jocelyn who sent it. Otherwise, it makes no sense."
"What is this warning code?" Charlotte said.
"Our biggest concern was that one day one of the targets might figure out who was behind the online takedowns," Emily said. "We worked out a code word to be used in such a situation. Last Friday all three of us-Madison, Victoria and I-got an e-mail from an anonymous address. We are sure it must have come from Jocelyn. There was only one word in the subject line. It was the code word."
"You think that one of the men you punished has turned the tables," Max said. "You think he's targeting you and the other members of the investment club."
Emily looked at him, her eyes stark. "That's what Victoria and I believe. Madison has . . . a different theory."
"What is Madison's theory?" Max asked.
"Ask her," Emily muttered.
"Where are you going?" Charlotte said.
Emily bit her lip. "No offense, but I'm not telling you or anyone else."
"I understand," Max said. He reached into his pocket and took out a card. "But if you need help, you can contact me at that number. Day or night. Got that?"
Emily nodded. She clutched the card and got to her feet.
"I need to go now," she said.
CHAPTER 40
Neither of them spoke until they were back in Max's car, driving away from Emily's house. Charlotte tried to organize her thoughts, but she kept hitting a mental stone wall no matter which way she turned. She glanced at Max. He seemed lost in his own thoughts.
"I can't believe it," she said, more in an effort to break the silence than anything else.
"You can't believe that Jocelyn and her investment club pals were living out some sort of real-life female revenge fantasy?"
"Well, actually, I can see Jocelyn doing something like that," Charlotte admitted. "I suppose what I find hard to believe is that I had no clue she was living a secret life."
"Looking back, are you sure she never dropped any hints?"
"No. Well, in hindsight I guess the fact that she was so firm about refusing to invite me to join the club was a clue. But I didn't pick up on it. You must think I'm incredibly naïve."
"What I think is that you had no reason to suspect that Jocelyn was taking a huge risk."
"But what does any of it have to do with what happened all those years ago in Loring?"
"Maybe we'll get more answers out of Victoria Mathis," Max said.
Charlotte took out her phone and keyed in Victoria's number again. She was dumped straight into voice mail.
"She still isn't answering," she said.
"Either she's running, too, like Emily Kelly, or-"
He stopped. His mouth tightened. Charlotte's insides knotted.
"Or whoever murdered Louise has already killed her. Is that what you were going to say?" she asked.
"It's a possibility, but at this point I'm inclined to doubt it."
"Why?"
"Like I said, dead bodies have a way of showing up."
"Sometimes they do disappear forever, though."
"Sometimes," he agreed. "But this particular killer doesn't seem to be concerned with making his victims disappear. If we're right about him, his goal is to make it look like his targets OD'd."
"So he doesn't care if the body is found," Charlotte said. "He must be very sure of himself."
"Yes," Max said, thoughtful now. "Yes, he is very confident, isn't he? That's interesting."
"Why?"
"Ultimately it will make him more predictable."
"Well, alive or dead, Victoria isn't answering her phone."
"That leaves us with Madison Benson," Max said. "Unless she has decided to run, too."
CHAPTER 41
Madison Benson was not running. Not yet, at any rate. But Charlotte could tell that beneath her cool, controlled executive demeanor and her Armani armor, she was nervous.
"I agreed to talk to you," Madison said, "because you are Jocelyn's stepsister. But when you called a few minutes ago you didn't say anything about bringing an investigator with you."
She cast a grim look at Max.
"I told you, Max is helping me search for Jocelyn," Charlotte said. "And he's also looking into Louise's death. If what Emily told us is even partially true, it seems to me that you and the other members of the club need all the help you can get."
She and Max were standing in the living room of Madison's elegant home. The big house was perched on the hillside of the upscale Queen Anne neighborhood. It was surrounded by lush gardens. The windows commanded a panoramic view of Elliott Bay.
Madison had not invited them to sit down and she had not offered coffee.
She had initially refused to talk to them, but upon being informed that Charlotte and Max had just had a long chat with Emily she had changed her mind.
Madison was not happy about Max's presence, but it was clear that she wanted information from them. Fair enough, Charlotte thought. They wanted information from her.
"What, exactly, did Emily tell you?" Madison asked.
"She said that your club is a cover for an online operation that targets abusive men," Charlotte said. "Men that the five of you decide have gone unpunished by the law."
"She seems to believe that Louise was murdered by one of your targets," Max added. "Someone who figured out that your club was responsible for making his life a living hell. She said you and the others think that Jocelyn was the first to run and that she recently sent a message warning all of you."
For the first time Madison looked as if she had been caught off guard.
"Emily told you that?" Madison said.
"Yes," Charlotte said. "Isn't that what you believe?"
Madison did not answer immediately. She walked to the wall of windows that looked out over the waterfront and Elliott Bay.
"I know that Victoria and Emily believe that is what is going on," Madison said after a moment. She sounded as if she was choosing each word with great care. "Emily told you the truth about the original purpose of the club. We did target some of the men who, in at least one case, literally got away with murder. He beat his wife to death and managed to convince a jury that someone else did it. And, yes, we always knew there was a possibility that one of our targets might figure out who had destroyed his finances or his job or his social life. But I'm not so sure that's why Louise was killed-assuming she was murdered, which is still an open question, in my mind."
"What do you think is going on?" Charlotte asked.
Madison turned around, her eyes hardening. "You really want to know?"
"Yes," Charlotte said.
"All right, I'll tell you, but you aren't going to like it and I doubt if you'll believe me. Here's the bottom line. Our club was established to punish abusers we believed had escaped the law. But we wanted our cover to look good. So we did make legitimate investments. We focused on small start-ups, one of which is about to get bought out by a large tech firm. If the Keyworth deal goes through, the profits for the members of the club are going to be huge."
Max studied her for a thoughtful moment and then he nodded once.
"You think Jocelyn murdered Louise so that there would be one less person in the club," he said. "One less member to share the profits. And now you're wondering if she's going to try to take out the rest of you so that she'll be the last one standing when the big payday comes in."