Read Lust and Lies 04 - Pretty Maids in a Row for Free Online Page B

fingers and said, "Three by corporate takeovers. Two others were sentenced to prison time through Rachel's efforts. Bobbi's gotten four for tax evasion and two others were publicly humiliated, careers destroyed, marriages broken, that sort of thing. In most cases, the initial evidence was provided by one of the many different detectives Cheryl hired."
    Again Rachel cut in. "My personal favorite was Ike Brown. After graduation, he became a pilot and started his own charter service based in San Antonio. The detective reports showed that he made a lot of trips in and out of Mexico and had purchased a number of large-ticket items with cash. I did a little additional investigating on my own and came up with enough evidence to strongly suggest he was running drugs.
    "It would have felt good to make the arrest personally, but he might have recognized me since I had given him such a hard time after my assault. I had to turn over the information I'd gathered to the agents in Texas, and they closed in on him."
    "My leads usually begin with a detective's report as well," Bobbi added somewhat shyly. "You'd be surprised how many people have a regular job for which they report their income, but also have some sort of side business that they keep hidden. Normally the deceit would never be discovered. However, between the detectives and Rachel and my information networks, there is nothing about a man's life that can remain a secret."
    Rachel snorted. "One thing you can count on is once a scumbag, always a scumbag. Every one of those fifteen frat boys was bound to stray from the straight and narrow as adults. All we had to do was wait for it to happen and be ready for them."
    April nodded and said, "The main reason I've insisted we keep our motives secret is to avoid being discovered too soon. If the targets communicated with each other, they might try to stop us any way they could—not that we're doing anything criminal, as I said before, but our actions might not be construed as entirely ethical. There could be repercussions. Also, to keep the risk of being discovered to a minimum, we've concentrated on the lesser-known men up until recently."
    Holly could see the logic in what April was saying, but it contradicted the present situation. "Having kept a low profile all these years, why did Cheryl decide to testify against Ziegler?"
    "The Society was never able to come up with a suitable punishment for him. Basically, he's been as clean as his political campaigns make him out to be. The only thing negative that's ever been uncovered is that his wife has a serious problem with depression—attempted suicide some years back. But we have no reason to hurt her. Stopping him from getting the cabinet appointment was the best revenge we had come up with, and Cheryl was the only one of the inner circle who did not have a career or marriage that could be damaged by going public."
    April guessed Holly's next question. "Yes, some of us are married. My husband and I were married while I was a senior. He was a professor at Dominion and was aware of some of the incidents involving the fraternity, but not what the women were doing about it. Cheryl's husband is somewhat younger than she is and supported her decision to testify."
    Rachel gave a nasty laugh. "Considering the allowance she gives that boy-toy of hers, he better support her decisions."
    April shot Rachel another frown as she continued. "Samantha, the attorney, is not only married, but the reason she's not here is because she just gave birth to their third child. Our seventh member, Paula Marconi, is also married with two children. Paula's our computer wizard. The system hasn't been made that can keep her out. Both of them told their husbands about the rapes, but not what they've done to get even."
    April picked up a thick, expandable folder that had been leaning against her chair, pulled a sheet of paper out, and passed it to Holly. "You can keep this."
    Holly scanned the paper, which bore the