Moment in Time Part 3

Chapter 61

GDS

Part 5

Gape-mouthed, Austin Elektra stares at Kate and Kendall. "Come in! Come in! Let's get some drinks in you."

A step behind Kendall, Kate makes sure the door doesn't quite close behind her. Rick peers through the opening, and when Austin turns his back to pour generous glasses of wine, he sneaks in. Sliding along the front wall, he reaches the staircase.

Austin holds out the oversized goblets to Kendall and Kate. "Here you go, a little something to loosen your inhibitions."

Kate smiles at Kendall. "Do your inhibitions need loosening?"

Kendall winks. "They never have."

Austin grins. "Then let's get to it."

"Where are your other guests?" Kate inquires. "I thought this was going to be a real party."

"Oh, it is," Austin assures her. "But I prefer more intimate gatherings. Don't you? And I've always thought of three as a magic number."

A song from School House Rock briefly runs through Kate's mind. "Ooh, did you think of that yourself?"

"Of course," Austin claims. "And it's the perfect number to fit in my personal playground. Follow me."

As Austin heads for the stairs, Kate silently prays that Rick remains out of sight. As her host opens a door, Kate flashes back to Dungeon Alley, except that Lady Irena's House of Pain was furnished in better taste. A black satin sheet featuring zigzags of red lightning covers a round bed. Twisted erotica hangs from the walls, and shelves hold various devices for bondage and sexual enhancement. As far as she can tell, none of the toys are intended to bring a woman pleasure. It figures.

Austin chooses a pair of red handcuffs and holds them out to his guests. Kate catches Kendall's eye in instant agreement. With one swift motion, Kendall has Austin on the black carpet, and Kate cuffs him. "Don't worry. We won't hurt you," Kate coos.

"Much," Kendall adds. She selects a feathered flogger from Austin's collection. "We can start with this."

Consulting the building plan on his phone, Rick taps lightly on a wall to locate the entrance to Austin's secret room. Finally, he finds the catch, and a door clicks open to a chamber lined with horizontal filing cabinets. He tugs on a pair of gloves and begins pulling out drawers full of mementos and trophies of sexual encounters. At any other time, some of them might have piqued Rick's curiosity, but right now, the only thing he's concerned with is finding the murder weapon. He discovers a serrated blade lovingly wrapped in red satin in the top drawer of a cabinet next to an altar. God knows what deity Austin worships. The evergreen offerings suggest some incarnation of the horned god Cernunnos. "Probably the modern perennially aroused version," the author mutters to himself.

Rick carefully photographs the knife while leaving it in place. Kate hammered it into his head that if the police don't seize the weapon with a warrant, any halfway decent defense attorney will get it thrown out and the case against Elektra dismissed. Seegar will just have to receive an anonymous tip. Kendall can share in the credit for Elektra's arrest – up to a point. Rick and Kate knew about the knife through their own resources. Kendall never did. She could never have understood its significance on her own. But weighing that will be up to the GDS.

"Acting on an anonymous tip, police searched the home of director, Austin Elektra," Rick reads from the online version of the LA Times. "While a knife found at Elektra's residence matched the weapon allegedly used in several murders, the crime lab found no blood or DNA. In addition, Elektra informed Detective Seegar of the LAPD that the knife was a prop from his 2014 film, 'Slasher Girls,' and that five identical knives exist. Elektra claimed to be unaware of the location of the other four knives. The police are investigating the additional weapons."

Kate's coffee sloshes as she slams her cup on the table. "I just spoke to Ryan. He said Elektra's alibis for the murders in New York check out. He's not the Phantom."

Rick tosses his tablet on the table. " Hell! That puts me dead in the water with the GDS and not much further ahead with finding my lost time, either."

"Babe, Phillip Harris was working undercover at Zenith to unmask the Phantom. If it isn't Elektra, it has to be someone else at the studio," Kate points out.

Rick sighs. "There are hundreds, maybe thousands of people on and off that lot every day. That's a damn big suspect pool."

"You know Kendall's not going to give up. And if you want to use the resources of the GDS, you shouldn't either," Kate urges. "According to Gray, at least two other entities besides the group that sent you to Thailand were involved in the last six weeks of your disappearance. And he said we both had familiarity with the organization doing distribution out of the Temple. That could be Reed's network."

"It could," Rick agrees. "In the state I was in, I might have stumbled into anything, and they could have grabbed me. But we're not getting any information out of that web of deceit. Still, Gray told us that someone else intervened."

"Your father?" Kate offers.

"After the way he used us to get Gemini, do you really think so?" Rick wonders. "He put both of us in the crosshairs."

"But he was sure he could protect us. And he did. So maybe he intervened when you were in LA, too."

"I suppose that's possible. But I have no way of contacting him to ask him. He's made sure of that."

"Which brings us back to tying into the resources of the GDS." Kate wraps her arms around Rick's waist. "And Babe, to do that, we have to solve Phillip Harris' murder before Kendall does."

Rick draws Kate against him, tucking her head under his chin. "You're right. We do."

"There were eight murders," Lanie announces to Ryan and Esposito.

"What are you talking about?" Esposito queries.

Lanie holds up a file. "I discovered a fourth New York victim, a man by the name of Pat Crews."

"Are you sure?" Ryan questions. "Phillip Harris only knew about three."

"Right. But there's a reason Harris missed this one. Crews was killed in New York the same time the Phantom murdered someone in LA."

Esposito shakes his head. "That's impossible unless…."

Ryan completes the thought. "There are two Phantom killers, one on each coast."

Kate glances up from Rick's arms as a knock sounds on the door. "We should answer that."

"Why?"

"Because it sounds like Seegar's knock. And according to the paper, he said he was going to look into the other knives. Maybe he found something."

Regretfully letting Kate go, Rick strides toward the door. "The security footage outside Elektra's house showed you two on the grounds," Seegar informs the couple. "So I had a feeling where that anonymous tip originated. I thought you might want to know that two knives are at the studio warehouse. They both came up clean. But the propmaster – who alibied out by the way – says the other two are missing."

Kate pulls her phone out of her pocket at a text alert. "That makes sense. Our ME discovered that there are two killers. One on each coast."

"And at least one of them has to work at Zenith – and also have access to the props," Rick realizes. "That narrows down the list of suspects a lot."