Free Familiar Lies by Brian J. Jarrett Page B

for Gabe?”
    Ruby sat for a moment, staring at her untouched toast. “No.”
    “I think Josh found out about whatever’s going on with Gabe and that guy in the white suit. You’re sure you don’t know his name?”
    Ruby searched her thoughts and shook her head. “No, but I could probably find out.”
    “You’ll put yourself at risk if you go snooping around in their business. Leave that up to me.” He realized how macho that sounded after it came out.
    “Thanks, hero, but I can take care of myself.”
    “That’s not how I meant it.”
    “I know. It’s just this is a lot of shit to take in. Gabe involved in some sort of sex tape crime ring? Maybe along with my boss’s boss?”
    “It’s looking that way.”
    “I shouldn’t go back to work.”
    “If you don’t go back, won’t they be suspicious?”
    Ruby thought about it. “Good point.”
    “Did they mention anything about me?” Max asked. “After the night you and I met, when I went in asking questions about Gabe and the others?”
    “Nobody thought anything of it. There’s a guy like you that comes in at least once a month. Sometimes he’s somebody’s dad, sometimes he’s a preacher from some church. Lost sheep and all, you know?”
    “I can imagine.”
    “As long as they didn’t see you at the house you probably got away clean.” She paused. “They didn’t see you, right?”
    “I don’t think so.”
    “You mean you don’t know for sure?”
    “Nobody followed me.” Max thought of his house and the missing DVD. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure.
    “So what’s next?” Ruby asked. “Are you taking the DVD to the cops?”
    “Eventually.”
    “Eventually? You should take it right away. You don’t want to sit on something like that. If the cops or anybody else catches you with it they’ll think—”
    “I know.”
    “You’d better figure something out then. I’m not waiting around forever for you to do something. I’m already freaked out at being in the same room as Gabe.”
    “I’ll figure something out.”
    Ruby didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t push the issue. She stood, leaving her uneaten toast on the table, along with the tab. “Text me tomorrow. Keep me in the loop.”
    “I will.”
    Ruby walked out of the restaurant, got in her car and pulled out of the parking lot, leaving Max to his thoughts.

Chapter Twenty-One

    Max sat in his hotel room with his laptop open, staring at the Google homepage. He had an idea on the way back from meeting Ruby, and if it played out as he hoped it could provide information vital to finding out what happened to Josh.
    Just as important, he might be able to bring to a close what happened to Amanda.
    Max had only a first name and a physical description from the video. The lighting had been good, possibly even professional. Apparently teenage rape porn customers demanded certain quality standards in their videos. Although Max wished that he’d seen a whole lot less of what was on that video, the odds of positively identifying Amanda had been greatly increased now. The problem was, where would he look?
    He started with the Internet and it didn’t take long.
    A few web searches brought him to websites featuring missing and exploited teens. He narrowed down the results based on general area, returning a grid of nine faces per page. There were eight pages of results.
    As Max sifted through the photos he found that most of them were female; children, pre-teens and teenagers alike. When Josh was young, Katie did periodic Internet checks on registered sex offenders living within a twenty-mile radius of their neighborhood. Maybe one out of a hundred had been female, the rest of them all had been men. Max thought about Gabe and the still unidentified Caldwell and he wondered just what in the hell was wrong with men.
    On page four Max stopped cold. There was no mistaking Amanda’s photo. It stared back at him from the third row on the left, her smile wide and her eyes bright. A pretty young