If that was true, that was news to Blake. And apparently not common knowledge that many others had heard. After first meeting Liam, Blake had scoured the internet for news of Missy’s death. No sources had mentioned her taking a post-death tumble.
“It became a several-day conversation between us. One that the doc ended up walking back after having another look at the examination. She said she thought she’d become too emotionally invested since she knew Missy and had been wrong with her original report. I would have left it at that, but I’d already found this. That’s when the hunch I haven’t been able to get free of came in.”
The man was wearing some nice snug-fitting jeans but managed to pull a small black case out of his pocket. He opened it to show a flash drive. It looked like it had seen better days. There were initials written in marker on its side.
“M.C.,” Blake read aloud. “Missy Clearwater?”
“I assume so,” he said. “Considering I found this under the bridge when I was taking pictures there the day after her death.”
Blake didn’t reach for the flash drive but leaned in a little as if seeing it closer would give her more answers. The movement put her thigh up against his in the process. If he minded the closeness, he didn’t say anything.
“That’s a weird thing to have on you normally, never mind before your death,” she said. “What’s on it?”
At this, Liam’s expression grew thoughtful.
“One Notepad document,” he answered. “It’s a code.”
“Code? Like as in computer commands that looks like the green font in the Matrix movies?”
He nodded.
“Exactly that. But according to an old computer hacker friend of mine from college, it’s only a partial piece of a much longer series of coding. A copied and pasted snippet from something else.”
Blake smoothed over the fact that Liam had casually mentioned having an old computer hacker friend for later discussion and posed another question.
“Why was Missy carrying a flash drive with a partial computer code on it? Are you sure it’s hers? Though I guess if it wasn’t, it would be one heck of a coincidence. Ugh. I wish we could find her laptop. If she had that code, then the rest is probably there.”
Liam was watching her. It was the only reason she didn’t go on a stream-of-conscious rant with her thought process. Instead, she bottom-lined the answer to her own original question.
“So, it’s all suspicious,” she said. “A medical examiner who wavered on her belief that Missy was already dead when she fell and a flash drive with the unknown code on it near her body. That’s how you got your gut feeling that something is seriously off.”
Liam dipped his chin down a little.
“And now the missing laptop and the McClennan cousins last week and Ray, plus the three men who came to my house last night, a place that they either did or did not know you were inside of.”
Was this whole thing about Missy’s case? About the code?
That made more sense than everyone coming at her for no reason.
Blake didn’t know the answers, but she knew she wanted to help get them.
“I missed my meet-up with Missy’s ex-boyfriend Kyle at the coffee shop, so let’s reschedule for tomorrow, if we can, and that way, maybe we can figure out at least where Missy’s laptop is or why she might have had this flash drive and code.”
Liam was still watching her. Which made sense. They were talking after all.
Yet, Blake stopped herself.
Because, well, it didn’t exactly feel like they were on the same page anymore. Instead, it felt like Liam had gone to a different metaphorical book altogether.
Then, as if to prove that point, he did something that froze Blake to spot.
His gaze dropped to her lips.
Adrenaline shot through Blake. Her heartbeat started to gallop with its encouragement.
Slowly, like syrup sliding, he reversed his gaze and trailed back up to her eyes.
Heat, not warmth, but heat ignited within her.
