Just when I thought he’d walk away without answering, he asked, “Are any of us truly good people? Life isn’t kind to most.”
“True, but some of us live more in the gray than we do in the light.”
“I think most of us live there. And the people who think they are full of love and never do anything wrong are usually lying to themselves.”
“Agreed.”
“I remember why you look familiar.” He lifted his phone and tapped on the screen before showing it to me.
It was a photo of me, and beneath it said,This man killed my partner.It was a post on a popular social media site where people liked to speculate about crimes. I didn’t go on there, but one of the guards did. It was his guilty pleasure. He even got a few of the others into it, and they tried to solve the crimes before the solution was posted.
“At least I look good,” I said in response.
“Did you do it?”
“Do you really care?”
“No.”
“Then if I did or didn’t doesn’t matter. Also, getting a confession out of me isn’t going to happen. That’s a forum for people to speculate and fuel conspiracy theories. If I did it and they knew it, wouldn’t I be in prison?”
He glanced down at the screen, then up again. “It says you work for Jordan Altair Sr.”
“Accurate.” I didn’t hide who my boss was. I’d been seen numerous times with him. There was no reason to conceal myself.
“Are you sure it’s only the gray you live in?”
“It varies by the day, but let me ask you this. Do you live in the city?”
He nodded.
“Do you feel safer knowing Jordan is looking out for the people here? The streets are cleaner than most cities. Crime is down.”
“I agree with you there,” he said. “That doesn’t mean I want to meet him.”
“No, but you benefit from what he does. The gray isn’t a bad place to live in. Thanks for the heads-up on the forum. I’ll be sure to go down that rabbit hole later.”
“Anytime. By the way, even if you did do it, I have a feeling it was warranted.”
“Welcome to the dark side.”
As the guy walked away, I noticed Oleander typing on his phone. “I told Barry. He’s going to fill Jordan and the others in.”
“Did you read the post?”
“Skimmed. There’s nothing concrete. It reads more like whoever posted it wants others to join in, saying you killed their loved ones as well.”
“Is it a breadcrumb?”
“I doubt we’ll get anything from it. Barry will tell Lawson. People can create fake accounts though. This account was already deleted. They could have been logged in from a coffee shop when they posted and ditched the device. There are too many variables.”
Was it wrong that I didn’t care? I mean, I did, but this person was playing games. If they really wanted to draw me out or ruin my reputation, they didn’t know me at all. I didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought about me except for a select handful.
“I’m not feeding into this,” I replied. “That’s what they want, a reaction. All they’ll get is shut down.”
“C’mon. We should get back.”
“Fine. Too bad I didn’t get anywhere today.”
