“No judgment, remember? Let me tell you the whole story first.” He hesitates at first.
“Oh-kay? What is it?”
“Remember that uploader we keep trying to track down? The one making all those murder videos? Then disappearing.”
“Yeah?”
“Well, I’ve been following this girl for a few days and she met up with a man who tried to assault her. She got away, but then I found him still in their hotel room,” he says.
“Oh, no! Did you kill him?”
“Dude, wait until I’m done,” he replies.
“Sorry! Please continue.”
“I wasn’t going to kill him until I went through his phone,” he says. “He works for that guy; he’s a bounty hunter. I accessed the private forums on his phone.”
“Holy shit! This is our break; we can take them down!”
“I’ll send you all the information I’ve got from him so far, but if there are men placing orders for specific women. Not just by appearance. We need to get this done,” he says. “I need him to look into Micheal Vanderburg and see if anyone is going to miss him.”
“I’ll forward it to Dillian. Can you come here, back to Maryland?”
“No way; she’s on their list. I can’t leave her until she knows.”
“I guess you’re going to be doing a little reconnaissance of your own, huh?”
“Yeah. Well, maybe this way I’ll get to take down some more bounty hunters.”
“Just be careful and let me know if you need me to get the police off your back.”
“Will do, Batman.” He hangs up before I can tell him not to call me that.
About five minutes later, he sends me the basics he promised. Enough for me to connect with her phone through Wi-Fi without notifying her. A list of visited locations pops up, but that’s about it for now; nothing else is accessible yet. What other types of surveillance has Cainen been conducting? This is fantastic! I just need to swing by my townhouse and grab a jammer.
She’s still sitting in her SUV and looks like she’s crying. He must really be an asshole. A location labeled “Home” appears; she lives on a strip of land between the bay and ocean, those homes are very expensive in that area. Who is her husband?
I make my way there on my motorcycle, hoping that I’ll be able to get in and out before she arrives home and hopefully no one else is home either.
6
Lila
By the time Ipull into the garage, I’m seething. So embarrassed that my stomach is rolling, and I could purge on the floor. I’ll be the one cleaning it up if I don’t hold it in.
I slam the pizza on the counter before storming up the stairs. If I hadn’t already ordered the stupid pizza, I wouldn’t have brought any at all.
Throwing the office door open, startling Eli.
“What the hell!?” he yells, once again closing a multitude of browser windows in a hurry, all some sort of pornography.
“How did you get into my account!” I say louder than I intended, but I don’t feel bad about it. He deserves this.
“Didn’t I tell you to knock?” He yells back, “and watch how you talk to me.”
“You don’t knock when you snoop around my library,” I reply. “And you’d better watch how you talk to me. I don’t have to take it either!”
“This ismyhouse, and you will respect me in it. I already told you not to get any more books.”
