“I don’t have to sit here,” Nora said.“This is inappropriate, and I’m uncomfortable.Excuse me.”
But as she got to her feet, Jem said, “I think you should stay.”
“I’m sorry, but these pictures are pornographic.I’m not going to look at them.”
“Me neither,” said Mckell.She was still bright red, and she had the fingers of one hand wrapped around the collar of her shirt.“Let’s go.”
“Go ahead,” Jem said.To the men, he said, “See, you guys picked up on the thing that should have been obvious to Tafton from the beginning.This isn’t a real dude.”
“He’s real,” Aiden said.
“He means someone else was using his pictures,” Quinn said.“He means it wasn’t Boy Hardy messaging Tafton.”
“Oh,” Aiden said, and the disappointment was unmistakable.
Mckell still stood by the sofa.Nora hadn’t risen from her seat.
“Aren’t you leaving?”Jem asked.When neither woman answered, he continued, “Somebody was using those pictures as bait.All they needed was for Tafton to send them something that could be used to blackmail him.”
“Shit,” Sawyer said.“Stephen.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Beckett said.“He didn’t need pictures.He already had stuff on all of us.”
“That’s right,” Jem said.“Because this wasn’t Stephen.”
“Who was it?”Aiden asked.
“Another great question,” Jem said.He shot a look at Nora and Mckell.“I thought you were leaving.”
“Who was it?”Nora asked.“Who sent those messages to Tafton?”
Dean shifted his weight.He was plucking at his shirt like he was too hot.He was still sweating.
“Someone who made a mistake,” Jem said.“Someone who sent the wrong image by accident.An incriminating image.And even though they unsent the picture, they knew the damage had already been done.Because they knew the messages were being sent to Gerald by the tracker app.And they knew that Gerald would see the picture and recognize it.And they knew the only way to make sure Gerald didn’t expose them was to kill him.”
“Who?”Quinn asked in a hard voice.
Jem drew out the screenshot of the phone’s home page.The picture of the house, hidden behind all the app icons, was barely visible.But it was there.
And every eye in the room turned to Dean and Mckell.
“That’s your house,” Sawyer said.
“I didn’t kill him,” Dean said.He took a step back and caught himself.“I was with you!”
Mckell said over him, “I was with Nora at the movie.”
“That’s right,” Nora said.She wiggled in her seat as though trying to sit up straighter.“And I don’t understand why we’re supposed to think it’s such a big deal that there’s a screenshot of her home screen.”
“You weren’t at the movie,” Jem said.“Once the power went out, they canceled the showing.You would have known that if you’d gone, but you didn’t.”
“Nora—”
“Nora lied about seeing the movie with you because it gave her a chance to sneak off to Afterski and order a giant ice cream sundae.You know, the one Tafton wouldn’t let her have.”
Nora squawked, “No, I didn’t!”
“But what about you, Mckell?Where’d you go when you knew everyone thought you’d be at the theater?”
