38. Faking It
Chapter 38
Faking It
Sierra Escondida Police Department—An hour earlier
T ig scratched her head. Pirate play? Who would have thought the respected Hill founder would indulge? Then again, Ari was right. It wasn’t her place to judge. Even though she couldn’t stop chuckling anytime she pictured Henry’s outfit.
After her quick trip through the ether, they landed in the squad room, and Tig strode down the hall with the small black case in hand and entered the conference room.
“Can I leave now?” Liza headed to the door. “I’m off the clock and have a…a thing.”
“A council thing?”
“No, um, a personal thing.”
“But we might need your help—”
“No way, chief. I’ve been working for you and the council practically round the clock—I need some R-and-R.”
“Liza, duty comes first.”
“Look, I’ve got a hot date, okay? Scorching hot, if you get my drift.”
“I didn’t know you were seeing anyone. Who with? Someone in Mordida?”
“Um, well—”
Janey snorted. “She has a date with Brucie.”
“You what?” Tig resisted gagging. There was no accounting for taste.
“Hey, don’t bust my chops. I haven’t seen any action in a while, and Brucie’s an adult—and he’s consenting.”
Tig felt her face warm. “No, sorry, it’s none of my business.” She turned away, then spun back around. “Except it is. Brucie is still a suspect. Your extracurricular activities better not mess up our case.”
“Don’t throw a hissy fit, chief. I don’t see him as Petar’s killer. They’re all grieving. I got so sick of them moping in my house, and, well, that’s how me and Brucie started talking. Discovered we have a few things in common, including not getting laid in a while.”
“All right, all right. You’re the vice mayor—it’ll be on your head if you’re wrong. So go ahead, leave. We have this under control.”
With only a small group remaining—Ari, Jayden, and Janey—it made using Lux tech easier to hide. Though Cerissa had taken her through the whole setup, Tig had a hard time believing the device would work. But seriously? She’d be able to see memories in response to a question?
The town council would panic if they knew about this.
Now she just had to get Janey to agree to cooperate. Leaving Ari in the hallway where he could watch through the one-way mirror, she and Jayden took seats at the table, and she gave Janey a hard stare. “Do you know what the penalty is for destruction of police property?”
“Like, what the fuck are you talking about?”
Jayden brandished the flash drive. “Loading a virus onto a police station computer. The town council will order you locked away for years.”
The feisty pit bull suddenly became a cowed sheep. Her gaze lowered to her tattooed wrist, where she picked at a scab partially covering a red skull. “I didn’t mean no harm.”
Now it was Tig’s turn. “Intentions don’t matter. Acts do. And destruction of—”
“I can tell you how to delete the virus.” Janey spoke the words so fast they slurred together.
“The whole truth this time?”
“Yes, everything.”
That was all Tig needed. She opened the zippered case and took out a black box, which had five sockets on each side. According to Cerissa, a touchstone —whatever that was—lay in the box. Using quarter-inch phone plugs, Tig attached the five leads, each of which connected on the other end to silicone fingertip thimbles, and handed the thimbles to Janey. “Put these on one hand.”
Janey froze mid-scratch. “Why?”
“Lie detector.” Tig plugged in the leads on her side and slipped the thimbles on her fingers. “We’ve caught you once in a lie. Catch you again, and you’re spending the night in jail. I have a murderer to stop, and you’re interfering and wasting my time. Now, slide those on your fingertips. Don’t make me ask again.”
Janey grimaced, then slid them on, and the tips conformed to her smaller fingers. Tig didn’t know how the silicone thimbles managed to auto-adjust themselves to fit Janey’s tiny hands. Cerissa had limited her instructions to using the device, with no time left to delve into how it worked. So Tig flipped the switch, watched the lines bounce on the fake screen, and then did her best not to give away the shocking image when it filled her mind: a dark hallway, with pictures on the wall.
“What’s the password for the flash drive?” Tig asked.
She knew the answer before Janey opened her mouth. The image of a laptop screen flew out from the imaginary wall and solidified with the password being typed on it.
“Uh, Petar$money17.”
This time, Janey had told her the truth.
“And how do we get rid of the virus?”
“At the DOS prompt, type: Undo PETROV—in all capitals.”
Tig saw the memory slide out as fear slid through her veins. This device… Mortal technology was like an anthill compared to a Lux skyscraper. If the Lux ever wanted to take over, they just would. Nothing or no one could stop them.
Tig shook off the thought. So far, they’d shown no inclination to conquer the world and rule it. She was equal parts impressed and suspicious.
The image in her mind shuddered, blurring and demanding her attention. She focused past the image to see Janey playing with the silicone coverings. “Janey, stop that.”
The woman froze.
Tig tapped the table. “What will we find on the disk?”
“Once you type in the password, you have access to a spreadsheet. The first column is the username that Petar gave to each of his clients. You’ll find the real name of the person to go with it. Then you can find the phone number on Petar’s phone by searching for the username. Satisfied?”
Based on the image that appeared as Janey spoke, the young mortal had given another truthful answer.
“Is there anything else you’re holding back that would help us solve the crime?”
Janey’s knee pumped so hard the vibrations rattled the entire table. “He made notes on a separate notepad.”
“Notes of what?”
“The phone calls with clients, asking about silver stakes. Not the same as the betting pad.”
Tig watched Janey’s memory as she listened to the calls. “Where did he put the second notepad?”
“Probably in the litter tray under Ernestine’s cage. There’s a hidden compartment. No one thinks to look in a tray with stinky rabbit piss.” Janey started to stand. “I could show you. You won’t find it on your own.”
Another memory materialized and flew off the wall to appear in Tig’s mind. The cage sat on a table in Petar’s casino office, and he unlatched the back of the tray and the hidden compartment opened.
“Anything else you have to tell us?”
“Nope.” Still wearing the silicone thimbles, Janey resumed picking at the scab on her wrist again. “I went back to my room, and I slept off the champagne. I didn’t exactly see him put the notepad in the cage, but knowing Petar, that would be my guess. He loved that damn rabbit more than he did me.”
No memory appeared to contradict Janey’s theory.
“We’re done for now.” Tig removed the thimbles from her fingertips and motioned for Janey to do the same. She wrapped the cables around the black box, rose to her feet, and took the touchstone with her, stopping with a hand on the doorknob. “I’ll ask if I need help. If you think of anything else that might be relevant, I expect you to tell me.” Tig huffed. She’d already decided how to deal with Petar’s mate. “Here’s the plan. Jayden and I have a lot of work ahead of us tonight. I’m going to leave you here. You can watch television on your phone, there’s Wi-Fi, but if you call anyone, you’ll lose phone privileges. Do you hear me?” Tig hooked her thumb at the one-way window. “Someone will have eyes on you at all times.”
“Seriously? I don’t wanna stay in this room.”
“I may have more questions once we dig into the code names. That’s why I’m keeping you here for now. Once Liza returns, you can go back to her house, but consider yourself under house arrest. You aren’t to leave the Hill for your own safety.”
“Yeah, yeah, blah, blah.”
“Jayden, phone Florence to watch her. Then join me in the squad room.” Tig left Janey in Jayden’s custody and met Ari where he waited by the one-way glass.
He laughed. “Janey’s a piece of work.”
“No shit, Sherlock.” Tig carried the touchstone and led the way back to the squad room. “Cerissa’s device worked. The information she provided is accurate. Did you write down the password?”
He waved his phone at her. “Right here, chief, including how to reverse the malware.”
Sitting down at the worktable, Ari woke up his laptop. In a few moments, he entered the password and accessed the flash drive, and then scrolled through a spreadsheet with over five thousand entries.
Tig cringed. Same as on the phone—working with five thousand names would take forever. “Can we sort by location?”
“Sure thing. Petar has a column for time zone, city, and state. Shit. He even has a column for mortal or vampire. I’ll sort by city.” Ari whistled. “How many vamps are on the Hill?”
“Fifty-four.”
“Well, thirty-one are clients of Petar’s.”
Blast the ancestors! Did everyone on the Hill place bets through Petar? If that was the case, why had only a handful of residents reported their last bets to her? “Five thousand suspects, and thirty-one are on the Hill. Wait. If his murder is related to the silver stakes, we can narrow our list to the code names in the second notebook.”
Jayden joined them and went straight to the rabbit. He turned the cage around and started examining it. Ernestine stood on her hind legs and sniffed, nosing at his fingers. “I bet I can bribe you to let me do this.”
From the refrigerator, he took a piece of carrot and fed her through the cage bars.
Tig couldn’t help grinning at the two of them. The bunny jerked the treat through the wires and crunched loudly while Jayden explored the back side of the potty tray.
“Look for a gap around the handle,” Tig said.
“Let me get a screwdriver.” Jayden disappeared into the forensics lab and came back with a small one. He inserted the blade, pressed down, and pulled on the handle. The compartment opened. “Got it. Another small flip notebook.” He laid it on top of the cage and thumbed through it. Ernestine latched on with her big incisors through the spaces between wires and pulled at the notebook paper. “Hey, don’t do that.” He snatched the notebook away and pushed in another carrot piece. A fair trade. Flipping open the cover, he scanned the first page. “Looks like he talked to quite a few clients. And some reported receiving a stake.”
Tig held out her hand, and Jayden plopped it on her palm. It didn’t take long to skim the flip pad. Usernames followed by either “nothing” or “silver stake.” Occasional notes suggested calling someone else, as if that third person might know something.
Hmm . Petar started his calls the night of the wedding. “Ari, search the spreadsheet for Callistus Tedder.”
Ari typed on the laptop. “Nothing, chief. He’s not listed.”
“Fuck.” Skimming the notepad one more time, she couldn’t find any mention of Callistus’s name as one of the referrals. “All right. To rule out people by lack of opportunity will take us time and clear heads. Jayden, head home for some sleep. I’ll have Liza pick up Janey after her date. In the meantime, Ari and I will work on narrowing the list by proximity. We’ll leave you what we get finished, and you can continue the work and compile a chart of client names, codes, recent bets, and, from the second notebook, the phone calls Petar made to clients about the silver stake. I’ll see you tomorrow night.”
“You got it.” Jayden gave her a quick kiss and left.
She turned to Ari. “Let’s see how far we can get before dawn.”
“Hey, chief,” Ari said. “Gaea’s expecting me—”
“Cancel. This is more important. Gaea will understand.”
He grumbled under his breath. “So Liza gets to date and I don’t.”
“Liza is monitoring Petar’s cauldron. That’s almost a full-time job. You can see Gaea tomorrow night.”
“Yeah, that’s if you don’t assign me more work.”
She opened her mouth to argue with him, then shut it. The way this case was going, he was probably right.