Chapter 17 #2
Research was my thing. It had to be, given what I did.
But I spent an awful lot of my time on the move.
As much as I was usually glued to my own laptop, pulling up old news articles or scouring forums, I was also on the phone, sending emails, driving to search for people, and convincing them to talk to me.
Scanning through line after line of files I didn’t really understand, in search of clues I wasn’t sure what to do with, was a recipe for frustration.
Sitting this close to Eli was another layer of frustration. I was hyperaware that I was in the middle of a room full of trained investigators—none of whom I wanted to know that I’d slept with Eli multiple times in the last twelve hours.
I shifted, restless.
“Why don’t you go up front,” Eli said, “see if Alice can order us some coffee.”
I had the fleeting thought that he was trying to get rid of me, that maybe he had a better idea of where to find what he wanted in that drive than he was willing to tell me, and it’d be easier to do it with me out of the way.
Part of me wanted to stick around and not let Eli brush me off.
But the rest of me—bored, annoyed, frustrated, and feeling more than a little trapped—was happy to get out of Hacker Central and go chat with Alice. “Sounds great. What do you want?”
“Americano. Large,” Eli said.
“Done. You guys?” I asked Maddox and Emmett, who I knew, despite their turned backs, were listening.
“Same,” Maddox said.
From Emmett, I got, “Green tea. A gallon.”
I assumed that was an exaggeration, but Alice would know.
“All right, I’ll be back,” I said.
I made my way to the front of the office to find her.
Today, she wore a navy and white polka dot dress, a red crinoline peeking out from beneath the full, tea-length skirt.
Awesome clunky-heeled Mary Janes were on her feet.
She was tapping her pen on her desk to a beat that existed only inside her head as she scrolled through what looked like flight reservations.
Her eyes brightened when she saw me. “Hey, Sylvie, how goes the research?”
“Boring,” I said, bracing my elbows on the tall front counter of her desk and leaning in. “So, so boring. If you’d told me elite private eye security dudes who looked like they could invade a small country and take it down single-handedly spent all day sifting through lines of code…”
“I know.” She rolled her eyes. “Sometimes what they do is a little too exciting.” She lifted her hand to pat her fingers over her heart.
“Cooper knows when to keep the day’s activities to himself because I might have a stroke.
But most of the time, it’s phone calls and sleuthing on the internet.
At least you guys got to have some real-life fun yesterday. ”
I wondered if Alice knew the full extent of what the visit had meant to Eli, and decided she probably did. She seemed to know everything.
“True,” I agreed.
“You here for a coffee order?”
“How’d you guess?”
“Standard, especially when it comes to boring research.” She clicked another tab on her browser and pulled up the order window of a café. “We have a deal—they deliver, and I tip well. What can I get you guys?”
I filled her in. She put in the order.
“How bad is it if I hang out here with you while I wait for the coffee?”
“Not bad at all,” she said. “You deserve a break. And there’s something I wanted to ask you about.”
I jumped at the thought that I might be able to help her. “Really? What?”
“This doesn’t seem like you,” she said, clicking to another tab in her browser and turning the monitor to face me.
I leaned in and froze. One of my social media pages filled the screen with a post from today.
I hadn’t posted anything since my van had blown up—too shaken up and then too distracted.
Besides, what was there to say? The last episode of the season was scheduled to drop in a few days, and I hadn’t yet come up with a game plan for what came next.
I couldn’t let myself think about that. Not yet. Not with everything such a mess.
I leaned in and squinted, trying to make sense of the words I saw on the screen.
I can’t say more, but I’m going radio silent for the time being.
The case I’m investigating is bigger than I expected.
I might have gotten in over my head.
Stay tuned. It might be a while before I’m back. If I make it back at all.
“What the fuck is that?” I whispered.
Alice hummed under her breath, the sound a cross between worry and aggravation. “I didn’t think you posted this.”
“I definitely did not,” I said. My knees felt a little weak, and I perched on the edge of her desk, staring at the screen. My listenership was my everything. Was whoever was fucking with me going to take that away from me, too?
“Can you pull up my website?” I asked slowly.
“Already did.” Alice clicked the neighboring tab.
My website popped up, the same message front and center on my home page, where there should have been a graphic advertising my current season.
Alice scrolled to the bottom, where the icons for my various social media pages were linked.
She opened every one in a new window, and they all had the same message as the most recent post.
A chill went down my spine. Shutting me off from my bank accounts arguably had more of an impact on my day-to-day life than hijacking my socials. Then why did this feel so much worse?