The man was now shifting aside the laptop he had been working on and stretching. Jay took several deep breaths. Ruby’s information had been hard to swallow. Not the least of all because it meant that Stella’s current situation might well all be just to get back at him for some past actions of his.
“Jay?” Dave asked tentatively after a moment of taking his scrutiny in silence. “Did I do something wrong? If it was that moment after we left the mansion, it won’t happen again, I swear.”
It took Jay a few heartbeats to remember what Dave was talking about. As he remembered the humorous moment of admiration, he also recalled the words that he had not paid attention to at the time.
He motioned Dave to sit back down. “Outside, before I left, you said that you had heard about me. Can you elaborate?”
Dave cocked his head to the side. “Well, I mean, when you offered me a job, I looked you up. Didn’t want to accidentally step into something I wouldn’t be able to find my way out of again.”
Jay waited and Dave continued. “I realized that I had heard about you before. So I looked as far back as I could. You were exactly as you described yourself when you were telling me how Ms. Carmichael might see you. A figure that is larger than life.”
Jay shook his head. “That’s it? Just news articles and tabloid reels?”
Dave flushed. “And the trial. It had been leaked on a forum I stumbled across. There was everything from there and even someone claiming to have personal correspondence between you and Ms. Haraby, but I—”
Jay had already reached backward for his own laptop. “What was the forum?”
Dave watched him intently and seemed satisfied that he was not in any kind of trouble, but rather simply a few steps behind whatever revelation Jay had found. “The Serpents.”
Jayden accessed the forum and suppressed a groan. He was being held up as some kind of vigilante. “Who claimed to have personal correspondence?”
Dave frowned and his eyebrows pushed together as his eyes lost focus.
Jay tried hard not to drum his fingers on the laptop as the other man thought. He already knew Dave had found out a little about him, but he hadn’t realized the importance of that until now. Someone had hounded first Ruby and Frank, and then Stella. They might have crossed paths with Dave if they had been following Stella. Perhaps Dave had seen them.
One question at a time, he scolded himself.
Dave’s eyebrows sprung apart and his eyes refocused on Jay’s face. “I’m fairly certain it was blood angel fifty-three. All lowercase, no space, and I think there was some underscores between the letters and the numbers.”
Jay tossed him a smile as he searched for that user ID. The search came up with two hits, only one exactly as Dave had said.
“How did you ever wind up working as a salesman with a mind like that?”
Dave chuckled then shrugged. “Needs must. It worked out well though. If I hadn’t been working there, I would never have met you.”
Jay felt his lips tilt in a smile even as his fingers flew across the keyboard, putting some of Joe’s programs to good use. He needed the source of the forum and the true identity of bloodangel_53. He found the post that Dave had been referring to, but the link to the promised information led nowhere. Either it had always been a dud, or had now been disabled.
Jay set the laptop aside and turned his eyes on Dave again.
“Next question,” Jay continued. “Did anyone else come asking after Stella at the dealership?”
Dave pressed his lips together and shook his head. “No. At least not that I was aware of.”
Jay thought for a moment then asked a new question. “After her visit, did you notice anyone watching the premises?”
Dave’s green-blue eyes filled with confusion. “No, but maybe if you tell me why you are asking, I might be of better help.”
Jay only shook his head. “Either you noticed someone or you didn’t. My reasons why won’t have any effect on that answer.” Dave shrugged, and Jay reached out and patted his shoulder. “Thanks for the help. How did your afternoon go? Did you finish cataloging Ms. Carmichael’s information?”
For some reason, this question seemed to make Dave uncomfortable and the man moved away.
“What did you do?” Jay asked after a pause of watching him carefully.
Dave’s eyes flashed guiltily to his face, then he sighed. “I went back to see Ms. Carmichael.”
“Why?”
“Because I felt her reasons, that you were not interested in, might actually help.”
“Did they?”
“I think so. Here, look.”
Dave’s laptop screen was running a program that had created a kind of flow chart. At the top were five separate start points. Jay’s release, Stella’s last sighting, Miranda’s last sighting, the beginning of Carmichael’s correspondence, and Mr. Haraby’s order to his men to bring his daughter home. Jay let his eyes move down the lines and felt ice pour into his chest as they slowly joined together. Everything seemed to be working too neatly, too perfectly in tandem.
Ruby had to be right. They were being steered. Jay glanced toward his own laptop then back at Dave. Maybe he should cut the man loose. He didn’t want to drag anyone into some kind of feud, let alone an overeager acquaintance.
“I might be wrong,” Dave said, catching the glance, “but that seems too tidy. Do you have any enemies?”
Jay stared at him for a long moment and then burst out laughing. “And here I was worrying about how to tell you that this might not be random.”
Dave tilted his head to the side. “Random? I never even considered that it could be.”
Jay perked
