Dave shook his head. “No. I wasn’t looking for her, but I found her all the same, because, as you well know, she is involved in all this.”
Jay ran a hand though his long curtain of loose hair, realizing what had happened. “You tried to run a search for the woman you think you kept seeing.”
“Think? I don’t forget faces, Jay. I don’t forget the things I see or hear. It was a curse growing up, but I learned to use it. I know who I saw, and I know now that she is Ruby Wei. You still going to run with the line that she’s not involved?”
Jay sighed, stood and met Dave’s eyes. “Maybe you’re right and I should have said something, but I already have one friend in danger. How could I risk putting another in the firing line?”
Dave tilted his head to the side, clearly not having expected that answer. “A friend? How can she be your friend after you—”
“Ruby became more like my younger sister after I helped Linda free her.” Jay huffed. “She was hurt over her grandmother’s choice and my actions, but she would never hurt me or Stella.”
“Then what was she doing in Salisbury?”
The man seemed genuinely curious which hopefully meant that their rendezvous at the motel had gone unnoticed.
“She wanted to find out about Stella. She had heard Mr. Haraby was in town, then saw me and put two and two together.”
Jay held his breath as Dave looked him over, wondering if the man would spot the new lie.
Dave’s phone rang, but he held Jay’s gaze for another two counts before finally pulling it free and answering.
Jay listened to the one-sided conversation and deduced that it was the estate agent Dave had engaged to find him a house.
Dave ended the call and met Jay’s eyes again, carrying on their conversation as if there had been no interruption. “I understand where you might be coming from, but I need you to understand now that I can take a lot from people but not lies.”
Jay felt a chill race up his spine at the look that had come into Dave’s green-blue eyes, making them cold as winter ice.
Then Dave smiled, thawing all the ice and becoming his usual self again. “So next time you don’t want to tell me something, just say so. I can be patient.”
Jay half smiled. “Fair enough.”
Dave waved his phone. “That was the agent. She’s rustled up six houses for me to go look at. Do you want to come along?”
Jay chuckled. “No, I think you are far better at sweet talking people. You can handle her alone and get us a good house.”
Dave smirked. “You’re right there. What will you do?”
Jay gestured vaguely at his laptop. “Carry on working. At some point, we have to leave here and actually enter the battle.”
Dave nodded thoughtfully, turning to shut down his laptop. “I suppose, but we shouldn’t take short cuts. I’ll go through the hits for Lloyd’s people when I am back.”
Jay nodded and waved him off, then collapsed in front of his screen again. He knew that Dave had a good point, but where Dave could not tolerate lies, Jay couldn’t handle idleness. His plan was not perfect, but he also knew that he could wait his whole life and not find one that was.
Stella had already been gone a month. If this really was a serial killer, then the monthly deadline was approaching, and a new body would be found.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
He pulled Dave’s laptop towards him, powered it up, and inserted the tiny drive Joe had given him. Immediately the program Joe had created got to work, giving Jay open access to everything Dave had been using the computer for.
He bypassed Dave’s emails and other private matters. He hadn’t come on here to spy, but simply to look over what Dave had learned about Lloyd. He couldn’t wait for Dave to return and for his thorough, but painfully slow, look into every hit. Where Jay was fire, darting and leaping and connecting things, working best out in the open, Dave seemed more like water, slow, methodical, testing his environment before finding the weakest point and pushing through.
He scanned the list of names and found three that had links to his own works. Jay smiled and clicked into them, saving the information to his USB. The Sheriff was under the thumb of Lloyd and his men for a gambling debt. Lloyd, it seemed, hadn’t left his old profession at all, but was merely hiding the fact. Along with the Sheriff was another senior officer and the main source of the town’s news. With the three of them under Lloyd’s control, it shouldn’t be hard for Gary to realize that he was being fed what he wanted to hear. It also showed that Jay’s suspicions about Lloyd were right. The man had had his hand in the affairs of Carthage for nearly a year and a half. That was why none of these murders had made the news. It also meant that something had gone wrong eleven months ago, making someone notice the murders, which was all hushed up again when Lloyd convinced Gary to relocate.
Jay unplugged the USB. He had added everything they had discovered about the serial killer’s victims just in case Gary had been kept completely oblivious. Jay powered down Dave’s laptop and tried to shake off the kinds of nerves he hadn’t had in decades. This was a one shot attempt. If he failed to convince Gary to keep his mouth shut, Lloyd would find out and therefore so would his handler, all of which would mean nothing good for Stella. Yet, if he was successful and he did manage to keep Gary from being an idiot, then he would have a
