He heard Dave heave a sigh. “They found two bodies.”
Jay tilted his head to the side. Was Dave apologizing because he felt Jay might have known them or because he had guessed who the intended targets were supposed to be?
“Never mind that,” Jay told Dave. “I’m coming to Hoggs Bayou—”
“No need. They’re leaving. Meet me back at the hotel. We can track their secret log.”
The phone went dead, and Jay stared at it for a moment. Dave had really come out of his shell, scolding him and ordering him about. The slight anger this caused vanished almost immediately. It was his own fault for not letting Dave in on his plan. Like with Ruby before, he felt that if only he and Gary knew, then there was only one possible weak link.
Sighing at how paranoid this sick game was leaving him, he got in his car. He needed to either find out where Stella was being held and whoever was running the show, do it fast or he would go insane.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
“Any luck?” Jay asked, coming into the hotel room and spotting Dave already on his laptop.
Dave threw him a cursory wave, stroked a few more keys then finally turned around. “There’s nothing in the system yet, but I suppose that is to be expected as they’ll be wanting this hushed up.”
“You sound certain that it is another victim.”
“As you pointed out, that is the most likely option. Plus the fact that they left before me but there is still no above board update.”
Jay nodded then winced as his headache spiked.
The body can’t be Stella’s. It can’t. Otherwise the game would be over.
He refused to accept that he might have been wrong. Even Dave had agreed that the leads in Salisbury had been too targeted to be coincidence.
“Are you okay?” Dave asked, tilting his head to take Jay in.
Jay stopped rubbing his temples and sighed. “I feel like I had a rough night, but I can’t remember waking even once.”
Dave’s lips twitched. “By the snoring, I can attest that you slept like the dead. But here,” he turned and reached into his backpack. “This might help.”
Jay stepped forward to take the headache tablets and glanced at Dave’s arm, where a long scratch stood out. “What happened to you?”
Dave’s eyes darted down and he shrugged. “Got too careless. Didn’t realize Hoggs Bayou would have such vicious plants.”
Jay tried to laugh, but the worry over the identity of the corpse was smothering.
Dave stood and gripped his shoulder, waiting for Jay to look up. “It won’t be her. She’s the chip that is keeping you playing, too valuable to be tossed away.”
Jay let out a sigh. “And if this isn’t some game aimed at me?”
“You mean if you got that wrong? But then I’d have had to be wrong too, and I refuse to believe that,” he said with such a convincing air of self-importance that Jay felt a laugh bubble past his lips.
“Thanks,” he muttered, feeling the weight ease a little. “I just wish I understood what they might want.”
Dave released his shoulder and moved back to sit at the computer. “I’m certain you’ll get there.”
Jay moved back towards his own work space. “Don’t you mean we?”
Dave cast him a sidelong glance and a smile. “No. If this is personal to you, then only you can figure out what the goal is meant to be.”
Jay shook his head in defeat and powered up his computer. Behind him, he heard Dave begin typing again. “Has something come in?”
“No. I don’t like being idle. I’m sorting through Lloyd’s people. He seems to have quite a collection of the sort of heartless mercenaries that are great for dirty work..”
Jay kept his eyes on his own computer but mind whirring. Thugs like those would easily have been able to carry out the attacks in Salisbury, Washington and Natchitoches, but they could never have been the master minds.
Neither could Lloyd.
Jay thought of the USB Gary had vanished with and hoped that the man was not now sharing its contents with Lloyd. For all that Dave’s words had made it sound like Lloyd was the head, Jay knew he wasn’t. Whoever was behind this was smart enough to keep one pace ahead of him, while neatly planning for and tying off all steps so that there was no way back. Lloyd didn’t have that ability.
For once in your life, Gary, don’t be an idiot.
If Gary Peters looked at the information alone and verified it carefully and secretly, Jay was certain the man would find him again.
If not… “Do you think he’ll accept my surrender in exchange for Stella?” Jay asked in the silent room.
Dave knocked something over, and Jay turned in time to see him looking entirely adrift. “Excuse me?”
Jay sighed, deciding he may as well finish now that the thought had burst out of him. “Whoever is playing this game. If it is me they want, do you think they’d accept my surrender for Stella?”
Dave held his gaze a long moment and then sighed. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because you aren’t the kind to surrender. This has been targeted enough that you cannot believe that they do not know that about you? As such, they would never believe it.”
“Then how do we get her out alive?”
Something fluttered behind Dave’s eyes. Jay watched the other man look away and realized that he didn’t think there was much chance of that outcome.
Jay shook off the crushing feeling. “You’re right. I’m not the sort to surrender. I think that I just need to clear my head. Maybe I’ll start jogging or something.”
Dave drew in a sharp breath. “We have movement.”
Jay
