Time to call in another favor. I don’t know how I will ever repay this debt.
He pulled out his phone and opened another of Joe’s more fun apps. This one looked like a series of timers for on the spot exercises and stretches. Each timer was actually space for him to supply codes. The first for his name.
“Mountain climbers,” he grunted to himself, lowering his body into the appropriate form as the counter ticked down.
It beeped, and he shifted into the next position as the app moved on to the timer that represented the type of request. “Twenty five crunches.” Emergency tracking.
Again, Jay completed the exercises for anyone watching and listening. Then shifted into slow stretches as the final timer began.
“A few more of these and I’ll be ready to run back,” he told himself cheerfully. His chest constricted over the last two words that meant he was indebting himself further.
As the timer finished and beeped, Jay scooped up his phone. “Let me see if I can beat my personal best score.”
Using a simple code of numbers in place of letters he typed in the handle he wanted looked into and then added the true numbers on a second line. To anyone able to see his screen, he would have added a run time, of minutes and seconds, as well as a mini countdown for when the timer would begin.
Jay smiled and shook out his limbs again. As if eager for the beep, none of his trepidation showed on his face. A single beep would mean that his request had been denied.
He replaced his phone in the holder on his arm and tried hard not to count in his head. The phone beeped three times, and Jay shot off through the park. He would soon make it a step ahead of the killer.
***
“You’re right. Running does seem to have done you good. Maybe you should join the gym too.”
Jay grinned.
“Good plan,” he said as he headed into the bathroom.
There, he stared at his reflection a long moment as the water ran. He couldn’t deny that he and Dave had become friends, but neither could he trust him. Just as with Goldstein before, he had to do this alone, but he couldn’t just cut the man loose either. For one, whoever was watching would no doubt find it suspicious, and two, if they did, Jay did not have the power to ensure that he was protected the way Ru and Hector had been. He had to be kept in the dark. Another part of Jay’s mind agreed wholeheartedly with the decision, though for much different reasons. Reasons that revolved a lot around the new focus that this had all been planned long in advance, and therefore, there were no such things as coincidences.
Jay showered and stepped back out into the main room in just his jeans. Dave had his back to him, watching the small TV with rapt attention. Jay glanced at the news reports. The bodies of the Natchitoches explosion were being formally identified. He had just composed his face into the correct mask of horror, shock, and pending loss when Dave spotted him.
“I—”
Jay worked to sound fragile instead of madly triumphant. “I…” he cleared his throat. “I suppose I already guessed, but…”
Dave helped him sit on the edge of the bed. “Did they have family? Natalie and Hector?”
Jay let his eyes, still holding their lost expression, pass over Dave. “No children. But Hector’s family is huge, and Natalie has a younger brother.”
Dave patted his shoulder. “I’m sorry. For your loss and because, without their help, finding Stella will be harder.”
Jay let his eyes grow a little sharper at the mention of Stella’s name. “Not necessarily.”
“What do you mean?” Dave asked, tilting his head to the side.
Jay met his gaze steadily. “Years ago, I had a ghost in the Natchitoches police mainframe similar to the one we’ve installed here.”
Dave’s eyes widened slightly, then he frowned. “Wouldn’t it have been erased? I mean, you came clean about everything right?”
Jay’s lips twitched. “Maybe. Let’s find out.”
Jay moved to his laptop and was hyper aware of Dave hovering over his shoulder. He still had not told Dave about Joe, or the Serpent Brothers in general, making all the hacking and covert programs his own. As such, he took care with what he did here so that he revealed nothing he wanted to keep secret.
Jay made a small noise of triumph and then winced. He glanced back at Dave who was staring at the screen with the strangest expression on his face. Part excitement, part chagrin.
“It’s still running then?”
Jay shook his head, cataloging the reaction for later inspection. “No. The mainframe would have been destroyed in the explosion.”
“Then why do you sound so happy?”
“Because I know Hector would have wanted to know he hadn’t died in vain,” he let his voice take on the appropriate emotions, “The program isn’t running now, but it was running right up to the explosion. So if either Natalie or Hector logged anything, I might be able to retrieve it.”
Dave nodded and moved away, only to snatch up his chair and return. Jay felt a flash of claustrophobia as Dave sat down, but he didn’t let his fingers slow. He smiled again as he came across the fingerprints Natalie had retrieved. His, Stella’s, Stan and Sue’s, and the perfect red-herring of Lloyd’s.
“Lloyd Bailen,” Dave read out loud.
Jay shifted in his seat under the guise of getting a better look at Dave, but really wanting more than a few inches between them. At least until he had enough to be able to tell the good from the bad.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
