Jay’s lips tilted in his usual smirk. “Just because I sleep, doesn’t mean I have to stop working.”
Dave raised an eyebrow, even as he smiled too. “Oh?”
“Since the first drop from whoever it is, Lloyd’s men or not, I have been keeping tabs on that same IP. Something dropped in overnight. I don’t know what yet because the files still need to be carefully extracted and encrypted. Can’t have our opponent realizing we have an in, after all.”
“Let me know when it is in.”
“Sure. What’s your game plan?”
“Lloyd’s been going to a house outside of town fairly regularly. Thought I’d hack the civil register and see if I can find anything useful.”
Jay nodded, looking impressed. “Good plan.”
“And you? Anything planned while you wait for your ingenious little program to get the files safely here and readable?”
Jay sighed and turned his head to look out of the window. “Recheck all my other guesses so far. Do you think the killer will leave another body this month?”
“I don’t see why not.”
Jay looked back as Dave stood and left without another word.
***
This had to be the strangest decoding Jay had ever had. Then again, Joe was not your regular Joe. He knew well enough that everything he had been asking for to try and save Stella would likely cost him the rest of his lifetime to pay back.
Still, getting information by playing a computer game was a little more ridiculous than he’d been expecting.
Jay clicked the mouse, and his avatar swung their sword to finishing off the opponent. He looted the body and sighed.
It was another quest. When this all started, the promise had been that the pieces will come together when he completes the quests. But this was the fifth now. If every quest was part of the information Joe had gathered, then Jay was looking at a far worse prospect than he’d initially thought.
The letter was simple. A point to an ancient temple in the game world. Yet the code Jay had been given when he first activated the avatar said something else.
He shut his eyes, visualizing the digital clue and swapping out the letters according to the code. Killer’s start was Seattle. Nineteen years ago.
Seattle. Hector had tracked Dave’s birthplace to Seattle. Jay flashed his eyes open and then jumped, letting out a muffled oath. Dave was standing in the room with a tea tray in one hand. His intense expression on his face was quickly hidden.
“Sorry. Didn’t think you’d be so focused. Have you gotten into the files from last night?”
Jay huffed a laugh to straighten his own thoughts. “No. That’s still running.”
“Then what… you’re playing a game?”
Jay shrugged, thanking him for the lunch though he had no appetite. “I can’t keep going over the same things again and again. It’ll drive me mad. So I sought an easy distraction.”
Dave looked at the screen, his brows pulled together. Jay clicked a few keys moving around for Dave’s benefit and panning the camera to show him the fully realized world.
“I don’t think I know this one.”
“You wouldn’t. This is a beta run. But the name made me laugh, so I figured why not.”
He had already determined that the perp had to be extremely smart. Even Jay could see ways in which Dave was a trap. The perfect one to take the blame.
“Well. Have fun, I guess.”
Jay gave a small grin. “Maybe you should find a distraction too. I mean, we’ve been at it non stop for too long. We’ll never solve the case on fried circuits.”
Dave half smiled, glancing back. “Don’t worry. I learned long ago to make time for myself. I won’t burn out any time soon.”
Jay smiled even as the words caused a shiver to slither up his spine. When the door closed, he pushed the plate away and got his avatar moving.
For the next three hours, he fought monsters, ransacked tombs, and out-witted NPCs. Each time, more information came. The letters leaked on the forum were the correspondence between him and Stella. Another three pointed to other areas in the US where a serial killer that matched the M.O. of theirs here. Every time, the heat rose and a culprit was caught, but every time, their conviction coincided with the start of a new kill base.
Finally, Jay reached the end of the quests, being told to collect his reward from an old innkeeper at a nearby inn.
Jay laughed out loud, quickly smothering the reaction, as his avatar came face-to-face with a digital replica of Joseph. There was even a hulking Elliot in the background.
Well done, champion. The writing read as ‘Joe’s’ mouth moved.
Three options appeared for Jay. One was for money and fame, two was for no reward but the last piece of information, the third was a request for a room.
Jay clicked option two and waited as Joe’s avatar pulled out a blob of pixels and handed it to Jay’s avatar.
He opened his items menu and felt all the air go out of him, even as his senses seemed to heighten painfully.
He finally had the identity of bloodangel_53. It was Amara Young.
CHAPTER FORTY
“You’re going to do what?” Dave asked, shock in every syllable. Until then, he had been taking Jay’s lecture on the new forensic finds perfectly well.
Jay felt his gut tighten but kept his cocky smile in place. “I’m going to leak the news that Miranda’s body has been found. It’ll bring in the press and destabilize some of this web my opponent has constructed.”
Dave stared for a moment. Jay turned back to the computer as if ready to put his words into action.
“Stop,” Dave told him, seizing his wrist in a grasp far
