Jayden Roe Mystery 02-The Final Lie by Lily Campbell (read a book .TXT) 📗

saw that the man had not stopped watching him. He smothered his fear knowing that Dave was probably waiting on him for a plan.

Jay stood and pulled a piece of paper toward him and wrote Dave’s two options on it. One: Gary and Lloyd were in league with the killer, keeping him safe in exchange for him keeping Stella. Two: Gary and Lloyd had no idea who the killer was, but thought that if they held their sick game here and Stella accidentally died, it would be easy to pass it off.

Then he met Dave’s eyes after writing down a third option. Three: Gary and Lloyd were being used, believing Stella to be safe and well, and all this was only a trap.

Dave looked down at the writing, and his face paled underneath the multitude of freckles. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“The trick now will be trying to figure out which option is right without tripping any alarm bells.”

Jay drew a deep breath and felt his eyes growing dark. If anything happened to Stella out of some misguided attempt to get revenge on him, anyone even slightly involved would meet his wrath.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

They spent the next week in the hotel room. Dave dug into Lloyd and his contacts, and Jay investigated Gary, trying to use his prior knowledge of the man to see if he seemed to be behaving on his own or if he was being led. So far, while Dave had been right and Gary had changed a lot of his operating methods, he still wasn’t careful enough. By looking over cases Gary had handled prior to his joining with Lloyd, he had lost several due to carelessness. Jay’s memory of Gary was of a man who would take the easy path over having to carve one out himself any day. All someone skilled would have to do would be to present their path in a way that would make Gary feel like he had everything he’d need to pull off a victory.

He felt certain that Gary was being led, that someone had convinced him to come here. What he couldn’t figure out yet was how they had managed to do it without leaving a visible trace. He had already been over Gary’s emails and texts, with the help of Joe’s fantastic malware ghosts. Apart from Lloyd being slightly too hard line in promoting the move, there was nothing suspicious. Lloyd’s words were concerning though, making Jay wonder exactly how long he had been meddling in Carthage.

Jay loosed a breath and ran his hands over his tired eyes, but he didn’t dare let his mind relax. Every second he wasn’t completely focused on a task, he felt worry gnaw away at him until he knew that while this covert method was definitely safer, it wasn’t going to work with his personality. He’d eventually explode and do something stupid.

He opened his eyes slowly and glanced over at Dave. The man had been working diligently, digging into Lloyd’s life with near expert ability. While Joe’s programs were far more sophisticated than anything else he had dealt with, he knew the basics.

Jay felt the good memory replaced by another and stifled a sigh. Late last night, Dave had brought up Ruby again, asking if Jay could be sure she wouldn’t work against him. Though the question had been timid and Jay’s answer swift, there had been a prickly silence around the man ever since.

Jay shook the thought away. Dave would be too busy to dig into anything with his new task of sifting through this town to find Lloyd’s cronies.

And I should be busy too, Jay scolded himself and reached for his computer again.

He couldn’t spend another day in this room merely proving Dave’s finds. He needed to be out there. That was how he worked, on the ground, in the middle of the chaos, thinking on the fly. The only reason he hadn’t given in yet was because mistakes would mean Stella might suffer. He had forced himself to go over all the police reports of the eleven women who had been killed. The results had increased his fears and made him force himself to be more cautious than usual. The analysis of the torture marks and such seemed to show a learning curve. The tortures had grown more deliberate and less hesitant.

Jay rolled his shoulders and got back to work. He had to convince Gary that he was being used. It was a long shot not helped by Gary’s hatred of him, but he knew that Gary Peters was ultimately like Hector Piers, a man of honor, who strove to always work within the bounds of the law. The tricky part here would be getting him to listen without tipping off Lloyd and whoever it was that held Lloyd’s leash.

He glanced over at Dave again. “Finding anything on Lloyd’s backer?”

Dave hit a few more keys before shifting in his chair to look at Jay. “Not yet. The program is running though. I will go through the hits when it is complete.”

Jay raised an eyebrow. “Then what are you doing now?”

Dave held his gaze for a long moment. “Honestly? I’m wondering why you lied to me. I can understand not trusting a stranger, but I saved your life and even after that you haven’t taken down the walls.”

Jay watched Dave stand and resisted the urge to do the same. He didn’t want a conflict with this man. He had never imagined how useful Dave would actually be. Like so many things, he had offered him a job on the fly, trusting his observations and gut instinct that he’d be helpful.

“What was the lie?” Jay asked.

Dave’s eyes flickered, clearly having expected a denial. “You said that Ruby Wei was not involved in this.”

Jay felt his eyes narrow and they flickered to Dave’s computer. “You looked