Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78598 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“You’ll need surveillance equipment in the computer lab. Mine is available to you free of charge.”
“The computer lab is five floors with private study rooms on each one. We’d be going through hours of footage waiting for him to come in and update his site. We don’t have that kind of time,” I said. “He puts on his show much more often. Can your hacker track the broadcasts?”
The look he gave me said it all. “I will ask, but I assume she’ll have as much luck as everyone else who has tried to track down the Dantes of your town. It’s different with a podcast. He can record from a safe location, and then upload it anywhere else.”
“Have her do it all the same. I will pay her fee.”
Gold inclined his head. “She is one of the best. I’ll get her on it immediately. I hope whatever she turns up brings you closer to finding the Letter Man, but you should know, at this point, I’m passing everything I turn up on to Ribecco. We’re dealing with a murderer who shot an innocent kid through the chest in front of dozens of people. This isn’t a situation Ra— Ivy is equipped to handle alone. Honestly, she needs to focus solely on her recovery, not all of this ugliness.”
I nodded to appease him. There wasn’t an argument I could make to convince the man six college students should be in charge of tracking down the new leader of a death cult, instead of an entire police force. Especially because I could not explain that the person who put an arrow through Binari’s chest and sent those second round of letters was dead.
It was a good thing our girl thought Zoey/Dante was the same person when she put Gold on Dante’s trail. Now he could continue the search for him even though Zoey Mariner was dead. Dante had to be found. The leverage he had over Cairo with the sheriff under his grip was unacceptable.
“There’s another matter,” I began. “How much do you know about Bedlam’s history?”
“I assume you mean how it was founded.”
“I mean how it got its name changed. The Men of Honor,” I said, leaning forward. “Have you heard of them?”
“I have.” He mimicked my movement. “They were a group of men who let privilege turn into savagery. It’s said they held hunts and captured innocent young women to do what savage, awful men do.”
“Yes, that would be the men I’m speaking of. During the revolt, the townspeople rounded up the Men and their families. Anyone who wasn’t quick enough was killed, but a few were spared,” I said, thinking of the niece and ancestor to Ivy and Rainey. “Either they weren’t in town when the fighting broke out, or some members of their family survived. Can you track down their descendants?”
“Ah. Tracking down heirs and missing family members is work I take on, but when we’re talking about lines of descent that go back a hundred years, it’s a different matter. Especially taking into account that I’m beginning my search with a massacre. That kind of forensic genealogy would take me months—maybe longer.” He reached into his desk drawer again. “I can refer you to a colleague who specializes in this. She’s local and might’ve begun the work of tracing the old families of Crystal Canyon on her own.”
I accepted the card. True enough that someone has already begun the work. They found those descendants for Steven Ellis. I had little chance of finding whoever did that for him. As much of a chance of finding someone who could do the same for me quickly, but I had to try. The more people searching for Dante and the acolytes he commanded, the better. Ivy/Rainey had been feeling their unseen eyes on her for years. Now it was their turn to feel the walls closing in.
IVY
My bare feet padded across the hardwood, retreading familiar steps. From Paris’s place to Legend’s place to the Crows’ old place, I’d been everywhere except the only home I found outside of the farm.
I paused in front of the newly replaced window, recalling the doghouse that once sat beneath it. Micah threw a rock through the window that night, waking us all up to what he and his brother did to Arsenio’s last connection to his father. They made their vendetta personal, and that’s what took them down. These new Crows didn’t give a shit about me or the Bedlam Boys. This would be all business to them, and no matter what they claimed, they were here on business.
How much more dangerous did that make them?
“What’s wrong, Jacques?” I asked without turning around. I didn’t need to. His gaze was drilling a hole in the back of my head. “Arsenio is in the hospital. Legend is camped out by Roan’s bedside. And Cairo just up and disappeared. I wanted to go out looking for him, but you listed every reason why it was foolish to drive around aimlessly. Cairo will show his face when he’s ready and not before.