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Harp did that, holding his hands over his bloody face. Letty asked, “Did you talk directly to the feds, or did you go to Bob and Sue?”
“Their names aren’t Bob and Sue...”
“I know that, asshole. They didn’t even bother to pretend they were,” Letty said. “About those names—how do I know you won’t send us right back to the FBI?”
“Bob and Sue are the only informants I knew about,” Harp said. “They’ve been delivering people to the FBI for months. I wanted to get rid of you. Because you were from Florida... I figured you wouldn’t know.”
Baxter had come back from taking the photo of Ashley Klein’s IDs. “He is sort of a dumb shit, isn’t he? We’re not from Caltech, so we couldn’t possibly have any resources here.”
“Resources...”
“We’ve got a couple of online friends in LA,” Baxter said. “They warned us about your Bob and Sue. Every hack in LA knows about them now.”
Letty smiled down at Harp and tapped the spike of the cane on the wooden floor. “You might not be hearing from them again.”
Baxter walked over to Harp and squatted by his neck: “Names,” he said. “They better be good.”
“If they’re not, we’ll...” She let the comment trail away, then said to Baxter, “Maybe I should go ahead and do him now.”
Baxter winced and said, “No, no. Then you’d have to do Ashley. She’s seen our faces. She’s... innocent. She’s twenty.”
Letty rubbed her nose, as if thinking it over. “Yeah. Good point.” To Harp, she said, “Give the names and contacts to Paul.”
“I’ll have to look at my laptop,” Harp said. “I know people for sure who’d know Ordinary People.”
“Where’s the laptop?” Letty asked.
“In my study... on my desk.”
“Lay right there while Paul gets it...”
Baxter got the laptopand Letty ordered Harp to remain on the floor while he looked up the names. The first name, he said, was Benjamin Able, a former student who was the organizer of a hacker combine loosely tied to Ordinary People. “I’m pretty sure he’s still at the address I have here. The last time I talked to him, he owned the place. It’s not cheap to move in California.”
He would, Harp said, know the leadership of Ordinary People, because he’d worked with them since the group was formed. “He’s not a regular member, but he knows them.”
The second man was named Craig Sovern, who Harp described as “Crazy. Great with computers, but whacko. I don’t know wherehe lives—he moves around a lot. Maybe on a boat. Craig is a major mover with Ordinary People, but he doesn’t hang out.” He had Sovern’s phone number.
“Okay, then,” Letty said.
From the second floor, Ashley Klein called, “Gene? Are you okay?”
“He’s okay, Ashley, but he was banging another woman after his party last night,” Letty called back.
“What!”
“Ah, shit,” Harp groaned.
Baxter was at the door: “Let’s go. We can always come back...”
Letty stepped his way, and as she went, she repeated what Baxter had said: “Remember that: we can always come back. We haven’t called Title IX... yet. If either one of these names calls you, you better back us up. Charlie and Paul.”
Out in the truck, Baxter asked, “You hurt him bad?”
“Didn’t break anything, but he’s bruised, so he’s gonna ache, but probably no worse than your black eye,” Letty said. “He didn’t ask what happened to Bob and Sue, which was a little odd.”
“Might have been afraid to,” Baxter said. “He thinks they’re facedown in a ditch somewhere. I mean, you even scared the shit out of me. I thought you might stick that spike in his head.”
“Jesus, Rod. I’m not a murderer.”
