It was a new selfie of Reece, perched on the back of the F-150’s open tailgate. He was wearing one of the highlighter-yellow AMIhoodies withEmpathy Is Danger-yemblazoned across the front and holding some short metal rods up for the camera.
Reece:Though I guess it might be hard to hurry without these.
Around Grayson’s stalled Prius, traffic was backing up, honks filling the air. Pedestrian traffic was at a complete standstill, some people still screaming, others just staring.
Two more texts came in.
Reece:These are your ignition coil packs, btw.
Reece:Just in case you don’t know enough about cars to recognize them. :)
The chaos continued around Grayson as he stared at the picture of Reece. “All right. If that’s the way you want it,” he finally said. “No more Mr. Nice Dead Man.”
Chapter Six
So excited to find more of my fellow Captain Feelings fans! They canceled this graphic novel series way too soon. Does anyone have a digital scan of Volume Three? It’s the one where our intrepid empath captain faces off with his nemesis, Dr. Stoic, when a corporation tries to build a high-rise over a community garden. It’s a classic!
—Internet forum post
“I understand, Dad,” Gretel Macy said into her phone, for the third time. “Yes, I will write about AMI store, butno, I won’t make AMI look bad, andyes, I’ll—sure, all right, of course you have to go.”
Gretel hung up and set her phone to the side. She ran both her hands through her hair, then looked back up at her computer screen.
There had been sudden, inexplicable panic at the AMI store, resulting in property damage and the entire staff and all the patrons fleeing the premises. Her dad was demandingEyes on Empathshelp with damage control; her readers were begging her for more details. She needed to be writing.
And instead she was staring at the giant mind map that stretched across both of her oversized monitors, a collection of clipped images, links to blog posts and news articles, and note after note speculating about connections and links.
Empath Initiative > oversees empaths but funded by military. WHY???
Stone Solutions > receives millions from Empath Initiative for empathy defenses
Cedrick Stone > father was first director of the Empath Initiative, family fortune made from military contracting. Still hospitalized: location secret.
And below all those notes, the inexplicable picture Alex had texted her, of Seattle Police Department Officer Stensby and a large blond man in military camouflage standing outside Cedrick Stone’s office in Stone Solutions, sent after Stone Solutions had experienced yet another break-in and fire.
I did promise you a story, Alex had texted.
It was a story all right, but one Gretel didn’t know how to read yet. And Alex himself was a mystery too, who’d seemed to vanish as abruptly as he’d appeared. Good-looking, smart, and one of the best listeners she’d ever met, and she didn’t even have his last name, just the memories of their brunch and their stop by her dad’s AMI event.
Gretel frowned and reached for her coffee. The cool liquid touched her lips, and she grimaced. How long had she been hyper-focusing on all this and ignoring the story she was supposed to be writing?
Long enough her coffee had gone cold. Again. She made herself get to her feet and stretched.
She hadn’t shared the picture Alex had sent with anyone else. Alex hadn’t told her to keep it secret, but it didn’t makeany fucking sense. Why were a cop and his buddy involved in a break-in and a fire at Stone Solutions? How had Alex gotten the picture—had he somehow been there? But then didn’t that implicate him in the fire?
She’d finally been able to identify Stensby’s companion, at least. She’d seen him at a couple of AMI events, and someone had been asking her dad for lists of AMI members who were cops and active or former military. She’d gone down that list, running names on the internet untilKeith Wallerturned up pictures of the same big blond man on an airsoft course’s social media page. Stensby had been in a couple of the pictures as well.
She’d called the airsoft course already, but had only been told that Mr. Waller apparently no longer worked there. The woman she’d talked to didn’t know where he’d gone. He’d been the manager; seemed like an abrupt departure.
Gretel frowned at her monitors again. She had articles to write, other things to research, but she had that itch in her brain that just wouldn’t let this go.
In the days following Senator Hathaway’s murder, Cedrick Stone had been implicated. Stone Solutions had, of course, denied the accusations. But Stone hadn’t been seen or heard from again since that night.
And yet Alex had a picture of the outside of his office. He’d claimed he was going to write a story about Stone Solutions’ security for his own empathy blog.
Tell me about your blog,she’d said to Alex.What’s it called?
I haven’t been bold enough to name it, he’d said in that warm Texas drawl.It’s just a place for my thoughts right now, really.
