Page 109 of Never Forget

With that, I turn on my heel and jog out of the park. I can’t stand to be near that guy any longer. I need a scalding hot shower, hotter even than Naz takes. And maybe a wire brush to scrub my skin with.

I make it out of the park and two blocks down before my phone rings.

Unknown Number Calling

I shut my phone off and keep running.

TWENTY-EIGHT

NAZ

“That slimy sack of shit! He’s lying! Scott has to know he’s lying, right?!”

“I’m sure Scott knows,” Cory says, putting a calming hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be in touch when he makes it back to his room. That’s not the most important thing right now, though.”

I know he’s right. Sunni managed to get us access to Curtis Howard’s dossier of filth and lies. The worst part is that it’s not all lies. The partying, a few accidents where no one was seriously injured, and a host of other stupid behavior. Nothing illegal outside of the drug use, and nothing that hurt anybody else. Nothing like what all these bogus records are suggesting.

The sickest part of it all is how believable he makes some of this look. It makes me hate myself even knowing what’s true and what isn’t.

Sunni whistles low, her voice coming through the speaker on Kit’s phone. “This is some pretty sick shit. Most of this can be easily proven false, though. I mean, the photoshop on some of these pictures is terrible. And don’t get me started on the AI.”

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true. People will believe it.”

“Well, we’ll just have to do what we can to take them down first.”

“And how exactly do we do that? You hacked his information, so it’s not like we can turn it over to the police.”

“No, but we can lead the police to the right place. I promise you he’s hiding a lot more than this bullshit book report.”

“Thank you, Sunni,” Blake says. “For everything you’ve done for us today. You went above and beyond.”

“Are you kidding me? This was fun.”

“I’ll see you at the office tomorrow, Sunni,” Kit says into the phone before disconnecting.

“Sunni is going to play around a little more. Apparently Curtis has an interesting encryption system on his phone that she’s very curious about,” Kit says after hanging up. “She’s in cyber-nerd heaven.”

“She’s really remarkable,” Blake says. “Please don’t let her get into any trouble on our behalf.”

“If I thought she’d be at risk, I wouldn’t have put her on the project in the first place. I know her and I knew exactly what I was doing when I chose her for this. Trust me.”

“Thanks, Kit,” Blake says, reaching for their hand. They roll their eyes and pat him on the shoulder.

“Anytime, Blake. And I’ll send you over the report of everything Sunni showed you today. Actually, two reports. One you can use officially, and one you can’t.”

“Thanks, Kit,” I say, giving them a half-hearted wave.

“Chin up, Naz. It’ll work out.”

Once it’s just the three of us, Blake does something I don’t think I’ve ever seen him do before. He loosens his tie. Not just a little, either, he yanks the knot side to side until it’s half undone and then unbuttons three buttons.

“You alright, bossman?” Cory asks, giving Blake the same concerned expression I am.

“This is all a much bigger mess than I thought it was.”

“What do you think about the thing with the new hires? That seems super sketchy,” I say.

“It is, especially because it was secretive. No one mentioned it to me, not once, and it wasn’t obvious, either. I think we only knew about Kathy in IT because Emmy was friendly with her. And I’m often in the office after hours, so I noticed a different janitor.”