Page 64 of John’s Yearning

“I didn’t know what would happen to the girls. All I did was provide access to the website, and then, when my client liked a girl, I sent over her details, you know, from the database. I swear. That’s all I did.”

“Who’s your client?”

“I don’t know.”

“I’ll ask you again: who’s your client?”

“I don’t know.” The hacker started crying. “I really don’t. He emailed me a few months ago. I never met him. He pays me via a dead drop. Cash.”

“Liar!”

“No, it’s the truth.”

“So some mystery man just contacted you out of the blue to hack into some random photographer’s website and database, and you expect me to believe that? How stupid do you think I am?”

“She’s not some random photographer. Kerry and I dated a while back.”

John drew back, giving the hacker some space now.

Savannah couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The hacker and the photographer knew each other. Did this mean that the photographer was involved after all?

“Go on,” John said, his voice now more controlled.

“I might have bragged to some of my buddies that I had a really successful girlfriend and what she was doing. You know, taking kids’ portraits, and that the kids were really cute. Anyway, after we break up, I get this email, and I suppose I was a little pissed at Kerry for dumping me, so I wanted to screw with her and her business.” He sniffled. “I had no idea what the guy really wanted. I thought maybe he was a rival and just wanted to steal clients or business or whatever. What do I know?”

“Yeah, what do you know?” John shook his head. “Then what?”

“There were reports in the papers about a few girls disappearing, and I recognized three of them from the photos. So I got suspicious. So the next time he contacted me, I said I wanted out. He said there was no out. I was scared.” He tossed a glance at Grayson and Benjamin, then looked back at John. “You see, I couldn’t stop. He wouldn’t let me stop.”

“How do you contact him?”

“Only by email.”

“You’re a hacker. Have you tried to track him?”

“I did. After I realized he wouldn’t let me quit, I sent him an email with the usual link to the photos, but this time I embedded malware into it, so that once he clicked on it, it installed a small program on his computer that let me track his location.”

Savannah nodded to herself. That’s what she would have done. The hacker was smart.

“But he moves around a lot,” Otto continued. “Whenever he contacted me, he did it from a different location. He never used the same location twice.”

“So you’re telling me you have no idea who he is or where he is?” John leaned in again. “None at all?”

Savannah noticed how the hacker lowered his lids, an indication that he was hiding something. John must have noticed too, because he added, “Otto?”

“He’s gonna kill me.”

“Not if I kill him first,” John said.

Otto’s eyes widened. Then he swallowed. “A couple of weeks ago, I gave him the name and address of another girl he requested. But this time I followed the girl, and I saw when she was taken.”

Savannah gasped, her heart beating frantically into her throat now.

“I followed them. Two guys in a van.”

Just like the two guys who’d tried to grab her. Savannah shivered.

“Where to?” John asked.