Page 126 of False Flag

Staci held up the digital recorder. “Any way you can get proof?”

Dahlia shook her head. “An ass grab doesn’t show up on a sound recording.”

A knot formed in Staci’s belly. “Shit. Dahlia. I’m so sorry. I—I know a lot of people think that anyone who works at a restaurant like Double D is asking to be groped, but I assure you, it’s a violation. If my employers hadn’t ejected—and banned—every customer who tried it, I’d have quit after the first time it happened. I’m so sorry Gerard isn’t protecting you from Casper.”

Dahlia gazed downward and fiddled with the fabric of her pants. “When we first moved the podcast here, Gerard promised me it would only be for a few months. That was February. It’s now June with no end in sight.” She raised her head and grimaced. “Hell, you just pointed out the actual fieldwork hasn’t even started.”

Staci lowered her voice to a whisper, her lips barely moving. “I think you know there isn’t going to be any real fieldwork, Dahlia. This is all a sham.”

She gave the slightest of nods and whispered, “Casper and Gerard are playing a different game.”

“Do you know what it is?”

She shook her head, but then glanced down at her phone, which was in her lap below the recording control panel. She tapped on a note-taking app and typed.

I think Lloyd knew.

Alarm raced through Staci, but she remained calm. Gerard was watching. She opened the same app on her phone and typed.

So they killed him?

Dahlia was equally calm. She spoke even as she typed. “I was going to go to Victoria today after the podcast uploads. Treat myself to a fancy hotel room and eat at my favorite Irish pub, but with Casper gone, I might enjoy the pool here instead.”

Her phone told a different story.

All I know is he joined a forum I’m on a few days after you showed up. He was like that Steve Buscemi “How do you do, fellow kids?” meme, trying to figure out if it was an AT forum.

She smiled and kept typing, all while talking about the pool, which had been opened several days ago for the summer and should be fully heated by now. The woman could multitask, that’s for sure.

It’s not. I won’t be part of that shit. But I’m sure Lloyd found an AT group eventually. That last morning, he argued with Gerard. I didn’t hear them, but I saw them. It was heated. I assumed it was because Jake was diving and not Lloyd, now I wonder if it was about AT and the attack on you.

“You should join me,” Dahlia said while Staci read the note. “We can make mai tais and pretend we’re on vacation.”

The last thing Staci wanted was to be hanging out by the pool when the bomb she’d uploaded dropped. She figured she’d be physically safe then—after all, if she disappeared when the world knew she was trapped on Casper Osborne’s island, Gerard and company would have a whole lot of questions to answer.

Plus, she’d called out the deepfake in today’s session, which would be published in the next hour. After watching that, it would be hard to convince investigators that any video in which she suddenly confessed was real. And if she dropped dead due to anaphylaxis, well, Casper kindly described a biotoxin that he’d never be able to pass off as a prehistoric bioweapon after completely botching documentation of the so-called discovery.

His and Gerard’s fans might believe it, but Canadian police and the FBI would investigate. They could certainly pay some people off, but Freya and Morgan would never back down, and FMV had connections.

Still, she wasn’t about to hang out anywhere near Heron House when Gerard was likely to go ballistic.

“Thanks, but now that I’ve been granted unfettered access to the woods, I’ve been looking forward to taking a hike by myself.” At least Gerard wouldn’t be able to contact her in the forest. She’d return after he had a chance to cool off.

“You haven’t had enough woods and hiking this week?”

“I love being in the forest. It’s the filming-a-lot-of-nothing part I hate.”

“Do you think tomorrow Casper will show you his mysterious site?”

Staci glanced toward the window. “Only if he’s identified the best place to have his new lidar or GPR, or whatever technology he’s providing, make a perfect drawing of a buried site that doesn’t exist. Or if he’s finished planting artifacts for me to ‘find.’” She used air quotes.

“That wouldn’t work, would it?”

“Not even a little. It’s obvious when something has been recently dug. To the naked eye and especially to ground-penetrating radar.” She leaned close and whispered, “But don’t tell Gerard or Casper that. It will make for some fun filming.”

The doorknob rattled, then there was pounding on the door. A glance at the studio window showed the room was empty. Staci crossed the tiny space to the door and unlocked it.

Gerard didn’t look happy at being locked out of the control booth. He glared at his assistant. “Stop gabbing and send me the spliced-together recording so I can proof it.”