AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On the recording, a door closed. “Do you have a couple of minutes?”
It was Cody.
“Of course,” Fran said. “Is something wrong?”
“You could say that. Brad Prenter is dead.”
“I know, I read about it—”
“I think you know more about it.”
Lucy sucked in her breath. Sean took her hand and squeezed.
“Cody—”
Cody sighed loudly enough for the recording to pick up the sound. “I’m sorry, I just—I don’t know anything anymore.”
“Tell me what happened. I really don’t understand what you’re getting at.”
“Someone used Lucy’s chat account—the same account she used to talk to Prenter—to send him to Club 10. He was shot and killed a block away.”
“That couldn’t have happened.”
“But it did. I have proof. At first—God, Fran, at first I thought it was Lucy, because it was her account and I know how meticulous she is. She’d never give out her password. And she was so focused on Prenter because of the girl in the coma. She’d told me when Prenter was first added to our list that Evelyn Oldenburg never got justice.”
“Lucy?”
“I thought she was working with someone.”
“You didn’t accuse her—”
“I feel like shit. I can’t believe what I said to her, but she didn’t have anything to do with it. Not just because of what she said, but she just wouldn’t. I should have known from the beginning, but I got sucked in by the evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“The police found a message on Prenter’s cell phone that had been forwarded from Lucy’s ‘Tanya’ account that sent Prenter to Club 10 instead of the Firehouse, where my partner and I were waiting for him.”
“I’m still not sure what you think happened.”
“Someone used Lucy’s online identity to send that message to Prenter.”
“You mean someone from WCF sent him to that bar.”
“And killed him.”
Silence. A long moment later, Fran said, “You’re accusing one of my people of murder?” She sounded both angry and upset, though her digital voice, without benefit of facial expression, also sounded flat.
“Yes, I am.”
“I don’t know what to say.” A chair rolled on hard plastic. “I don’t believe it.”
“We need to go through everyone’s background reports. I think someone here has a connection to Prenter and took advantage of WCF to kill him. Someone with sharp computer skills, because this individual also went in and completely erased Prenter’s chat account. Gone. The only reason I found this message is that it had been automatically forwarded to Prenter’s personal email, which was on his BlackBerry. It’s in the police report.”
“Do the police think that someone at WCF is involved? Or Lucy?”
“No—they don’t even think it’s connected. They’re focused on finding the man and woman he argued with in the alley.”
“Fill me in—I’m not up to speed on this case.”
