Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
“Nave,” he said after letting me inside. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you.”
“I was wondering why I hadn’t heard from you.”
He gestured toward the couch before dropping into his office chair and swiveling to face me.
“However skilled you thought this man was, it’s more. He’s… a scary fuck.”
“From a surveillance standpoint?” I clarified.
“Well, that, sure. But it’s more than that. His hands are… dirty as fuck.”
“I know you probably can’t know him like this, but his hands can’t be dirty.”
“Oh, the OCD thing? Judging by the cartfuls of cleaning supplies I’ve seen him buy, yeah, I guessed as much. But no. He’s not driving in a knife or anything. Still, he’s got bodies.”
“How?”
“Remember that woman you mentioned? The one you said Lolly saw him stalking?”
“Yeah.”
“She was married with a couple kids. I guess he got sick of seeing her with another man.”
“He killed him.”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“Hacked into the smart controls in his car. Locked up his steering wheel and put out his brakes. On a curving path a few miles from his home. Sent him flying over a cliff.”
“Jesus. I didn’t know that was possible.”
“It’s fucked up what you can do to a car remotely if you know what you’re doing. Did a bunch of work on mine and Shale’s when we got new cars.”
“When you have some time, would you mind looking at Lolly’s new car then too?”
“Sure. To keep her away from that sick fuck, I’d be happy to help.”
“You said bodies. Plural.”
“Apparently, he has a long history of hyper-fixating on women he’s interested in. He had two girlfriends when he was younger. Who, I imagine, figured out he was a sick fuck before he could really lock them down.”
“Did he stalk them?”
“That’s a tame way of putting it. He stalked them each so relentlessly that they had to shut down all social media and move. And he still found them. Still spied on them. They both tried for orders of protection. But he wasn’t getting within fifty feet of them. He was doing it all from halfway across the country.”
“No one could make any kind of charges stick?”
To that, Junior snorted.
“The cops will barely enforce a protection order; you think they give a fuck about cyber-stalking?”
“Yeah, true. Was that all of ‘em?”
“No. No, there was a girl right before Lolly. Another secretary. You said Lolly temped for Ben, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I think this was the woman she was replacing. Seems like she filed several HR complaints. But it was Ben’s business.”
“Did she move too?”
“No, no, it was much more insidious than that.”
“Great. What was it?”
“She had devices: laptop, phone, smart TV. All that shit can be hacked. He hacked it. And started whispering shit to her, driving her slowly crazy until she grabbed a kitchen knife and slit her wrists.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“She lived, thankfully. But you can imagine how little credibility she had when she was put on a 5150 and started claiming her phone, TV, and laptop were talking to her.”
“Is she still there?”
“Yeah.”
“Is there any way we can get her out?”
“I don’t know. It’s sticky. I mean… she might very well be disturbed now. He could have genuinely driven her to insanity. We don’t know. But I can see what I can do about an anonymous tip.”
“Good. Was he always so fucked up? Did you get a history on him?”
“That was harder than I expected. Ben Dalton was hard to find information on before he opened his business. Because Ben Dalton didn’t exist before then. He was Ben Follett before then. Only child of Cora, who was a computer teacher. And Robert, a security consultant.”
“That tracks.”
“Yeah. From what I can tell, right after Ben finished college, he went no-contact with them. They seem happy. So, maybe his ass just came out wrong. Or, more likely, got himself into some gnarly shit online when he was too young for it. Warps the brain. Seen it time and time again. Living in their twisted online echo chambers, just getting more and more fucked in the head.”
“Yeah, makes sense. So, with Lolly’s new identity, do you think it’s possible to stay off his radar?” I sighed at the look Junior shot me. “Don’t like that look.”
“Look, if she commits to staying off the radar in every way, it’s possible. But that means no name on school records, no hospital visits, no nothing.”
“Even under her fake name?”
“I mean for a sane person, yeah. That would be enough. But if he is still fixated on Lolly, he might be able to track her down eventually. Cameras are fucking everywhere these days. And facial recognition has gotten really good and fast. If he’s looking for a face and she gets caught on one…”
“Great.”
“Well, you know where to find him, don’t you?” Junior asked.
“Yeah, yeah, I do.”
It wasn’t ideal to have to go that route. But if someone wouldn’t back off, you had to do what you had to do to protect yourself and who you cared about.