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Val looked over to the living room, where Jace sat in an armchair, staring dully at the penguin documentary that Elijah had chosen. He’d tried to react stoically to the news of the attack on his supposed safe house, but Val had seen his flinch and the hurt in his eyes. Kaj had assured him that he was safe with them.
For the time being had hung in the air, unsaid but understood.
Elijah, on the other hand, had been devastated. He’d cried big heaving sobs as he’d patted Jace’s hand and said how sorry he was over and over. He’d pleaded with Kaj to let Jace stay until he was safe, finally crying it out. He was now pressed to Kaj’s side on the sofa, Kaj’s arm around him. She didn’t think any of them were truly watching the documentary.
“About how you’d expect,” she said, knowing that they could hear her replies.
“I’m sorry,” Antoine said with a grimace. “I’m about to add to the good news bonanza.”
“Did you find out what Corey was doing on those dates?”
“Not yet. Burke pulled me onto another case, but I had some searches running in the background. I do this for every protection client—searches for online threats. Chatter.”
Val swallowed hard, new dread clogging her throat. “What did you find?”
“Well, first, did you know that Kaj is also prosecuting Trevor Doyle? The director accused of raping Bella Butler?”
“Yes, I did know that. It starts next week. Why? What’s that got to do with us?”
“There are a number of online communities that have been following this case. Some are pro-Bella. They tend to be out in the open and nonthreatening. The ones of concern are the anti-Bella groups. Some of them just grumble about how a great man can be taken down by a woman’s lies and how everything has to be politically correct.”
“I know the type.” She’d been surrounded by them after her assault and had nearly buckled, giving in to the military, who would have preferred to hush her up. It had been Molly Sutton who’d supported her, giving her the courage to move forward, to press formal charges.
She glanced to the living room, seeing that Kaj was watching her. “Later,” she mouthed.
He nodded and went back to watching the documentary with Elijah, but his posture was far tenser than it had been before.
“You can’t speak freely?” Antoine guessed.
“Not right now. I can type out my replies if I need to.” Skype was convenient that way. One could participate in a video call and text within the program at the same time.
“Okay. So. There’s another group whose members are a lot more aggressive in their hatred for Bella Butler. This week a few of them noticed Rick Gates’s attempted abduction of Elijah.”
Oh no. She thought she knew where this was going. “And?”
“And they understand that Rick did it to get his brother out of jail, but these online Bella-haters have run with the idea. They think that Rick had the right goal but a poorly planned execution. They are suggesting kidnapping Cardozo’s son to force him off the Doyle case. They’ve listed his home address online, along with stills of Elijah taken from the videos from Monday night. I don’t expect the posts to stay up much longer. The moderators take them down, but the information is out there now. The internet is forever.”
She said nothing, pursing her lips as she held the wave of fear for Elijah at bay. Not wanting Elijah to hear any of this, she texted her reply. Don’t they know that the DA will just assign someone else to the case?
Antoine grimaced. “They posted the name and address of Kaj’s second chair, along with the names and addresses of several other ADAs. They’re talking about a coordinated strike on several, just to upend the DA’s department.”
Val sighed. Does Burke know? she typed.
“He does,” Antoine assured her, speaking calmly, which helped her calm herself. “For now, be aware that the threat exists. I told André myself and he’s increasing NOPD presence on Kaj’s block. He’s also got his tech group tracing the identities and locations of the posters, especially the aggressive ones. The posters on the subreddit are going to be the less serious offenders, though. The moderators have been actively purging groups from the platform if they’re planning anything illegal. There does appear to be a private server on Discord where they discuss ideas more freely, but you have to be invited to join. I’ve made a dummy account and I’m trying to get a private invite, but it could take a while to gain the trust of the moderators.”
Are any of the aggressive posters local? she asked, aware that Antoine would have already started checking this.
“So far, most of the ones I’ve been able to trace are all hundreds of miles from New Orleans. There is one just over the Texas border that I’m keeping an eye on. For now, be aware and vigilant, just as you would be anyway.”
I will. She closed her eyes for a moment, making a mental list so that she could think before typing again. In the meantime, we need to figure out what Corey’s up to. I need to know if that note taped to Rick’s chest was a ploy to scare us into chasing after Sixth Day or if Corey actually means Elijah harm. Or both.
“I’m running searches,” Antoine assured her. “But if you want something to do while you worry—because you will worry—I’ll give you access to the program I’m running to analyze the dates Rick gave you.”
“You know me so well,” she said aloud, keeping her tone wry.
“I do. I’m running the dates through a database of police reports, looking for any criminal activity. I’ve focused on drug activity because of Sixth Day, but it could be anything. You could start sorting through the results while I work on the other client’s case.”
“I’ll do that, then,” she said, forcing her words to come out easy and carefree.
