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“How old is Hector now?” Win asked. “Nine, ten?”
“He’s fifteen, Win.”
Win considered that. “Nothing ages you faster than someone else’s child.”
“Deep,” Esperanza said with the slightest hint of sarcasm. All three of them favored a pinch of sarcasm in their voice, but none could deliver the full potpourri of sarcasm’s spices and herbs like Esperanza. She was a sarcasm savant. “Speaking of sons, how’s it going with Jeremy?”
“It is what it is,” Myron said. Then: “I told him I want him to meet my folks.”
“Good,” Esperanza said. “He should have them in his life.”
“He’s also not stationed overseas anymore.”
Win arched an eyebrow. “Since when?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where then?”
“It’s classified.”
Win didn’t like that. “But somewhere in the United States?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Can we get back to this?” Esperanza asked. “Like I said, I have to get home.”
“Of course.” Win put the snifter down and stood. “Do you need the large screen?”
“It would be helpful.”
Win approached what appeared to be a bronze bust of Shakespeare on the marble fireplace mantel but was, in fact, a prop used in the 1960s Batman television series. Bruce Wayne (Batman) or Dick Grayson (Robin) would tilt the head of Shakespeare’s bust back, revealing a hidden switch. Once the switch was hit, the bookcase behind the Caped Crusaders would slide open and reveal two poles (one pole said “DICK,” one pole said “BRUCE,” as though they might forget which pole was whose) and then Bruce Wayne, played by the brilliant Adam West, would exclaim, “To the Batpoles!”
Like the famed Caped Crusader before him, Win now tilted back the Shakespeare head, flicked the switch, and voilà, the bookcase slid to one side. Instead of Batpoles, there was a large flat-screen television mounted to the wall. Blackout curtains automatically lowered over the windows, converting Win’s parlor into a man cave–styled theater room—albeit one serving Remy Louis XIII Black Pearl Grande Champagne Cognac.
Myron looked over at Win. Win smiled and arched an eyebrow. The man loved his gadgets.
Esperanza quickly mirrored her tablet to the television so they could all view the files on the big screen.
“Okay, so here’s what I put together from what PT told you,” she began. “We already know about Jordan Kravat in Las Vegas. And we have the Callisters in New York. Adding to that”—she clicked the pad and a new slide appeared—“PT told you about Tracy Keating. I got this off her LinkedIn page.”
A photograph appeared of a woman with curly blonde hair and dark glasses and the kind of smile that hit every part of her face and made you want to smile back.
“Tracy Keating was allegedly killed in Marshfield, Massachusetts, by a stalking ex, a guy named Robert Lestrano. She was in the process of getting a restraining order. PT already filled you in on some of this, but I was able to make up pretty extensive files on these three cases—Kravat, Callister, Keating. Win, you may be happy to know your pal Taft Buckingham’s kid was helpful in putting this together for me.”
“I’m ecstatic,” Win said. “Enthralled even.”
“Super. So next we dug a little deeper to unearth the other cases. PT mentioned an online abuser getting murdered by a brother. I think we found the case.” Esperanza tapped the iPad and a man’s face appeared. “The murder victim was Walter Stone. Age fifty-seven, two grown kids, a wife. Spent most of his days abusively trolling online and really went hard after a woman named Amy Howell. She lives in Oregon.”
Myron read the file. “Sheesh, this guy was pretty sick.”
“You have no idea what we see at the law firm,” Esperanza said. “People spiral. They’d never act this way in person. But online? Not to get too deep into it, but social media wants eyeballs. Period, the end. The best way to get that? Divide people. Make them angry. Turn them into extremists.”
“Not unlike cable news,” Myron said.
“Exactly. Fear and divisiveness offer engagement. Agreement and moderation do not. Anyway, here is the evidence against Howell’s brother Edward Pascoe.”
Myron read down the list. “Car spotted, CCTV of the car by a water reservoir, murder weapon found there.… It’s a lot.”
