Page 90 of Lovely Darkness

“How about a bubble bath?” Sasha offers. “Hm? That sounds good, right?”

Maggie holds her finger up again, shoves a few forkfuls of spaghetti and meatballs into her mouth, then, still chewing, says, “OK. Bath time.” She jumps off her stool, heads towards the back stairs, and calls out, “Cooks don’t clean,” as she leaves.

We wait the obligatory ten seconds until she’s out of earshot and then Sasha says, “I love her.”

Which makes me smile. “She reminds me of Lauren.”

“So. Much,” Sasha agrees. “But you’re totally gonna tell me whatever idea you just had, right?”

“Seriously, it’s not even an idea. Just… a maybe.”

“I don’t mind maybes.”

“Well, I’m not spilling it yet. Go help her out.” I nod my head to the stairs to indicate Maggie. “And while you do that, I’m gonna snoop around.”

“Snoop around where?”

“The whole house. If Adam didn’t want me to snoop, then he shouldn’t have left me here alone.”

“He really didn’t. I’m sure he was counting on Indie and Nathan being here to keep us in line.”

“Well, that’s dumb. Anyone who counts on Indie for anything is plain crazy. And maybe I don’t know this Adam guy well, but I get him.” I nod my head towards the stairs again. “He trusts that six-year-old more than he trusts Indie.”

Sasha huffs. “She’s probably the one in charge.” Then she pats my chest. “OK. Go snoop. But when I’m finished tucking her in, I want the details, even if they’re preliminary.”

“Deal,” I concede.

She follows Maggie upstairs but I head towards the front of the house where Adam’s office is. Unfortunately, the door is locked. So I guess he did think this through. I’m not going to break in to his office, so now what? It’s not like this place isn’t filled with spaces to hide secrets. At the very least I could try Donovan’s bedroom upstairs. But if Donovan is hiding things, he’s not gonna hide them there. It’s probably in that town office. Hell, Nick probably found it and just hasn’t told me yet. We might even have had the same idea.

I consider calling him, but when he came in to tell me he was leaving, he had already mentioned some of the secrets. The rats and all that.

I don’t think that’s what I’m looking for.

If the Company is running a PSYOP on us, I don’t think Donovan’s in charge of it. Or Carter, actually. If that guy even exists. They would be a part of it. Not controlling it.

I’ve done this enough. I know how it works. You have operators and you have controllers.

Donovan and Carter are one hundred percent operators. They are making shit happen.

So who is their controller? This is the question.

Everyone present and accounted for is off the list. It’s not any of us. But it has to be someone peripheral.

Doc? I can maybe see Doc doing something like this. He’s been in it so long, there’s an eighty-twenty chance he’s done a deep-cover operation at some point in his past. But I don’t think it’s him.

The nurses? Sure, they come off a little bit trashy. A little bit slutty. And they both add an aura of dirty old man to Doc. But they are young. Whoever is running this PSYOP—if it even is a PSYOP—has been around the entire time. I would put both of those nurses in their early twenties, just like Indie. And neither of them grew up in Pearl Springs or Nathan would know them from public school.

Unless it’s Nathan. Is it Nathan?

Or his grandfather?

Maybe his grandfather started the PSYOP and then he died, and shit kinda fell apart?

Possible, but not likely.

Little noises drift down from upstairs. Sasha and Maggie talking. The sounds of splashing water. A machine is beeping down the breezeway, and that snaps me back to where I’m at and what I’m doing.

I need to snoop. And this side of the house is where everyone lives on the daily. But that other side of the house feels different.