Page 20 of Tiger on the Prowl

10

Jay entered Ace’s mansion before 6 a.m., tired and pissed off at himself. With the Metro not running until 5 a.m. and not wanting to risk taking a taxi—or worse, an Uber—Jay had walked the Mount Vernon Trail all the way from Alexandria to D.C. before reaching a Metro stop a few minutes after the trains were in service again.

The house was still quiet, but instead of going to his room to sleep, he walked into the computer room. Only a couple of desk lights illuminated the large room. Jay sat down in front of a computer, booted it up, and started searching the web for everything he could find on T.R. Harland. In his gut, he knew that Olivia had spoken the truth when she’d told him that she was indeed a sci-fi author and not an editor. But he had to confirm her claims nevertheless.

The references he found were clear in one point: nobody really knew who T.R. Harland was, whether a man or a woman. He read through the various articles and posts on different social media sites, and discovered that rumors that a beloved character in the Galaxy Outcast series that T.R. Harland wrote, would be killed off in the next book, and that there had been previous attempts by jealous individuals, whether they were authors, readers, or publishers, to leak spoilers of the plot and the character who would get the axe.

Olivia hadn’t discussed wanting to kill him, but a character in her next book.

Jay cursed. “Fuck!”

From the far corner of the room, he suddenly heard a noise, and he jumped up.

Fox rose from behind a computer workstation. “Oh, I must’ve dozed off for a minute.” He blinked. “What time is it?”

“Past six,” Jay said.

“What happened?”

“Did you watch the surveillance cameras?” Jay asked, suddenly realizing something. The camera in the foyer had recorded him fucking Olivia. He quickly switched to the computer that streamed the surveillance footage and woke up the screen.

“Only until you showed up in her house. Figured you had it in hand. And you did.”

“How much did you see?”

Fox rolled his eyes. “Don’t worry, I stopped watching when I realized you were getting down to business.” He rubbed his neck. “I was too busy with hacking into Olivia’s cell phone records anyway. I was just waiting for them to download, when I must have closed my eyes for a moment.” He looked at the screen. “Oh, looks like I got everything I need.” He sat down behind the computer.

Jay sighed with relief. At least nobody had seen the video. He had to delete it, before anybody could see him fucking Olivia. She didn’t deserve that kind of violation of her privacy.

“Looks like she called her sister,” Fox said and stood up again. “So we might have two murdering sisters on our hands.”

Jay swiveled with his chair. “No, we don’t.”

“Hey, Jay, I know you like the girl, but—”

“She’s not a killer. She’s an author, and she was discussing a scene about killing off one of the characters in her next book.”

Fox furrowed his forehead and approached. “Did she tell you that?”

Jay let out a breath. “I pieced it together after she tossed me out on my ass.”

“What?”

In as few words as possible, he filled Fox in on what had transpired between him and Olivia, though he glossed over the fact that he’d fucked her in the foyer. Then he showed him what he’d found on the author T.R. Harland.

“I know it’s not definitive proof that she’s the author, since there are no photos or anything else, but I know in my gut that she didn’t lie to me.”

“Fuck! That was bad luck,” Fox said. “But I can dig a little deeper. There should be a paper trail. After all, the author has to get paid by the publisher. It shouldn’t be too hard to find the payments and see where they lead us. And I already have Olivia’s Social Security number. I’ll pull up her tax returns and see what she’s reporting. Why don’t you get a little shut-eye or take a shower, while I take care of this?”

“You must be just as tired. Maybe I can help you. By the way, I thought you and Michelle don’t stay here overnight.”

Fox shrugged. “When one of our own is in danger, it’s all-hands-on-deck. But looks like tonight Michelle and I get to sleep in our own bed again. Just as long as all this checks out.”

“Good. Coffee?”

“I won’t say no to that,” Fox said.

“Oh, and don’t let anybody look at the surveillance footage. I need to erase part of it.” Just as soon as Fox had confirmed Olivia’s identity.