Burning Bright (Peter Ash #2)(65)

“Actually, I’m downtown, too. Where’s his meeting?”

Another pause. “Fourth and Madison.”

June smiled, and made sure Nicolet’s assistant could hear it in her voice. “Let me guess. He’s playing racquetball at the Y. What was his court time?” Peter looked at his phone, mapping the address.

“Noon,” admitted Suzanne. She sounded less like a vice principal now. “But he’ll want to shower.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said June. She leaned over and looked at the screen on Peter’s phone. “Why don’t we meet at Sazerac? Fourth and Spring, just a block from the Y. Mr. Nicolet can rehydrate. Say one forty-five?”

“That would be lovely,” said Suzanne. “I’ll make sure he’s there on time.”

“Thank you,” June said, and broke the connection. She turned to Peter. “Change of plan.”

“It’s after one now,” Peter said as June put the car in gear. “But we’re not meeting him at a restaurant.”

“Right,” said June. “He’d be too comfortable there. He’s probably a regular. You’re going to grab him as he leaves the Y and scare the shit out of him.”

“I’ve always wanted to hit an attorney.”

“No, you’re going to do something worse,” said June. “Tell him you’re from the government, and you’re here to help.”

They sketched out the rest of the plan on the way.

? ? ?

THE YMCA WAS a beautiful old pile of bricks that took up a quarter of the block and was probably fifty years older than anything around it. June parked around the corner. They were still early.

Peter had been planning to ask June about her father, but now he was thinking about Leo Boyle. That basement setup had really gotten his attention.

“How’d you meet Leo, anyway?”

“Friend of a friend,” she said, then shrugged. “Facebook friend, anyway. He posted that he’d just bought this house with a garage apartment he wanted to rent out. I was couch-hopping with college friends and had posted that I was looking for a place. The pictures were horrible, but he came down a lot on the price, and I’d actually wanted something cheap I could fix up. It was exactly what I was looking for at exactly the right time. This was right after I got the job with Public Investigations, so I really needed a place in Seattle.”

Peter nodded, very casual. “Did you look into Leo, at all? Before you moved in?”

“Just enough to learn he didn’t have a criminal record, which was all I cared about.” She shrugged. “He seemed harmless.” Then she caught it. “Wait.” She turned to look at him. “What did you find in that basement?”

Peter sighed. He hadn’t wanted to tell her, but she’d be relentless until she found out. And keeping it from her wasn’t protecting her, anyway.

“Leo had an ID for the Stanford computer science department. That’s where your mom worked, right? And he had a picture of you on his computer’s lock screen. I bumped the mouse and there you were.”

A thundercloud crossed her face. “Please tell me it’s not a naked picture.”

He smiled gently. “No. You were outside. It was taken with a long lens. From the trees and architecture in the background, probably somewhere in the Bay Area.”

Classic stalker behavior, he didn’t say. He watched her face.

“You were only down there like two minutes.”

“They were right there, the ID and the photo. Almost like he wanted you to find them.”

“Yeah.” The muscles stood out in her jaw. “So why the fuck didn’t I?”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” he said.

“Yeah? What should I do?” Her voice was sharp. Then she sighed. “Sorry. This isn’t the first time. I’m a magnet for the wrong guys.”

Peter didn’t take that personally. She might well be right when it came to him, too.

He said, “What if it’s more than that?”

She looked at him.

“The Stanford ID. Would Leo have worked in your mom’s lab? Or could he have gotten access? Somebody had to tell the bad guys about the algorithm, right?”

“You are creeping me out.”

He watched as her mind leaped ahead. Leo had found her through the Web, a Facebook friend of a Facebook friend. The perfect apartment at the perfect time. He’d even come down on the rent to get her in there.

“That sonofabitch!” She was past scared and getting pissed, which was good, Peter thought. “He got my trust by solving my hacker problem two years ago. I let him do all my tech support after that. He probably put all kinds of shit on my old laptop.” She thought hard. “Did he have time to put anything on my new laptop?”

“You’re asking the wrong guy,” said Peter. “But even the paranoid have enemies. Maybe it’s time to learn a little more about your quirky landlord.”

“I am going to beat that boy like a rented mule.”

Peter checked the time on his phone and put his hand on her arm. “I gotta go.”

“What? Now? With this shit in my head?”

“If Nicolet sees me getting out of a Honda minivan, he’ll never believe I work for the government.”