Naive Charles Royce (great novels .txt) đź“–
- Author: Charles Royce
Book online «Naive Charles Royce (great novels .txt) 📖». Author Charles Royce
Ghost setting up the camera, his face distorted in the middle of the scene. He taps the lens as if to make sure it’s working.
Lennox and Micah setting up dinner in front of the television, eating and laughing at an episode of Will & Grace.
Micah walking across the room and looking out the window.
Lennox straightening his tie, getting ready for work, checking the weather outside.
Lennox drinking coffee on the couch, Micah hugging him from behind.
Micah and Lennox pulling the shades. Night vision comes on. The couple begins making out on the couch.
Lennox grabbing the remote from the coffee table.
A naked body being dumped on the floor into view of the camera.
“Hold on, here’s something,” Astrid says, pausing the video. “I knew it! He was dumped outta that chair like a bag of trash.”
“And you can’t see who dumped him. Ever.” Detective Penance is noting the details. “That’s interesting, like the killer’s avoiding the camera.”
“But why? We’ve already seen Ghost’s face at the beginning of these videos,” Astrid says.
“Dunno,” Detective Penance responds, then looks at Officer Palino. “Look, though. The camera’s night vision is triggered. That means the lights are off. Palino, let’s watch and see when it switches back to normal.”
“Will do,” he replies.
“We’re sure that’s Lenny on the floor now, right?” Astrid asks.
“From the skinny build and the lack of clothes, probably. That’s approximately where we found him,” says Officer Palino.
Astrid hits play. Every time the body moves or heaves, the camera comes on for a few seconds. The body convulses in a series of twelve different scenes with time stamps covering a period of almost three hours.
In the final scene, another figure runs to the body and begins to pound on Lennox. Over and over. Over and over.
“Jesus,” Astrid says. “This is amazing.”
“That’s one word for it,” says Detective Penance. “Night vision is still triggered. The lights are definitely off, so we were wrong on that.”
“I concur,” says Officer Palino.
“So much for our Perry Mason moment about the light switches,” says Astrid.
“And that’s Micah pounding on Lennox’s body, I can tell by the hair and the build,” adds Detective Penance.
In the continuation of the final video, Micah stops pounding on Lennox and sits beside the limp body. He tries to get up and slips onto his husband. He pulls his husband’s arm around him.
“That’s all the video, there are no more files.” Astrid pauses the video.
A hush covers the entire room. Everyone is frozen, soaking in the enormity of seeing the videos that had evaded them for so long.
“I don’t know about you, but I see a distraught husband trying to save the love of his life.” Detective Penance breaks the silence.
Astrid contemplates. “I think I agree. And given all of the absolute shit that happened today, I might be up all night making amends to these people.”
“You’re not going to believe this,” says a twenty-one-year-old intern who’s been hacking into the emails of the computer’s owner. “I combed the drive for email addresses, accounts, passwords, and unlocked everything. Looks like some things are missing forever, but I recovered what I could.
“First of all,” she continues. “I know our initial thought was that this laptop was planted in Jenna’s closet by the Ghost man person thingie. But it actually belongs to Jenna. Jenna Ancelet. It’s Jenna’s old laptop from her Élan days. I cross-referenced the serial numbers with an equipment list we had from the company. This email address also belongs to Jenna Ancelet, a Frenchy228 from hotmail. I printed this email exchange, so you could see them. I think she’s talking with Ghost.”
“Frenchy228,” Astrid repeats aloud.
“228 is the number of Jenna’s apartment,” says Officer Palino.
“Jenna’s parents are French, and she lived in France until she was 15 before they moved to the States,” Detective Penance adds.
The intern lays out twelve emails and their responses in order of date. Each are short and succinct.
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: Job
Date: December 14, 2017
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
I’m a friend of Lenny’s, and I have a quick job for you. $10,000 upon completion. Interested?
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Job
Date: January 6, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Sorry, I don’t check this email often.
Depends.
*************
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Re: Job
Date: January 8, 2018
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Need a camera set up in a condo on the LES. No breaking and entering, I have the key. I will give a phone number to send further instructions.
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Job
Date: January 10, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Gimme the number.
*************
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Job
Date: January 10, 2018
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
555.921.5569
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Job
Date: March 9, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
IT’S DONE
*************
“What’s done? Setting up the camera?” Astrid asks.
“Yes, look at the date,” replies Detective Penance. “Must be Ghost taking a job to set up a camera for Jenna. It’s about five months before the murder.”
“That phone number looks like a burner,” says Officer Palino. “Might be the phone we found in pieces at Jenna’s apartment. We’ll check it out, find out what we can.”
“Okay, look at these next emails.” Astrid shuffles a small pile. “They start about six weeks before the murder.”
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: One more
Date: July 5, 2018
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Got one more small job. $5K upon completion. Lemme know.
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: One more
Date: July 11, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
I’ll do it.
*************
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Re: One more
Date: July 18, 2018
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
There’s a laptop in the boiler room of the building where you set up the camera. There’s a key taped to the top of it. The key is to 10 Rutgers, apartment 228. Once inside, go to the right bedroom closet and place the laptop underneath the stack of papers. Payment will be taped to the ceiling of the closet.
Don’t do this until I tell you to. Call me.
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: One more
Date: July 22, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
When?
*************
From: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: One more
Date: August 16, 2018
To: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Call me.
*************
From: YouNeedaHero@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: One more
Date: August 22, 2018
To: Frenchy228@hotmail.com
Finished.
*************
“So it was Jenna. She sent him to break
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