that," Sam mused, cocking her head at the photo.
"I thought you liked Kyle's hair?" Kyle was Sam's boyfriend and head of the rugby team at school. He was currently sporting a buzz cut to avoid other players yanking his hair.
Sam sighed. "Yeah, I did at first, but…" She trailed off.
"But what?"
She turned to me. "But did you ever notice that Kyle has kind of an egg-shaped head?"
I put my hand over my mouth to stifle a giggle. "No way."
"Yes way!" Sam insisted, nodding. "And now all I can think every time I look at him is eggs." She sighed.
"I'm sure rugby season won't last forever," I reassured her.
"I hope not!"
"Shhhh!" the cardigan lady admonished us again.
I gave her an apologetic smile and made a zipping-my-mouth-shut-and-throwing-away-the-key motion.
Then Sam and I went back to the page, reading the article in silence.
Connor Simon was, as Ellen had mentioned, something of a gaming rock star. He'd started out as a player, taking the competitive gaming world of eSports by storm when he'd won his first national competition at age twelve. By age fifteen, he was considered unbeatable. At sixteen he'd taken on a partner to start his own company, Peak Games. They'd put out a total of four titles together, all set in the mythical world of ancient goddesses, before Simon had branched out on his own. He'd been picked up by gaming giant, VizaSoft, who were about to release his first solo game, the much anticipated Athena's Quest.
I sat back, having reached the end of the article, and chewed on a fingernail.
"I don't get it," Sam said, leaning in. "Why would anyone want him dead?"
I shrugged. Great question. "Maybe the game isn't as great as everyone thinks?"
"Or maybe it was personal and has nothing to do with his game," Sam pointed out. "I mean, don't they say most crimes are committed by loved ones?"
I remembered the tall, blonde woman I'd seen dabbing her eyes at the scene. She'd looked about Simon's age.
"Did he have a girlfriend?" I asked.
Sam shrugged then typed connor simon girlfriend into the search engine. A few seconds later we were looking at a bunch of photos of Simon and the same tall blonde—at the VGAs, at PAX Prime in Seattle last year, and at Comic-Con in San Diego. I couldn't help but notice that the girl bore a striking resemblance to the Athena character I'd seen in the posters for Connor's game.
"Sophia Larson," Sam said, reading the caption beneath one of the photos. "It says here she's a model."
Figured. At a hair under 5'2" myself, I had just a touch of height envy. Which I swear did not play into my next decision at all.
"Let's go talk to the girlfriend."
CHAPTER FOUR
Thanks to our friend Google and Sophia's many social media posts, we gleaned that she lived in a "totally cute" condo in Santana Row "totally close" to a "totally cute" new boutique that sold "totally cute" kitty cat handbags. While her vocabulary might not have been in the SAT range, we figured the description was good enough to get us close.
Half an hour and one bus ride later, we were at Santana Row, a planned neighborhood that was almost like a mini city all in itself. Bars and restaurants, a movie theater, and a ton of shops where you could buy everything from a Gucci bag to a Tesla car to paperback books from an actual Amazon bookstore. They all mingled together in neat rows amidst narrow streets engineered to be pedestrian friendly. Above the shops were condos and apartments that cost almost as much as their Manhattan counterparts. Sophia must have been a pretty popular model if she could afford to live there.
We walked past a gelato shop, a couple of clothing boutiques, and Sephora, where I was sorely tempted to pop in and grab some new lip gloss, when Sam grabbed me by the arm and pointed. "Kitties!"
I glanced toward the storefront across the street. Sure enough, a whole collection of handbags with ears and fur took up the display window.
"This has got to be the place on Sophia's social media," Sam said.
I nodded. "Agreed." I looked up. At least ten units looked close enough to the shop to be considered "totally close."
We walked to the gated entrance to the Santana Sky Complex and luckily only had to wait a few minutes before someone was leaving and we slipped through the gates behind them. To our right was an elevator that led to the upper levels, and