Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,42
were all over the gold medallion thing around the victim’s neck. Looks like Adam tried to strangle him with that before resorting to his hands to finish the job.
“I’ve got to go.” He took a pace forward, then paused and glanced back at Jilly. “You know your brothers were arrested for breaking into the Ewans’ house round about the time Killearn must have died?”
“Yes, I know that,” Jilly said.
“They don’t do violent crime,” Sera said quickly.
Alex turned to stare at her. Jilly didn’t blame him. The constable said, “Sera, they’ve been done for assault. Twice.”
“Yes, but not murder,” Sera objected. “That’s serious.”
“There’s something else about that break-in,” Jilly said, dragging her thoughts back into some semblance of sense. “Off the record.”
Alex hesitated, then nodded.
“Someone told George and Andy they could get in easily, that no one would be at home and the alarm would be switched off. The alarm was switched off, but the Ewans were there.”
Alex frowned. “You think your brothers were set up to take the fall for whoever Killearn was there to kill?”
“It crossed my mind.”
“By whom?”
Jilly shrugged. “I have no idea. Believe it or not, I don’t move in their circles.”
Alex sighed. “I know,” he said, surprising her for the second time that morning. “Just wanted to warn you that my partner might want to question you about that coincidence.”
“Thanks,” Jilly muttered.
She and Sera watched Alex leave, then looked at each other.
Sera said, “Maybe the poltergeist doesn’t know Adam’s dead.”
Jilly nodded.
Sera hesitated, then, “It might have been self-defence. Or drug-induced hallucination. We don’t know what he took. I know he’s a techie hero, Jilly, but you shouldn’t care this much.”
“I don’t know that I do.” Right now, she wasn’t sure of anything. “I think I might have been scammed. By your poltergeist. I definitely don’t like that.”
Sera opened her mouth to say more, then caught sight of the clock. “Shite. I have an appointment at ten. Got to dash.”
She ran back into the inner office and came back with her jacket, bag, and car keys before flying out the door in typically chaotic Sera style.
Elspeth shook her head with wry amusement. “Coffee?” she suggested, just as Sera leapt back in the door and slammed it shut.
“Your dad’s coming this way,” she gasped. “Get out through the flat.”
Jilly didn’t need to be told twice. Without coat or laptop, she bolted into the inner office and slammed the door. Leaning against it, she listened to the heightened beat of her heart and wondered why so little had changed.
The door to Serafina’s tinkled open and closed.
Sera’s voice said coldly, “What do you want?”
Jilly shut her eyes. Oh yes, it was her dad all right.
“I’m looking for Jillian.”
Bastard. She heaved herself across the room and through the other door into Sera’s flat. She took one of Sera’s jackets from the hooks in the narrow entrance hall, slipped out the flat door, and ran around the corner.
****
Genesis Adam stared broodingly at the computer screen. She hadn’t spoken to him since last night. Which was a good thing, only it didn’t feel that way. He felt lost again, almost like when she’d first wakened him up and he couldn’t remember anything.
He remembered a lot now, though. And he knew who the body was. More to the point, JK would know too, and before long she’d probably know who killed him. He rather thought that would hurt her.
JK of the mixed messages. She’d liked him; she’d had fun playing the game with him. But he’d read easily enough that whatever attraction sizzled between them, she was untouchable. Fair enough. They were in a VR game, and Adam didn’t exist in any other form. But she did things to his unreal body—why had that part of the program worked quite so bleeding well?—and he had this insane urge to protect her, however tough and mouthy she was. He liked her. And fuck, yes, he’d liked kissing her. So soft and yielding, with passion simmering up below the surface and about to explode… He wanted that. He wanted it a lot.
He’d spent too long in the bat cave before he died. Too long being nerdy and celibate.
He was glad she’d told him the body wasn’t his. He’d been pretty sure his sentience, or whatever this was, would fade from the program with the discovery of his body. Wasn’t that how these things worked? The spirit needed to make things right, see justice done. Or something. He didn’t know, but he could see she believed it,