Serafina and the Virtual Man - By Marie Treanor Page 0,70
Maybe. It doesn’t make any sense.
JK: Maybe it will when I’ve traced all the rumours about you and the false documents about your death.
He didn’t reply to that. Elspeth was talking on the phone in gentle tones of understanding and sympathy. On the other side of the room, Jack had his feet up on the desk, reading a book.
JK: Did we win?
Exodus: Of course we did. Got half the Chicago gangster population either dead or in prison, including your slimy and jealous lover. Next up is Capone himself.
JK: Shoot the bastard for me.
Exodus: Maybe you can come and shoot him yourself, once this is fixed.
JK: I’d like that.
Exodus: Sorry we didn’t reach the finale.
JK: What finale?
Exodus: You and me on the lab bench.
Jilly’s whole body flooded with heat. Would he see that through her webcam?
JK: You’re pretty insatiable for a dead man.
Exodus: [Emoticon with lecherous eyebrows]
Jilly glanced around the office again to make sure no one was paying her any attention.
JK: Maybe we’ll get to that too.
Exodus: I’ll look forward to that most of all.
****
Jilly cooked her dinner with the chat program on the laptop in the kitchen, while she and Adam shared some of their favourite music with each other. It was almost like having someone round for dinner, except she ate it alone as usual, in front of the computer, and the subject under discussion was the location of her guest’s body.
JK: Surely they wouldn’t have buried TWO bodies in their garden.
Exodus: It’s a big garden. Though not as big as the fields and woodland beyond.
JK: Shite. They wouldn’t have buried you out there, would they? It’s quiet, but I can’t imagine they’d risk being seen by a stray farmer or dog walker.
Exodus: Then you’re left with inside the house. Under it, maybe.
JK: Let’s look at the plans.
There was a wine cellar that Adam knew about—an unlikely place to stash dead bodies—with a lot of unopened space beyond.
JK: Is Dale handy with DIY building work? Because it’s not the sort of thing he’d want to pay labourers to do.
Exodus: Never known him get his hands dirty.
JK: Well, that’s another thing. Who would he get his hands this dirty for? If he didn’t kill you, why go to all this trouble to hide the body? Your body and Killearn’s. To say nothing of the elaborate trail to make you “die” on the other side of the world.
There was a pause. It seemed to go on a long time.
Exodus: Petra. Only Petra.
JK: Who didn’t kill you either… Is he really that devoted to her?
Exodus: You find that hard to believe?
JK: Well, she’s beautiful, just…lightweight.
Exodus: I wouldn’t say that. There’s more to her than meets the eye.
JK allowed that to be possible. Just because Petra had discounted her when they first met was no reason to regard her as a negligible human being. She hated when people did that to her, as they did all too often, because of the way she looked. Or perhaps the way she made herself look.
JK: Roxy said
The door buzzer interrupted. Jilly slid her hands off the keys in mid-sentence and went to see who was there.
“It’s Alex McGowan. Sera said you had something for me.”
“Come up,” Jilly invited and released the door catch. “Never off duty, are you?” she remarked as he clumped his way up the stairs.
“Nope. What have you got?”
“We think Genesis Adam’s death in Australia was faked. We think he died the same night as Killearn. Tea? Coffee?”
“Coffee, please. Got any evidence?”
While she made coffee, Jilly outlined what she had already, then went to the laptop, hastily minimizing her conversation with Adam—Alex had come a long way, but asking him to believe she was talking to a dead man via Internet chat was probably a step too far. Then she sat him down in the living room and showed him the photograph of Adam, which purported to show his descent into addiction. Then she let him read the e-mails she’d received from Roxy and some of Adam’s other friends.
“That’s not really evidence,” McGowan observed.
“True, but look at what I can’t find: a rehab booking, a plane ticket, any communication from him at all after August, except by third party. I can’t even find any trace of the doctor who signed the death certificate. No one else seems to have seen the body, except a neighbour who identified it and no longer lives in Sydney. I can’t find him anywhere. The police might have better luck, of course.”