Velvet Midnight - Max Walker Page 0,47

Fucking shit. What did it say?”

Theo read the message. “To Mr. Sherlock ‘Stonewall’ Homes, keep on investigating and you’ll see bigger consequences than a sex tape leaking.”

It was an explicit threat. The text wasn’t asking for money. It wasn’t asking for anything. It was a clear warning shot.

“Fuck,” I said.

Theo huffed. “It’s all right. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and that’s actually one of the weakest threats I’ve ever gotten. Trust me, on the 1-to-Zodiac Killer scale of threats, this one barely registers as a blip.”

That helped me calm down a bit.

But only a bit.

“It does mean a couple things, though: whoever is behind this knows I’m involved, which brings me back to thinking it’s someone closer to you than you think. I don’t exactly walk around with a megaphone, shouting about my cases, so that part is interesting to me.”

I nodded, my worry rising back up. It was a comfort, if a very weak one, to think that whoever was doing this was far removed from my life. Some crazy online fanatic who got lost down the wrong internet rabbit hole and now wanted to lash out at my father through me. It brought me back to thinking about Scott and Penelope.

“Another thing is that, well, frankly this person isn’t very smart. They sent the text through a randomized number. Except, in order to get that number, they had to use an app and create an account with their real number in order to create the randomized one. I’m currently in a back-and-forth with the app company, and I’m hoping I can get that info by the end of the week.”

“That’s huge!” All right, back to less worrying. This conversation was turning out to be a hell of a roller-coaster ride.

“It can be, yes. So let’s hold on to that. All right?”

“I will, Theo. Thank you for the update, and for all the work you and your team’s been doing.”

“Of course, not a problem. When Mav told me about what was going on, I knew I had to jump in and help.”

Mav. Hah, they’re already on nickname terms.

I’d have to bring Theo up the next time Maverick and I talked.

We hung up, and I felt much more confident about where things were headed after talking to him. The last bit of information he dropped was critical: they had a phone number. If they could get a phone number, they could track the person down to whatever ball-sweat-soaked basement they were hiding in. And there was also the lead on the tech store, which sounded like a bit of a longer shot if Theo couldn’t narrow down the date, but still, it was a shot. And the tape still hadn’t been leaked, even though the threat’s deadline expired a week and two days ago (I’d been keeping the exact count since midnight).

Maybe I was in the clear. Maybe their text to Theo was a dying gasp. Maybe someone deleted the video by accident, or the file was corrupted, or maybe they grew a heart overnight, deciding to delete it themselves.

These were all possibilities I rarely ever entertained, except for now. I allowed myself a little bit of hope.

With that hope, I went to get back to work. I still had time before Benji was done, but I’d have to be quick. I hurried into the living room and opened all the boxes, setting them down on the floor. I grabbed a bag out of the box closet to me, tearing it open with my teeth. I took out the puffy white clouds of cotton and started to place them around the room, bunching them together in clumps on the windowsill and near the fireplace.

I grabbed the next package, opening it and pulling out the folded-up white-and-black plastic. I found the blow pin and brought it to my mouth. Before I could even start on inflating it, my phone buzzed again. I checked to see if it was Benji or maybe Theo. He might have forgotten to tell me something.

It was neither of them. It came from a number I didn’t recognize.

I read the message, the blow pin still in my mouth, my eyes widening and my stomach somersaulting into my throat.

The message read:

“You have three days left. Send 500k to the account specified below and the video won’t leak. Don’t pay and ruin yours and your family’s life. Decide.”

The inflatable slipped from my mouth and floated down to the ground.

19

Benjamin Gold

Today felt like a good day. A really