Blood Echo by Rice Christopher

Author:Rice, Christopher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-02-18T16:00:00+00:00

29

“What are these?” Cole finally asks. He’s looking up at Charlotte from behind reflective sunglasses that make it impossible for her to read his expression.

Next to her, Luke exhales in a loud huff. They’ve walked Cole through everything on that damn flash drive. In great detail. And now he’s going to act like he didn’t hear any of it? This is going to be harder than she thought.

Most of the Lake Patrick boat launch is open-air, except for a metal bench at the very end of the dock. That’s where Cole first took a seat, leaving Charley, Luke, and Marty to stand between him and the dock’s edge like knights delivering reports to their king. They’re all inside the halo of shade cast by several rusted metal umbrellas. As always, there’s something about the sight of these umbrellas, with their sculpted details and flaking white paint, that makes Charley a little sad; they’re evidence someone once thought Lake Patrick would become a recreational haven, not a spot for jerks to dump their trash and unwanted pets.

And for shady CEOs to meet with their secret test subjects in private.

“You really want us to go through it all again?” Charley asks.

“No.” Even though it was Luke who gave the presentation, Cole looks straight at her. “I want you to tell me specifically what I’m looking at on this screen. What types of files are these?”

“They’re screen caps,” Marty says.

“So you haven’t been able to follow this link?” Cole asks.

“I thought we said that,” Luke says, impatience building. “Didn’t we say that? Because I could swear that we . . .” Charley places a hand on his shoulder; he falls silent. But he’s right. Cole’s being an obstinate jerk, and if he keeps it up, there’s only going to be so many more times she’ll be willing to silence Luke with a look.

“Screen captures,” Cole says again, as if this entire thing is a waste of his time.

“Yes,” Charley says, “what did you expect? She doesn’t work for the CIA.”

“Of course not. She’s his on-again, off-again girlfriend with a history of drug addiction who told Luke a lie so he’d arrest him. How could we possibly suspect her motives are anything but pure?”

“We don’t know her story about the beating was a lie,” Luke says.

“So we know she was beaten up?” Cole asks.

“Or Jordy threw her face-first into a tree by the scruff of her damn neck. Knuckle patterns aren’t the point, and you know it.”

“No, the point is, Charley needs to be resting and recovering, and instead you’ve got her all caught up in amateur detective hour.”

As soon as Luke’s mouth opens, Charley cuts him off. “They’re screen caps because she was afraid and didn’t have experience with what she was doing. She just grabbed what she could off his computer and ran.”

“Screen captures can be altered,” Cole answers.

“OK. So we can’t trust her because she’s not CIA, but now she’s able to alter screen caps?” Charley asks.

Her question hangs over them

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