Page 24

“The gang that’s after you are the Blue Disciples.” I explained. “They’re new but deadly. They’re very old school—most of their shit is offline. It’s harder for them to be hacked or caught that way. From what we see, they use paper messages that they burn after it gets to the person it needs to get to. From what I can see their phones are taken at the door and turned off.”
“I wonder if Tex can turn one of them back on?” I mused.
“It’s worth a try to ask.” I agreed. “As for your friend who you believe they killed, the Blue Disciples usually don’t resort to violence unless they’re desperate. Your friend might have stuck his nose where he shouldn’t and—”
“Are you blaming him for his death?” Darby demanded.
“You’re obviously one of those hard learners.” I growled. “Speak only when spoken to.”
“You can’t talk to me like that!” Darby protested. “You’re going to let him talk to me like that?”
“Dar, sit the fuck down.” Taz snapped. “He’s not accusing Clive of anything. And it’s not like this is the first time you’ve heard that assumption.”
Darby folded his arms but fell heavily back into his chair.
“It probably won’t take them very long to figure out who hit them twice.” I continued. “We got in and took nothing. That means—”
“We should probably move.” Taz finished.
I nodded.
“In the meantime.” Beam looked away from the laptop. “We should probably get a hold of Clive’s notes. There might be something there that would tell us what Clive was into. As he was a journalist, it could be a story he was working on.”
Both Taz and I agreed.
Darby said nothing.
“Aside from the usual, was he working on anything about the Disciples?” Taz asked.
“I don’t know.” Darby muttered.
“You’re lying.” I told him simply.
When Darby moved to surge from his chair again, I lifted a booted foot to Darby’s chest and shoved him back into the chair.
“Sit your ass down.” I growled. “Get up again, and I’ll make you stay down. Now, lie to me again and I’ll leave, and you can deal with the monsters at your back on your own”
“Storm.” Taz called softly. “You wouldn’t.”
“Taz you know me better.”
I kept my glare on him.
“He told me he was working on something he couldn’t tell me about.” Darby admitted. “I didn’t ask because I knew Clive—I could ask until Armageddon he wouldn’t have told me. He takes confidentiality very seriously.”
“What about notes?” I wanted to know.
“Usually, he took them on his phone.” Darby replied. “But we didn’t find a phone—we didn’t even find his laptop or his tablet.”
“The cops didn’t get them?” I asked.
Darby scowled. “No—I have a friend on the inside check. They aren’t even looking for anything. To them, Clive killed himself.”
“It’s like they think his shit grew legs and walked off.” Taz mumbled.
“We need to get into the crime scene.” Beam was typing again.
“It’s been a while.” Darby pointed out. “There probably nothing left of anything there.”