Page 106 of The Guy Next Door

“How would you know that?”

“I mean, you don’t have to be a student to check out books there. Even at Georgia State, you only have to show an ID to get in. I was over there when I was going through a hard time, checked out books for reading. I remember they had cream-colored tags.”

So Jason went to that same library too?

“Isn’t thatThe Brothers Karamazov?” Leif asks, his expression curious.

“What?”

“That’s Dostoevsky. That quote you borrowed from Tolle’s professional website? I recognized the author when you saidCrime and Punishment.”

I zoom in, confirming the author and title on the book.

“Zane, he said he took these screenshots right before Jason disappeared.”

“I remember.”

He hesitates. “Are you sure you didn’t see Tolle last night?”

“You think I haven’t been trying to work that out all night?” I say through my teeth, but then take a breath. “Sorry. That’s not directed at you.”

He takes my wrist. Instinctively, I raise it to my face and gently kiss the back of his hand.

This only makes last night even more confusing. “If it was Isaac, when I went outside the coffeehouse, he should have been there.”

“But you said he was turning to you, so it’s not impossible he might have seen you and run off.”

“Not impossible, no. And though I didn’t see his car there, what if he’d parked at one of the other stores around?”

“That’s possible.”

“I followed him enough before, when things got bad… Caribou Coffee was not one of his usual spots. That could have changed, but if that’s true, why was he leaving right after we finished up with Wes? And why would he need to run? To leave right after…that’s awfully coincidental. I keep thinking maybe he was there to see if Wes was gonna tell us something that would expose him.”

“That makes sense. He wouldn’t have known what Wes knew,” Leif says, “just like we didn’t, so maybe he was worried since Wes was the guy who posted on Reddit. Thought something might have come up that you could take to the cops.”

“That’s right,” I say as Leif’s words sink in. “He wouldn’t have known what Wes knew. Only that we were meeting someone who might have information that could implicate him.”

“But how would he have known we were meeting with Wes?”

I have an idea, but I hesitate. Now I’m going a bridge too far.

“What is it?” Leif presses.

“It’s wild. I can’t—”

“Zane, come on. Tell me.”

Fuck, just say it.“What if he’d somehow accessed my messages with Dman? Like me, he wouldn’t have known what Wes knew, or even who he was, so maybe he wanted to find out for himself, to see if he was in danger of being discovered. No, that doesn’t make any sense. He would have needed access to my messages…”

My thoughts return to the night when I saw someone on the surveillance footage, breaking in through the back door of Leif’s parents’ place.

“Fuck,” I say.

“What?”

“The night I went to your place, after the cops left, when I came back here, I realized I’d left the door unlocked. I wasn’t really thinking about that since I figured I was going to nail Isaac then, but I had to check the house because I was freaked out he might have been hiding there. What if, at some point between when I grabbed you and the cops left, he came in and hacked my computer? Put spyware in so he could access my account?”

All my doubts surface.

---