Page 96 of Heathen

Much like this meeting is doing. Being away from her is the only thing that makes my smile slip a little as Rooster stands from his computer and looks out over us.

"He's a ghost," Twisted mutters, and I know the man is internalizing a lot of this because he and Bandera were the ones on the outside, responsible for watching the house last night.

I don't blame him. It's impossible to cover an entire property with two men, especially with the limited line of sight Morgan's house allows.

Hell, if anyone is to blame, I'd point all of those fingers in my direction. I watched her walk up the stairs, so lost in her and in love that I didn't listen to my gut. Look where it got her.

I shake my head and try to give Rooster all of my focus.

"Morgan didn't get any pictures of him. She went on a date that was set online with a company that connects people without pictures," Rooster says.

"What?" Bandera asks. "That's ridiculous. How are people meeting people when they don't know what they look like?"

"Got me," Rooster says. "It's another online fad, so people don't get so wrapped up in what people look like. It's a way to minimize materialization or some shit."

"What did Morgan tell you about him?" I ask, wanting to move this along because I left Kaylee naked in our bed, and I'd like to get back to her as quickly as possible.

"I haven't spoken with her yet," Rooster says.

"How do you get information if you don't speak with the only person who has seen this guy's face?" Twisted asks, his tone full of irritation.

I know the guy is taking this personally, and I don't fucking blame him.

"I can find out a lot more online than I can when competing against someone's memory," he mutters. "Can we get back to this?"

Twisted crosses his arms over his chest and sits back deeper into his chair.

"She didn't meet this guy online," Rooster says. "She went on a date with another guy and met this guy when she was leaving that date. So we have literally nothing on him. There's nothing for me to follow."

"You could see about the video from wherever that first date happened," I offered, feeling like knowing that would be basic.

"I did," Rooster says. "I don't know if he had access to their video feed, but it's been deleted. There's nothing."

"Not even a phone number?"

"The number she was getting the texts from is a burner phone. We did some minimal triangulation of where he was texting her from, but it didn't provide any personal information."

"I fucking hate burner phones," Bandera snaps, gaining a rumble of approval from all of the rest of us.

"It seems he went super stalker on her very quickly. He texted her within an hour of them exchanging numbers outside of that restaurant."

"She didn't find that creepy?" Twisted asks with a hint of misplaced judgment in his tone.

"I haven't spoken with her," Rooster reminds him. "What I do know is that she texted back, and it wasn't to tell him to leave her alone. This all escalated from that one text until I guess the argument on her front porch the other day."

The television screen behind him flashes with screenshots of the texts.

"Jesus," Bandera snaps when the texts begin to include pictures sent, and I'm grateful for Rooster blurring out some of the images so I'm not stuck with having to try and get images of my wife's best friend out of my fucking head.

"I’ll need to speak with her before we know more, but I can tell you that whoever this guy is, he's good at what he's doing," Rooster adds as the screen behind him goes dark. "He's very capable of hiding in the shadows and making himself known only to others when he wants it to happen."

"Was the first meeting even by chance?" Twisted asks as he leans forward, a scowl on his face.

"I'm not so sure that it was," Rooster answers. "I've traced some of her steps, and as easily as he hid his face from the cameras during the instances that we know of, I've found several more videos prior to their first meeting at the restaurant wherethere's a shadow of a man. It's very possible he placed himself there to be seen by her exactly when he wanted it to happen."

"When did he first show up?" Bandera asks.

"The day we got to Vegas," Rooster answers. "At least from what I can tell."

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