Page 27 of Wizard

“I’ll get you a list of stores in that area who sell printers,” I told King.

“This one is fast and on the higher end, but I still think it’s a household printer and not larger office equipment.”

I nodded and typed a few thoughts onto my computer notepad.

“You read all of the letters?” Blaze asked thoughtfully.

I shook my head. “Just got ’em from Thea yesterday and gave them straight to Ash.”

“Why don’t we go over them together and see if anything pops out at one of us?” he suggested.

It couldn’t hurt, so I withdrew the stack of letters and began reading them aloud. Halfway through the first one, I recognized a specific sentence. I tapped on it and mused, “That’s a line fromMonster Unmasked.”

Instead of reading the rest aloud, I did it silently so I could get through them speedily. In each one, I stopped and pointed out at least one line, sometimes more.

“This is fromSnowbound.

“This one is fromSweetest Revenge.

“This one fromThe Monster Behind the Mask.

“Under the Blanket of Stars.

“The Spy’s Return.

“The Darkest Hour.”

On and on, line after line.

“Most of these lines are lifted directly from Thea’s books. But they aren’t ones you’d see in teasers, reviews, or any kind of marketing. This guy really knows these books.”

“We sure the stalker isn’t Wizard?” Echo said suddenly.

“The fuck?” I grunted, my head snapping up.

He shrugged, his face deadpan, but his eyes full of laughter. “You recognized all those lines, too. Either you know the books as well as the stalker, or it’s you.”

“Shut the fuck up, dickhead,” I growled.

“Wasn’t a denial,” he crowed.

“I am not Thea’s fucking stalker!”

“Maybe not,” Ace conceded, “but you’ve clearly read her books.”

“Research,” I grunted. Then feeling guilty for being embarrassed, I added, “She’s a fucking amazing writer. Don’t care what genre it is. Until one of you reads a book Thea wrote, we’re done talking about this.”

Predictably, no one had a retort for that challenge.

“Keep working your angles,” King said, changing the subject. “Anyone finds something, keep us all in the loop.”

After a few more minutes of strategizing, everyone except Blaze, King, and me filed out.

“Something else on your mind, Wizard?” Blaze queried.

“Need a vest,” I grunted. “With a property patch.”

“Saw that coming,” King drawled. “Lucky for you, the shipment of extra vests came in a couple of days ago.”

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