Page 107 of Martyr

“He’s been coming on to you?” Nix had known how obsessed with the Demons Dew always came off, but he’d never mentioned the professor to him before. Then again, they only ever hung out in a group with the others, so it wasn’t like they shared many personal tidbits. “Juri is saying Dew was the one who sent him to Hunters Cross.”

“There’s a brunette girl to my left, and a redhead guy to my right,” Yejun thought it over and said. “Those are the studios next to mine.”

Dew was a redhead.

“I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding,” Juri’s voice came through the line again, a bit desperately this time. “Dew’s always been flaky. Forgetting to bring his piece to the gallery until the last minute isn’t abnormal. Isn’t he there? Ask him yourself.”

“He didn’t come.” Nix hadn’t thought anything of that earlier when Grady and Khloe had pointed it out, but that’s because Juri was right. Dew lived in his own little bubble half the time, and it wouldn’t be odd for him to skip out on the galleryto meet up with someone on the app. “I’ve got to go. If you hear from him, call me.”

“Will do.”

Nix hung up. “West, can you access the King chat logs from here?”

He shook his head. “To help ensure it stayed protected, that sort of thing can only be done from my main computer. Why? What are you thinking?”

“A King got to my cousin through the app,” Nix said. “Dew is always playing around on that thing, and according to Juri, he sent him to pick up a painting that just happened to be the same size as this one.” He pointed to the canvas at his feet. He didn’t want to suspect one of his friends, but…It was honestly a lot easier to swallow believing it was Dew, over someone like Juri or Grady, who he was actually close with.

“You think it was a frame job?” Yejun asked.

“Isn’t that this person’s specialty?” Nix held his gaze but didn’t elaborate, knowing he’d understand.

“Still, this is a long shot. Who’s to say Juri is even telling the truth?”

“Let’s find out.” Beck tapped on his multi-slate, leaving the speaker function on so they could all listen as it began to ring. They didn’t have to wait long.

“Prof—”

“Dew,” Beck cut him off. “Where are you?”

“Huh?”

“Your current whereabouts,” he reiterated. “Where is that? There’s something I need to ask you. I was hoping we could meet.”

“You…want to meet with me?” Dew’s tone was strange, but Nix couldn’t place it.

“I was hoping to catch you at the gallery,” the lie rolled off Beck’s tongue as he shared a look with Lake, probably takinga cue from his book, “but you’re not here. If you tell me where you are, I’ll come to you. I have something important I need to discuss.”

“Oh no,” Dew’s voice turned a bit whiny, sounding more like himself in an instant. “It’s not the socioeconomics quiz, is it? Please don’t tell me I flunked. My parents will kill me.”

“There’s certainly room for improvement,” Beck said. “Perhaps I’ll be able to walk you through the questions you got wrong.”

“Really? Thank you, Professor! I’m at the dorms right now. Do you want to meet at the coffee shop on campus or—”

“No, let’s meet at your place,” Beck told him. “I’ll be there in five minutes. Wait for me.”

“Okay!”

Beck disconnected the call. “He stays at Jimson Hall.”

That was just across the quad and to the left. They could make it there in less than five minutes even if they hurried. If it wasn’t Dew, they’d ideally know once speaking with him. At this stage, crossing names off the suspect list was still progress in Nix’s book.

“What about them?” he motioned toward the crowd who were still scattered throughout the room.

“I’ll stay behind and make sure no one leaves until I’ve heard from you,” Yejun suggested. “It’s better that way. Even if the person responsible for this isn’t Dew, we can’t contain the rumors if we let them all go now.”

That was true. Keeping everyone on lockdown for the time being to prevent them from tipping off the culprit was the most logical decision.

They were all clearly certain that whoever switched the paintings was also one of the people they were after, whether it be the hacker himself or his accomplice, though Nix’s money was on it being the latter. This was an obvious attempt to turn themagainst each other, to make them all suspect Yejun and ostracize him, but the execution had been sloppy.

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