Page 42 of His Every Move

I nodded, absorbing every little detail. Being a detective sometimes meant sifting through the mundane before finding the piece of the puzzle that made everything click into place. “So you’ve been in his orbit since before this thing with Nomad started?”

“I sure have.” He shook his head, looked out the window. “So fucked-up. I hate that he’s going through this. He’s one of the best people I know. I’m just scared for him.”

“I’m going to make sure nothing happens to him. You said you had some information?”

“I do. I was going to tell Eli first, but I figured, why scare him? I got your information after he mentioned hiring you and decided to just reach out directly to you. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course.” I leaned back in my seat. The remnants of the hangover echoed through my skull with a dull throb. I figured after this meeting, I could stop at a bar and have a drink or two. Hair of the dog really did help fight off any aches and pains from the night before.

“Okay, so I don’t know how much he’s told you—probably everything—but there’s this other performer. His name is Damon, and I think he should be suspect number one.”

I already had Damon on my list of people to look into, although my focus had been on Brian. “Really? Why?”

“Because I’ve talked to him. He’s a sick guy.”

“You have his contact information?”

“I do. I actually, well, used to be a fan of his. Don’t tell that to Eli, obviously. But I would watch Damon. Gift him sometimes. Chat with him. And even with me, he started becoming obsessed. Then when I wouldn’t donate to him because I just didn’t have money, he’d get upset. He’d message me saying that I must be giving it all to Eli. That everyone on the site was obsessed with Eli.”

“When was this?”

“The messages?” Zack chewed the inside of his cheek. “I want to say like three months ago?”

“Do you still have them?”

He pursed his lips. Dropped his head. “I don’t think so. I deleted my account, and I think that deletes the messages. I can check, though.”

“Yeah, find out if you can still access the messages. That’d be helpful.” Although I didn’t have the exact paper trail, Zack’s words were enough to set off multiple alarm bells. “Is Damon local?”

“That’s the other weird thing. So when I first started to watch him, he was located in Miami. Then, about a month later, he was streaming from a new bedroom. I asked him where he moved to once, and he said New York.”

The alarm bells grew louder. “Did he explain why he made the move?”

“He did. He said he wanted to be closer to his family.”

“Do you know if he’s ever spoken directly to Eli?”

“He has. And I’m not sure how he found out, but he knows that he and I are good friends. He brought it up once. Said that I’d be better off dropping him. That Eli would just end up breaking my heart.”

“Breaking your heart? Odd.”

“Yeah… really weird. I think he must think that everyone has the same twisted feelings for Eli that he does.”

“What’s his username?”

“It’s DBater89.”

How had I never seen this Damon character? I wasn’t about to tell Zack, but he wasn’t the only one who liked to visit that cam site. Then again, I never browsed through the other guys. I’d only click directly on Eli’s page and ignore all the rest. I wondered if the website archived any footage. If I had Damon’s username, then maybe I could get them to send me some recordings. I wanted to see this guy’s demeanor, see if there were some digital bread crumbs left behind.

“Is all your communication with Damon done through the website, or did you guys ever take it to your phones?”

Zack sighed. He grabbed his coffee cup in both hands and took a sip. “I knew I probably shouldn’t have, but yes, I gave him my number. Well, not really my number—I gave him a burner number. There’s an app I have that makes fake numbers for you. I downloaded it specifically to talk to him.”

“Do you havethosemessages?”

“I do, actually.”

“Can I see them?”

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