Page 47 of Once Silenced

That was why he wanted Gwen Beck alive, but for only a short time more.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

“Any luck?”Ann Marie asked Riley, who sat hunched over her tablet, tapping rhythmically against the screen.

With just Riley and Ann Marie still in the conference room, it felt like a cavernous space.Their colleagues had gone to Officer Prendergast’s office with the goal of alerting the board of VEEM of the danger they might be in, and also ensure that they’d be protected.

Riley looked up, the dark circles under her eyes pronounced, betraying her weariness.“Not yet,” she replied.

Ann Marie nodded, understanding all too well the frustration that came with hitting dead ends.

“I’m going to call our man in Seattle,” she said, dialing the number Riley had given her for Van Roff.When his voice crackled through the speaker, she explained their urgent need to locate Timothy Lancaster.

There was a brief silence, then Van echoed on the other end of the line, “Timothy Lancaster?”

“That’s right.He’s the son of —”

“I know who he is, or is supposed to be,” Van’s voice crackled over the speakerphone.“That name carries a lot of … gravitas.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Timothy Lancaster is like a ghost in the machine, Ann Marie.He’s a myth in the geek community—always one step ahead, leaving digital clues that lead to dead ends or loop back on themselves.”

Ann Marie felt her heartbeat quicken as she processed Van’s words.Lancaster’s ability to elude detection was no amateur feat if even Van Roff hadn’t found him.That kind of mastery was a skill honed by someone deeply intimate with the web’s hidden corners.Someone much like Van, but who had chosen to live and work on the dark side.

“Van, he’s a murderer,” she pressed.“He’s killed three people so far, and we’ve got to stop him before he kills again.”

“Trust me, I’ve tried.But Timothy...it’s like he’s everywhere and nowhere,” Van sighed.“He can make it seem like he’s logged in from several places at once.A phantom presence.”

“Can you try again?For us?”Ann Marie’s request carried the weight of urgency.She knew Van was their best hope, especially against such an elusive adversary.

“I owe Riley one—or ten.I’m on it.”Van’s determination was palpable, even through the phone.

“Anything you can find could be crucial,” Ann Marie told him.

“Leave it with me,” Van assured her.

“Thanks, Van,” Ann Marie said, but as she ended the call, her heart sank.They were up against an opponent who could very well outpace them all.

“Riley, we—” Ann Marie started, but Riley raised a hand, her gaze fixed on the tablet.

“Wait, I think I’ve got something,” Riley interrupted, her voice taut with restrained excitement.She turned the tablet towards Ann Marie, revealing a screen filled with text and images.

“Look at this,” Riley said, pointing to an old newspaper story that seemed to leap out from the rest of the digital noise.“An article in the Slychester Eagle, dated back to the year Martha Lancaster took her life.”

Ann Marie leaned in and read the headline: ‘Local Math Professor Disgraced in Plagiarism Scandal.’Ann Marie grasped its importance.It was an exposé, and it could have been the catalyst for a woman’s downfall, the final nudge towards a tragic end.

“Riley...how much of the public did this story reach?”Ann Marie asked.

“It went viral,” Riley said.“It was everywhere—syndicated and shared, seen by God knows how many people.And I’m sure it was a major piece of the public shame that tore Martha Lancaster apart.”

“Who wrote it?”

“Scroll up,” Riley instructed, and there it was, stark against the white background, the byline: Gwen Beck.

“According to her bio, she was local reporter in Slychester,” Riley said.

There fell a moment of shared dread between the two agents, a silent acknowledgment of what might come next if indeed this writer came within reach of a vengeful killer.

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