Gray caught Jerrica around the shoulders as she listed to one side. He narrowed his eyes as he read the message on the door. “What the hell does that mean? What’s Olaf?”
“Cedar wrote this.”
“Cedar?” He asked as if he knew more than one Cedar. “How do you know that?”
She leveled a finger at a drawing of a tree near the corner of the message. “That’s his signature. Cedar, tree. Get it?”
“Okay, but why did he leave this message and what does it mean? What’s he trying to say about Olaf?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t want to stand here all night while we figure it out.” She shoved the key in the lock and pushed on the door.
“Wait.” Gray grabbed the edge of the door. “Let’s get rid of it. I’m pretty sure he meant that for your eyes only.”
“If you’re getting rid of it, I want proof that it existed.” She dug her phone from her pocket and took a picture of the words. “It’s all yours.”
Gray erased the chalk with the sleeve of his jacket, and prodded her through the open door. “I just hope nobody else saw it.”
“Who would see it? Nobody knows about this entrance into my building, except the residents, and I’m not even sure some of them know you can go from one building to the other.”
Gray covered his nose and mouth with his hand as they made their way through the foul-smelling basement. “How did Cedar know about the connected buildings?”
“He dropped something off for me one night, and I told him about it because I didn’t want him coming to my front door. I guess he remembered, and realized now is the time to lay low.”
They maneuvered their way back to Jerrica’s place, and Gray tensed his muscles while she released the locks. He didn’t know what to expect on the other side.
Jerrica swung open the door and sang out. “It’s just us.”
Amit met them from the other side of a gun. “What the hell happened out there?”
“Put the gun down, Amit.” Gray raised his hands. “We’re the good guys, remember?”
“Just taking precautions after what happened in Washington Square Park.” He placed the weapon on the coffee table, and then collapsed on the sofa as if the effort of raising and pointing that gun had been too much for him. “That was you, right? The shooting? The dead body? That was Kiera, wasn’t it? I read a report online.”
Jerrica sat beside him and put a hand on his bouncing knee. “It was. Our meeting was blown. Some guy with a gun, dressed as a transient, crashed our party.”
“Oh, God.” Amit pressed his palm against his forehead. “Was it like last time? Did he try to abduct you...or did he want to kill you this time?”
“We’re not sure.” Gray scooped up the gun from the table. “He was there panhandling when we got to the park. Kiera walked up, spotted Jerrica and made her move, but she looked scared. It raised my hackles—even more than they already were. That’s when I noticed the homeless guy walking in a trajectory toward Jerrica.”
“I was so focused on Kiera, I didn’t even notice him. Gray shouted out a warning when he saw the guy’s gun, and I dove under the bench.”
“How did Kiera end up getting shot?” Amit’s dark skin had a decidedly pale cast to it.
“When Gray foiled the gunman’s attack on him, the guy grabbed a child as a shield and then shot Kiera on his way out of the park.”
“The kid?” Amit’s eyes bugged out like a cartoon character’s.
Gray answered, “The boy’s fine. You didn’t read about anyone else getting hurt, did you?”
“No.” Amit wiped his brow with the back of his hand and repeated his question. “Was the man going to shoot Jerrica or abduct her at gunpoint?”
“We’re not sure.” Gray snatched the cap from Jerrica’s head and kissed her messy hair. “I wasn’t gonna wait to find out.”
“How was the meeting compromised? Do you think Kiera ratted you out, Jerrica?”
“You’re asking all the same questions we did. You know about as much as we do now about what happened in the park, but there’s more.” She slid a quick glance at Gray, and he nodded.
Amit was in the thick of it as much as they were.
Jerrica licked her lips as she pulled out her phone. “When we got back here, Cedar had left a message in chalk on the door to the building’s basement.”
Amit dragged a pillow into his lap as if for security and hugged it against his bruised ribs. “A message? Cedar?”
Jerrica tapped her phone and brought up the photo she’d taken of the words on the door. She zoomed in. “Look.”
“There’s his stupid tree. It had to be him, right? Unless someone knows how he signs off.” Amit dug his fingers into the pillow in his lap. “How’d he know where you live, and how’d he know about the alley entrance?”
“He came through my building that way once when he delivered something to me—that was even before I was really being followed.”
“What is Cedar talking about? Olaf? What about Olaf? What does Cedar mean that Olaf is it?”
“Slow down.” Jerrica grabbed her bag of food from the table. “Have you eaten anything? I brought you my leftover veggie burger.”
Amit downed half the sandwich before he came up for air. “Cedar must be communicating with you with chalk messages because he’s afraid to use the message board. You used the message board with Kiera and look what happened.”
Gray sat on the edge of the chair across from Amit and Jerrica. “Is there any way someone could’ve found out or figured out the message board thing on his own?”
Both Amit and Jerrica shook their heads in unison.
Jerrica said, “There’s no way. There’s no rhyme or reason to the message board or our user names. It’s not something someone could figure out. Someone might guess the fan boards as a mode of secret communication—I’m sure it’s done all the time—but there are hundreds of these boards, hundreds of shows, thousands of users with all kinds of screen monikers.”
Gray rubbed his chin. “Could someone have broken into—or whatever you call that—Kiera’s computer? You’re sure nobody got into yours?”
“We sweep our computers daily for threats. I’m sure Cedar and Kiera do the same—it’s part of our training.” Jerrica stuffed the empty foam container into the bag and pushed up from the sofa. On her way to the kitchen, she called over her shoulder. “And after the break-in, I did a thorough scan. Nobody was in my computer.”
Amit put a hand to the back of his head and toyed with the bandage. “If nobody compromised the computers, and I believe Jerrica’s right about that, then somebody compromised Kiera. You said she looked nervous. She knew someone would be there. She knew what was going down, but she probably hadn’t counted on getting killed herself.”
“And if they got to Kiera, who’s to say they haven’t gotten to Cedar, too?” Jerrica returned to the living room and hovered behind Amit.
He turned and stared at her. “Are you questioning me now? You searched me when I collapsed on your doorstep, barely able to take a breath, and didn’t find any bugs on me. Is that what you think?”
“Why would you come here?” Jerrica folded her arms. “We’re not besties or anything.”
“Excuse me for thinking you might have a heart beneath the computer chips.” Amit tried to rise in a huff but only made it halfway before falling back against the cushion.
“Hang on.” Gray sliced a hand through the air. “Don’t start cannibalizing each other.”
Jerrica dropped her hands to Amit’s shoulders and he flinched beneath her touch. “I’m sorry, Amit. I don’t think for a minute you’re the Dreadworm mole. I’m just jumpy. Can you blame me? I just saw a woman die in front of me, a child grabbed as a hostage.”
Jerrica’s voice hung in the room, and she flushed. She’d never use her past to garner sympathy, but there it was. That scene in the park must’ve brought back memories for her. She’d witnessed the murder of her mother and her brother. Her father had died a fiery death when the FBI had blown up the place where Jimmy James had kept his stash of weapons. Jerrica didn’t even have her father’s body to bury. She’d had to ID him through a necklace he’d always worn.
Amit must’ve heard her tone, too. He grabbed Jerrica’s fingers and said, “I’m sorry. You had every right to suspect me, especially as I was stupid enough to get caught and then even more stupid to potentially lead my abductors to your place. But you know what?”
“What?” She blinked her eyes rapidly and swiped her hand across her nose.
“Even though we’re not...besties, I came to you because you’re badass, and that was even before I knew you’d partnered with a Delta Force badass.”
Gray clapped his hands to defuse the awkwardness. “Now that you’ve eliminated each other as suspects...again...let’s get back to Cedar’s message. What is he trying to tell you about Olaf? Has Olaf gotten back to your SOS, Jerrica?”
“No, but that’s not unusual. Sometimes it takes him days to respond.”
“Cedar left that message after Kiera’s murder. Would Olaf have any reason to want Kiera dead?”
“What? No.” Jerrica shot up, pulling back her shoulders. “Olaf wouldn’t harm one of his own people.”
Amit traced the lump beneath his eye. “Are you sure? What if he found out Kiera had betrayed you?”
“How could he find out that quickly? Gray and I didn’t even realize Kiera had betrayed me until the so-called transient pulled out his gun—and I’m still not sure she did double-cross me. How could Olaf have known that?”
“Maybe he saw something before. The man may be in hiding, but he knows and sees more than most people on the ground—us included.” Hunching forward, Amit grabbed the arm of the sofa.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Jerrica circled the couch to stand in front of her captive guest.
“I need to get up and move before I sink into that sofa. Do you have any tea? I’ll make myself a cup.”
Jerrica held out her hand, Amit grabbed it and she helped him to his feet. “Get me one, too, please.”
Amit straightened slowly, pressing one arm across his midsection. “You want one, Gray?”
“Me? Tea?” Gray poked a finger at his own chest. “No, thanks, but if she’s got a beer in there, I’ll take that.”
“I have a couple of bottles.” She smacked a hand against the pocket of the jacket she hadn’t removed when they walked into the apartment. “My phone.”
“Someone’s calling?” Gray’s pulse ticked up. “Could it be Cedar following up?”
Jerrica squinted at her phone’s display. “I don’t know. It’s a message notification. Someone responded to my message on the zombie-show board, after my original message.”
Amit clanged a pot and then limped out of the kitchen. “That can’t be. That’s Kiera’s board.”
Gray circled his finger in the air. “Do what you have to do.”
Jerrica dropped to her knees in front of the laptop Amit had left on the coffee table. She tapped on the keyboard. “I’ll check it.”
Amit perched on the edge of the sofa behind Jerrica, and Gray crouched beside her.
She brought up the message board and scrolled down to the thread that contained her post. “It’s a new message under Kiera’s user name, Deadgirl.”
Amit choked. “She must’ve had a premonition.”
Gray rubbed his eyes as the small letters kept blurring in and out of focus. “What does it say, Jerrica?”
“It says, ‘I think the Forest is a better setting. They could do stories for the eleven new characters in the Forest.’”
“Okay, what the hell does that mean?” Gray trailed his fingers through his short hair.
“The Forest is Times Square, and she wants to meet at eleven o’clock. The meeting place is the discount ticket kiosk.”
“She? She’s dead, Jerrica.” Gray jumped as the tea kettle whistled. “You’re not meeting anyone tonight.”
Amit hobbled back to the kitchen. “I agree with Gray. Looks like the impossible happened and someone figured out our communication system—or Kiera told someone.”
“That’s impossible, and why would Kiera tell anyone? She gave them what they wanted, leading them to me. There would be no reason for her to reveal our method of communication. The people who got to her figured I’d be dead or captured by now. They wouldn’t have thought they’d need a way to communicate with me going forward.”
Her jaw formed a hard line, and Gray’s stomach sank. “You’re going to Times Square, aren’t you?”
She grabbed the cap she’d discarded on the sofa and bunched it up in her fist. “Broadway tickets, anyone?”
GRAY HAD CONVINCED her to keep the cap in her pocket until they could figure out what was what and who was who. He’d also convinced her to take a taxi to Times Square, but he hadn’t convinced her not to go.
As he slid into the taxi beside her, he said, “Why would Cedar send you two messages? He scrawled one on the door. Why send another through a message board, Kiera’s message board?”
“I don’t know, but keep your eye out for a scraggly dude with shoulder-length hair, maybe a man bun, and a backpack. Cedar always carries a backpack.”
“In Times Square? Easy.” He bent his head close to hers and whispered. “It’s the ones we can’t identify that worry me.”
The taxi crawled through the traffic until Jerrica couldn’t stand it anymore. She rapped on the divider. “You can pull over up here.”
As the car rolled to a stop, she jumped out while Gray handed the driver some cash.
She elbowed Gray in the ribs. “Don’t look so worried. If someone were following us, he would stand out like a sore thumb now, right? He’d be getting out of his taxi, too.”
Gray walked backward for a few steps, and then turned around. “Nobody’s following us—they’re probably waiting at the ticket booth instead.”
“This time I’m not going to be a sitting duck.” A few blocks later, Jerrica grabbed Gray’s hand and pulled him across the street toward the pedestrian area of Times Square. “We can hang out behind the bleachers and have a clear view of the kiosk.”
They stationed themselves at the corner of the stands where people scattered, taking seats to watch the carnival unfold before them.
Jerrica hoped to God she and Gray wouldn’t be providing any more excitement. A figure moved through the crowd wearing a cap like the one in her pocket. Jerrica’s heart skipped a beat.
She plucked at Gray’s sleeve. “I see someone with the cap. Three o’clock from the Spider-Man character.”
Gray moved closer to her and tucked an arm around her waist. “Skinny black kid with the earbuds?”
“Yes.”
“No man bun, no backpack. That’s not Cedar, is it?”
“Cedar’s a white guy. That is definitely not Cedar.”
“Then we leave. If you don’t know who that is, we get the hell out of here.”
“Even if we can take him in and get some intel out of him?”
“Take him in? Here?” Gray’s eyes widened. “That’s not gonna happen.”
“Wait.” Jerrica pulled the cap from her pocket. “I know him.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m pretty sure, and it would make total sense right now.”
“Pretty sure is not good enough when it comes to your safety, Jerrica.” Gray slipped his fingers into the waistband of her jeans from behind as if to hold her back. “Who do you think it is?”
“That’s Russell Cramer—Kiera’s son.”
She moved forward and jerked to a stop as Gray pulled on her pants.
“Wait. If Kiera was compromised, how do we know they didn’t send out her son to lure you in again?”
“Really? He just lost his mother.” She twisted away from Gray and plunged into the crowd as she pulled the cap onto her head.
With Gray dogging her steps, she approached Russell and touched his elbow. “I like your cap.”
He jumped and spun around, his fists clenched.
Gray moved between them smoothly and growled through his teeth. “You touch her and I’ll flatten you.”
The young man clutched his stomach and spluttered. “A-are you Jerrica?”
“Yes.” She slipped the cap from her head and shoved it back into her pocket. No sense in announcing to the world that she and Russell shared some kind of connection. She dropped her gaze to the skinny arm pressed against his belly. “Are you okay, Russell?”
“Not really.” He swiped at a bead of sweat rolling down his face and missed. “You know my name?”
“I do. Let’s talk.”
“Did anyone follow you?” Gray had shifted to the side, but his body radiated menace and it had poor Russell quaking in his sneakers.
“No. After posting that message, I snuck out of the...hospital.” His voice caught on a sob. “I left through the loading dock. If anyone was watching the hospital entrance or the waiting room, they never would’ve seen me.”
Jerrica felt a stab of pain. Russell had just lost his mother, and he wasn’t much older than she’d been when she lost hers. But Kiera must’ve taught him well.
“Sorry, man.” Gray patted down Russell’s thin frame anyway. “Let’s head to that fast food place and talk.”
Russell’s grief had obviously taken a toll on him. As they crossed the street to the hamburger place, he lurched and tripped beside them. Gray had to grab his arm a few times to keep him upright.
They squeezed into the restaurant, and Jerrica grabbed a table with Russell while Gray ordered some food and drinks to buy their spot.
Jerrica patted Russell’s hand. “Are you hungry?”
“Not really. No. I can’t eat.” Russell’s head dropped and he kept it down until Gray returned with a tray full of paper-wrapped burgers and empty cups.
After he placed the tray on the table, he held up the cups. “Do you want something to drink?”
“Ginger ale if they have it. My stomach feels bad.” Russell slouched back and for the first time, Jerrica saw that the whites of his eyes had a yellow cast to them.
She sucked in a breath. “You don’t look well, Russell.”
“That’s because I—I’ve been poisoned.”