Page 32 of Wicked Sin

“You don’t seem like you’d be heartbroken if anything happened to her.”

“We have a history. Taylor does what Taylor needs to do for her own reasons, but she’s trampled on her family in the past.”

“You don’t trust her.”

He laughs. “That’s an understatement.”

I pull a card from my wallet. “Well, I do trust her. She’s the victim of a violent crime, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it and arrest whoever is responsible. I won’t hesitate to charge anyone who stands in the way of justice, either.”

“Good luck with that.”

“I don’t need luck, thanks. I’ll do my job.” I hand over the card. “If you think of anything that maybe slipped your mind today, anything you think I should know, don’t hesitate to get in touch.”

I follow the sounds of a cooing baby and the corresponding laughing woman around the corner, where I find Taylor in a hacker’s paradise. A dark office, lined with computer screens.

And the one thing that doesn’t fit: a sweet, fat little toddler who shrieks and pulls her dad’s hair.

“While I was in social hiding, Wilson went and met himself a beautiful woman and made a beautiful baby,” Taylor says, beaming at me. “It’s almost enough to make me believe in true love.”

“Liar,” Wilson says affectionately.

My Alice-through-the-looking-glass dysphoria is getting stronger by the second. “What is going on?”

Taylor makes a face, but then looks appropriately chastened—an act, no doubt. “Just catching up.”

“We can get down to work, for sure.” Wilson grabbed a puffy cracker from a package on his desk and gave it to the little girl. “What exactly do you guys want to know?”

Nope, we can’t do this. I glance at the bank of screens.A hacker.“Nothing. None of this is legal, and all of it will be fruit of the poisoned tree if you tell me literally anything, so we’re going to get going now.”

Wilson shrugs. “Your choice man. But that’s no fun.”

“Pointing out that he’s no fun will have zero effect,” Taylor says pertly. “Or I’d have tried it sooner.”

“Funny,” I mutter, trying not to look at the dialog box open on the screen behind her. What could I ask him to look up? “Can we please leave?”

“Not yet.” She hesitates. “I do want to ask Wilson a favor, though, so maybe you should step outside.”

“No favors, Princess. Information by the book, without persuasion, or not at all.”

“A personal request, not related to the thing that…happened.”

I hesitate, but it’s not my place to tell her she can’t have a conversation with a friend. Even a hacker friend.

Nodding, I step into the hall and check my messages for what feels like the fiftieth time in the last twenty-four hours.

I need a shower and a break from my phone, but both of those things are probably on the far side of a flight back to the west coast.

Nothing new from L.A., so I start to make some free form notes on what I’ve learned so far.More complicated than it all looksis the punch line. An incestuous world where people are horrible to each other and get away with it because of power and privilege.

Not that different from Hollywood.

Just colder in the winter and more humid in the summer.

“I’m ready,” Taylor announces.

I turn around and take her in. She looks tired. “What’s next?”

Her mouth pinches in, uncomfortably. This is a new side to her. “We should go see my mother, I suppose.”

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