Page 46 of The Deeper Game
“More like a hundred,” Odin grumbled. “That’s as far as he could narrow it. The box he used was from afucking-gpopular brand.”
“Can I open it?” I asked.
“Please,” Odin said.
I pulled off the lid of the shoebox. Inside a nest of white tissue paper lay bejeweled, pink high heels. “These are like candy,” I said. “In a good way.”
“We’ll always take care of you,” Odin said.
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“And now maybe you’ll stop disrespecting the tattoo with unkempt feet,” Odin said.
I snorted.
“Her feet are awesome,” Zeus said, merging onto the highway. He was unhappy with the length of the list. The stalker definitely upset my guys more than he upset me.
Odin split the list with Thor, and they began to vet the names on their smartphones, knocking out the females, the out-of-state buyers, and buyers under the age of eighteen and over the age of sixty. Thor gave Odin his list and Odin narrowed down the people more from their Facebook pages.
“Seriously?” I said. “You’re ruling out people by their Facebook pages?”
“Best OSINT ever,” Odin said, thumbs flying over his keypad. Open-source intelligence, he meant. They’d used the term before. I couldn’t remember what the NT was.
By the time we were ten minutes from home, Odin had the list narrowed down to five. And at the top was one T. Hansen, a.k.a. Travis Hansen. Or in Thor’s words, Sleazy Travis Hansen.
Apparently everybody in their set knew Sleazy Travis, though the man hadn’t shown his face lately because there was a warrant out for his arrest. He’d been locked up twice for sexualassault, and he had jumped bail on rape charges. He was known for stalking his victims, including leaving strange gifts.
“Travis dies,” Zeus grumbled.
“If we can find him,” Thor said. “He might not even be in town.”
He and Zeus discussed the way they’d work the grapevine. The problem, apparently, wasn’t whether they’d learn where he was holed up, it was whether they could learn where he was holed up without his knowing they were after him.
“Because then he’ll really disappear,” Odin said. “Hiding from the cops is a lot easier than hiding from us.”
I didn’t doubt it.
Zeus pulled off at a gas station and Thor took over driving on the next leg. I sat on the passenger side while Odin and Zeus worked the phones in the back seat, conferring and beating the bushes for Travis, going hard at some people, soft at others.
We grabbed gourmet breakfast sandwiches at a place near downtown, then made stops at two bars and one apartment building—both times Thor and I had to wait in the SUV. Both times Odin and Zeus came out looking a little more mussed than when they went in.
After the last stop, we had an address. Travis was staying in the shed behind his mother’s house.
“The cops couldn’t find him?” Odin spat out. “At the mother’s house? It’s Sex Offender 101. The mother’s house.” He seemed almost annoyed.
“Matter of time now,” Zeus said to me, low and hard. “We protect our own, goddess.”
Shivers ran over me.
We parked on the far end of the street. Zeus and Odin slipped out and melted into the neighborhood. Thor and I were to keep watch at the front with the motor running, just in case.
Thor checked his email again.
“Any news?” I asked.
“No,” he said. “The midwives still hope they can turn the baby.”
“She’s lucky to have you,” I said.
