Page 47 of Nora
Nine minutes later, she was sitting on her bed in her pajamas with her laptop open and her earbuds in.
“Before we start,” Cyn said, “I want to know about the date.”
Nora made a face, not that Cyn could see, and as succinctly as possible, relayed the events of the night. Cyn had a few choice words for both Emil and Charlie but, to Nora’s relief, didn’t linger on the topic. She’d dissected it enough with Lucian that she wanted to focus on something more productive. Like finding a killer.
“Thanks for looking into the social media,” Nora said. “I’m surprised you and Joe didn’t have plans.”
“Pfft,” Cyn said. “Joe is out at some state police chiefs’ dinner, but even if he weren’t, you know we’d be helping anyway. It’s what we do.”
It was what they did. It’s what the club had been doing for more than twenty-five years. The only reason Six and Devil weren’t on the call was because Six was on her way home and Devil was having dinner with two of her funders.
“So, let’s cut to the chase. Yes, I found something. There is an avatar that each of the victims communicated with. Looking at the name alone, it appears to be four different people. But since each name has the wordBingoin it, I’m nearly certain it’s the same person.”
“Bingo?”
“Yes. The handles are things like ‘WalkswithBingo’ and ‘Bingoruns.’ No way to connect them, but if you know what you’re looking for, which I do, then it’s easy to see the similarities. Aside from the names, the language patterns, questions, and those sorts of things are similar as well.”
“How long were the conversations going on before the sessions?” Nora asked, opening the file Cyn sent with the links to the sites and information on “Bingo.”
“Several months. Do you know if the participants knew the locations of all sessions from the outset or are they told as the program evolves?”
“They knew,” Nora confirmed. “Idon’t know where the next two sessions are, though. Let me ask Lucian.” She picked up her phone and switched to the texting app. Lucian replied within seconds.
“The next session is in Norway and the last is in Greece,” she told Cyn.
“I’ll start looking into social media sites for running or hiking in those countries,” Cyn said.
“Is there any way to track where Bingo is posting from?”
“There is, and I’ve started that. It will take a little time, but I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.”
“I’m going to visit the sites and go through the conversations. Maybe there will be something that ties the posts back to one of our suspects.”
“Good idea. Also, I was looking into James and Craig. You’re right about Craig. I scoped out some local CCTV cameras in the area and he definitely went on that run he mentioned. And he was alone. There was no way he was out in the woods miles away killing Michael Kelly.”
That news didn’t surprise Nora. “What about James?” she asked. She’d catch up with Devil and Six in the morning on Jean, Jurgen, Collin, and Angelo.
“I’m inclined to say it’s not him, but I don’t have anything concrete yet.”
“What do you have?”
“He has hemophobia, did you know that?”
Nora sat back. “A fear of blood?”
“Exactly. Kind of hard for a killer who stabs people to have a fear of blood.”
“I had no idea, and I agree. Although he was in the militaryandgrew up breeding dogs. Kind of hard to avoid blood in either of those positions.”
Cyn paused. “Fair point. Let me look into it a little more. Maybe it’s possible to condition himself for things like dogs giving birth, but I’m not sure how that would translate to the military. Hemophobia isn’t the only reason I ixnayed him, though. Like Gerhard, he has a bad shoulder and elbow. He injured both in a fall three years ago and has had three different surgeries. I looked up the procedures and chances are, he only has about fifty percent strength in that arm. If he’s really strong, that might not be a problem. But if he’s your slightly-above-average Joe, he probably couldn’t have dragged Michael Kelly off the trail any more than Gerhard could have.”
Nora considered the intel. “I don’t want to completely cut him from the pool of suspects. But if we do, that leaves us with Jurgen, Collin, Jean, and Angelo, and I’d much rather have four suspects to focus on than five.”
Cyn chuckled. “Yes, me, too. But I’ll do a little more digging and see if we can make a definitive decision.”
“Thanks, you’re the best.”
“I am badass, that is true. But only because I have you all.”
