Page 39 of Their Burning Graves
‘How can you tell?’
‘It has the Tor browser bundle downloaded on it.’
‘Tor?’
‘It’s short for The Onion Router, when you’re connected to it the sites don’t end in the usual dot com or dot org, they end in dot onion.’
‘Wow, I had no idea.’
‘You wouldn’t unless it’s your thing, trust me you don’t need to know this stuff, you’d put me out of a job.’Bev was laughing on the other end and Morgan smiled, she had an infectious laugh.
‘Basically, everyone thinks that the Dark Web is this terrifying, complicated, secret place full of encryption and complex codes. Honestly, it’s no more complicated than using any of the apps you already have downloaded on your phone. Tor supports multiple Dark Web forums and markets. Literally all you have to do is type in the address and download the browser onto your computer. I wouldn’t though, in case you’re considering it. You’d have PSD having a shit fit unless you’ve been given authority. Anyway though, yea, even my mum could get on the Dark Web and she’s a pain in the backside when it comes to anything remotely techy.’
‘Really? I always thought it would be so secretive and difficult, that’s unbelievable.’
‘I know, there is no Google on the Dark Web but there are some search engines. Generally though you need to be sent a link to find what you’re looking for.’
‘So, assuming the game Tim was playing was hosted on one of these sites, you’re saying that someone must have sent Tim a link to find it?’
‘Yes, like an invitation to an event sort of thing. Like I said it’s early days, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up that your user was accessing Tor regularly.’
‘Bev, can you search the computer for the name Isaiah? He might be the one who sent Tim the link in the first place so he could access it.’
‘Absolutely, leave it with me. Have a great day, Morgan.’
‘You too, Bev, thanks for the update it’s very much appreciated.’
Bev hung up, and Morgan sat back in her chair, she had not been expecting that. How had Tim got involved with some secret game on the Dark Web, and why had it ended with his whole family dead? This was getting more complex by the minute. She sipped her coffee, hoping to get her brain fired up, and logged in to her email account. There was the email from Bev with attachments of the photos from Luke Rigg’s phone. She opened them and waited for them to load. There were a couple of photos of food taken in a restaurant, and then she clicked on the album and watched in shock as image after image of Sally Lawson appeared on the screen. These weren’t photos taken at one event, because in them she was wearing different clothes; they were taken in different locations. The last few were of a BBQ, Sally talking to John, Sally on her own sitting on the outdoor sofa, they were creepy, and Morgan wondered if Sally knew Luke was photographing her.
The next picture showed Sally eating a hot dog, where she had tomato ketchup dribbling down her chin, her mouth open. The next image was of the Lawsons, all dead, sitting around the kitchen table.
‘What you got there?’
Ben was moving across the room towards her, and she looked up at him.
‘Honestly I don’t know, boss. I’m thinking that wemighthave got a motive, but it’s not necessarily got anything do to with Tim.’
‘Really?’
She went back to the first image. ‘What do you see?’
‘I see the lovely Sally.’
‘Look closer.’
Ben leaned across her shoulder, he smelled of his favourite aftershave, Eau Savage. ‘What am I looking for?’
Morgan touched the screen. ‘Look, apart from the last couple they’re all of Sally on her own. Why is he taking photos of his neighbour’s wife?’
‘Okay, yes they are.’
‘Now look at this one.’
She showed him the one of Sally about to eat the hot dog, then the one of them all dead.
‘Don’t you think this is bizarre? He told us himself that it’s a new phone, he only just got it, and the only photos he has on it are of him, Sally and her dead family. But these look as if they were taken over a long period of time. We haven’t had any warm enough weather for a BBQ for weeks, so it wasn’t taken the day he got his phone. He would have had to physically transfer those from his old phone to his new one, yet he hasn’t transferred any of his own family, do you think that’s just a bit weird?’
‘Well, when you put it like that, yes I do.’
