Nico’s gaze narrows on her. “Greg had been receiving threats for the last year or so. Never digital, which makes sense.”
“Threats?” I ask. “I didn’t know anything about those.”
Nico’s chest expands as he employs that deep breathing technique both he and Greg used all the time. “I know. I’m not sure he even told your old man. The threats annoyed Greg but he wasn’t worried.”
In the time we’d spent together, not once had I caught a whiff of concern from my brother. “What kind of threats?”
“The usual: You’re a capitalistic pig, you need to die, you’re going to burn in the bowels of hell,” Nico says without much emotion. “He showed me a couple of them, but when we helped clean out his apartment after his death, I didn’t see them.”
Those two days still haunt me. “Neither did I.” But I wasn’t looking, either. “Have you searched his office?”
“Of course.” Nico rubs his left eye. “Nothing. Seriously, it was Greg. He probably threw them away.”
That’s true. If the notes irritated him, he would’ve just tossed them.
Ella taps a finger against her red lips. “The directors and higher-up employees at all of the social media companies receive threats all the time. That’s why we have security.”
Good point.
“Tell us about the night he died,” she murmurs. “I haven’t heard the full story from you.”
Nico’s eyes are somber. “We went out to celebrate the new algorithms we created to speed up the servers. We were in a good mood. We went to the Green Train Tavern just down the street from work and were having a great time.” He points at pictures of three women on the other side of the accident pictures on his wall. “Those are the three women I believe Greg was dating at the time of his death, but there could be more.” All three are blonde with green eyes. Beneath their pictures are names and occupations.
“Anything there?” I ask.
“Not that I’ve found,” Nico says. “I’ve spoken with all three and they’re pretty cut up about Greg’s death, but none of them thought he was exclusive with them. They all had hopes, though.”
My brother was a charmer, a quality I loved about him. “Yeah, I remember that. Everybody had hopes with Greg. But he was never going to settle down,” I say.
“Agreed,” Nico says. “That night, however, we did run into Corinda Rendale.”
My head jerks. “You did? I didn’t know that.”
“That’s because nobody’s talking about Greg’s death,” Nico shoots back. “I know your father is also investigating, but every source I have at the police department has said that this case is closed.”
“The two aren’t mutually exclusive,” Ella says, pushing her glasses up on her nose. “It’s quite possible there is no case with the authorities and Mr. Beaumont is pursuing his own leads. It is the way the four families have conducted business ever since we were living in caves and hitting mega beasts over the head for dinner.”
I look again at the picture of my brother on the wall. If he were here, he would know exactly how to pursue this investigation. Instead, I really do feel like Nancy Drew. “So what do we do?”
Nico glances at me. “You need to get all of the details from your father. He has to know more than we do.”
“Then why not let him figure it out?” Ella twirls on the chair. “Mathias has the best resources, and I’m sure if he finds out that somebody killed Greg, he’ll take them down.”
“Because I need to know,” Nico says bleakly. “I was with Greg that night, and if I hadn’t had so much to drink, I could have driven myself here and he would have made it home safely.” The guilt on his face is heart-wrenching.
I reach out and pat his hand. “We’ll help you.” Plus, I won’t admit this to anybody, but my father would probably just have the killer murdered. If somebody hurt my brother, I want them to pay and go to jail for the rest of their lives. I want them to suffer, not die. “I’ll help you, Nico. I promise.”
Relief slides across his face.
Ella claps her hands together. “All right, I’ll start hacking into both Mathias’s and the police computers, just in case there’s anything that has been missed. I really need you to get me access, Alana.”
I nod. “I understand. I’ll need to go to headquarters to do so. In addition, I’ll talk to Thorn and Cal and feel them both out to see if they know anything.”
Nico shakes his head. “I don’t want you anywhere near Thorn.”
“I agree,” Ella chirps up. “The guy’s bad news and you know it.”
“Yes, but I think he’ll tell me the truth.” Except, do I? I look at Nico. “Was Corinda hitting on you or Greg that night?”
Nico crosses his arms. “Mainly Greg, but she did smile at me. Maybe I’ll call her and ask her to lunch.”
“That’s a good idea.” I don’t have any way of getting into the Rendale brain trust. They hate Ella, so she can’t be helpful, either.
“So that takes care of the other social media companies as well as the women who were dating Greg,” Quinlan says thoughtfully, his brown eyes sizzling. “I’ll scour records at work for any threats within Aquarius Social. Greg was an excellent computer programmer, and more than once he caught a foolish employee trying to siphon off funds. I’ll go through all of his data and make sure there wasn’t a threat from within.”
“Excellent plan.” My head’s starting to pound. The idea that somebody took Greg’s life infuriates me, and I wonder again why my father doesn’t trust me. Does he see me as a simpleton? I don’t think so because he put me on the board, or perhaps he just thinks he can control me that way. I am, however, going to dinner with Cal Sokolov, just as he asked.
I walk out of the office to the main room and move closer to the windows to study the chrome and glass and wealth of Silicon Valley. From a distance it looks sparkling. Up close, it’s cold, desolate, and computerized. I shiver. No wonder Thorn moved a half hour away to the ocean where he can hear the waves and smell the salt.
“Are you okay?” Nico asks.
I look at him. “I am. It’s just been a long week.”
He chuckles. “Isn’t that the truth?”
I grin. “Hey, tell you what, I need to emote a video. How about you and I do it together with this background behind us?” He’s a handsome man with that whole sharp Italian look going on. “You’re not in front of the camera nearly enough.”
He rolls his eyes. “That is not my thing.”
