Brian Freeman - Goodbye to the Dead (Jonathan Stride Book 7)

‘Yeah. She was Dream_on223, and I was...’

He stopped.

Serena said, ‘What was your handle?’

‘Beccababe911.’

‘You pretended to be a woman?’ she said.

‘Yeah, but it’s no big deal. Most people use fake IDs. They’re not dumb enough to put their real identity out there, okay? Kelly wasn’t Kelly online. If you talked to her, she said her name was Corinne, and she was from Maryland. And it’s not like gender-bending is so odd. The fact is, women will talk to other women. They’re on their guard whenever men approach them. So Beccababe can get to know women, which Mort Sanders can’t. I’ve made a lot of great women friends that way.’

‘By lying to them,’ Serena said.

‘I lie about my outer self but not about my inner self.’

Serena rolled her eyes and waited for the noise of a passing train to diminish. ‘Let’s get back to Kelly. Why are you here asking questions about her murder?’

‘I was reading a copy of the Star Tribune , and I saw an article about this murder victim in Duluth being identified. Kelly Hauswirth from Colorado. I saw the pic, and it was her. It was a shock. I felt really bad. So I just wanted to find out more about what happened to her.’

‘You said Kelly had a different identity online,’ Serena reminded him. ‘How did you know who she was? Did she tell you her real name?’

Mort wet his lips with his tongue. ‘No.’

‘So how?’

‘It’s kind of a hobby of mine.’

‘What is?’ Serena asked.

‘I collect people.’

‘Collect them? What does that mean?’

‘You’re going to think it’s weird,’ he said.

‘Oh, we’re way past weird.’

‘Look, I swear, it is totally innocent. I never do anything to them. I told you, it’s just a hobby.’

Mort slid a smartphone out of his pocket and punched a button to pull up his photo stream. He held it so Serena could see the screen, and he used his thumb to flick through a series of photographs. They were all unposed shots of ordinary people in ordinary places. A middle-aged woman in a grocery store. A teenager coming out of school. An older man in a suit getting on a bus. And then — Kelly Hauswirth. Serena recognized her. She saw Kelly jogging on a treadmill at a suburban gym.

‘Where did you get this photo?’ Serena asked.

‘I took it.’

‘How?’

‘I told you, I’m a collector. It’s what I do. The thing is, when you meet people online, most of them use fake personas, right? Different names. Different hometowns. Sometimes different ages and genders. But most people who create fake IDs also use some elements of the truth. It’s easier than making everything up. Maybe they tell you their real job, but not the real place they work. Or real stories about friends or family. Or the real car they drive. Get it? For me, the fun is to see whether I can meet a person online with a fake ID and figure out who they really are from the clues they give me. And if I do, when I happen to be in that city on a casino job — well, I track them down. Take a picture for my collection. See?’

‘You stalk them,’ Serena said.

‘That’s an ugly way to describe it.’

‘That’s because it’s the accurate way to describe it.’

‘No! I told you, it’s innocent. I don’t have any contact with them. I don’t want to be part of their real lives. I just want to know who they are. It’s harmless.’

Serena felt an urge to go home and take a shower. And never to boot up a computer again. ‘So you collected Kelly Hauswirth.’

‘Right.

‘You figured out that she wasn’t Corinne from Maryland. How?’

‘She wasn’t too tough. Parents are always a good way in. People lie about themselves but not about their parents. We talked about her being estranged from them, and she mentioned that they lived in Montana. Another time, she mentioned their first names. And then another time, she told me what her dad did for a living before he retired. I keep notes on all this stuff. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. She gave me enough to find her parents, and they helped me find her when I called them. Old people like to talk about their kids.’

‘So when you figured out that Corinne was really Kelly Hauswirth, you went to Colorado and followed her and took her picture.’

‘Uh, yes. I told you, it’s just a game.’

‘Then you read that she’d been murdered and you figured you’d come up here and ask around about what happened? Because you felt bad for her?’

‘Yes, exactly.’

Serena shook her head. ‘Sorry, Mort. No way. What are you not telling me?’

The man danced back and forth on his feet. ‘Okay, I was a little scared, too.’

‘Why?’

‘I wanted to make sure that someone wasn’t going to come after me ,’ he told her.

‘Who would do that?’ Serena asked.

Mort slid off his blue glasses and cleaned them. He repositioned them on his face with both hands. ‘Kelly told me about this guy that she met online. She was really into him. Used the L-word. She told me who he was, the things he said, romantic stuff. I knew it was all bogus.’

‘How?’

‘Because the same guy hit on me, too. His handle was Lakelover. I tried to collect him, but he was way too cautious. Nothing he said about himself checked out. I knew why Kelly fell for him, though. He was cool, a good listener. As much a girlfriend as a boyfriend. He never pushed me for sex, which is pretty rare, but he asked me lots of questions about myself. Something about it felt — off. I had a bad feeling about him.’

‘Did you warn Kelly?’

‘I tried, but I sort of let on that I knew who she was. She got totally creeped out, and she blocked me. When I read that she’d been murdered, I thought about this Lakelover guy. I began to think — what if he was able to track me down the way I do with other people? I’ve been looking over my shoulder ever since.’

Lakelover.

That was a good handle for someone in Duluth.

Serena studied the young man next to her and realized he was genuinely scared. He was probably on the razor’s edge of violating privacy laws — and he was definitely on the far side of the moral line — but she didn’t sense any violent intent from him.

‘Here’s some free advice,’ she told Mort. ‘Take your collection and punch the delete button. And next time you feel like going into a chat room somewhere, go buy a book. Sooner or later, with what you’re doing, something bad is going to happen to you. Let Kelly’s experience be a lesson, okay?’

Mort swallowed hard. ‘Yeah, okay.’

But she knew he wouldn’t stop.

‘Now get out of here before I feel the need to arrest you for something,’ she said.

‘Listen, there’s one other thing you should know,’ Mort went on. ‘I was in another chat room last month, chatting up another girl. Cute, innocent, a lot like Kelly. She told me about her online boyfriend and how cool he was. His handle was Mattie_1987. The thing is, I know it was the same guy. Different room, different alias, but the personal details were identical.’

‘Mattie_1987 was Lakelover?’ Serena said.

‘I’m sure of it. No way two different guys would use the same background, same story, do the same seduction routine. It was him.’

Another alias. Another girl.

‘Who was she?’ Serena asked.

Mort drummed his fingers nervously on his blue pants.

‘Come on, don’t play innocent with me now,’ Serena said. ‘This other girl. Did you collect her?’

He nodded. ‘Okay, yeah. I did. I never got her picture, but I found out a few details about her. Her name was Erin. She was from Grand Forks.’

The Ingersstrom floated in the black water of Burns Harbor in Indiana.