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?’