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Back The Short Drop
Chapters (61)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. CONTENTS
  5. START READING
  6. PART ONE
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. CHAPTER EIGHT
  15. CHAPTER NINE
  16. CHAPTER TEN
  17. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  18. CHAPTER TWELVE
  19. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  20. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  22. PART TWO
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  49. PART THREE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  54. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  55. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  56. CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
  57. CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
  58. CHAPTER FIFTY
  59. EPILOGUE
  60. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  61. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Yeah, I don’t know,” Jenn admitted. “I feel like I’m playing poker with only three cards.”

Hendricks was nodding. “Kind of hard to make a hand.”

“What are we missing?” she asked no one in particular.

They paid the check and gathered up the Musgrove file. A photograph caught Jenn’s eye. It was a crime-scene photograph of Musgrove’s suicide. Terrance Musgrove had hanged himself. She felt a chill pass between her shoulder blades. Hendricks saw her expression change and looked at the photo questioningly.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know. I need to get back to Grafton. I need my laptop. And . . .”

They looked at each other. Neither wanted to say the name Kirby Tate.

“You got it. Do you want to call George or shall I?”

“He’s going to love this, isn’t he?” she said.

“Not the word I would use.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Gibson sat at a table in the shade of the Carolyn Anthony Library. It was comforting after the storage locker. He’d also hoped returning to the scene of the crime would help him think, offer some clarity, but the library was just a library and had nothing useful to tell him. The park was quieter than last Friday, when he’d allowed himself to be conned. Allowed himself to be spun expertly and aimed at Tate.

How easily he had fallen for it.

Gibson looked at the GPS coordinates his virus had pinged back to ACG as if they might speak to him. No doubt Jenn and Hendricks had followed those coordinates, wherever they led. Perhaps they would take WR8TH unawares, but Gibson doubted it. WR8TH was much too careful. If Gibson’s virus had activated, it was only because WR8TH had allowed it. But why reveal himself now? Didn’t it defeat the entire purpose of setting Tate up? Unless, of course, WR8TH couldn’t resist—was so arrogant that he couldn’t stand not sharing his brilliance. Gibson had certainly known hackers like that. He’d been that hacker. This was exactly the kind of move he would have made . . . when he was fifteen years old.

His laptop pinged, and a small text window opened in the corner of his screen. The hairs on Gibson’s arms stood up.

WR8TH: i hear ur looking for me

It was written in the shorthand Pidgin English favored in some quarters of the Internet. It sounded like teenage laziness, but Gibson made no assumptions. He knew programmers in their fifties with master’s degrees who used it regularly online. There were sites where good grammar could get you banned on general principle.

GVaughn: I don’t even know who this is.

WR8TH: true. but u know who im not, dont u???

GVaughn: You’re not Kirby Tate.

WR8TH: whoops

Gibson could feel WR8TH laughing at him.

GVaughn: You really did a number on him.