"You know, playing amateur detective isn't the smartest thing you could be doing," Keyes told them when Bill showed him the e-mail he'd gotten and the sites he'd applied to for membership. "You should have just turned those three names over to us."
"Well, you have them now, so do something with them," Colin told him caustically.
"Shush for a minute and I will." Keyes took out his cell.
"Shush? Excuse me this is my house I can…" Colin bit down on his lip. "Well, okay, maybe not my house, but still, you don't tell me to shush."
Keyes glared at him. "So does 'shut up for a minute' work better for you?" Turning his back on Colin he made a call, missing Colin's raised middle finger and Bill's rolled eyes and grin.
When he'd finished, Keyes looked at Bill. "Since you've already done the work why don't you check the sites that have already accepted you and see if you can find any of these names?"
"You got it." Bill moved from site to site, finding that he was a member on two of them now. "There," he finally said with a snap of his fingers, pointing to a list.
"That's just his screen name. Any way to find out the person behind it?"
Bill snorted. "Don't ask me. Computer genius, I'm not."
"You won't be able to get that information. The whole idea is to be able to be totally anonymous," Colin told them. "You'd need a really good hacker."
"That's not a problem." Keyes made another call, giving whoever answered the name of the site and the name they'd be looking for. Hanging up he pointed out, "That's not necessarily our man."
Bill nodded. "So I keep track of the other sites, too."
"No, you don't. You'll give me the list and my people will handle it now. They'll erase any footsteps you've left behind as well."
"Why not let me follow through with this since I started it?" Bill asked, interested in Keyes' reasoning.
"I don't need to be watching your ass as well as Colin's." Keyes stopped, realizing what he'd said. "Okay, strike that. I don't need to—"
"Too late," Colin butted in with a grin. "You said it, now you have to follow through."
"God you're a smart-mouthed kid."
"You bet. My mouth is my fortune."
"You can't win with him when he's in this mood," Bill told Keyes, laughing. "Just ignore him."
"Well," Colin huffed, tossing his head. "Now I know where I stand. Excuse me while I go find something to eat." He marched to the kitchen, stopping to look back at Keyes. "You coming, Dane?"
"Colin," Bill growled. When the young man disappeared he said, "Sorry about that. I think it’s part of his defense system right now."
"It is," Keyes agreed, his expression turning dark. "Be glad he's not withdrawing or acting out. That's worse."
"You sound like you've had some personal experience with that," Bill commented sympathetically.
"I have," was Keyes terse reply. He checked his pockets then looked around, finding his notebook where he'd left it on the sofa. As he retrieved it he said, "I'll be in touch with him and you later. Right now I have things I have to do about the other kid."
"You have our numbers. Call or just come by. One of us will be here with Colin."
"My babysitters," Colin called out from the kitchen.
"Stop eavesdropping," Bill called back.
"Why? It's my life you're talking about." Colin appeared, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms crossed. "Not that I don't appreciate it."
Bill smiled at him. "We know."
"One thing, Colin," Keyes said as he opened the front door of the apartment. "You go nowhere unless I'm with you."
"Oh, a date?" Colin waggled his eyebrows.
"No, not hardly." Keyes shook his head and left.
Colin does have a smart mouth
ReplyDeleteHe sure does.
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