Gabriel watched the screen, his eyes hard and intent. Focused. Lucy recognized the vibe. The Lord of the Underworld was on another mission.
“I realized the man who called himself Tuck had given the remaining pendants to someone inside the casino, so I waited. I wanted to see who took them out. Under other circumstances I would have missed the guy, because he left from the rear parking lot. But the keystone locked onto the other pendants. I followed the vehicle. It stopped in front of a private residence in the Amber Oasis neighborhood. Here’s the video I took that night.”
The image of Pitney vanished. A different video appeared. Lucy watched, riveted, as a nondescript black SUV drove up a quiet street in the expensive neighborhood of Amber Oasis. The vehicle went through a set of gates protecting a high-walled estate. The house number and street name were enscribed on a discreet plaque next to the gates. The gates closed.
The video ended. Pitney reappeared.
Gabriel took out his phone and opened the mapping program.
“I waited awhile longer,” Pitney said. “The signal strength of the stones weakened. I realized they were being moved again. Someone, presumably the man who had picked up the pendants, took them down into the tunnels. The house must have a hole-in-the-wall in the basement. I have no idea what is going on, but it’s obvious I wasn’t creating ID stones for an ordinary biker gang. I pulled up the identity of the owner of that house in the Amber Oasis neighborhood. When you do the same you will see why I’m concerned. I am going to leave Illusion Town for a while. If you find this video, I urge you to contact the police.”
Gabriel held up the phone so that Lucy could see the tax records of the big house in Amber Oasis. She stared at the screen, shocked.
“Dillon Westover,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Now what are we going to do? We can’t just confront him. We have evidence to back up my kidnapping story, but it’s not proof. We need something a lot more solid.”
“Agreed. We need more information.” Gabriel punched in a code on his phone and set it on speaker and video.
A young man wearing a pair of black-framed glasses appeared on the screen. His hair was cut in the latest style, and his slouchy jacket and open-collared shirt were very on trend. There was loud rez-rock music playing and a wash of voices and clinking glasses. The familiar clang, buzz, and beep of slot machines could be heard.
“Yes, Mr. Jones?” he said. He noticed Lucy at the edge of the screen and inclined his head. “Good evening, ma’am. You must be Ms. Bell.”
“Yes,” she said. “And you must be—”
Gabriel interrupted. “Aiden Shore, Lucy Bell. Lucy, meet Aiden.”
Lucy smiled. “Call me Lucy.”
“Thanks—” Aiden began.
Gabriel broke into the conversation again.
“Are you in a nightclub?” Gabriel asked.
“Restaurant on the Strip, sir. Nightclubs don’t get hot until midnight in this town.”
“Why aren’t you in the office?”
“It’s almost eight o’clock, Mr. Jones. I closed the office at five, per standard Guild policy.”
Gabriel frowned, clearly bewildered by the concept of regular office hours. “The Guild is on duty around the clock.”
“Yes, sir, but the CEO is not in his office around the clock,” Aiden said, remarkably patient. “And neither is his administrative assistant. Once we have more staff, we will establish a proper emergency response team to handle the night shift. Until then, Jared, Joe, and myself are the closest thing we’ve got to an ERT. We’ve got our phones on. That’s all we can do at the moment.”
Gabriel exhaled deeply. “Right.”
“We need to recruit additional staff, sir.”
“Put it on my to-do list.”
“It is on your to-do list. It just isn’t at the top. Yet.”
“Moving right along,” Gabriel said in a grim voice. “I’ve got an emergency for you.”
“Hang on while I get someplace where I can talk privately.”
There was the usual screen jiggling while Aiden rose from the table and hurried into a hallway. When he stopped there was a sign on the wall behind him. EMERGENCY EXIT.
“Ready, sir,” he said.
“I want you to locate a man named Tuck.”
“That’s not a lot to go on.”
“I’ve got a few more details. I’m sure he’s ex-Guild, so he should be in the database. We know he was in Illusion Town four months ago, and there’s good reason to think he’s still in the vicinity. I’ll send over the only photo I’ve got. A few months back he was looking for a tuner who could handle rare ambers. He would have had to ask around, because he found Pitney in the Shadow Zone. Looks like Tuck killed him to keep him quiet.”