“Deal,” I said.
“Great.” Chloe grabbed her laptop, I opened mine, and the two of us went back to the beginning.
We started at the arcade, then moved on to Scarpio’s phone, the attack on Jeff Goldblum, Silvana’s disappearing scar, and finally, Russell Milligan and Golden Seal Carpet Cleaning.
We didn’t find anything new, but we were surprised by the sheer volume of crazy shit we’d been through over the past couple of months.
It was after midnight by the time we shut it down. We decided we’d continue our reexamination of everything in the morning, starting with Baron’s death.
I had just copied the images Chloe had taken of Baron’s murder wall to my computer, and I was about to shut my laptop for the night, when Chloe noticed something.
“Wait,” Chloe said.
“What?”
“There.” She pointed to three Post-it notes in the middle of Baron’s wall of nonsense.
Baron had written three names: Hazel, Murmur, and The Dark Thane.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Those are three really famous Rabbits players.”
“They sure are,” I said. “Do you think that means something?”
“Why did Baron write down their names?”
“No idea.”
“And look at this,” Chloe said as she leaned closer. “Here they are again.”
Chloe had zoomed in on a small scrap of paper featuring the same three names. Only here, Hazel and The Dark Thane’s names had a line through them, and Murmur’s name was circled. “Why is Murmur circled and the other two names crossed out?”
I shook my head. “Baron wasn’t in the most…logical frame of mind. It’s probably just nonsense.”
“Maybe,” Chloe said, “but what if he was looking for help?”
“From Hazel, Murmur, and The Dark Thane?”
“Why not? They’ve all played the game at the highest level. If Baron was looking into something specific about the game, any one of those players would be a great place to start.”
“What does it say here?” Chloe zoomed in on another scrap of paper.
“Where?”
“Baron’s drawn an arrow from Murmur to this printout. It’s titled: ‘Rabbits Groups: Seattle.’ This one is circled.”
I leaned forward. “The Navidsonians?”
“House of Leaves reference?” Chloe asked.
“Probably…but you don’t really think this is some kind of clue, do you?”
“Well, K, it is some kind of clue. But what kind of clue it is sort of depends on your perspective, and maybe your attitude.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Well, it’s not supposed to mean anything, but what it does mean is that I think you need to get up off your ass and help me find these fucking Navidsonians so we can ask a famous Rabbits player a couple of questions.”
“You think we’re actually going to be able to find Murmur? Why not just try to track down Oprah or Bono?”
“Baron left us a clue to find Murmur, not Oprah or Bono. Don’t be a smart-ass. Didn’t Hazel pick you up in a van earlier?”
I was pretty sure that guy wasn’t actually Hazel, but Chloe had a point. We had called a number that allegedly belonged to Hazel, and somebody （perhaps it actually was Hazel himself） showed up in a van and saved me from getting squashed by three cars simultaneously.
“Fine. Let’s say this does lead us to Murmur, which is incredibly unlikely.”
“Agree to disagree.”
“What about the rumors?”
“I think the rumors are probably overstating things.”
“When you say things, you’re talking about pesky little things like ruthless and dangerous behavior, betrayal, and most likely murder?”
“That stuff has to be exaggerated,” Chloe said.
“Does it though?” I asked.
“Those three names mean something, and we’re looking into it.” She loaded a popular Rabbits chatroom in a Tor Browser and angled her screen away from me.
I sat there for a moment while Chloe typed away, her fingers hitting the keys a little bit harder than normal.
I shook my head. “Fine,” I said.
I could see Chloe smile a little from behind her screen.
“We’ll look into it in the morning, but right now the two of us are going to get some sleep.”
30
ZOMPOCALYPSO AND THE BEAR
The next morning, we ate croissants and eggs while we scoured all of the Rabbits darknet websites we could find for any information on past or present players tied to a Seattle-based Rabbits-related group called the Navidsonians. We cross-referenced every mention and rumor until we had ten names we’d seen listed at least four times in four completely separate and seemingly unconnected instances. Then, we stuck those ten names up on the wall of my dining room using color-coded Post-it notes and began compiling all the information we could find.