“Damn,” Wilde said.
“What?”
“Peter deleted all his accounts.”
“So click backup.”
“It says the deletion is permanent.”
Matthew shook his head. “There must be a way to get them back.”
“It says there’s not.”
They found ten major websites that did DNA testing for the purposes of genetic genealogy, including 23andMe, DNAYourStory, MyHeritage, BloodTies23, Family Tree DNA, MeetYourFamily, and Ancestry. According to what Wilde and Matthew could put together, Peter Bennett had signed up for all of them—and deleted his account at all of them. Seven of the ten made it clear that the deletions were permanent. Two others offered a way to “request” that your material, which had been “erased but kept in an archive,” whatever that meant, be put back “live online.” In order to do this, Wilde had to fill out forms and reply to emails with codes and, of course, pay a “processing fee.”
Sutton arrived while they worked. She pulled up a chair and sat right next to Wilde.
“The Battler fan boards are blowing up,” Sutton said to Wilde. “Spill the tea.”
Wilde arched an eyebrow. “Spill the what?”
“Give us the dirt,” Matthew said, typing away. “Did Marnie lie? Did she try to seduce Peter and he rejected her?”
“Is that what the statement says?”
“What statement?” Sutton replied. “The only thing is Jenn’s Instagram post where she says it wasn’t true and she just wants Peter found. Battlers are going crazy trying to figure out what really happened, but so far, no word from the show or Marnie.”
Wilde got the authorization for the first site, BloodTies23. He signed back in as Peter Bennett and clicked the link to relatives. No one closer than two percent. No help.
Sutton said, “Do you want to hear the strangest theory that’s gaining ground?”
Wilde continued to type. “Sure.”
“A growing number of Battlers on the fan boards,” Sutton continued, “think that Peter is behind all this.”
Wilde stopped and looked up. “How’s that?”
“It goes something like this.” Sutton tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Wilde glanced over at Matthew, who was smiling like a doofus or, to say the same thing in a different way, a normal college freshman with his first serious girlfriend. “Peter Bennett’s star had seriously dimmed. He had a good run. Great even. But after a while, nice guys get so boring—not that you should learn anything from that, Matthew—”
Matthew blushed.
“—and when that happens,” she continued, “the fans tune out. So the theory is, Peter saw the writing on the wall. He got tired of playing the dull good guy, so he set this all up to make himself the villain.”
Wilde frowned. “Not a very good plan. Isn’t he hated now?”
“Yeah, some people are replying with that, but maybe, I don’t know, Peter didn’t count on how bad the backlash would be. He took it too far, some say. It’s one thing to be a funny villain like Big Bobbo. Even a cheater might have been, I don’t know, interesting drama, though Jenn is pretty beloved. But a rapist who roofied his own sister-in-law?”
“Way too much,” Matthew added.
“Exactly.”
“So where is Peter now, according to this theory?” Wilde asked.
“In hiding someplace. There was so much heat on him that he faked his own death. Now that enough time has passed, Peter is making it look like he was wronged. That’ll build huge anticipation for his return. Then when he does come back—probably in some cool way—Peter Bennett will be the biggest star reality TV has ever seen.”
It was easy for Wilde to dismiss this theory as outlandish, but then again, look at what Marnie had done to become famous. Yet there were several problems with the theory that those who spent their time ruminating on fan boards couldn’t take into account because they wouldn’t know about them—like the murders of McAndrews and Frole or Peter’s genetic connection to Wilde or Peter’s murky adoption as a baby or…
Still. Could there be something to all this? Could Peter Bennett be behind it all in some way? Did that add up at all?
Wilde was missing something.
His phone rang. It was Oren Carmichael. There was a little quake in his voice.
“Do you know anyone named Martin Spirow?”
“No,” Wilde said.
“Lives in Delaware. Thirty-one years old. Married to a woman named Katie.”