“Keep your phone out. I want to get pictures of these guys before the police get here. Twitch can figure out who these assholes are in half the time.”
Satisfied that the bleeding had stemmed to a steady drip, Calliope withdrew her phone and switched to the camera function. She tried not to look at the dead man’s face as she snapped the photo.
“Back up a bit, Cal. I want to get the gun and his arm tats in the shot. Any identifying features will help Twitch.”
Calliope took a step back, concentrating on the items in the background and not the corpse. On the screen of her phone, she could make out the gun, the blood, a dining chair, her open laptop on the table... Back up a bit. Help Twitch. She froze.
“Tox?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“I think I know what they’re after.”
Calliope raced into the kitchen, peeked in the open drawer the first intruder had been about to search, and withdrew the broken disposable cell phone she had used that night at Gentrify Capital. She returned to the dining room and explained her theory to Tox. “That night you ran into me on the street?”
Tox nodded, too woozy to argue the point.
“Twitch called when I was in Van Gent’s office. She wanted pictures of the framed photos on his desk to see if she could get more information on his associates. I couldn’t get too close to the desk because there are cell phone detectors on the computers for security, so I had to stand back a bit.”
“I’m with you so far.” He set his good hand on his thigh, his breath shallow.
“The document on the computer that triggered the data wipe? It was up on the monitor when I took that picture. I think it’s in the shot.” She thought for a moment. “There must have been some kind of surveillance in the office.”
Tox nodded. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. Don’t say anything about that phone to the cops. Twitch gets first crack at it. You can say you figured it out after they left.”
Calliope nodded along.
“Everything else, tell the complete truth. They forced you into the home at gunpoint. They started ransacking the place. You don’t know what they wanted.”
“What about you?”
“Me? I’ll…”
And with that, Tox fell like a sequoia onto the dining room floor.