“I understand you’re a pretty good poker player.”

“I’d never played before. But I pick things up pretty easily. We played poker together, every night. Last night we had a fight. A terrible fight.”

“Tell me what happened.”

“I was winning and she seemed happy for me. But a few weeks ago she met this other gamer and she changed.”

Eve had mentioned this. “Dasich. He and your friend were thrown out for cheating.”

Her eyes widened. “How did you know that?”

“We’ve been keeping an eye on you, in the virtual world and the real one. But we didn’t know about Virginia. What was she afraid of, Miss Clooney?”

“The dark,” she said thinly. “Virginia was terrified of the dark.”

“Do you know why?”

“Yes. Her family lived in Japan in ’95 when they had that big earthquake in Kobe. She was trapped in the dark for three days, dead people all around. Ever since, she couldn’t stand the dark. Always kept a light on in every room.”

So the sonofabitch takes her eyes. “Thank you. I’ll have an officer take you home.”

Chapter Twenty-three

Thursday, February 25, 11:10 a.m.

It’s that damn list,” Eve said, sitting at Noah’s desk. Olivia and Kane stood ready to haul her off to the safe house at Abbott’s command. Not yet. I need to think.

“But the Fox woman isn’t on the list,” Kane said.

“Exactly. It’s to throw us off,” Eve said. “He knew we had the list.”

“There is no ‘we.’ ” Olivia frowned. “There is us, and there is you. You are not part of this anymore, Eve. You’re in too much danger already.”

“And I’ll continue to be until we catch him. Where is Jeremy Lyons?”

“Still missing,” Kane said. “No credit card activity or contact with family and friends.”

He could be dead. Or he could be a killer. “You’ve checked the grad students’ alibis. Donner didn’t do it, because you’ve got one more and he was dead when it happened.”

Olivia and Kane shared a look. “Eve, you’re leaving,” Olivia said calmly. She pulled Eve to her feet but Eve yanked her arm away and sat back down.

“Let me think. Virginia wasn’t on my list, but she and Natalie were friends. Sit down, Olivia. Please. I need to do this. There is something here.” Eve stared at the list on her laptop screen. But the answer wasn’t here. She logged back in to Shadowland as Olivia gave in, pulling a chair behind her with a frustrated sigh.

“Abbott’s gonna have my ass in a sling,” Olivia grumbled.

Eve didn’t respond. She was pulling up user accounts.

“What are you doing?” Kane asked standing behind her.

Eve rubbed her forehead. “Don’t ask, don’t tell. I hacked in, okay?”

“Cool,” Kane said, impressed.

“Don’t encourage her,” Olivia hissed, then sighed. “What are we looking for?”

“I’m not sure. This here is Virginia Fox’s account. And this is her poker avatar, Cicely.” She pointed to the screen. “Cicely used to sit next to Natalie’s avatar at the poker table. But Virginia’s got other avatars. This one she bought from Pandora. From me, I mean.” Eve’s eyes narrowed and her heart started to beat harder. “No way.”

“No way what?” Kane demanded, hulking over her shoulder.

Eve clicked on the Pandora avatar. “She changed the face. She changed my code.”

“Like the killer did to his victims’ avatars,” Olivia said.

“Is it like a fingerprint?” Kane asked. “The code change?”

“No. I mean, I use software packages for design like everybody else does, so my code’s not unique. But the pattern and placement of the change is the same as what we saw with Martha and Christy’s avatars. Either Virginia showed him how to change Pandora’s faces or he showed her.”

“How can you figure out which?” Kane asked.

Eve went to the messaging area. “You can talk in the World, or you can send private messages, avatar to avatar. So nobody knows your real name or account name.”

“Virginia sent messages to somebody?” Olivia asked, leaning forward. “Please?”

“Yeah, she did.” Eve clicked through them. “We’re lucky she kept them. Here’s the message where she sends him the text to cut and paste to make the changes.” She looked over her shoulder, met Olivia’s eyes. “Three weeks ago.”

“When all this started,” Olivia said. “Who did she send the message to?”

Eve clicked the message header open and was unsurprised. “What a shock. It went to Dasich. Damn it, I knew something was wrong with that guy. Virginia’s Cicely and this Dasich were thrown out of the casino last night for cheating.”

“So how do we find a live body for this Dasich avatar?” Olivia asked.

“I access his account,” Eve said, already typing.

“How, if you don’t know who he is?” Kane asked.

Eve hesitated. “Accessing an account starting with the avatar takes the highest authority. After all, sometimes you want to go where no one knows your name.”

“Do you have this authority, Eve?” Olivia asked quietly.

“Yes. I kept upping my privileges until I’m executive level, but I haven’t used it yet. I didn’t need it before, because I knew the victims’ real names from the study, and Virginia actually registered with her real name. When I go backward, from the avatar to the account, I may raise flags at ShadowCo.” She turned to look at Olivia again. “I don’t want this coming back to hurt Noah or any of you.”

“What about you?” Olivia asked.

Eve shrugged. “They could prosecute. Then again, if we save the day, who knows? At a minimum, I’ll be a goddess to hairy-palmed hackers everywhere. But it’s too late. I already did the search, and… we have a winner. The Dasich avatar is owned by the account of Irene Black.”

“So Irene Black is a man?” Kane asked.

“Irene Black could be anyone. I told Abbott that nobody uses their real name when they register. That Virginia did is a surprise. I didn’t.” She opened Irene Black’s file. “These are all the avatars this gamer owns, five of them. Looks like he bought all but one from Pandora’s shop. See, here is Dasich, the poker player.” Eve clicked on each one, then abruptly sagged back in her chair. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Olivia leaned closer. “What?”

“That avatar. It’s Drink Guy. He trolls Ninth Circle, asking females if he can buy them a drink. He hit on my Greer avatar every time I went through the bar. That’s how he hunted.”

“All right,” Olivia said urgently. “If nobody uses their real name, how do we find him?”

“Follow the money,” Kane murmured. “That’s what Web was doing, when I went all over town tracing Axel Girard’s credit card. Can you access Irene’s financial info?”

Eve clicked, then frowned when a scolding message popped up. “ ‘You do not have access to this information. Account blocked.’ ” She looked up at Kane, frustrated. “Apparently, there’s a super-executive access for credit card info. And I probably just shot a big ole flare to ShadowCo that I’m here.” Rapidly she logged out. “If they’re any good, they already know where I’m sitting. Dammit.”

“We’ll deal with the fallout,” Olivia said. “We have one name. Irene Black.” She pushed her chair away and pulled Eve to her feet. “Put on your coat. Kane, get her out of here and into that safe house before Abbott gets back and kicks our asses.”

Eve buttoned up her coat. “You’re not coming?”

“No, I’m going to call Abbott with this, then I’m going to have another go at Dell. I’ll visit you, bring you a cake with a file in it,” she joked soberly. “This will be over soon.”

“I hope. Tell Noah…” Eve’s cheeks warmed. “Tell him to be careful.”

“You bet. Now get out of here. You’re safe with Kane. I trust him with my life.”

Blinking away her fatigue, Olivia watched them go. Six dead women, two Lincoln Navigators, a lunatic Farmer, and a drug dealer named Damon. And now they’d added one Irene Black to the mix. She’d pulled out her cell to call Abbott when it rang in her hand. It was the DA’s office. “Sutherland.”