“This is Fred’s room when he was attacked,” he said.
I was aware of Fred’s paranoia and why he installed his own security system. When I arrived, he wiped it clean or stopped recording.
The video was nearly three hours long, and it started with Fred sitting at the computer, typing, randomly talking.
“Can we speed it up?” Gideon asked. “I don’t need to hear that stuff.”
I used the mouse and began to drag it across slowly.
“Wait!” Sian pointed at the screen. “Go back.”
I did.
Fred got up and went to the door.
“That’s Heather,” Sian said. “Does it have volume?”
I checked the volume and indeed it did.
“With you here, maybe you could tell me what I’m doing wrong,” Fred said.
“Hit me with it.”
“You know it pisses me off you know more than me.”
Heather laughed, and I glanced at Sian to see her tense up. “You’re just pissed that a nobody knows more than the tech genius.”
“We’re not a tech giant. I can be forgiven.”
“Please, I know your father’s stuff. You guys are going big, especially when you take over.” She leaned over the desk. One of the cameras was close to the desk. “What on earth are you searching for?”
“It’s a special project. You know, the cult, leaders of darkness and all that stuff.”
“The Society is a cult project?” Heather asked.
“I’m writing a book.”
Heather laughed. “Whatever you do in your free time is fine by me.”
No sound came out, just a few short clicks of the computer as Heather went through whatever she needed. Her eyes gave away the speed at which she worked, going fast, typing what felt like a mile a minute.
I watched her frown on the screen.
“You’re attempting to hack through a firewall. All you need is a person’s personal details to get inside. It’s not that difficult. Whatever project you’re working on, they’ll have an access code.” She stood up, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I feel we’ve got the same friend in common. Be careful, Fred.”
“I’m always careful.”
I paused the video.
“You went to see Fred,” Gideon said. “You asked him for help?”
“Yes, I went to see him. No, I didn’t ask him for help. He already had this.”
“And he talked to someone else about this,” William said.
“Heather was my friend. She wouldn’t tell anyone,” Sian said. “But she never said anything about knowing Fred. I didn’t even know they ever talked.”
“Is it possible, after this, Heather put two and two together and went hunting for information on her own?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I guess so.”
“Her computer. What happened to it?” I asked.
“Her parents claimed it back, you know. They went and took everything from her room.” Sian’s hands went to her shoulders as she took a deep breath. “Do you think Heather found something and before she could say anything, they killed her?”
I sat back and shook my head. “I have no idea,” I said. “I didn’t even know what the fuck I was looking for here, to be honest.”
“We’ve still got the rest of the shit to see. Press play,” Dante said.
I leaned forward and pressed the button.
Nothing happened for a good five minutes, and I got bored so I moved the video along, speeding it up.
Fred typed away and moved around the room. He left a couple of times, sat back at his computer, and then he went to the door. This time, I pressed play, and we saw it. A man in a mask charged into the room, punching, kicking, pounding on Fred, who screamed, begged, and cried for whoever it was to stop.
At one point, I had to click pause as Sian gasped.
Turning the volume down, I looked up to see she’d gone to William. He held her tightly and nodded at me to press play.
The violence displayed in the film made me feel sick. The Society was known for violent acts, and my father had warned me there would be stuff we’d all have to do that we didn’t agree with.
This was … it was brutal.
Then Fred was out cold, nothing more than a dead weight in the center of the room. Whoever the attacker was came toward the screens and started to trash them. At no point did the security feed get interrupted.
“Wait, stop!” Sian said.
I stopped the video.
“Rewind it a little bit,” she said.
I did as she asked and when she pointed, I paused.
“That … there. It’s … I’ve seen it before.”
Whoever had attacked Fred hadn’t covered up their whole body. They’d rolled up their sleeves, exposing their arms.
I wouldn’t have caught it if it hadn’t been for Sian. We hadn’t told her what our fathers had told us. She didn’t know who we suspected attacked him.
“I know that,” I said.
“We all know that,” Gideon said.
“Coach Bilson,” Sian said.
Chapter Three
William
With there being four guys in our Saintly Devils group, it was hard to agree on every little point. I’d be frank and say it was next to impossible to agree on anything. We all liked different things. Cars, girls, music, movies. The list went on and on.
What we did agree on was not telling our fathers about our discovery and Sian staying home and as far away from all of this bullshit as humanly possible.
Our fathers were easy to deal with. They weren’t here, so they wouldn’t know. Sorted.
Sian was a whole different problem. She refused to be left out of this.
“Do not even think for a second to pull that card! It’s downright rude and insulting.” She looked fierce and wild. The first time in ten months, there was a fire inside her, and I, for one, didn’t want to remove it.
“You’re not going.”
“You’re not the boss of me, Gideon. Coach beat the crap out of your friend and he might have murdered mine. I’m not leaving until I know the truth.”
“This is the truth,” Gideon said. “That man is dangerous. You saw what he did.”
“When there was an unsuspecting student.” Her hands went to her hips. “I’m more than prepared. Do you think you four are going to be able to do this alone?”
“We can handle ourselves,” Gideon said.
“Sian could be of help,” Dante said.
“Stay out of it.” Gideon glared at Dante, who held his hands up in surrender.
“I’m going whether you like it or not. I’m not going to hide away from this. I want answers. Deal with it, or not.”
“A deal, you want to make a deal?” Gideon asked.
I winced.
“Yes, I want to make a deal!” Sian stamped her foot, folded her arms. “I want to come with you for every single investigation you’ve got going on. I want to know what happened to my friend and why.”
“Deal,” Gideon said. “You can be part of it. You can help wherever you can and we won’t leave you behind.”