Con Game Read online

  Delta thought back to the details of that call. “He came through the front door because that’s what set the alarms ringing. But he exited out the side window and into the alley. I don’t know where he put the ax, but it wasn’t in the store when we arrived, and he didn’t have it in his hands.”

  “Maybe he hid it and came for it later. Or maybe he came back for something else.” Restarting the game, Connie made Dori shove the ax through a different opening than the one Dori had originally used as an entrance. “I didn’t even look to see if there was another way out.”

  “How about that little porthole thing right there?” Gina asked, pointing to the screen with her pencil.

  As Dori neared the opening, the screen suddenly changed, and Dori stood in a darkened tunnel. “Bingo,” Connie said, smiling.

  “Bingo?”

  Connie nodded. “I haven’t been here before.”

  Delta leaned against the back of the chair. “This is frightening. So far, the game mimics my every move.”

  Connie stopped maneuvering Dori and stared at Delta. “My God, Del, that might be it. Maybe you’re the key to this whole thing.”

  “Well, let’s go and see where she takes us!” Gina said.

  As Dori moved down to the end of the tunnel, she came to a group of what appeared to be cardboard boxes stacked a little higher than she.

  “Maybe this is it.”

  Connie licked her lips, but said nothing.

  For the next fifteen minutes, Connie had Dori stomp, kick, hit, pounce, rip, open, and sit on the boxes, all to no avail.

  Delta exhaled her disappointment. “Damn. I thought we had something.”

  “We do,” Connie offered, staring at the monitor. “We just don’t know what it is yet.”

  Hearing the spring of the couch move, Delta swung around in her chair to gaze at Megan, who was rising from the couch. Delta greeted her with open arms and kissed her sleep-crinkled cheek. “Did we wake you, hon?”

  Megan cast Delta one of her killer smiles. “Oh, no. Stomp ’em! Chop ’em up! and other assorted commands actually added to my sleeping enjoyment.” Megan bent down and kissed the top of Delta’s head. “I thought I was dreaming about a rodeo or something.”

  Delta blushed. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I have an eight o’clock class anyway.” Leaning over to see the monitor, Megan squinted to get a better look. “How are you faring against the evil forces of the world?”

  “Not great.”

  “What exactly were you trying to kick, hit, and bite?”

  Connie leaned back in her chair and rubbed her eyes. “Just a bunch of boxes. Dumb, old boxes, and we’re stumped. There’s got to be a clue here somewhere.”

  “Well, hang in there, good and wise forces,” Megan winked at Connie, who grinned. “I’m sure you’ll get it. I think I’m going to pop in and take a shower, if you don’t mind.”

  As Megan moved down the hall, she offered one last line over her shoulder. “If I were playing that game, I’d try reading the box. You know, maybe it’s UPS or Fed-Ex or something. I don’t know. Gina, will you help me find something in your closet I can wear in place of this wrinkled shirt?”

  As Gina rose, Delta and Connie stared at each other. Then, ever so slowly, as if they were afraid it might not be the answer they were looking for, Connie typed in R-E-A-D. She glanced over at Delta and grinned before pressing the return button. “She might have something, you know.”

  “Press the damn thing.”

  Hitting the return key, the monitor went completely blank, as if someone had turned the computer off. For a long, pregnant pause, nothing showed up on the screen.

  Finally, the monitor started to change. Six barely distinguishable words came into view on the screen. Like the Cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland, the six white words gradually appeared against the blue backdrop of the computer. Like separate little ghosts, they seemed to hover until they finally stood out in stark contrast.

  Six little words, and each one sent chills up and down Delta’s spine.

  Six words.

  “HELLO CONSUELA—LONG TIME NO SEE.”

  Delta held her breath. Connie cursed beneath hers. Together they stared as the second row of words formed on the screen. The monitor, now back to its regular color, read:

  “You remember me now, don’t you? Sure you do! Who else is masterful enough to create such a complex and successful plan? Who else, but that scrawny little propeller-head you and your buddies humiliated all those years ago at M.I.T., remember?”

  Connie inhaled and stood up so quickly she knocked over her chair. “Not you.”

  Delta grabbed her hand to keep her from leaving the room. “Who? Who is it?”

  Connie swallowed, eyes still glued to the screen. “His name was... is . . . Elson Zuckerman.”

  “And you knew him from college?”

  Connie nodded. “Elson was a . . . well . . . we called him a scrawny little propeller-head at school, but the truth was, he was just way smarter than the rest of us and we were jealous.”

  “And that sent him over the edge? Come on, Connie. Don’t tell me people are being hacked up because someone called him names.”

  Connie slightly shook her head. “No. It wasn’t just that.”

  “Then what?”

  Connie sat and quickly tied her thick hair into a knot. “God, it’s been years.” Her voice sounded far away.

  “If you don’t tell me what the hell is going on here, I’m going to scream. Who is this guy?”

  Looking up at Delta, Connie shook her head sadly. “Elson Zuckerman was a bitter little man who had it in for me at M.I.T.”

  “You had an enemy in college? I thought you were one of the most popular students on campus.”

  Connie sighed. “I was. At the Institute, I was at the top of my class.”

  “Naturally.”

  Connie faked a grin. “And the second guy on the totem pole was always Elson. The other guys got used to me being at the top, but Elson never could. He wanted to be first in our class so badly, he did everything except sleep with the professors. I’d never met anyone with such a horrendous ego in my life.”

  “Was he mad because you were a woman?”

  Connie shrugged. “I guess. There weren’t too many Latina women in college back in the seventies, let alone a woman at a predominantly male school perched at the top rung. I guess he thought the position should have been reserved for him. He used to make reference to the fact that I was cheating him from his rightful place. Whenever he said stupid stuff like that in front of the guys, they’d be all over him. I mean, they would even give him wedgies. Can you imagine? Being in college and guys are still giving you wedgies?”

  Delta smiled, remembering the many times she’d pulled her brother’s underwear so far up, he practically sang soprano. What an odd tradition, she thought. Must have been painful. “Guy sounds like a class A jerk.”

  “It wasn’t all his fault. His dad was a physicist, and his mom was another scientist of some sort. They had high expectations. Too high. I think it drove him to the edge.”

  Delta nodded. She remembered how frightened some of her friends would get whenever they had to bring a ‘C’ home. “Still, Con, the man’s a psycho, and you’re trying to tell me it’s because his underwear was pulled over his head?”

  Connie shook her head sadly. “God, I haven’t thought about this in years. For our final project, we each had to design and implement a program that would sell to an outside software company. I designed one of the first desktop publishing packages with inter-office phone link-ups.”

  “And Elson?”

  “He created what he spent his entire life playing—a simulated adventure game. The guys used to tease him about playing the games as a way of not dealing with reality. He would just swear at them and continue playing. He was very, very good.”

  “And?”

  “Well, the night before the presentation, the guys got a hold of his disk and added a
bunch of porno scenes to it. You could have rammed a Mack truck through the professor’s gaping mouth when a naked woman walked onto the screen during a cutscene and started to fondle Elson’s hero.”

  Delta suppressed a smile. It sounded no more harmful than some of her college pranks. “So, what happened?”

  “Elson bolted. It was a week before we saw him again. He walked right into class and confronted me. He said he knew I was trying to keep him from his place at the head of the class. He said that, someday, I would pay the price for trying to humiliate him. He was so angry, it was the only time I had ever been afraid of him.”

  Delta could only shake her head. “Wow. What a wacko.”

  “It wasn’t his fault, really. His parents convinced themselves and him that he was the brightest kid around, which set him up to play the victim. Once he started extolling his intellect, people would torment the poor guy. And believe me, he was tormented.”

  “What happened after he confronted you?”

  Connie shrugged. “It was our senior year. I never saw him again.”

  “He just disappeared?”

  “Yep. Gone without a trace. He left M.I.T. and never returned. He didn’t even leave a forwarding address.”

  “All because of an ill-conceived joke? Didn’t anyone try to find out where he went?”

  “I tried. The only thing I found out was that he withdrew from the last semester and moved out of the dorms.”

  “Still, one rotten joke shouldn’t push someone to murder.”

  Connie stood up and walked away from the table. “It wasn’t just one, Del. Elson was the goat for a lot of people’s jokes. And I, well, I was a crazy young girl hanging around crazy guys who would do anything for a laugh. We never meant to hurt him.”

  Delta sensed there was more, folded her arms across her chest and waited.

  “Me and the guys knew he had finally scored a date with this freshman he’d been talking about for months. Around the guys he’d pull up his pants and tell them how he was going to have his way with this girl. Well, as luck would have it, she went out with him. While they were out, we rigged a loudspeaker from his bedroom to the roof overlooking the main quad where everyone hung out.”

  Delta squirmed in her seat. “That’s brutal.”

  “Pretty rotten, huh? But that wasn’t the worst of it.”

  “There’s more?”

  Connie nodded, her eyes welling up with tears. “He . . . he couldn’t get it up. I can’t begin to imagine the utter humiliation he must have felt. Everyone knew. I mean, everyone was out in the quad that night. When I look back on it now, I’m so ashamed.” Connie bowed her head and sighed. “The whole thing was sad.”

  “God, Con, we all pulled regrettable stunts in college. That’s where we go to make our mistakes. Up until then, we make our parents’ mistakes. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

  Connie inhaled slowly, her sadness still evident around her eyes. “How could we have been so cruel? It’s not like we hated him or anything. He just got on our nerves with all of that ‘I am the smartest of you all’ talk. I swear, we must have heard that every day, and that really burned the guys. They would have done anything to pop the veins in his face.”

  “Still, you didn’t make him a nutcase just by picking on him.”

  “I know that. But now, with people dying at his hands, I can’t help but feel responsible.”

  Delta turned back to the screen. “Look. There’s more.”

  The screen suddenly scrolled down and more writing appeared.

  Yes, Consuela, I am quite sure you remember. I told you long ago that I would return. Did you think I had forgotten all of the pain and anguish you caused me? Did you think I could forget your cruelty and humiliating jokes? Did you truly believe you had escaped my wrath? Not likely. I believe I warned you that I would be back, and . . . well . . . here I am. I do so hope you enjoy it.

  “What does that mean?” Delta asked, jotting the words down on Gina’s steno pad. “You don’t think he ki . . .”

  They were disposed of so quickly and easily, it wasn’t even enjoyable. But then, they never were as “gifted” as you, my dear. You never paid for the painful experiences you caused me. Retribution is at hand, Consuela. As you humiliated me, so too will I embarrass you by committing crimes right under your nose that you will be unable to stop. Oh, the “boys,” that disgusting group of hormonal retards, are long gone. It’s just you and me now. How cozy. Just as it should have been so long ago.

  Delta shuddered. “This guy’s really sick.”

  The monitor changed to a new paragraph.

  I tracked you down and spent months designing this program especially for you. As you may have figured out already, everything that happens in this game will happen somewhere along the beat of your dear compadre, Delta Stevens.

  Surprised? Don’t be. I know everything about the life you lead here in River Valley. I’ve done my homework well. Because she is touted as one of the best cops in the city, I believe she will suit you well as your warrior against the dangers she’ll soon encounter.

  You must solve each level in order to prevent a death of someone on Officer Stevens’ beat. If you don’t catch me before the final level, then a tragedy of great proportion will befall you, your dearest friend, and your little city.

  “What does he mean?” Delta asked, frantically scribbling the note down on the pad.

  No sooner had she asked the question, than the screen transformed from words to a picture of a high-rise. As they watched the building get more detailed, it suddenly exploded into a fiery mass before the screen went blank.

  Connie placed her hands over her mouth. “God, no,” Connie whispered through her hand. “This can’t be.”

  Make no mistake about it, Consuela, I’ll play the game with or without you. The final level will be the destruction of one of the largest hotels in the city. You will have to live with the knowledge that your cruelty, your lack of humanity toward me caused the deaths of hundreds of people who did nothing to you. After that, I shall come for you for the final pas de deux. Adieu and good luck.

  Connie steadied herself as the words on the screen slowly faded.

  “What a fucking psycho,” Delta said, hitting the side of the monitor.

  Connie slowly shook her head. “Not a psycho, Del. He’s an intellectual giant. Don’t ever forget that. He’s been making these games well before anyone even thought about them. He’s brilliant at it.”

  Delta slowly rose and stretched. “So what? Can’t you do it? Can’t you beat him?”

  Connie looked away from Delta’s probing eyes. “I don’t know.”

  Delta locked eyes with Connie. “Look, you’ve played every available game on the market. You’ve had people from Silicon Valley send you games to test for bugs. You’re brilliant at solving puzzles. Of course you can do it.”

  “This is different, Del. This time people’s lives are at stake. I’ve played his simulations before.”

  “And?”

  Connie turned. “And I never won.”

  Delta put her hand on Connie’s shoulder. “But you’re not playing this game alone.”

  Connie backed away and wiped her eyes. “We’ll need help on this.”

  “Whatever you need, we’ll get it.”

  Connie nodded, already deep in thought. “We’ll have to get as much of Leonard’s information as possible.”

  “Done.”

  “We should call in some major think-tanks for this.”

  “Done.”

  “We may need Leonard’s assistance.”

  “Leonard? Are you serious? Can you imagine him standing still long enough to even listen to our story? He’ll die laughing before he gives us any information.”

  “We need his help, Del. I can’t stay up twenty-four hours a day playing the game. Besides, we don’t have all the reports. The more data we have, the better our chances will be.”

  As much as she didn’t want to, Delta saw her point. “What els
e?”

  “We’ll need to get big scrolls of butcher paper, so we can map where we’ve been and make a map of your beat.”

  “Good. We’ll use a bunch of different colored markers, too.”

  Connie nodded once. “We’ll have to write down everything we do. We have to look at everything as if it had a potential clue. Nothing can escape our notice. Nothing.”

  “What’s our first step?” Delta asked, rising from her chair. Connie glanced over at the phone. For a moment, the air in the room felt as if the temperature had just dropped twenty degrees.

  “I’m going to find out just what happened to the boys from M.I.T.”

  Shortly after nine, Gina pushed open the door with her knee, her hands full of

  butcher paper. “I’m back,” she announced, setting the rolls down.

  Delta was sat on the floor studying a huge map of her beat when Gina walked in.

  “Where’s Connie?” Gina asked, grabbing one of the rolls before it fell on the floor.

  Delta looked up from her map. “Out for a walk.”

  Gina sat across from Delta and folded her hands . “What happened?”

  “She found out what happened to the guys from M.I.T.”

  Gina tucked her chin to her chest. “Dead?” The word hung in the air like a stage prop held by a thin wire.

  Delta nodded. “All of them.”

  Gina slowly raised her head. “How?”

  Laying her thick marker down, Delta exhaled and ran her hands through her hair, one after the other, in a soothing motion. “One died of a cocaine overdose, one was hit by a hit-and-run driver, and one apparently committed suicide.”

  “Apparently?”

  Delta shrugged. “Hung himself. No note. Nothing.”

  “Were there any others?”

  “One other. Douglas Rowe. No one seems to know where he is. Con thinks he’s wearing cement booties or is in a thousand Ziploc baggies. Evidently, Elson hated him the most. He never had a nice thing to say about anyone. Even Con said she had a hard time with him.”

  “And she thinks Elson murdered them all?”