Page 20 of You Found Me
“It was not,” Spencer said. “The room was too small for more than six monitors and three hard drives. It takes a surprising amount of equipment to build anything more substantial like a frame that might mimic life. That’s why I had to rent the storage facility.”
Della stared at him. “You actually built a robot?”
“Oh yes. Several.” Spencer took another bite. “You know, the ratings on this place are completely accurate.”
“Ice cream isn’t an everyday treat for me, not with how it coats my vocal cords. So when I have it, I like to have the good stuff, and Lofty Pursuits is the best I’ve ever found. It’s basically childhood in a cup.” Della felt the tension she’d been carrying around for the past week melt away. She eyed the carton of Cherry Oblivion. “You brought my favorite flavor.”
Spencer handed her a sundae dish. “That, plus vanilla for Ward, Midnight Madness for me, brownies, bananas, and all of the toppings, including nuts, although I don’t think you like those. Actually, forty-one percent of people like nuts on their sundaes, but in your videos, I’ve never seen you add them. We brought them anyway, just in case.”
“Thanks. This all looks great.” Della’s lips twitched with amusement at the wave of awkward energy. She put two scoops into her dish, topped them with a little fudge sauce and a dozen maraschino cherries, then joined Annie at the table. “How long do you think I’ll be trapped here?”
“We can’t really answer that, which I know isn’t what you want to hear,” Annie said. “There’s a lot of moving parts to sift through. You’re a very busy girl, which makes figuring out who our letter writer is take longer than usual. That’s why we have Spencer.”
“I’m the king of data,” Spencer said. “I’ve already sifted through three point four million of your emails and eliminated two thousand five hundred and three potentials.”
“Two…thousand?” Surely he wasn’t serious. Except she could tell by the eager expression on his face that he was. “How many more are there?”
Spencer glanced at Annie as if asking for permission before answering, “Five thousand two hundred and forty-five.”
Della felt the rest of the year drifting away. “Five thousand… That’ll take forever! Lizzie’s baby will be here before you finish. Mattie will probably be marriedandpregnant by then. Piper will be working on a third movie or something.”
“Oh, it won’t take that long. It took a couple of days to write the program that’s doing the search.” Spencer shoved another spoonful into his mouth. “But it’s working great now, and my spiders are crawling through the social media feeds of all of the remaining names, twenty-four seven. It never stops.”
“How long willthattake?” Tension tightened Della’s shoulders.
“How long is a piece of string?” Annie countered. “The point is, we’re working the problem as hard and fast as we can.”
“What happens if none of those five thousand is the one? What if you get to the end of the string and there’s just more string?”
Annie leaned forward, her gaze steady and confident. “Then we follow that string and the next until we find him.”
“But what if thereis no him.” Della slumped in her chair. “What if he’s dead already, or in jail, or if it was just some kid you can never find because his mom took his computer away, or…”
“Everyone leaves a digital trail,” Spencer said. “Especially obsessive people.”
“He’s already sent emailsanda written letter. Trust me, this guy wants to be found.” Annie’s lips twitched. “I’m sure he’s counting on getting found byyou, not us, but that’shisproblem. The point is, we won’t stop until we find him and we know you’re safe.”
Della knew they were trying to soothe and comfort her, but how long did they expect her to stay cooped up here because someone somewhere might one day send her another creepy note?
They were never going to find the guy who sent that stupid letter because there was nothing to find, and while she waited for them to figure that out, she was stuck in a mostly empty house with a warden who didn’t like her, a silent army who wouldn’t talk to her, and leftover ice cream.
She wished like hell she hadn’t promised to stay.
She’d sworn to her sisters she’d do the responsible thing. She’d looked into Renic’s eyes and promised she would do what her new security team asked her to do. If her new warden decided she had to remain in her bedroom for a year, then she’d have to do that or break her promise, and she wasnotbreaking that promise. She hadn’t spent the last years making up for her stupid mistake to screw up like that now.
They’d made a lot of progress for a week, Della reminded herself.
They’d eliminated over two thousand people so far. That was a lot of people for a week.
There wereonlyfive thousand to go.
She stifled a groan.
She could be patient for a little while longer. She could do this. It would be like a bus tour, or a long-haul flight. All she had to do was enjoy the ride.
In a determined effort to live in the moment, she savored a bite of her favorite ice cream. “So how did you guys end up working with my grump of a warden?”
Chapter Four