Roadside Crosses (Kathryn Dance 2)
"Fair enough." She smiled.
"The game," TJ continued, "is DimensionQuest."
"It's a Morpeg," Boling announced, without looking up from his own computer.
"What's that?"
"DimensionQuest is an M-M-O-R-P-G--massively multiplayer online role-playing game. I call them 'Morpegs.' And DQ is one of the most popular."
"Helpful to us?"
"I don't know yet. We'll see when we get into Travis's computer."
Dance liked the professor's confidence. "When," not "if." She sat back, pulled out her cell phone and called her mother. Still no answer.
Finally she tried her father.
"Hey, Katie."
"Dad. How's Mom? She never called me."
"Oh." A hesitation. "She's upset, of course. I think she's just not in the mood to talk to anybody."
Dance wondered how long her mother's conversation had been with Dance's sister, Betsey, last night.
"Has Sheedy said anything else?"
"No. He's doing some research, he said."
"Dad, Mom didn't say anything, did she? When she was arrested?"
"To the police?"
"Or to Harper, the prosecutor?"
"No."
"Good."
She felt an urge to ask him to put her mother on the phone. But she didn't want the rejection if she said no. Dance said brightly, "You are coming over for dinner tonight? Right?"
He assured her they would, though his tone really meant that they'd try.
"I love you, Dad. Tell Mom too."
"Bye, Katie."
They hung up. Dance stared at the phone for a few minutes. Then she strode up the hall and into her boss's office, entering without knocking.
Overby was just hanging up. He nodded at the phone. "Kathryn, any leads in the Morgan girl's attack? Something about biochemicals? News Nine called."
She closed the door. Overby eyed her uneasily.
"No biological weapons, Charles. It was just rumors."
Dance ran through the leads: the mask, the state vehicle, Caitlin Gardner's report that Travis liked the seashore, the household chemicals. "And Chilton's cooperating. He gave the Internet addresses of the posters."
"That's good." Overby's phone rang. He glanced at it but let his assistant pick up.