Wicked Games (Hartley Grace Featherstone Mysteries Book 3) by Gemma Halliday (books for students to read TXT) 📕

"What did they want?" Sam asked.

"They wanted to know about Connor's personal life. Friends. That kind of thing."

"What did you tell them?" I asked, thinking I'd like to know about that too.

But Sophia shook her head. "I told them he didn't have one." She sniffed. "A personal life, that is. I mean, he basically lived online, you know? When he wasn't with me." Her sad smile appeared momentarily again, but it was fleeting. "Anyway, they are saying it looks like Connor was…killed."

That I already knew. I nodded sympathetically. "I heard the same thing."

"Who would do such a thing?" She lifted her eyes to meet mine, and I noticed her lashes were wet.

I licked my lips. "Did Connor have any enemies?"

Her gaze went to the ceiling and she shook her head, as if digesting the question. "N-no. I mean, he was a gamer. It's not like he was in the mob or something, you know?"

"What about professional rivals? Anyone with a grudge? Anyone who might want to hurt him?"

She gave a humorless laugh and shrugged. "No. Why would anyone want to hurt Connor?"

"What about at the company he worked for. VizaSoft?" Sam jumped in. "Did he get along with everyone there?"

Sophia sucked in a long breath, still shaking her head. "I-I guess. I mean, sure Connor could be a little short with you when he was working or snap at people when he was in the zone. But enemies?" She shook her head again. "That's a little dramatic."

So was bashing in someone's head with an Xbox, but I didn't voice that thought.

"Tell me about the new game he was about to unveil. Athena's Quest," I said, taking a bite of brownie.

She nodded, seemingly glad to change the subject. "Yeah, he was really proud of that."

"It sounds like people are eager to play it," Sam noted. "I know our friend Ellen was a huge fan."

Sophia smiled. "Connor had a lot of fans. Every time he'd see another pre-order come in, he'd get so excited. Like a kid on his birthday."

"We saw the line at the con," Sam said. "It was hecka long."

"A lot of girls were waiting to play it," I said.

It might have been my imagination, but I thought I saw Sophia cringe at the word girls. Suddenly I wondered how she'd felt about her boyfriend's many female fans.

"Like I said, he was a genius with marketing," Sophia answered, waving off any emotion I might have witnessed. "It's why VizaSoft picked him up. Athena's Quest was going to be huge for them."

"This was his first game for them, wasn't it?" I said, remembering what I'd read online.

She nodded. "Yeah, he just signed on with them in the fall. He'd had his own small company before that. Peak Games," she said with a lift of pride in her voice. "Or, he was the co-owner at least."

"He had a partner in the company, right?" Sam added.

Sophia's face clouded and she nodded. "That's right. Phoebe. Phoebe Lyons."

"Did VizaSoft buy them out or something?" I asked, sipping my water.

"Not exactly. Connor left the company after Hera's Pride came out. He said he wasn't happy with sales and wanted to go bigger. Then he signed with VizaSoft and contracted to put out Athena's Quest. It was going to be his breakout."

"Wait—that kinda sounds like he ditched his partner." I shot a glance at Sam. "To go put out a big breakout game with someone else?"

"Well, I mean, not like that," Sophia said, her eyes going from me to Sam. "I mean, they just decided to part ways."

"So it was mutual?" Sam clarified.

"I-I guess." She shrugged and shook her head. "Connor didn't talk about Phoebe a whole lot." She paused, her eyes going from me to Sam again, a note of suspicion in them this time. "Why do you ask?"

Because someone had murdered Connor Simon, and a partner who had just been cut out of making millions on his latest game had a pretty decent motive in my book.

"Was Phoebe at the con yesterday too?"

"How should I know?" Sophia said, her eyes going down to her manicure. Chipped. The only thing not quite so perfect about her. "It was packed. A lot of people were there."

That was the truth. "You don't know how we could get ahold of Phoebe, do you?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I dunno. She's probably still trying to make Peak Games a thing." She sucked in a deep breath, as if talking to us had drained the last of her energy from her. "Anyway, you'll print something nice, right? Like, no trying to make him out to be some sort of sad statistic or something?"

I slid off my seat, taking our cue to go. "Of course."

"Thank you," she said. Then she slipped off her stool and pulled me in for a hug.

It was so unexpected that I froze for a second and just stood there with my arms pinned to my sides in her embrace that smelled of lavender and vanilla.

When she pulled away, her lashes were wet with tears again. "I just can't believe he's gone," she said.

Sam and I mumbled some more condolences as she walked us to the door, and I left feeling awkward and sad—like I'd done a really terrible job of comforting a grieving girl.

Sam blew out a sigh as we got into the elevators again. "I never thought I'd feel this sorry for a gorgeous model."

I nodded. "I feel awful for her." I paused. "Assuming she had nothing to do with Simon's death."

"She seemed pretty broken up," Sam added, hitting the button for the ground floor.

"She's also taking acting classes," I noted.

"That's a good point," Sam said. "But if we're