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

I hesitated, not sure how much to share with Tyler. But, honestly, I couldn't figure what it could hurt at this point. "Connor's former partner at Peak Games," I told him. "Phoebe Lyons."

"What's she saying?" His gaze pinged between the three of us.

"Just that she thinks Connor couldn't have coded the entire game in the time he had between leaving Peak and signing with VizaSoft."

Tyler licked his lips, looking suddenly nervous. "Well, she's right."

Chase shot me a look. "She is? You mean, Connor was working on it last summer?"

Tyler sucked in a deep breath. "No. Connor wasn't." He paused, doing more lip-licking. "I was."

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling a frown form between my eyes.

"I mean, it was my idea. The game."

Sam snorted. Chase smirked. I gave him a get real look.

"It was!" he said, his voice rising. "Look, one of the perks of being an intern was we got to use all the cool software Peak had anytime we wanted. I was playing around on it one day, and Connor saw the snippet of a game I'd created."

"And you're saying that was Athena's Quest?" Chase clarified.

Tyler nodded. "Connor liked it. He said the style was innovative. He told me to work on more of it."

"How much more?" Sam asked.

"A lot." He paused. "Connor pulled me off other projects and just had me working on this one game."

I shook my head. "But the main character, Athena, is based off of Connor's girlfriend. She said she was his muse."

Tyler snorted. "More like VizaSoft thought she'd sell copies. Look, they pasted her face onto my ideas. Maybe she's Athena, but the coding was all mine."

"So you're saying you single-handedly coded the entire game yourself in one summer?" I asked, still unable to keep the disbelief out of my voice.

"Well, no. It was mostly just concept stuff. You know, world building, some signature moves and looks."

"Did VizaSoft know that they were sinking millions of dollars into a teenager's game?" Sam asked.

He shook his head. "No one knew." He swallowed hard. "You think they invested millions?"

Sam nodded. "And they—and Connor—stood to make that several times over."

"Off of your creation," Chase finished. I noticed he was watching Tyler closely.

Tyler, on the other hand, looked like he was going to throw up. "I-I don't know about any of that. All I know is Connor told me that since I made the game at Peak, it was his. He owned it. He…he said he'd give me credit."

"But he didn't," I surmised. "Because if he did, that would mean admitting he'd worked on it while at Peak."

Tyler's jaw hardened. "No. He didn't give me credit. He just took it and…"

"And passed it off as his own," Sam finished for him, shaking her head in disgust. "Totally unfair."

"Right?" Tyler said. "I mean, I knew those corporate guys were jerks, but I thought Connor would be cooler." He looked genuinely hurt.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" Sam asked.

Tyler shrugged. "Who would I tell?"

"The media," I suggested. "Press. I dunno, maybe even a lawyer?"

"Yeah, right. And who are they going to believe? The great Connor Simon or some lowly intern who can't even drive yet?"

He had a good point there. None of us had believed him at first either.

"What did Connor say when you confronted him about it?" I asked.

Tyler blinked at me. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, didn't you ask Connor why he didn't give you the credit he promised?"

But Tyler just shook his head. "No. I mean, I tried to call him, but he wasn't at Peak anymore, right? And the VizaSoft guys just kept saying I could leave a message."

"I'm guessing Connor never returned those messages?" Chase said.

Tyler shook his head again. "Jerk," he muttered under his breath.

"You must have been pretty ticked off," I said.

Tyler scoffed. "Wouldn't you be?"

I nodded. "I sure would." I paused. "Did you know Connor would be at Gamer Con?"

Tyler froze. "N-no." His eyes went to the nonexistent floor again. I'd have bet money he was lying.

"Tyler, were you at Gamer Con?" I asked softly.

"What would I want to go there for?" he said on a sneer.

I glanced around the room at the five hundred posters. Gee, clearly no interest in video games here.

"Are you saying you weren't at the convention?" Chase pressed.

He clamped his lips shut, eyes going from one of us to the other as he clearly took a beat to think about his answer. Finally, he said, "Okay. Fine. I was there. So were lots of people. So what?"

"So, did you see Connor there?"

"No!" Tyler scoffed.

"Where were you when Connor was killed?" Chase pressed.

"Whoa." Tyler popped up off his bed. "No way. Dude, you have got this all wrong. I didn't kill Connor!"

"He stole the game from you," Sam pointed out.

"And you were mad over it," I added.

"And he wouldn't return your calls," Sam jumped in again.

"Yeah, but I didn't kill him!" Tyler protested.

"Then tell us where you were when he died," Chase repeated.

Tyler looked from Chase to me to Sam, the fear in his eyes so real I could almost feel it myself. "I-I don't know. What time did he die?"

"Around 10:45," I told him.

"I was at the food court," he said quickly. Almost too quickly.

"You're sure?" I pressed.

He nodded, his sandy hair falling into his eyes. "At the pizza place."

"Were you with anyone?" Sam asked.

"No." His Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"You were at the con alone?"

"My mom had just dropped me off," he said. His eyes cut to the door, as if willing his mother to come corroborate his story. "I was gonna meet up with some friends later, but I grabbed a