Alanna had said that Sabrina had contacted someone at the FBI, who had blown her off. And Matt seemed to know the man Sabrina had gotten her referral from, which made her wonder how much she should trust Matt Lawson. Did he really want to find the truth, or did he want to stop her from finding it?
That dark thought made her nervous, especially now that she was sitting in a spooky, shadow-filled industrial area. She forced herself to breathe and focus on the facts. Matt had wanted to talk to Alanna. He'd told her he was going to speak to Sabrina's employer. He'd certainly acted like he wanted answers, and he hadn't charged her for stealing Sabrina's phone, so that was another plus in the pro column. She didn't completely trust him, but she could use an ally, especially one with the resources of the FBI.
She jumped when her phone rang. It was Julia, returning her call.
"Hi," she said. "Thanks for getting back to me. I wanted to fill you in on a few things."
"What's going on?"
"I found the person who sent the text to Sabrina Lin. Her name is Alanna Morris. She went to law school at Westbridge with Sabrina."
"That was fast. I thought all you had was an initial."
"I did, but I was able to figure it out from there. Alanna and Sabrina interned at the legal aid center on campus the year Landon died. During that time, they met with a student named Arjun Patel, who was confident my brother's death was not an accident. Arjun was desperate to get someone to investigate and wanted to know if Sabrina could help him get the authorities to keep looking for answers. Sabrina passed on his request, and the university and police said the matter was closed. A few days later, Arjun dropped out of school and turned off his phone." She paused. "Did you ever interview Arjun? Did he ever talk to you?"
"He definitely didn't speak to me, and I don't remember anyone by that name being interviewed. But, as you know, the investigation only lasted a few weeks before the brass told us to shut it down. There was no evidence leading to anything other than an accident."
"If you and the others had been able to spend more time looking for evidence, you might have found some," she said, still bitter about that.
"I don't disagree. Did this woman tell you what Sabrina found out?"
"Unfortunately, no. All Alanna knew was that it had to do with Landon. I'm hoping Arjun will be able to tell me more."
"Do you want me to track him down?"
"I've already done that."
"Of course you have," Julia said with an amused tone in her voice. "You should be working with me as a private investigator."
"I like being a journalist. I'm about to go see Arjun now. I'll let you know what I find out."
"Please do. I know I haven't helped you at all yet, but I want to. I've been wrapping up another case today, so I haven't had time to get into what we talked about this morning. I'm sorry about that. I'll have more time tomorrow."
"No problem. I just dumped all this on you."
"I kept copies of the file from your brother's investigation, just in case. I was going to look over them tonight. I'll see if Arjun's name is in there. Where are you now? Do you want me to talk to this man with you?"
"I'm in North Hollywood at a club called Cipher, which Arjun apparently owns, although he goes by AJ Patel now. I'm waiting for Special Agent Matt Lawson to join me. As I mentioned earlier, he's holding my theft of Sabrina's phone over my head. If I don’t share information, he'll charge me with obstruction. So, I'm sharing." She paused as a car pulled into the lot and parked several spots away from her. "He's here now. I'll talk to you later."
"Be careful, Haley. I don't want you to end up like your brother or Sabrina."
"Me, either." She ended the call, then got out of the car to meet up with Matt.
He gave her a skeptical look as he took in their surroundings. "Where are we?"
"It's an interactive gaming club called Cipher. I couldn't find much information about it online. It seems to be for serious gamers."
"Was your brother into video games?"
"Very much so," she said. "But I was not. I was never interested in the fake world of battles; I had enough real-life wars to fight."
"Someday, you're going to need to tell me more about you and Landon and how you grew up."
"Maybe later. Let's go."
They walked to what appeared to be the front of the building and a large door, which had no handle—just a digital keypad and a camera above it. As they approached, the screen flickered to life with text:
WELCOME TO CIPHER. TO ENTER THE SANCTUM, YOU MUST FIRST PROVE YOUR WORTH. ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN?
