Page 105 of Wordless


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"Exactly."

"So you erased it?"

"Erased, deleted – either way, it's gone."

I stared across the table. "And you didn't even have their permission?"

He gave a low scoff. "Permission takes time."

"And how about the deleting?" I said. "Does that take time, too?"

"Not as much as you'd think."

I was flabbergasted. "But you didallof that just to delete it?"

"It wasn't just the deleting," he said. "I needed to see who was watching you with their phones out."

Ohhhhh. Right.Finally, I knew what he meant. Obviously, he'd looked at the footage so he could see exactly who was taking pictures or video.

Jack continued. "And once I knew who they were, the rest was easy."

Not to me, it wasn't."So what'd you do next?"

"What else? Track them down."

"Seriously?"

"It wasn't hard," he claimed yet again. "They were still at the convention center."

"And then…?"

"So then I go up, say hi, and buy the photos. Piece of cake."

He made it sound oh-so easy. But I knew it wasn't.It couldn’t be.

"So then what?" I said. "You just hand them some cash, and they send you the images? Is that what you're saying?"

"More or less."

"Oh come on," I said. "It can't be that simple. Like what if someone doesn't want to sell?"

"Then I talk them into it."

"But how?"

"It depends on the person. With some people, you ask nicely." He reached out and took a sip of his drink. "With others, you might have to get creative."

"Creative how?" I asked.

"Don't worry," he said, returning his glass to the table. "It wasn't necessary."

I wasn't quite sure I believed him. But then again, theentirething beggared belief. I considered everything he'd done from beginning to end. "So you didallof this in forty minutes?"

"Thirty-five," he said, "including firing the guard."

"What guard?"

"The security guard," he said. "I found him whacking off in the men's room."