Page 44 of Hunter's Hidden Camera
“What happened, dude?” I ask.
Oscar shrugs. “I couldn’t get the window open, so I had to use a rock to break the glass. I was able to reach the lock that way. I climbed in and messed up the blinds a little, but we’re in.”
“Did anybody see you?”
“Nah, man, I was disgraced.”
“You mean . . . discreet?”
“Yeah, ain’t nobody saw me.”
Oscar reaches for the light switch. I grab his wrist to stop him.
“Don’t touch anything. Fingerprints.”
“Now you tell me,” Oscar says. “I touched the window, the blinds, the desk, the door.”
“We’ll wipe that all down before we leave. But let’s not touch anything else unless we’re taking it with us.”
I look around. Even in such darkness, I can tell it’s really messy. I see a couple of empty bottles of some kind of alcohol near the closet. There are clothes all over the floor and allover the mattress. The sheet and blanket and comforter are all bunched up in a big disheveled pile on the bed.
Because of the blinds, there’s more light near the desk. So I can see powder—white powder—spread out on top of the closed laptop on the desk. Is Nash doing cocaine?
I move closer to the desk. Next to the powder are little square plastic baggies filled with more powder. Next to the baggies is a digital scale. Next to the digital scale is what looks like a block of something wrapped inside a plastic grocery store bag.
“Is your brother a dealer?” Oscar asks.
“I don’t know. I mean, I know he drinks. But I never really thought about if he does drugs or not.”
“Not on your hidden camera?”
“No. Nothing like that. I guess I can imagine him doing drugs. But dealing? Nash? That’s crazy.”
“About as crazy as him killing his girlfriend.”
Oscar and I look around the room, being careful not to touch anything. Our eyes have gotten more used to the dark now, so we’re able to make out the room in a little more detail.
“What are we looking for?” Oscar asks.
I sigh. “I don’t know. My shoelace? Anything that belongs to me? Anything that will tell us what Nash is planning to do?”
“You’re the computer expert. Can you hack his laptop?”
“I mean, yeah, I know a lot and can do a lot and understand code and several programming languages, but I’m not really a hacker. That’s a totally different thing, trying to bust throughsecurity and firewalls and shit. I mean, I’ve got some rudimentary knowledge. I can try. I need gloves or something though.”
“Let’s just take the laptop with us,” Oscar says.
“I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”
Suddenly, Oscar and I both hear a groan, a human groan, coming frominsidethe room.
WHAT THE HELL?!
We whip our heads around to the bed. That pile, made up of the sheet and blanket and comforter,moves.
Another groan.There’s somebody underneath that pile.
Apparently, we didn’t notice because it’s so dark and so messy in here.
