Another animated alley on Shadow World Chicago’s North Side. This one was especially detailed, Barwick thought. She walked her avatar up to one of the walls until her nose was right against it. Every brick was different, flawed in its own way. She could see mortar breaking apart, and the faded color of old graffiti tags. Above her, the fire escape creaked from old age and dropped water on her shoulder. She wondered if programmers had done this in every alley, on every street, in every Shadow World town in the world. Or was it just this one? Was this alley special? Some sort of software beta test?
The dead avatar on the pavement belonged to Victoria Persino, stabbed and dumped. She had $300 in cash and a diamond engagement ring in her inventory. Another gamer thrill kill. Or, if you believed Justin – Sally looked up. Speak of the devil.
“So whaddya say, Jimmy Olson?” Sally said into her headset. “Is the Wicker Man online tonight?”
Shadow Justin looked down at the body but didn’t study it the way he usually did. He didn’t even photograph it. “Sally, yeah. Looks that way.” He walked the perimeter of the crime scene, but she could tell from his silence he had something on his mind, and she waited patiently for him to come out with it. “I have something I want to talk with you about.” He looked behind him and then got closer, as if he didn’t want the cops to hear him.
“What is it?”
“Sally, I was hoping you could do me a favor,” he said. “I want you to look into somebody for me.”
“What do you mean, look into?”
“I mean look into. Check him out. See what you can find.”
“Who is he?”
“His name’s Sam Coyne. Rich guy. Lives downtown. He’s a lawyer for a firm called Ginsburg and Addams.”
“What’s this about?”
“I just need to know as much about him as I can.”
Justin must be tired of getting shit from me for his crazy Wicker Man conspiracies, Sally thought. He’s trying to pretend this is about something else. “What happened? Did you find out you were adopted and this guy’s your real dad or something?”
“Something like that. Yeah,” Justin said.
Liar, she thought.
“Can you do it?”
“You’re my buddy. My protege. I am sworn to look out for you, so I’ll see what there is to see.”
“Thanks,” Justin said.
Barwick’s avatar pointed to the body on the ground. The detail on this girl was much more sophisticated than the detail on Sally or Justin or anyone else Sally had ever met inside the game. Her skin looked organic. Sally could practically count her pores. “I bet Victoria here just signed up. Got the latest version of the avatar creator,” Barwick said. She had read in a gamer magazine they needed to upgrade the animation in order to keep the sex freaks happy. “What’s your best guess about what happened to her?”
Shadow Justin looked at the body and head-checked the length of the alley. “Maybe a thrill kill. Maybe not.”
“Come on, Justin,” Sally said. “What do you know?”
Justin wouldn’t let her in on it. “Sam Coyne, Sally,” he said. “Just please check him out.”