Jerome had been at the new location for a few hours, and he watched with delight as one company after another arrived to deliver furniture and electronics for the new place. As he was settling in, he could quickly tell there were a lot of things about it he didn't like about the place. First off, he wasn't a fan of Thai food, but it was a small detail since there was a decent pizza joint just around the corner. Over the last couple of hours, Jerome purchased a lot of computer equipment and was in the process of setting up what he thought was going to be a very impressive command post. He didn't spend too much and thought for the amount of dough that he did spend, the guys were going to get their money's worth and then some. Jerome also picked up some office stuff and even a bit of furniture so the place wouldn't be so formal. With a restaurant downstairs, there was no need to worry about food or drink even though Jerome would often consider going elsewhere for something to eat. He had taken two members of Devon's team with him to hunt for the equipment they needed to conduct their case. One member who looked like a Goth reject was Pearl, but she preferred to be called by her Goth name: Moth. Jerome didn't like the name much, but since he was going to be working with the pale skinned techie for a while, he would have to get used to it. Her black hair and white skin made her look a little creepy, almost as bad as her Avril wannabe wardrobe. Jerome snuck a quick peek at her and realized that if she laid off on all the Goth stuff, she wouldn't look half bad. Just then Moth shot an ugly stare his way, and Jerome went back to work, uploading software to his new, badass command center that would be the nerve center of their information collection. As he was working on the computers, Moth seemed it necessary to share some information with him.

     "I can't stand Thai food." she sneered without looking at back at him.

     "That makes two of us." Jerome responded, also avoiding eye contact. "So you have at least I have one person to split the bill with for some non-Thai take out."

     "Don't count on it, nerd." Moth snapped back, her voice cracking against his skill like a verbal whip.

     This was going to be fun, Jerome thought to himself as he kept working on the computers. He was hoping that eventually this Moth would turn around and not be such a bitch as the case goes on. Devon must have her on board for some reason or another, and Jerome hoped it was being good at whatever the hell she does. Edgar and Devon came strolling into the apartment a few hours later after most of the stuff was delivered and put into their place. They began to look around and seemed all right with the set up that was in there so far. The apartment only had two bedrooms and a small kitchen, but it was the grand sized living room that allowed Jerome to set up shop rather handily. Edgar seemed impressed with what he saw.

     "Didn't break the bank here, did you sport?" Edgar joked, but deep down he knew that Jerome probably spent a few bucks for some of that stuff. He was hoping the stuff would help out and make things easier for them.

     While Edgar was more of an old fashioned PI, where the grunt work and smarts usually is all you needed to break the case. Yet he wasn't afraid of technology and most of the time the computer geeks were always a good source of information. This is why thinkers like Edgar were still able to make a decent living. Technology is great, but there is only so much it could do, and the same went for Devon. People like him were always going to be needed because technology could only find someone, dragging them back to the station or to the bondman was something only people of Devon's precise talent could accomplish. As he walked into the room, he greeted Moth with a smile and made sure she was doing all right. Turns out the two knew each other real well, but no one was going to question that at the moment.

     Jerome managed to crack an innocent smile, "I'll be honest with you boss. This stuff doesn't come cheap, but I swear this stuff is going to pay itself off not only with this case but with many cases in the future."

     Edgar wasn't always sure about stuff like this, but since he technically wasn't paying the tab it didn't bother him as much as it normally would, "Don't worry about it, brain boy. All I want you to tell me is that you have a plan to find this woman."

     "As a matter of fact, I do." Jerome said without taking his eyes off the machine as he was programming, "I thought about it while doing my shopping this morning and it just hit me."

     "Well, then." Devon said, "Get on with it!"

     "Do you remember when we were questioning Jessica about her mother she mentioned something about her addiction to shopping?" Jerome started, "I mean she wasn't extravagant or anything, but she did her fair share volume wise. This is something we could take advantage of and exploit without anyone detecting it."

     "This is interesting." Devon said as he seemed to be paying attention, "How to you intend to get her attention?"

     "Well I doubt the government would want her to be visiting too many shopping malls, especially if there is a chance they could video tape her making purchases in many big stores these days. So if she can't go to a store in person without exposing herself to gaud knows what, the best place for her to do her shopping is through..."

     "The internet." Edgar finished for him, "This is perfect, but I'm still at a loss. What site do you think would draw her in the quickest?"

     "Well, I remember Jessica mentioned something about her jewelry." Jerome said as he finally turned to face Edgar and Devon, "Most of the stuff she collected was cheap and not that expensive, but today they're collector's pieces and extremely hard to find."

     "So, what's your point?" Moth said rather impatient.

     "We sell her stuff," Jerome suggested, "Not just the same brand, but her exact stuff. Jessica is the only woman in her family after her mom allegedly passed on, so chances are she owns her Mom's entire collection."

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     "That's not bad," Devon admitted, "I don't know about you but if I saw my kid hawking my stuff, that would totally piss me off."

     "Exactly," Jerome said, "Not only should we put her exact stuff on sale, we put up the stuff the means the most to her. I'm talking about family heirlooms and other unique stuff that can't be replaced. We should even get Jessica to post it with a picture of her holding the stuff so she'll know it's her stuff. Once we have everything we need, we can put it online for auction."

     "How will we know where to sell it?" Edgar asked. "In case you didn't notice, the internet is rather gargantuan in size."

     "There are a few sites we could hit up," Jerome answered, "But Jessica did say that had a specific internet auction site she liked to use.

     "Odds are they'd let her use a big name site," Moth added, "Harder to track they suppose."

     "When we post something online," Jerome continued, "We'll be able to watch the bidding and should be able to tell who is bidding based on their aggression for the item. If her mom finds this stuff on sale, she'll bid big and bid often. Once we find someone who is bidding as if the stuff were theirs, we let her win the auction and use her IP address to trace her payment information to find her location."

     "Damn, that's bloody brilliant." Devon said, as he cracked a massive grin. "If she wins the auction, she'll also have to give us an address for delivery. Even if it's a P.O. Box, we'd still be able to stake it out and follow whoever collects it. If she's dumb enough to give us an exact address, I've still got a UPS outfit and a truck we can paint to make it believable enough to cut the mustard. We could go right to her door and deliver the item and make a positive ID. My gaud, this could actually work!"

     "The cool part is I think Jessica's mom has a huge stash." Jerome added, "We could post a few items up, and on various websites to spread out our reach when trying to find what auction site she uses."

     Jerome sat there with a huge smile on his face, hoping this would be what he needed to be in Edgar's good books for a while despite the massive purchases he just made.

     "In other words we have a lot of bait." Edgar acknowledged as he too was smiling from ear to ear, "This is a great plan and even if we do get a few false alarms, this is a good way to get a location without the man suspecting a single thing. I love it!"

     Edgar he patted Jerome on the shoulder and was very proud of his pick. Tuck was going to love having that brain around to help out. He also liked the fact that Devon was already on a plan to make contact after the purchase.

     "So you really like this idea?" Edgar asked, looking over at Devon.

     "It's good." Devon said as he turned away from talking to Moth, "There's very little risk from being caught by whoever left that note at the office. Chances are they're watching her because of what happened at the Vigil. If anything, she's likely on house arrest and not allowed to go out. That will in turn increase her dependence on the internet to buy everything, even her bloody groceries."

     "I never thought of that." Jerome confessed as he jumped in again, "If we can get her to pay for the thing via an online bank, we can use the account to trace her purchases. If the person who bought our item makes a lot of home purchases for everything, such as groceries as Devon said that would narrow our search a lot faster."

     Edgar could see where they were going with this, "I can use my contacts at the station to look up the..."

     "No," Jerome said as he help up a hand to stop him, "Any kind of legal trace through the cops would red flag the bad guys."

     "He's right Edgar." Devon concurred, "If we want to look at stuff, the best way to do it is by hacking into the database. That way we can look at the information we need without being tracked or traced."

     "And how do you plan to do that?" Jerome asked, somewhat curious.

     "That would be my job brain boy." Moth responded, as she was setting up a computer station of her own on the other side of the room, opposite of where Jerome was marking his territory.

     Devon walked up to Edgar and took him aside, "Edgar, I wouldn't be surprised if that print you ran earlier today sent them one already. I didn't think of that myself until it was too late. If this is a government agency or even a kind of black ops like operation we're dealing with here, they likely have their ear to all local checks. We both know how they work."

     Edgar knew exactly what Devon was talking about and he had to agree. Even he had forgot about the protocol, as he was so eager to get the prints scanned that it never dawned on him.

     "Fucking hell!" Edgar yelled as he slammed the bottom of a closed fist into the desk beside him.

     He was reckless and he knew it. This print was huge, and would clearly be a massive red alert to anyone who was watching for stuff like this. It would tip them off that they had half a brain and were on to them. Everyone in the room remained dead quiet and didn't dare say a word to Edgar who was visibly upset with good reason to be. He huffed for a few seconds and looked back to Devon who didn't feel to well about it either. He should have known better and he didn't think of it quick enough to tell Edgar before he did something stupid. They all felt bad about what had happened but at the moment they needed to build a bridge and get over it.

     Edgar took a deep breathe. "It doesn't change the fact that we are at a secret location, and we seem to have a decent plan that has a very good chance of bringing home the bacon. Devon and I will work out this mess later. I want you two to put up Mrs. Johnson's junk up for auction and draw her mother out. Until we do that, we don't have anything to work with."

     At that moment, there was a loud wailing of sirens in the background. Edgar and Devon both bolted to the large windows at the end of the living room and threw the drapes open. In the distance, behind a small mess of buildings, was a blaze. A huge one. They couldn't tell what building was on fire, but it was a towering inferno, the kind you only thought you would see in the movies. There was a red glow coming out from behind the buildings that was blocking their view and even though it was night the glow was making some of the smoke clearly visible.

     It was at this point where Edgar's pager went off.

     Edgar looked over to Devon who seemed for the first time in his life to be speechless. The detective picked up the pager and read the message. His eyes grew wide with surprise and Jerome couldn't believe what he was seeing. In all his time at the station, he never saw anyone there who had any history like Edgar turn that shade of pale literally in seconds. Edgar handed the pager over to Devon, and then bolted for the door and down the stairs. After looking at the pager, Devon looked at the pager and his face had a similar expression.

     "Bloody hell!" he screamed to no one in particular as he dropped the pager and ran after Edgar, eager to follow him to wherever he was going.

     Jerome was afraid to touch the pager, but Moth didn't seem to have a problem with it as she wanted to know what was going on. She picked it up and looked right into the screen to read the message.

     "Oh my God." She said and a tear started to run down her cheek, black from the makeup around her eyes.

     Jerome finally walked over and had a look at the message. The message only contained three numbers, but even that was enough to send a chill down his spine: 911.