Play The Part (Player Next Door Book 3)

45 | Millie Is An Empath

Hallo hallo, it's been a whole TWO DAYS since we last met, but I've been biting my nails to get this up. Diving right on in after that cliffhanger... 

Chapter 45: Millie Is An Empath

We were in Rahul's bedroom, huddled around his computer and staring at a grainy image.

It took me a moment to recognize.

This was surveillance footage of a neighborhood.

"What are we looking at?" I asked, feeling my heart rate fasten.

"You don't recognize the flowers you steal?" Luke answered, standing next to me, "It's my house."

We were staring at Luke's house.

Luke nudged Rahul's chair, "Explain."

"I hacked into my dad's computer records at the police station and granted myself access to all the electronic surveillance systems in this tow- ow!" Rahul exclaimed after Luke shoved his chair forward again.

Rahul rubbed his rib cage where his body hit his desk and pushed his chair back.

"Fine, fine, I was just joking," he turned his head back to look at us, "It's not every day that I get to be part of a murder mystery-"

"There's no murder," Luke said.

"There was Winnifred!" I corrected him, shocked he could even forget.

RIP sweet Winnifred.

Rahul's eyes opened wide in terror, "There's a real victim-"

"It was a cat," Luke interrupted, "We had a funeral. Now can we focus on what you found?"

Rahul rotated round in his chair and commiserated with me, "I'm sorry to hear about your cat. The loss of a pet-"

"It wasn't our cat," Luke interrupted.

Rahul scratched his neck, "So a cat you don't know died and that's why we're-"

"It was our cat to me," I argued, "Can you stop making me sound weird, Luke?"

"You don't need any help with tha-" he shut his mouth as he felt my elbow in his stomach.

"Millie is an empath, I can relate to that," Rahul said, playing peace maker.

"Can we focus?" Luke asked us both.

"Yessir," Rahul obeyed and pointed back at the screen, "Alright, so I didn't hack the police records because, a, it's too hard to hack and, b, that's a felony which would get my dad fired and me grounded forever. But, Luke had given me the rundown of the main blackmail events. Stuff happened at school, at Chad's party, at Millie's home and Luke's home."

"And in the car," I added, remembering the box.

"Duh, the car," Rahul repeated, scribbling it down in his notepad, "Ok. So I tried to scout out what I could find in each of these places. Neither you nor Luke have security cameras at home which, honestly, you should get given how often this blackmailer is breaking in."

"We're still working on a lock for the front door," Luke said, ignoring his own safety.

"Who doesn't lock their front door?" Rahul asked like Luke was crazy and continued with his story, "Never mind. But... then... I found surveillance that covered Luke's house."

"Is that angle coming from his neighbor's home?" I squinted to see closer.

"Ringadingding," Rahul clapped.