Page 49 of Sinner’s Game

“You okay?”

I nod, then point to the crawlspace door. “So that goes to the owner’s closet?”

“Wait here,” he says. “I’ll find out.”

I shake my head, panic rising. “No. Ronan, no. Don’t leave me here.”

He studies me, then nods. “Stay close and quiet.”

I nod, willing to do whatever it takes not to be left alone while he slinks off into the dark. We have to crawl, which is less than pleasant, but it’s dry, and the light from Ronan’s phone gives off enough of a glow that I can at least see that the tunnel is clean and we’re not slogging through dead bugs.

After about five minutes, Ronan stops, then rolls onto his back.

“What is it?”

“We’re under the owner’s closet.”

“Are you sure?”

He doesn’t answer. Instead, he slides on his back a few inches, then whispers, “Bingo.”

“What?” I scoot closer, then roll to the side so I can see the area upon which he’s shining the light. That’s when I see the small metal plate on the tunnel’s ceiling.

“Hold the light,” he says, passing me his phone. “Keep it shining up there.”

I do, then watch as he uses a pocket tool to unscrew the four corners of the plate. He tugs it free to reveal … something?

“What is that?” It looks sort of like a giant circuit board. Like what I found as a kid when I took apart my parents’ old, broken computer.

“Something like that,” Ronan says when I tell him my impression. “This is where they’re storing all of the security camera feeds. I’d bet good money on it.”

“So whatever they were up to, it might be on here? Like maybe they were using the house during Mr. Big’s weeks to do illegal stuff?”

“Well, I don’t think someone was dressed up like you for a costume party.” He meets my eyes. “We’ll know more after we look at this.”

“Are we done now?”

“Yeah, we’re done.”

“You’re not going in?” I ask, glancing up as if into the house.

“There might be a cop on duty. Or the police might have found a way to hack into a live feed and see me. Or your double might be watching as well. We’ve already run a risk coming here, but that was one I can justify. I can’t justify traipsing in there on the off chance we might stumble across more information.”

We’ve already run a risk.

The words seem to hang in the air, and I look back, half-expecting to see myself rushing toward me on twisted limbs like that girl in The Ring.

“We should go,” I say as he shoves the circuit board into the pack he wore as we climbed. “What if there’s nothing on there?”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

“Right,” I say. I want this over now. I want all the answers now. But I know that’s not how this works. There may be nothing on that circuit board. But in the world Ronan lives in, that’s the kind of thing you have to try.

And if he does find something hidden in the bits and bytes of that board we’re stealing, I know he’ll tell me. And that we’ll deal with it together.

“How’s it going?” I ask him forty-five minutes later when we’re back at his place and he’s hooked up the board to his laptop.

He frowns and shakes his head. “The encryption is out of my league. I need to get the team on it.”