The Netscher Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  Darkness entered the edges of my vision, warning me of an impending shutdown. No matter how hard I tried to remind myself this wasn’t real, my brain wasn’t capable of distinguishing the difference.

  “Dude!” Vinnie’s avatar was in the far corner of the room, fighting off four warriors. The old man was holding his sword with his left hand, his right arm completely severed. I swallowed and pushed the rest of the Mozart piano concerto Allegro into my panicked mind.

  Pink’s young avatar with her pink hair and black-rimmed glasses jumped high in the air, swung her sword over her head and decapitated a warrior. She landed in a crouch, but was not fast enough to avoid the battle axe coming down at her. A millisecond before the axe entered her skull, a bright light flashed and everything froze.

  A flimsy curtain in front of the windows moved lazily in the wind. It was completely silent. In the game and in the living room. Then the warriors collapsed. As one they just fell to the floor, their weapons making hollow sounds as they hit the stone floor and carpet.

  Colin’s avatar was standing, his hand still stretched out to where the door handle had been. The wall and door had disappeared. I gasped.

  “Holy, bloody, fucking hell!”

  “Motherbleeper.”

  “Shit.” Colin’s eyebrows were high on his forehead. He leaned forward, slowly shaking his head.

  “What?” Vinnie’s muscle tension increased, his eyes searching the television screen for new enemies.

  “This is an exact replica of King’s office.” I was astounded at how precise the duplication was. The modern sofa was there, as was the nineteenth-century coffee table and the four wingback chairs surrounding it, as well as all the art on the walls.

  “Oh.” Vinnie relaxed slightly. “Is this it then? We’ve reached the last level?”

  “Seems so.” Colin’s avatar walked to a large tapestry hanging on the wall. “Wow. King had the exact same in his office.”

  “Which means the killer has a very close connection to King.” Olivia was also sitting on the edge of her seat. “There is no way anyone could get all the details right without spending a lot of time in this room.”

  “You’re right.” Vinnie’s old man walked to the bookshelves. “There’s a lot of stuff here. Are these books the same as well?”

  I looked at the titles. The killer must have spent a lot of time designing this virtual room. She had even got the detail of King’s first repair task right. But there was an addition. “The scroll.”

  “Where?” Colin leaned closer to the screen.

  “On the coffee table that King’s dad helped him restore.”

  “So it is.” Colin’s avatar walked to the coffee table and picked up the scroll. Without any other action, the scroll rolled down. Colin frowned. “It’s in English.”

  “And it’s not even encrypted.” Francine’s voice was a pitch higher in surprise.

  “She’s not been hiding from us.” The more I thought about it, the clearer it became.

  “You’re right.” Andor scratched his unshaved chin. “If anyone had paid closer attention and had looked into the murders before us, they would’ve seen the pattern.”

  “She didn’t really hide the livestreaming either. And she hid it rather badly.” Francine tilted her head. “The only thing she hid was her identity.” Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed her laptop and began to type with single-minded focus.

  “What does the scroll say?” Nikki squinted at the screen, but didn’t move closer.

  “‘You’re too late.’ And, ‘Come and get me.’” Colin’s voice was a mere whisper. “Why did she write this in English?”

  “Huh.” Andor coughed once, then put his hand over his throat. “That’s a bleeping good question.”

  “If she’s Romani, why isn’t it in Hungarian?” Roxy asked.

  “Because she knew we were coming for her.” I pointed at the family photo on King’s desk. The one he had of his family was replaced with a photo of Colin, Manny and Andor standing outside Antal Udvaros’ house. “That photo was taken the day before yesterday. It must have been a few seconds before I left the house to join you outside.”

  “It’s from a very high angle.” Pink stared at the television. He leaned forward. “Yup. Most likely a security camera on a lamp post or something like that.”

  “She knows we’ve been looking for her.”

  “Then we’d better go and bloody get her.” Manny turned to Francine. “Tell me you have her name and her address.”

  Francine’s mouth was slightly agape as she looked at the monitor of her laptop. “I do. I have her name, her address and... wow... quite a bit more.”

  “Name first.” Manny leaned forward.

  “Lila Farkas.”

  “Lila? That’s mighty close to Lilly, as in the same name she used for her avatar.” Colin blinked. “That’s brazen.”

  “She’s been brazen the whole time.” Andor rubbed his throat. “She wanted us to find her. Maybe even wanted us to stop her.”

  “Or she just wanted to be noticed,” Roxy said softly.

  I didn’t take part in their speculations, but it was easy to agree with Roxy. If Lila Farkas had been bullied by the likes of Ms Taikon and the others who were known for their racism, it was likely that she craved recognition for who she was as a person, not her race. But that would apply if she was neurotypical. And I wasn’t convinced that she was.

  “If she’s been watching us, then she also knows that we have the scroll.” Colin got up. “And she’s waiting for us. Where is she?”

  “Hold your horses, Frey.” Manny sat back in his chair. “We have to be smart about this. How much do we know about this Lila?”

  Francine shook her head in disbelief. “Lila Farkas is the designer of Drestia and she also owns Arany, the gaming company.”

  “Bloody hell.” Manny turned to me. “You were right, Doc.”

  I nodded, but my attention was drawn back to Francine. “You have something else. Something that’s disturbing you.”

  “Disturbing might be the understatement of the year.” She turned her laptop so we could see the monitor. “I found her YouTube channel.”

  “Bleep!” Andor coughed once then got up and leaned in to see the monitor. “She has recordings of the last... six, no, seven deaths.” He straightened. “How did you find this? Was it the same as that numbered account?”

  “No. But I tried using that recording you found of István Koltai dying. I searched for more videos with the info you sent from that video, but I didn’t find anything.” She pushed her hair over her shoulder. “Just now I thought about how open she’s been with her crimes. So when I searched variations of her name in YouTube, I found this channel under LilKas. It’s like—”

  “—she wanted us to find it,” Andor said.

  “Can you put that on the telly?” Manny nodded at Francine’s laptop.

  “In a sec.” She worked on her laptop for a few seconds. Then the image of King’s office on the television screen was replaced with a list of videos. “Shall I play them?”

  I really didn’t want to watch people die, but this was important. “Yes.”

  “I’ll play the most recent first.” She tapped on the touchpad of her laptop and a video filled the screen. We were looking at Minister Tibor Bokros’ recreational room. He was sitting on the sectional sofa, looking straight at the camera which led me to believe he was looking at the television.

  The game controller in his hands and the focus on his face made it clear that he was playing a game. Drestia. The next six minutes were uneventful. The minister shifted a lot while playing the game and exhibited nonverbal cues similar to Vinnie, Pink and the others when their focus was solely on a game.

  Then he pushed a controller button and winced. He pressed his fist against his chest, his eyes widening in fear. He looked around and his eyes focused on something to his left. I remembered seeing a house phone against the wall there.

  The minister got up, but stood still
for three seconds, his facial muscles contracted in pain. Then he grabbed his chest again and collapsed. His head hit the coffee table, which twisted his body as he landed on the floor. He didn’t move. He was dead.

  I forcefully pushed Mozart’s piano concerto in my mind to keep the darkness from taking me. Around me, the others were exclaiming their shock and disgust at what they’d seen. I was just trying to keep my mind from shutting down so I could watch the other videos.

  It took me three minutes before I was ready. Francine played the others without pausing between victims. The videos had been carefully cut to only show the last ten minutes in each victim’s life. They also appeared unedited or altered in any way.

  None of the videos revealed any actionable information that we could use to find Lila. The focus of each video had been only on the victim and his last moments. Watching these people realise they were dying was deeply disturbing.

  “Why would anyone want to do this?” Roxy’s quiet question broke the horrified silence after the last video finished. “Why watch someone die?”

  “To feel vindicated?” Olivia raised one shoulder. “Or it’s like you said. She recorded this not so she could watch, but so that she could be caught. Maybe she just wants someone to take notice of her.”

  “Well, we’re bloody taking notice now.” Manny pressed his fists against his eyes for a second, then looked at me. “What do you make of this, Doctor Face-reader?”

  I stared at the television screen. It was displaying the seven videos in her channel. There were no other videos. Manny asked for my opinion again, this time with irritation in his tone. I didn’t answer. My mind had registered something important on the screen and I was waiting for it to reach my cerebral cortex.

  I blinked a few times in shock. “The tags she added to each video.”

  Francine narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, it doesn’t make sense. CME1, CME2, CME3. What does that even mean?”

  “Did you Google it?” Andor asked.

  “Yes, but it came up empty.” She shook her head. “The only thing about those tags that makes sense is that they are numbered in chronological order.”

  “When were they uploaded?” Colin asked.

  “All at the same time. Huh. This is recent. They were uploaded after Antal Udvaros’ death.”

  “She knew we would be looking for it.” Andor sounded certain of this. “Just like she’s been brazen with everything else.”

  “See me.” I pointed at the television screen. “Those tags are asking us to see her.”

  “Oh, my God!” Francine straightened. “How did I not see this? Of course. ‘C’ for see and ‘ME’ for me.”

  “Am I the only one that thinks this is incredibly sad?” Roxy pushed a curl behind her ear. “She’s making sure you guys can find these videos so she’ll be noticed. That’s heart breaking.”

  “I know of a case where the serial killer carved ‘help me’ on all his victims’ chests.” Andor stared at the television. “There was also the man with paedophile tendencies who committed armed robbery and shot the shop owner in the thigh to make sure he would go to jail. He didn’t want to act on his urges and thought kids would be safer if he was in prison.”

  “Wow.” Roxy put her hand over her heart and nodded towards the television. “Maybe this woman is also asking for help. That’s sad.”

  “She’s a bloody killer, Roxanne.” Manny turned to Francine. “What else do we have on her?”

  “Not much yet.” Francine was tapping on her tablet. “There are quite a few articles about her. But they’re all in Hungarian.”

  “I’ll translate,” Andor said.

  “In the car.” Manny nodded as if he’d come to an agreement about something. “We’ll first go to King. He mentioned one of his people who’d become successful in the tech industry. He’ll give us more intel on her.”

  “Why do you need more intel?” Roxy asked.

  “Because we don’t want to walk into a booby-trapped ambush.” Vinnie pointed his controller at the television. “If she created all of that, I won’t underestimate her. She’s most likely been planning her arrest for years.”

  “And then we’ll go to Arany.” Manny nodded again. “If she’s not there, at least we’ll get to see where she works and speak to the people working for her.”

  “May I make a suggestion?” Olivia’s lips twitched as she looked at Manny’s slippers. “You all might want to get dressed.”

  Chapter EIGHTEEN

  “Lila?” King sat down heavily on one of the wingback chairs in his office, his face losing colour. “Our Lila? Lila Farkas?”

  “We have irrefutable proof, King.” The regret on Andor’s face was genuine. “I’m truly sorry to bring you this news.”

  “How? Why?” King shook his head. “This has to be wrong.”

  Colin sat down on the chair next to King and leaned forward. He rested his elbows on his knees, his posture harmless, his expression kind. “Tell us about Lila.”

  Manny held out his open hand towards the other chairs and I sat down as well. He remained standing and glared at Andor until the detective took the last wingback chair. I supposed Manny had also noticed that Andor was not looking well.

  We’d come here in two SUVs. Andor had arranged with King for a visit while we’d readied ourselves for the day. I felt disconcerted by the change in routine, but had mentally finished writing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in D major on the way here. It helped, but still I had the most irrational need to start the day again. This time with my routine.

  Vinnie and Francine were waiting outside for us, Francine working on three laptops in the back of the second SUV. Vinnie had reluctantly agreed not to join us in the mansion, acknowledging that four of us were already plenty to interview King.

  I’d been keen to observe King’s reaction. That was going to give us an indication of King’s complicity in Lila’s crimes. From what I was witnessing at the moment, I could say with confidence that King had no idea Lila had been killing people.

  “How many?” King looked at Colin. “First tell me how many people.”

  Colin glanced at Manny, but didn’t heed the latter’s warning gaze. “We’ve found links to fifteen people. Strong links.”

  “Oh, Lila.” King put his hands over his face and shuddered.

  “Doc?” Manny’s question and inquiring look was becoming more common and familiar.

  “He didn’t know.” I leaned a bit forward to inspect King as he looked at me. “But you’re not completely surprised.”

  He shut his eyes tightly for a few seconds—typical blocking behaviour. Then he straightened his shoulders and rubbed his palms along his thighs a few times, building courage through this self-comforting behaviour. This was not easy for the leader of these people. “I never suspected she would do something like this. But I was surprised—pleasantly surprised—when she became successful and seemed to be content.”

  “Tell us about her,” Colin requested again.

  “Lila didn’t have an easy start. Her mom was forced to marry really young.” He blinked a few times, seeming to organise his thoughts. “You see, those days the leadership had different ways. There are some conventions in our culture that I value above all. But there are a few that I never agreed with.”

  “And you changed it when you took over the leadership.” Andor cleared his throat and held his breath as if trying to avoid coughing.

  King’s fists pushed into his thighs. “Forcing young girls to marry is simply not right. I won’t start a debate about the morality or ethics if girls choose to get married young, but forcing is out of the question for me. Well, Lila’s mom was forced. And Lila was the result of that union.”

  “Why was she forced?” I thought this might be important.

  “Because of their family history.” King paused. “You see, Lila’s great-grandfather died in 1966. He had some business that his wife should’ve inherited, but there were other business partners involved and she lost everything. In those
days, the courts weren’t kind to Romani people and gave the white people everything. So a couple of years after the great-grandfather’s death, the great-grandmother had even less. The little she’d had, she’d lost in the legal battle. Lila’s grandmother must’ve been about sixteen or seventeen then.”

  He looked up and left, recalling a memory. “I remember her. She was a quiet girl, a few years younger than me. Her mother was bitter and angry about losing everything. She also saw Lila’s grandmother as a huge burden. She wanted to get rid of Lila’s grandmother. She married her off to a man in his early twenties and the poor young girl became even quieter.

  “Lila’s mother was born soon after. History repeated itself and as soon as Lila’s mother was old enough, the grandmother married her off too. About five years later, Lila’s father died, leaving the mother alone and vulnerable. But she surprised us all. She broke the family cycle. She was one of the first in the community to push her child into early education.” He narrowed his eyes. “It was around that time that I became ‘King’. Those were funny and hard days. But that’s a story for another time.

  “Lila wasn’t too badly bullied at school. Unlike my Erika.” He glanced at the open door leading to the reception area where his niece had received them. “Actually, those two were friends at some time. Then something changed in Lila. Something happened in her first year at university. It broke her. She refused to talk to anyone about that. I couldn’t get her to tell me what had been so terrible.”

  “What do you mean it broke her?” I needed more detail.

  “She changed.” He shook his head. “No, change might not be the right word. She became worse.”

  “Worse than what?”

  “Than the psychologically unstable girl she was before.” He took a moment to control his emotions, wiping his hand over his mouth a few times. “She was always strange. And not in a good way. She’d take pleasure in damaging the other kids’ toys and would often set the kids up against each other. A few times I caught her watching the boys beat each other up because of something she’d done. It was her watchfulness and the smile on her face that made me realise there was something not quite right with her.