LUCID Nightmare

  ***

  One week later, Clay read Tony’s obituary in the local paper. Tony was only forty-two years old. Cause of death was not disclosed. Clay felt impending doom lurking. He knew it would be just a matter of time before Aaron would reappear to take his life. Clay wasn’t ready to give up so easily. He was no longer afraid, he was pissed off.

  Later in the week

  While Clay was at a doctor’s appointment, Claire let herself in and waited for his return.

  Knock, knock, knock. “Hi, it’s me, Andy, the IT guy. I have Clay’s computer.”

  Claire greeted her visitor at the door. “Sorry, Clay isn’t here at the moment, but he’ll be back later,” Claire said.

  “No worries, I’ll set up the computer for him, so it’s all ready to go when he gets back. I’ll circle back later for payment. Is that okay?”

  Claire obliged and let Andy in. Within ten minutes Andy was firing up the computer.

  “All done, now. I’ll be on my way,” he said.

  Claire stopped Andy before he made it out the door. “Excuse me, Andy. What was the problem with the computer?”

  “Well, I’ve seen worse cases, but this one was pretty bad. Lots of malware.”

  “What is Ukash?” Claire asked. She braced herself for the worst.

  “Ukash. That’s the biggest scam around. Many of my clients paid good money thinking it was legit. It’s a complete scam.”

  Andy continued, “One reason why his computer was running so slow was Clay had all his movies on the hard drive.”

  “What movies?”

  “I don’t know; I just moved them all onto a memory stick to optimize efficiency. I inserted the memory stick into the USB port; he can’t miss it.”

  Claire had one more question. “How much time does he have on his antivirus software?”

  “He’s got plenty of time. He purchased the three-year option just a few months ago… Excuse me, Miss. Are you alright? Can I get you a tissue? Miss?”