Chapter 65.

I sent Jess a message that I might be late getting home that evening. The video game store that Zach frequented was calling to me. Leaving the hospital early wasn't a problem. Everyone was so busy they hardly noticed.

In my jeans and T-shirt, I fit right in with the crowd in the shop. I spotted Zach the moment I entered, since he looked just like the picture he posted on his site. I had to play it cool, though. I walked over to the rack displaying the Grand Theft Auto games and pretended to study them, although I already had all that the store did – and an illegal copy of Five that hadn't been released yet. But it allowed me to stand not far from Zach.

"Is this one any good? Because the last one sucked big time." I held up GTA IV to show him what I was talking about.

"I haven't played that one yet," he said, eying me with a bit of distrust. If someone had offed your brother in your own home not too long ago, I suppose you'd be wary, too. "But I agree with you about III."

"Anything you can recommend?" He'd been raving about Mass Effect III, so I wasn't surprised when he pointed me toward the popular game. Of course, I already owned that one, too. "Cool!" I said, glancing at the description on the box.

"It's one of the best I've ever played!" They should hire him to do their advertising.

"I bet you've played a lot."

"Well, yeah."

"I used to play chess but video games are so much better!" I forced as much enthusiasm into my voice as I could. It helped that I actually liked to play.

"I'll say! Chess is boring compared to these awesome games. Ever play any of the Final Fantasy series?"

"Who hasn't? Way cool!"

"I wish I could play all day!"

It sounded like this kid was dying for someone to talk to about his passion. I could relate. "Guess you can't because you have to go to school."

"Oh, school's OK, except that everyone expects me to be as good at everything as Jared was."

"Jared?" Now we were getting somewhere.

"Yeah, my brother. He's dead." There was sadness in his voice, but also something else, something I couldn't put my fingers on.

"I'm sorry."

"That's what everyone says. But they don't know how it feels now that he's not around anymore. I mean, I could never live up to his reputation or anything but he was a good guy, and he was always nice to me, ya know? It's like there's an empty space where he should be."

"You miss him?"

"Do I ever! And now my parents expect me to do everything he did and be as smart as him and everything. It's lame!"

"How long has it been?"

"Just a few weeks. He was shot. In his bedroom. I mean, who shoots a kid in his bedroom and why?"

"Don't the cops know who did it?"

"Them? Nah. They're so lame. They never even asked me what I know."

"Do you know something?"

I might have overplayed my hand, because that shut him up.

"So what if I do. What's it to you?" he dared.

Time to back off. I shrugged. "I guess you got me interested, but it's OK. You don't have to tell me. You probably shouldn't tell me what you know." I could almost hear the gears going in his head as he processed my words.

"I don't know."

"Instead of telling me, though, maybe you should tell the cops. Even if they're lame, how can they solve the case if they don't know what you do?"

"Do you think so?" But he shook his head. "They won't listen to me. I'm just a kid."

"Don't you want them to find the person who killed your brother?" I pretended to try to remember the name he'd said. "Jared?"

"Well, yeah. Of course."

"Maybe if you tell your parents, they'll pass the information on to the police."

He shook his head. "They won't listen to me, either." He seemed hesitant to go on. "There's a newspaper lady who's been writing about it. Maybe I should tell her."

I suppressed a smile. Even better than Zach telling me, if he told Angela we'd have more of a legitimate reason to follow up. "Maybe you should tell her. Well, thanks for the advice on the games." I started to walk away.

"Mister, aren't you going to buy any of them?"

What could I do? I grabbed the last one he recommended, paid for it, and left the store. Once I was back in my car, I called Angela.

"You should be getting a call from Zach Philips," I said when she answered.

"Dr. House? What are you talking about?"

"Zach knows something and he told me he's ready to contact you about it?"

"You talked to him? How'd you manage that? And why would he tell me?"

"He knows you've been following the case. He trusts you, certainly more than me and, oddly enough, more than his parents."

"Uh, that's good," she said thoughtfully. "I'll let you know what he said." There was a hint of wonderment in her voice.

"Your welcome," I said.

She laughed, a deeper laugh than I expected since her voice was rather high-pitched. "Thank you. However you got him talking, I hope this will help."

"It can't hurt. Call me after you talk to him." I ended the call and started the engine, then drove back to the hospital, my work on Jared's case done for the moment.

Thirteen was lying in wait just outside my office. "It's beginning to look more and more like there are two different forms of hyperacusis, each linked to a different genetic aberration." She handed me the latest printout of our results. It was still in raw data form.

"So we weren't far off track." The stats indicated that those with a milder form of the syndrome, like Chris and his father, had a mutated gene on a different chromosome from those with a more severe form. The team had now examined twenty hyperacusis patients and twenty in the control group, and the trend was running true.

"We should be able to publish our preliminary results in the next few weeks." Thirteen was grinning.

"Well, don't let the promise of fame and fortune go to your head. There's still a lot of work to do to complete the study."

"Still, it's exciting to see our hypothesis proven, even if we had to modify it a bit."

I couldn't let on that I was impressed that things were working out so well. "Tell Jess I want a complete summary of the results so far on my desk by tomorrow morning."

"You know she's going to want to take a few days off later this week to move, don't you?"

"And I suppose the rest of you suckers will want time off to help her."

"Sure. She's become a good friend."

"Why can't the elusive boyfriend help?"

"She said we'll probably meet him finally on moving-in day."

"And I can just imagine what he's like. OK, since you've all been good boys and girls, I suppose you can have some time off to help her. But you'll be on call. Just our luck we'll get a new patient and I'll be the only one here to treat him."