Techie willed the blush off the tips of his ears and took a shaky breath. Okay, so he’s not in trouble. The relief he feels is obvious from the way his drawn up shoulders lower. He nods vigorously and says, “Y-yeah, happens all the time. It’s ‘specially bad when it’s a, um, laptop v-versus a desktop, since you can’t switch out the parts.”Techie glances at the computer in question and cracks a timid smile.

“Desktop! Sh-should be a cinch to f-fix, then. I’ll need to buy some upgraded bits and pieces to r-rep-place the old ones. Probably your video c-card is fried from trying to run h-high rez programs.” Kneeling down to check that the desktop is powered on, Techie disconnects it from the power and affixes an anti-static bracelet to his thin wrist.

While he opens the tower’s case and scatters dust particles everywhere with a single hard blow, he asks the detective, “S-so, uh. What is th-this town known for? Your Chief said someth-thing like that before he left.”