Page 125 of Head Room

“Doesn’t sound like anybody is,” Diana said.

“Nope.They’ve traced bad actors who attacked independent journalism outlets in Hungary and Somalia to LLCs registered in Wyoming.”

“Big-scale hackers here?”Now Jennifer sounded far too interested for my comfort.

“More like using Wyoming as a blind for activities headquartered in places like Romania or Vietnam or North Macedonia or Bangladesh.”

“What kind of activities?”Diana asked.

“You name it, they’re in it.In addition to attacking journalism outlets and being paid by strongmen, others run ransomware hacks, create fake Facebook groups they build up with fake followers then sell to the unsuspecting—”

“Or unethical,” Diana murmured.

“—or create websites pretending to represent the rich and famous or infamous, using plagiarized and AI content, while selling knock-off merch and soliciting donations—”

“People fall for that?”Jennifer asked.

“All the time,” I said.

“Not everyone’s as online savvy as you are, Jennifer,” Diana added.

“No oneis,” Mike said.

Jennifer looked mildly pleased.I suspect her pleasure was onlymildbecause it was true.

“But how does it help these scam companies to be registered in Wyoming?”Diana asked.

“Makes them look legit,” Jennifer said.“When the user checks the history of the account—”

The rest of us made sounds of skepticism.

“—well, everyoneshouldcheck the history of the account.But in this case, even if they do, it shows Wyoming and they think,oh, nobody in Wyoming would ever try to scam me.”

“If that were true, I’d be out of one of my jobs,” I said.

“Don’t worry, Elizabeth,” Diana assured me, “Mike would still keep you on staff to investigate murders and help with hires.”

“But might reconsider if you don’t spill whatever else you’ve got,” he warned.“You said no sign of people in Cottonwood County being scammed by these fake businesses piggybacking on real ones.And when you were listing places with lots of businesses registered to one address, you didn’t say Sherman, so I doubt a commercial registered agent’s racking up more business registrations than we have population.So, what is it?”

I didn’t answer directly.

“There’s another kind of registered agent.One who serves ten or fewer businesses.Perhaps a commercial registered agent in training.Or one who prefers to stay at that level.They’re less regulated—”

“Less?That hardly seems possible,” Diana said.

“Less,” I said firmly.“With ten or fewer businesses they can stay well under the radar.”

Diana narrowed her eyes.“How are you connecting this to Sergeant Jardos and the cabin fire?”

“Connecting is far too strong.Wondering about possibilities.”

“What possibilities?Specifically,” Jennifer said.

“That’s the problem with possibilities, isn’t it?They’re not specific.Okay, let’s say a few potential connections — and lines of inquiry — occur to me.Starting with Jardos being concerned about something, being somewhat involved in the negotiations between the vets and the museum, and asking James about registered agents.”

“But how would one of these foreign scam companies be involved?”Jennifer asked.

I shook my head.“That’s way too concrete for these possibilities.Right now, we consider the happenstance of Jardos swimming in the same general waters.”