Page 55 of In Cold Blood (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #1)

N oah was up at the crack of dawn with more drive than he’d ever had in his entire career. As eager as he was to proceed the night before, two conversations had to wait until morning.

Slowly but surely the fragmented picture was coming together.

With the shift change, most deputies were on patrol. Noah arrived to find the parking lot of the Adirondack Sheriff’s Office practically empty. He’d called Rishi the night before to ask him if he could come in early.

Sure enough, Rishi was outside the Sheriff’s Office, smoking in his souped-up Honda Civic and listening to rap.

The thump vibrated as Noah sidled up to his window and knocked.

He dropped the pane a few inches, allowing a cloud of cigarette smoke out and with it an earful of Ice Cube from back in his heyday .

Rishi cut the engine and got out.

“Thanks for coming in early,” Noah said.

“No problem. What’s this about?”

“You’ll see.”

He was working off a hunch, following a trail of breadcrumbs Luke had left behind in his own search for truth. As they stepped into the office that morning, no one else but Maisie Callaway, the receptionist, was there.

Her eyes widened. “Rishi Gupta. Are my eyes deceiving me or are you really here this early?”

“Hilarious,” he said as she buzzed them in.

They made a beeline for Rishi’s command center, at least that’s what he liked to call it. He slipped off his coat. He touched one of the screens and it lit up.

“So…?”

“I need a copy of the AVL of every staff member in the office, you think you can do that?”

“All of them?”

“All of them.”

“From what dates?”

Noah reeled them off.

“Then I need you to bring up my brother’s computer. I want to check if it’s synced to the cloud.”

“Sure thing.”

Noah paced back and forth, his thoughts circling from the past to the present. It was all a matter of timing. After printing out the AVL history for everyone, Noah slid them into his leather satchel.

Rishi fired up Luke’s laptop and browsed. He tapped a few keys. “No. It’s turned off.”

“What is?”

“It’s not synched with iCloud.”

“Have you already checked the cloud for files? ”

“No, I was only asked to gain access to the computer as it was password protected. It was then handed over to Deputy Thorne. She told me after that there was nothing significant on it.”

“Are you able to tell if any files were deleted?”

“By her or your brother?”

“Both.”

“I should be able to. It would take me some time but sure. I mean even if files are gone, they’re never really gone.”

“And online?”

“You mean if they were on the cloud?”

“Right.”

“I should be able to see.”

“If Luke had some files on the computer, there could be a copy in the cloud, yes?”

“Well, first, his cloud is off, so unless he turned it off after placing files on the cloud, maybe. Also, it’s not a copy.

It’s complicated to explain but it’s the original file.

Contrary to what people might think, iCloud isn’t a backup, it’s a kind of drop box-style sync repository.

Whatever files are placed on the iCloud Drive appear on Apple devices. The file is local, not backed up.”

“Unlike Google’s Cloud for Nest cameras?”

“Right. Apple synchs files that are on your computer with the cloud. If you delete the file on your computer, it will remove it also from the cloud when it’s synched.”

“But only if you synch.”

Rishi’s brow furrowed. “Well, yes, in theory. I mean, where are you going with this?”

“What I’m saying is if Luke had a file on his computer that was placed on his iCloud Drive, and then he turned off iCloud on this computer or shut off the wi-fi, and that file was removed from the computer, there would still be a copy on iCloud, yes?”

“Again, it’s not a copy.”

“Okay. Semantics. Whatever. Follow my logic here. It removes it from iCloud when synched. Meaning, if it’s not synched and you were to remove it from this computer and then access the iCloud via another computer, like a PC, would any files be there that were removed from this Mac?”

“You do know how to confuse me. Possibly.”

“Can we check?”

“I would need to know your brother’s Apple login. Give me a few minutes. I may be able to request a new password for his email. But first, I really could use some coffee.” He looked flustered, frustrated even.

Noah patted him on the back. Before heading off to get them a hot drink, he asked one more thing. “Oh, by the way, did you contact the phone company to request a list of numbers Luke phoned in the days leading up to his death?”

“Yes, it’s over there.” Rishi pointed to a stack of papers in a tray.

Noah took it with him. While the coffee was brewing, he brought up the number for North Country Community College and their biology department.

He scanned the sheet. There was no number for them and yet according to his browsing history, he’d looked at the college.

His kids were too young to go there. It was a long way off.

Working off a hunch, Noah phoned the college.

He got through to a female administrator and asked to be transferred to biologist Douglas Fairbanks.

His bio was listed on the page Luke had been looking at.

“He’s not in at the moment.”

“Would you have a personal contact number?”

“I’m not sure I can give that out.”

“I think you can see from your call display where I’m calling from.”

There was a pause.

“Give me a second. ”

She put him on hold and returned with a number. “Please don’t say I gave this out. I don’t want to get in any trouble.”

“You’ve been very helpful.”

Noah poured out two cups of coffee. He took one to Rishi, who was busy working away at getting into the iCloud. Noah went back out and placed the call.

“Yes, this is Douglas Fairbanks, who are you?”

Noah introduced himself and cut to the chase. “I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but, I have to ask, were you ever contacted by my brother Luke Sutherland?”

“Deputy Sutherland. Yes. We spoke. My condolences to you. I caught the news.”

“Appreciate it.”

Fairbanks took a breath. “He’d seen my name in an article.

He thought I would be able to give him answers to questions he had about a new form of drug hitting the market and how easy it would be to manufacture.

I spoke with him and also gave him the contact for a colleague of mine at Stanford University. Angela Cuthbert.”

“Why her?”

“She’s a synthetic biologist who has been on the cutting edge of research into the use of yeast to produce opioids for medical use.”

That’s when it all started to come together. Dax’s last word — yeast, Axel alerted to narcotics on Route 73, and the reason why High Peaks Pub and Brewery was able to fly under the radar for so long. “I sent your brother a few articles.”

“Could you send those to me?”

“I sure can.”

Noah reeled off an email.

“Thanks for your time.”

It was the breakthrough he’d been looking for, the missing link. While Noah waited to receive the articles, he went back in to see how Rishi was coming along.

“Any luck?”

“Nearly. A minute or two longer.” Rishi took a swig from his drink and went back to tapping.

“I grabbed his Apple ID email from here,” he said, pointing to the Apple logo in the top left of the computer screen.

“I went into preferences, then clicked on Apple ID. It shows the email there. I then requested to reset the password. I will then access the personal email to see if there is anything that can be salvaged from there.”

“That will take a while,” Noah remarked.

“For the average person. Yeah.” He looked up at Noah and smiled.

“But that’s why they pay me the big bucks.

” He muttered something about using a brute force tool to crack the password.

Noah observed the software rotate through countless variations.

“You might want to get yourself some breakfast. This is going to take a little while,” Rishi said.

While he was working his magic, Noah checked his inbox.

Twenty minutes passed before he received an email from Fairbanks full of links to articles.

Noah scanned the headlines.

A New Brewprint: How to use yeast to make plant-based drugs

The genetically modified yeast that can brew morphine from home

Making narcotics with yeast: Is home-brewed heroin the next big thing?

“You figured it out, Luke,” Noah said, muttering to himself. He continued scrolling and reading through article after article, consuming information about the breakthrough that had been spearheaded by none other than Angela Cuthbert from Stanford University.

She was quoted as saying, “If this technology falls into the wrong hands, it would be a gold mine. ”

“Nearly in,” Rishi said.

It had taken roughly an hour and forty minutes.

Once he reset the Apple password, he shut down the computer and logged onto a PC. From there he went to iCloud and logged in. As soon as he was in, he turned the laptop toward Noah. “There you go. Looks like Luke has multiple files.”

“Can I get a moment alone?”

“Yeah. If you need anything, give me a shout.”

Noah scrolled through the long list of files.

There were many photos of his family but then he saw document after document, articles he’d saved, and a slew of videos.

He clicked on one after another. Most contained dark footage shot from a distance.

As if Luke was on a boat, using a high-powered video camera.

It would zoom in and out. Some of it used FLIR technology.

Music could be heard. Dancing. Several boats bobbed in the water, moored at the edge of the island.

Then the shot switched to High Peaks Pub and Brewery.

Noah put a pair of headphones on so he could have privacy.

He went through several. It wasn’t long before he found evidence that would be hard to deny. It was the smoking gun he’d been after.

His eyes widened.

Of course, he thought.

He took out the thumb drive and downloaded the video footage onto it, along with any file he could find as a duplicate backup just in case.

“Noah?”

The familiar female voice behind him made Noah close the notebook and turn. Callie was standing in the doorway with a puzzled expression. “You been here all night?”

“No. I just arrived this morning.”

“A little early.”

Her eyes shifted from him to the screens.

“Did you find something of interest? ”

“That depends, did you?” he said, rising with a glint in his eye.

“On your brother’s computer?”

Noah nodded. “Nothing significant, right?”

“That’s what I was told.”

“Just as I thought. How did things go yesterday?” he asked, quickly shifting the topic. She noticed the change, pausing for a second before replying but with an edge to her voice as if wondering what he was holding back. “There was a good turnout. You were missed.”

Rishi brushed past Callie as he made his way in. “Excuse me. Hot coffee,” he said.

Noah logged out of iCloud, scooped up his phone, and dropped it into his leather satchel before heading out. “Oh Rishi, great job. Only one thing left. Scan Luke’s computer and let me know what files were deleted since the third of June.”

He headed toward the door.

“Hold on. Aren’t you staying?” Rishi asked.

Callie looked on as if caught up in a whirlwind.

“No, I figure I should kill two birds with one stone,” he said. “Text me when you have the information.” He made a beeline for the exit.

Callie followed in his shadow. “Noah. Hey. Hold up. Where are you going?”

“To see someone.”

“Should I come?”

He kept walking backward while talking to her. “No. But I need you to get a search warrant approved for the High Peaks Pub and Brewery.”

She threw her hands up. “On what probable cause? I’m not sure they’ll swing it.”

“Manufacturing and distributing narcotics. I’ll send you a copy of the videos to show the judge.”