Page 13

Twelve

Later, much later, they were back at their headquarters.

“You were there! A team of experts was there! How the hell did it happen?” Assistant Director Arnold was evidently more than disturbed by the chain of events.

Frankly, Vicky was surprised that he wasn’t tearing into them all in person, but he was on speakerphone and she, Jude, Aidan, and Carly were there together, putting the events that had occurred so swiftly that morning into perspective.

And, of course, it was late, much later in the afternoon when he had a chance to ream them all out for what had happened.

She didn’t want to remember the immediate aftermath of the elevator crash. She wished that she could wash the sight of Celia Smith’s bloody body, entangled with metal and decorative wood paneling, from her mind forever.

Right now, of course, she could not.

Vicky took a deep breath, determined to speak in a clear and concise manner that could explain the fact that they’d had little control over what had happened—and that they had managed to get at least one person off the elevator before it shot Celia Smith down to her death.

“Sir. We just got the warrants. Every cyber tech there was working as thoroughly and quickly as they could. We couldn’t have known that Nathaniel and Celia were going to determine that they just had to have special coffee from downstairs any more than we could know that someone was going to rig an elevator—”

“But you found the connection in Celia Smith’s office!” Arnold said. “None of this makes sense!”

“Sir, the minute Aidan accessed deleted files and found that Celia Smith had visited the murder site that was taken down and that someone had been utilizing her computer to access building specifics, I ran like a rabbit, I swear it, sir, to stop people—”

“And, thanks to her speed, we did save Nathaniel Wharton,” Jude put in flatly.

“And I’m sure he’s grateful, though apparently his blood pressure soared and he’s still in the hospital,” Arnold said.

“We have people watching over him, right?”

Arnold was silent for a minute. “Apparently, Celia Smith was the one involved and Celia Smith is dead. I—”

“Sir!” Jude protested. “Someone accessed a site from her computer,” Jude said. “Please, tell me that you can get someone over there—”

“All right! But if you don’t believe that Celia Smith killed herself, aware that the game was over, you’d best have another explanation,” Arnold said.

Clover let out a little whine. He must have known that “his” people were being laid out on the carpet and he wasn’t happy. Of course, since Arnold’s voice was coming over the phone, there was little he could do.

“All right, let’s end this confusion. All this was found on Celia Smith’s computer. She’s the one who is dead. The woman apparently had a fit about the firm being investigated, about a cyber crew coming in,” Arnold said.

“I just don’t believe it for a second,” Vicky told him.

“But, according to what I understand about her personality,” Arnold said, “might she not have been the type to prefer death to being disgraced, to facing a trial and prison time? Wouldn’t she see suicide as being much easier?”

“Suicide by crashed elevator?” Jude asked dryly. “Sir, the woman’s death…”

“The best that can be said is that it had to have been quick,” Aidan put in.

“Horrible, horrible, horrible!” Cary murmured.

“And, yet, as you said, Aidan, fast,” Arnold told them. “But all right—”

“Wait, sir, please. I did a number on her computer, I swear. And I’m good at what I do and you know it, sir. Someone accessed the site—I didn’t say that they’d created the site. The site was still created elsewhere.”

“She could have created it on a private computer and accessed it at the office,” Arnold reminded them.

“Yes. And anyone could have done so,” Aidan said.

“All right. Good possibility,” Arnold said.

“What?” Jude asked, looked at the others with a confused and quizzical frown.

“This situation remains far too serious. I wanted to make sure that you were still hotly in pursuit of the truth on this. Sure, Celia Smith might even have been in on it all along for some reason. But I don’t think that she was running it all. And I agree with you that being smashed to death in an elevator doesn’t seem to be a prime choice of method for suicide. The offices are closed tomorrow—all the businesses in that building are closed while the repairs are done. But that doesn’t mean you can stop.”

“Sir,” Aidan said. “We haven’t stopped once and even after the incident, our cyber crews in the law offices kept working. But I’m afraid it’s what we expected—office computers may have been utilized to sign on to certain sites, but also a personal computer has been used and—”

“Barton Clay. I think we need to pay the man a visit, Assistant Director Arnold. Under the circumstances, I believe we can acquire a warrant to tear into his home and every computer in his possession,” Vicky said.

“And there’s a reason you suspect that it’s Barton Clay?” Arnold asked.

Vicky looked at Jude.

“Yes, sir,” Jude said. “The connection between Paul Sands, Captain Quincy, and the firm had to do with Barton Clay. Apparently, for reasons we still don’t really understand, Celia Smith took over on the personal injury case that Barton Clay’s division would normally handle. There could be something there.”

“Our teams are working on information regarding Sands as well,” Arnold said. “Our latest reports from Tennessee suggest that Carlos Rodriguez has lost it completely—which means that he may be looking for an insanity plea. But since we’re going to need warrants for individuals and for many people there—I don’t believe the entire law firm is in on this—it is going to be a busy evening. So, get your thoughts together and get me the paperwork. Then go eat and sleep. Once again, I’ll have you set for the morning. Clay should be at his house if you strike early enough—no one will be in the building as you know.”

“Yes, sir!”

They all spoke at once. It was a solid chorus. Grinning at each other, they ended the call.

“Well, there’s lasagna in the fridge. I’ll get it heated and start back up, I guess,” Cary murmured.

“Paperwork,” Jude moaned. “I mean, might as well.” He looked at Vicky.

She shrugged. “It always has to be done. Hey,” she said, turning to Cary and Aidan. “Do you think that a site is back up or that the elevator—”

“Here’s the thing,” Aidan said. “We had warrants for everything in that place, but we had just gotten to the computers. Something people forget is that cell phones, our smartphones, are computers, too. I had started to collect a few of the phones when Celia slipped out of her office having one of her usual tirades and, Vicky, you and I stepped into it. What happened to Celia was certainly horrible, but Wharton and others might have been in that elevator, too, including Jude.”

“We would have been in it—along with Barton Clay and his wife,” Jude said thoughtfully. “Which leads me to wonder how one of them can be involved when they almost took the plunge.”

“They almost took the plunge, but didn’t,” Vicky said.

Jude shrugged. “Doesn’t matter, there’s the connection. Anything that—”

“Dixon is in the clear. He was one of the first to give me his phone. I have a list of the paralegals and attorneys who turned theirs over as well,” Aidan said.

“The elevator was hacked via someone’s phone,” Jude said. “Had to have been. There was someone at every computer.”

“That we know about,” Cary reminded him.

“I’m still saying phone,” Jude told them.

“And you’re quite possibly right. But finding that phone…burner, of course, is going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Aiden said. “Anyway…back at it. Oh, hmm, going to take Clover for a hike outside and make a call.”

“Clover will appreciate that,” Vicky assured him. “Okay, then…”

They sat at their computers. Cary was investigating sites, servers and more. Jude and Vicky filled out their forms. After his walk with Clover, Aidan soon joined them.

Cary looked engrossed and Vicky hated paperwork and filled it all out quickly—completely and thoroughly, despite her dislike of the desk work.

She could smell the lasagna heating.

And it smelled good.

“I’m on dinner,” she murmured, getting up.

“I can help,” Cary murmured. She was staring intensely at her computer, frowning.

“What is it?” Jude asked her.

“There was a site up that popped up in the last hour that’s down already! And it looks like…”

“Like?” Vicky pressed.

“It…was created using an IP located somewhere near the law offices. Usually, these things are bounced around—I mean around the globe—so that they’re hard to trace,” she said. “It appears to have gone up and down in an hour, but the message…”

Aidan was up, standing behind her.

“Is confusing, or maybe…maybe it’s innocent,” Cary said, frowning.

“It’s difficult to tell just what this site was selling,” Vicky murmured.

“But those who are buying know what to look for,” Jude murmured.

“Call Me for Your Personal Good Time?” Vicky said, reading from the site Cary had brought up.

“Right. And here are some of the replies that have been left on the site. ‘Slaughter, yep, the gibbons, the gibbous gibbons, slaughter them all,’ is one. There’s a reply. ‘Ah, got it, big money,’” Aidan murmured. “‘Worth it.”

“Gibbous gibbons?” Jude said.

“And now… Okay, I’m going to need to dig more to get to other deletions,” Cary said.

“I’ll get on it, too,” Aidan assured her. “Except I’m starving. We can eat and work. Vicky, Jude—”

Jude laughed. “We’re on it. Well, I should be on it. Vicky might be able to help you.”

“We’re good, just hungry,” Aidan said.

“And I’m good, but nowhere near as good as they are,” Vicky assured them all. “Lasagna it is!”

Jude shrugged and followed her to the kitchen. “If they get something—”

“We’ll need to head back out tonight,” she said. “I know. And it sounded like it was going to be a pleasant and easy evening. And one would think…”

“One would?”

“Well, I think that we’re getting close. And you’d think whoever was doing this would settle down for a bit.”

He shook his head, reaching for the plates. “Carlos Rodriguez,” he said.

“The man might have been a mastermind criminal at some point, but I don’t think he’s acting and trying for insanity plea—though I’m sure one will be in the offering. I think he’s stone-cold crazy. He can’t be doing this—”

“I agree on all counts. But whoever is doing this is a Carlos Rodriguez. Someone so convinced now of their own brilliance that they’re laughing while we run around.”

“But—”

“We’ll get them,” Jude said with flat determination.

“Jude, I just hope it’s soon. Yes, Celia Smith could be hard on everyone but no one should have died so horribly. Maybe she was on to something, suspected someone—”

“Barton Clay. Maybe that’s why she took his case.”

“But he had other cases,” Vicky argued. “So, maybe she was involved in this whole murder-by-AI thing and she was protecting her own knowledge or suspicions…”

“Her computer accessed the site,” Jude reminded her.

“But anyone in those offices could have snuck in and used her computer. I mean, seriously, if you were looking at something illegal, you wouldn’t want to use your own!”

“True,” Jude agreed. “Lasagna,” he reminded her.

“I know, I know. I just believe that, sadly, as law enforcement, we’re always a step behind because we need to do things—by the law. By tomorrow, any burner phone that was used could be in a million pieces and thrown out into Matanzas Bay!”

“That’s true. But if we turn into crooks or murderers, we’re no better than they are.”

“But what could be the endgame?” she asked, frowning and shaking her head. “I am sorry! I’m just frustrated.”

“Arnold and the crews that are on twenty-four seven will be on everything, Vicky. Try to take a deep breath. Dinner!”

She nodded. “Dinner and then…”

They were in the kitchen alone. He set his hands on her shoulders, looking down into her eyes.

“Then, recreation and pleasure when we can get it! Your room or mine? Or, wow, am I being too presumptive? I mean, maybe that was rude…”

She started to laugh. She realized that was one of the things about him she loved so much. He woke her senses in a way she had never known, but he completely respected her mind and abilities, and when things were the hardest, the most taxing…he could make her laugh.

“I guess mine. I mean, we could try out new things—ooh, such as actually getting dinner out for our hard-working cyber partners!” she said.

“Right!”

“Wait, Jude!”

“What?”

“Do you think that they…um, wonder about us? Oh! Or maybe the two of them—”

He burst into laughter on that. “No, no two of them. They’re both happily married to other people. I was lucky enough to get to Aidan’s wedding.”

“But they’re here together constantly. Don’t their partners—”

“Happily married to other people. Spouses who trust them, oh, and are also in the biz, in a way. Aidan’s wife is an amazing forensic artist and Cary is married to an undercover cop. Their only problem, she’s told me, is determining when they can have children. He’s gone a lot, too.”

“Oh, but then—”

“Sure. They both suspect that something is going on between us. And I’m sure they smile about it and make jokes when we’re out. But I’m also sure that they think it’s great. They like us both. And they may be cyber cops—but they’re not after us!”

“They’re not worried that our relationship could be dangerous to our work—”

“No. Because we’re both dedicated professionals and they know it. And…” He hesitated a minute and then shrugged. “And because any two people who work as partners long enough grow to consider the lives of one another paramount—we are expected to preserve life first, always. Including our own lives.”

He arched his brows to her, grinned, and headed out with plates.

Aidan and Cary were preoccupied; the two of them really could maintain total concentration on a task and consume a meal at the same time.

To make life easier for the two of them, Jude and Vicky were quiet as well.

And when the meal was over, the two of them cleaned up. In the kitchen, Jude slipped his arms around Vicky and said, “We never know what the future will bring! But we do have a wee bit of time this evening, and…”

She smiled at him, ready for the night. A shower. Hours spent in the heat of his body, to feel the searing touch of his fingers, his lips, the two of them, when such a relationship was so very rare in the life she had chosen for herself.

But then she heard Cary, reporting in to others, discussing the words on the site that had gone up—and then down—so quickly.

“‘Call Me for your Personal Good Time,’ I’ve sent encryptions for our work but, using that search term, yes, you can find it. And then almost a joke, ‘Slaughter, yep, the gibbons, the gibbous gibbons, slaughter them all.’ Then ‘Expensive.’ And lastly, ‘Worth it.’”

She was speaking with a superior in the department, Vicky knew.

But the words suddenly seemed to also be just for her.

“Jude! Slaughter!”

“Right, the rascals, like a kid—”

“No, no, Jude. Slaughter. Like Slaughter—or Matanzas—Bay or Matanzas River!”

“You think that something is going to go down in the bay tonight? Another boat?”

“Something. Jude, come on, the site went up and down. That’s all that Cary could get so far. Gibbous gibbons? Jude, it’s a gibbous moon tonight! And people from here…they’d know what it meant. We need to get people out there—we need to get out there. Oh! Not in anything with a computer. A simple motor vehicle!” she said.

She didn’t need to convince him. Whether she was way off or not, her argument made enough sense that he agreed it needed to be investigated.

“I’m on the phone while we walk, alerting all the powers that be, getting us a boat—with no computer. Tell Aidan and Cary what we’re doing,” Jude said.

He was on the phone instantly, and she explained briefly to Aidan and Cary and they were out the door.

To their old computerless car.

Jude turned to her as he finished his calls. “All right, Arnold is on it. Every law enforcement group in the area knows what we’re fearing. They’ll be setting up blocks, stopping any of the pleasure cruises. But if someone wants a bunch of ‘rascals’ killed, I don’t think that it’s going to be a tourist pirate ship or the like. I think we’re looking for another drug runner.”

“A drug-running boat to hack. But…”

“But what?”

“Wouldn’t that blow up the drugs?”

He nodded. “But it sounds as if someone is supposed to be eliminated. True, if someone was into drug money, blowing up the drugs isn’t a great idea. But you’ve got the Castillo San Marcos in one area, Fort Matanzas and, of course, technically, the bay is part of the river and leads out to the Atlantic. Something could be going in and something could be going out and…”

“You have pleasure boats out there and tour boats and…it’s sheer luck that no one else was hurt when Quincy’s boat wrecked and exploded,” Vicky said.

“All right, I’ve talked to Arnold. The police are aware, the coast guard is aware…”

“Wait! Jude. Their boats—I think—have computers, sonar devices, communication devices… We need to be out there in a pack of things that can’t be hacked. What if the ‘gibbous gibbons’ are those watching out for the law and not the drug dealers at all?”

He nodded. “That’s highly possible. I’m going to contact Arnold again. Someone in power might have thought about that already, so…”

They reached the port. A local agent was there, another man Jude knew and introduced to Vicky as Mickey Tucker. He was ready with their boat, a little speedboat with a motor—and nothing more.

“We’ve notified everyone through a few of our people in power that were already on it after that incident with Quincy’s yacht. Anyway, others will be out there in similar vessels. One of our people thinks that he found a hack on a coast guard vessel, so extreme care is being taken. Anyway, here.” He handed them a walkie-talkie. “Captain Damon and his crews are on the receiving end. If you see anything…get a call through.”

“Damon is going to be out here?” Jude asked.

“He’s already on the water in a small boat like this and he had two more teams out here, same mode.”

Vicky grimaced. “I hope I haven’t put people to tremendous trouble for nothing.”

“I think we’re actually all hoping that it stays quiet!” Mickey Tucker said. “Trust me, we’re all aware that we’re more or less sitting ducks until this is solved. The old adage is true: better safe than sorry!”

“I’m glad you feel that way!” Vicky said.

“Hey. I don’t want to be afraid to get in my car every day. Of course, until the judge, I’d only heard about a lot of cats being stolen through phones! Crazy. Anyway, I’ll let you get going.”

They thanked him and headed to the boat.

Vicky looked up at the sky. Tonight, it was cloudless, something unusual in her experience in her home state. And the gibbous moon, curved, more than half shining, the other part in shadow, was beautiful and high in the sky.

“I might be reaching,” she murmured.

“It is a gibbous moon,” Jude said.

“But it will be tomorrow night, too,” she said.

“So, if nothing else, we’ve taken a nice boat trip at night. And the young agent just informed us that a hack on a vessel was caught.”

“You’re right, of course.” She smiled at him. “It is beautiful out here at night.” Looking to the shorelines, seeing the ancient structures: Fort Matanzas guarding the bay; Castillo de San Marcos, an iconic landmark, against the shore. In the city tourists were headed out on the pub tours, tasting brews and being fascinated by St. Augustine’s history.

“Be ready for anything,” Jude warned.

“Of course,” she murmured.

“If something is coming in, it will be from the Atlantic.”

“Seems far north in the state. I always thought most illegal drugs came into the Keys or the Miami area—though, of course, I know the state is one big coastline.”

“Yep. Florida has tons of coastline, and a giant ‘River of Grass’ or wilderness in the middle. As beaches and Everglades, I love it, but…”

“Okay, so…that looks like one of the pirate cruises over there, a guy coming in from fishing, I think—even at night you can see there’s not much room for anything else in that boat,” Vicky murmured.

Jude revved the motor, and they moved closer to the stretch of water leading out to the Atlantic. He cut the motor again, and they drifted silently in the night, the gentle lap of the water the only sound around them for a moment.

“It is really beautiful out here,” Vicky murmured. “I remember being a kid, coming out to go on sunset cruises, dolphin-watching excursions…and all kids love a pirate boat!”

He nodded. “I still love coming out here. There’s nothing like being out on the water to feel… I don’t know. Feel the beauty of nature.”

“And,” Vicky added dryly, “sometimes the mosquitos.”

“Well, that, too, sometimes!” He looked out across the water. The half-moon, the stars, and the city lights made visibility possible.

He looked at her. “I’ve always known things could be hacked. Bank accounts, emails, all those kinds of things. And I know our cybercrime division is one of the biggest now. But I never thought that the crimes would turn so deadly. And if one person—or a few persons—have managed this…”

“Jude!”

“What?”

“That boat is coming in slowly…and it’s dark. I mean, this sounds ridiculous, but if it was a person, I’d say that it was slinking in!”

He looked where she pointed.

“You’re right.” He reached into a compartment by the helm and produced a pair of binoculars. “And there’s a second boat, bigger. Looks like they’re transferring something from one to the other and…hmm, looks like they’re armed as well. And they’re holding there…as if they’re waiting for something to happen.”

“You think a coast guard vessel was supposed to go crazy, attract any attention, and let the smaller boat slip through?” Vicky asked.

“Maybe. There are…four on the smaller boat. They have a bunch of fishing rods, too, just good old boys out for the night. Four, all armed.”

“We have our Glocks, but we’re just two.”

“Ah, but we have friends out here, remember?”

Jude pulled out the walkie-talkie that Mickey Tucker had given him. He pushed a button, and they heard a voice on the other end.

“Damon here.”

“Sir, we’re seeing two boats just in from the Atlantic. They’re transferring strange crates from one vessel to the other and we believe that they’re well-armed.”

“Hold position until we reach you,” Damon told him.

But it turned out that wouldn’t be possible. They should have looked like a pair of young lovers, just out for a romantic spin on the bay.

But they were seen.

“Down!” Jude shouted.

She was already down, aware that someone was shouting, “They’re watching us! They just ditched the patrol boats, they’re after us!”

Bullets were flying across the water.

Thankfully, while the men might have been armed, they weren’t crack shots. In the hail that came toward their direction, only one shot connected with the bow of the boat.

“Throw down your weapons! Federal authorities and the locals are on their way, too!” Jude shouted.

Someone fired wildly again.

But along with the chaos surrounding them, there was a new sound, that of several small speedboats coming upon their position.

Warning shots were fired from those boats, and Vicky heard another shout of authority, warning the shooters to throw down their weapons.

She wasn’t happy with the situation; in the near darkness it was impossible to tell if someone was holding a weapon, ready to draw it quickly when the boats came closer.

But someone from what they assumed to be a drug-hauling vessel cried out. “Guns are down, guns are down!”

The local authorities moved in quickly and Vicky couldn’t help but be glad.

No one was going to die tonight.

Their walkie-talkie rang, and Jude picked it up quickly.

“Damon here. We’ve got them. You’re free to head in if you like. We can manage this.”

“But we want to talk to them,” Vicky said. “And find out—”

“Tomorrow, after the warrants,” Jude said quietly. “Let these guys process them. If they learn anything, they’ll let us know right away. Vicky, you and your ‘gibbous’ moon and ‘slaughter’ have done it for tonight. Let them get this all started. We’ll work it tomorrow. Whatever the plan was tonight, you beat artificial intelligence.”

“No, not really. I mean, tonight they were human beings, not AI, and we had help!” She knew, too, that this was bigger than any two people could handle and that they had to work with the rest of law enforcement. And she was grateful.

“We’ll head in,” Jude said quietly. “Thanks!” he told Damon.

“Feel free to share all long shots!” Damon said.

“Will do!” Jude promised.

He revved the motor and turned their craft around. In a few minutes, they were back at the dock. Jude hopped out quickly and turned to give Vicky a hand.

“You okay?” he asked her.

“Yeah. Really. I just feel as if…”

“As if we left something unfinished?” he asked her.

“I guess. But, of course, I know that it takes a whole village, so I’m okay. And you know what? It’s getting late now. Long day, long day tomorrow. And…”

“Hmm, okay, it is unfinished. I have the keys to this thing—”

“And there’s your friend, Mickey Tucker!” she told him, seeing the agent at the end of the dock.

He grinned. “Home,” he said. “Um, you may not feel like a visitor—”

She laughed suddenly. “Maybe I’ve never felt more like one!”

“That will work for me,” he said.

When they reached the house, they discovered Aidan and Cary had cracked a bottle of champagne.

“Did you hear?” Cary asked excitedly. “One of the coast guard vessels had been hacked—but they found it because of us! They don’t know if it was just supposed to go speeding out into the Atlantic, creating a distress situation, or… Well, the way it was rigged, the motor could have exploded. We saved the day!”

“We saved the day,” Vicky agreed.

“You know, I’ve cracked all kinds of financial scams, but tonight… I feel as…as if…as if I really mattered! Okay, well, Vicky, I’m sorry—you’re the one who figured out ‘slaughter’ and ‘gibbous,’ but without digging into the cyber world—”

“Without you, tonight couldn’t have been,” Vicky assured her.

“Champagne?” Aidan asked. “I got permission from Arnold. Actually, the man suggested it!”

Vicky laughed. “A quick glass.”

They all raised their glasses. Sometimes Cary was right. What they did mattered. And they would know more about the situation the next day.

A few agents, she knew, couldn’t police the world or handle every situation.

“Well! Good night. Early morning again,” she said, careful not to look at Jude.

“Good night!” Cary and Aidan chorused.

She gave Clover a pat good-night and headed to her room. Once there she shed her clothing quickly and headed into the shower.

She heard her door open and close. A moment later Jude was behind her.

She smiled. She forgot the trauma of the day, the crashing elevator, the rapid gunfire when they were on the boat.

She turned into his arms and immersed herself in the intimacy of another human being, one with whom she was…

Falling in love with his mind and soul?

And inwardly she laughed at herself because she was also falling a little bit in love with the hard heat of his body and his touch against her, his fingers and lips upon her…

Ironically, an incredibly good ending…

To an incredibly horrid day.