by Kat Wheeler
“It has to be someone from SE,” Alan answered. “We’ve checked out his life completely. He was a workaholic. We can’t find any associations he had outside of work. No outstanding debts, no girlfriend minus his ‘indiscretions’ with Tessa Wells, he didn’t drink, gamble, or do drugs. The more we look at this, the more convinced I am his murder has something to do with Synergistic. And Synergistic is the HomeTech Hub.”
“And we’ve ruled out a random attack?” the captain asked.
“It was too complex. Getting into that facility with a hacked security card took planning. Random is out,” Alan replied.
“We got the medical examiner’s report back,” Will added. “Time of death somewhere between eight and midnight last Friday, as we assumed. Three blows to the head. No trace that helps us. No security footage, and it doesn’t help that most SE employees were at the CEO’s house in the Hamptons that night. They all alibi each other out. It’s at least a two-hour drive to his place in Southampton. It’s hard to believe any of the three people we’re interviewing today could’ve gone unnoticed for four hours. They even had a big toast at eleven that night, and we can confirm through multiple sources and with pictures that they were all there for that.”
“It’s only half an hour by helicopter,” Kim stated.
“What?” the captain said.
“Helicopter,” she said again like they were slow. “It’s how I travel when I go to the Hamptons. It’s much quicker, and you can avoid all the traffic. There are helicopter pads all over from Southampton to Montauk. A lot of people even have one at their house.”
“I imagine someone would’ve noticed a helicopter taking off and landing during the party,” Alan commented. Will recognizing his shock that it would be Kim who contributed logistics to their case as he shared the sentiment. Although, he supposed, being a bitch didn’t mean she wasn’t a smart bitch.
“It could be done,” Will added thoughtfully. “They could’ve taken off and landed from a neighbor’s house, somewhere far enough away not to be conspicuous. And there’s plenty of places to land in the city. Let’s find out if any of that group have a helicopter or can fly one. Landing a helicopter in the city has to leave a trail.”
“They could’ve hired someone to fly them,” Kim stated. “There are also charter flights you can take. They run on a schedule. Sort of like a taxi for the wealthy.”
“Good call. Let's run it all down. See if it would be possible for any of them to have made the trip. Have we considered the possibility of a contract killing?” The captain asked.
“We did,” Will answered. “We can’t get a warrant for the financials to check, but it doesn’t feel right. The murder was sloppy. The only thing that was professional about it was the technical part. They were efficient in wiping the security footage as well as the victim’s complete technical footprint. They got all his work. That only reinforces the idea that this murder is about the company and most likely committed by someone there. A professional killer would’ve been a lot less messy. And with their level of security, it would take someone with the familiarity of the company to get into the server room and delete all his hard drives. While it’s possible they could’ve given someone instructions to do it, it’s unlikely.”
“Agreed. What about the family?”
This time Alan replied. “They’re in town. We’ve given them leave to collect the victim’s personal effects from both the office and his apartment. CSI teams have already been through everything. They don’t know anything. Hadn’t seen the victim in months. Although they will receive a substantial inheritance, they all have alibis. We can confirm they were all in Texas. One thing was odd. We didn’t find a HomeTech Hub in the victim’s apartment. Either he didn’t have one, which I find hard to believe, or someone removed it. Maybe someone was spying on him as well.”
“Good work. Looks like we’ve got some solid leads. But we have zero evidence. Please use your interrogation time today wisely to find us some. I’m sure the ADA would appreciate it.” The captain stood and nodded at Kim. “Now if there’s nothing else, I’ll let you get to it.”
“One more thing, Captain,” Will said. “I’ve asked Cameron Caldwell to listen in on the interviews today.”
“You can’t be serious, Will,” Kim said. “We don’t need some salesgirl in here messing things up.”
Will ignored her, only looking at the captain. “If this case all ties back to the HomeTech Hubs, then we’re all a little out of our depth. None of us know much about it except for Alan playing Jeopardy! with it.”
“I ripped that thing out as soon as I got home last night,” Alan added. “I can’t shake the feeling that it's spying on me now.”
“My point being she might notice something we don’t. Or can tell us if they’re lying about any of the technical points.”
The captain seemed thoughtful while Kim piped up again. “This is ridiculous. We have our tech people for this kind of thing. Bring in Doug Pernick.”
“I’ve talked to Doug about this as well. This isn’t his area of expertise. He agreed with me.”
“Okay,” the captain agreed. “She can listen in behind the wall. She can’t be directly involved in the interrogation. And, Will, she’s your responsibility.”
“Understood, sir.”
“So, what? Is she hot? Can’t get a date another way so you’ve got to use work to get laid? So lame, Will,” Kim said, venom in her voice.
Will didn’t reply, knowing to engage a dialogue with Kim like that would just encourage her. She reminded him of some of the girls he knew in high school. So well behaved in front of the teachers, but when the adult’s back was turned, their true colors showed. She was also highly competitive with other women. He assumed that was what was going on here. She had no reason to oppose Cameron’s involvement. She just liked always being the smartest person in the room, so having Cameron around would certainly ruffle her feathers.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Legano… Illegano… Is gray area.
When Cameron walked into the conference room, she felt the tension in the air. It was on the small side, shabby on the surface. It looked pretty much like any other conference room she’d ever been in, but something about it felt different. Like the cop vibes had a presence.
She’d arrived at the precinct a little before noon. The officer who’d shown her up to the conference room had been polite and courteous, perhaps sensing her nervousness. Something about being in a police station made her feel like she was in trouble, like being sent to the principal's office or like her awful morning in Steve’s office. Her uneasy feeling grew when Detective Jones stood up to greet her. The look on his face was not entirely welcoming.
“Ms. Caldwell, thanks for coming in today. Can we get you some coffee?” he asked, leading her to a seat at the table in the middle of the room. At least this chair was a standard rolling desk chair with a little padding. It was a step up from the metal one they’d had her use in the interrogation room.
“No, thank you. I’ve already reached my caffeine limit for the day.” She felt like she was crawling out of her skin.
The table was covered in files, and as she turned to sit, she got her first look at the murder board on the wall. She felt something in her heart shift as she noticed Casey’s picture on the board. Instead of sitting down as she’d planned to, she walked up to begin studying the information there. Casey’s cheesy work headshot looked so out of place on that board. So empty, completely devoid of his infectious personality. He was dressed in a sport coat for the picture, and it made him look like a little kid dressing up in his father’s clothes.
She continued her perusal and saw a picture of the three principals at SE, who she’d researched the night before. Trey Howell and his two best friends, Tessa Wells and Brandon Reece. There were timelines and notes under each picture. Most disturbing were the crime scene photos of Matt Rodriguez
. It was so shocking she had to look away for a minute and catch her breath. She worried for a second that her coffee may come back up.
As she took a few deep breaths to steady herself, she caught Alan watching her. Well, so what if he was judging? She’d never seen a dead body before and was glad these were just pictures. She couldn’t imagine seeing a human being destroyed like that in person. It was almost too much as it was.
“You know Detective Justus, and this is ADA Kim Goodrich. She’ll be prosecuting this case,” Detective Jones added.
Will nodded at her, not rising from his seat, barely glancing up from the papers in front of him. His change in attitude from the night before was evident. She couldn’t tell if he was more withdrawn from her or just focused.
“I’ll be prosecuting this case if you can manage to find me a suspect. And preferably some evidence,” the ADA replied snidely. Her pinched face had an air of malice in it. “We’re so glad you’re here, Ms. Caldwell. I can’t wait to hear a salesperson’s insights into a murder case. I’m sure you’ll have all this wrapped up in no time.”
Detective Jones sighed, appearing resigned, and Will looked up to glare at Kim after her short comments. But both seemed accustomed to the ADA’s poor attitude, so Cameron tried not to take it personally. She’d met people like Kim before and knew confrontation rarely helped things, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.
“No problem. I’m happy to be here. I know I’m not a detective, but I have watched a lot of Law and Order, so I’m feeling pretty confident about this,” she replied with a straight face, now feeling completely out of place but unwilling to let the bitchy ADA push her around. She expected a little more support from Will after the break-in last night and how kind he had been to her at dinner, but she guessed things were different in the office than out of it. “What is it you want me to do exactly?”
“We have Mike Minsky and Trey Howell coming in for interviews today. We’d like you to listen in on the interviews and make note of any technical discrepancies you notice. Ms. Wells and Mr. Reece had an obligation in San Francisco they couldn’t miss, so we’ll be talking to them again tomorrow. Will you be able to join us then as well, or do you need to get back to work?” Will asked.
“Work won’t be a problem. I can be here tomorrow too if you think it’ll be helpful.”
“Meeting with your boss didn’t go well today?” he asked, finally meeting her eyes.
“Let’s just say I’ve got plenty of free time for the foreseeable future.”
“Did they fire you?” the ADA asked. Then, reacting to the disapproving glares of the detectives at her bluntness, she added, “What? I need to know from a legal standpoint if her being here has any conflicts that may hinder our prosecution.”
“Technically, I’m on suspension. But since that has never happened to anyone before, I imagine I’ll be fired as soon as my boss has more time to consult with our lawyers and HR regarding the liability he may face from my dismissal. It’s just a matter of time.”
“I’m sorry,” Will said.
“No worries,” she answered, pasting on a smile. “I’ll find something else. But to your concerns regarding your legal position, neither I nor SmartTech have done anything illegal to this point regarding your investigation.” Or anything that I’ll ever admit to, anyway. “I was given Mr. Minsky’s HomeTech Hub from his representative to test, as we do all the time for our customers. There’s a long precedent for it. You’ll find nothing out of line there.”
That seemed to satisfy the ADA, and she nodded.
“The first one in today will be Mike Minsky. What do we know about him?” Kim asked the room.
Alan answered. “He’s been friends with Trey Howell since they were kids. They were roommates for a time at a boarding school up near Boston. Look to still be good friends, and he was one of the primary investors in SE. He put up the money for Trey to start the business when they were in college and Trey's dad had cut him off. He’s still heavily involved with the company and good friends with all our suspects and the victim. We found pictures of the five of them together all over Page Six.”
“Too bad we don’t know specifically what was connected to his system, which devices they were spying on. Maybe then we’d have a better idea of what they were looking for,” Kim said wistfully.
“Um….” Cameron paused before finishing her sentence. “I can tell you that.”
“Oh God, I knew it,” Kim said, looking up toward the sky, her face still holding that pinched expression. “How’d you get that information? It was illegal, wasn’t it?”
“Not exactly. SmartTech was asked to troubleshoot problems with the control system, which includes anything connected to it. As an employee, I technically had permission to scan his system.”
“Technically?” Alan asked.
“Legally,” Cameron insisted, not about to tell them about her breaking in and taking his hard drives. Hopefully, it’d be a while before anyone would miss them. And she was sure the police would do a search of the property, adding more suspects if the theft was discovered. “It’s legal. I just didn’t tell anyone I did it. Casey died and I was suspended before I got the chance.”
Will shuffled back in his seat, looking at her with a little more interest than he had before. Glancing up, he rolled his eyes as the ADA got up to pace. “When did you do this?”
“Right after I got the customer information from Digital Lifestyles and Casey and I found out what the chip could do. I had the same thought. Before we brought our information to anyone, Casey and I wanted to know exactly what someone was using the device for.”
“All right, lay it out for us,” Kim demanded, her back turned to them. Her slim frame made her look fragile, in stark contrast to her sharp attitude.
“I’m afraid it won’t be very much help,” Cameron said, reaching into her messenger bag for her iPad. “Do you guys have email so I can send this list to you?”
All three of them dug for business cards and handed them over. Cameron sent the info to each of them. She was a little surprised Detective Justus even had email, and he must have read that on her face as she took his card.
“What? I have email. I’m not completely in the dark ages” he said, not looking at all offended. “Why do you say this won’t help?”
“Because this guy is seriously into technology,” she replied. She’d logged into the station's network using the password carelessly posted on the wall like in most offices and then connected via AirPlay to the TV in the room. Will startled a bit when he watched the TV come on and the list appear on the screen. She smiled at him. “As you can see, he has everything. Smart locks, shades, two laptops and a desktop computer, two tablets, three smartphones, surveillance cameras, smartwatch, fitness tracker, smart TVs, streaming audio, smart HVAC, and his smart home gear. He even has a smart refrigerator. And that’s just the regularly attached items. There are another hundred or so visiting devices. With all the data the hub was collecting, you could tell anything about this guy, and most of his friends.”
“What the hell are visiting devices?” Will asked, rubbing between his eyes like he had a headache.
“Anybody who went to his home and joined his Wi-Fi with their phone, tablet, laptop, whatever. Say he had a party and other people jumped on his network. The HTH would be able to access their data as well. And that includes stored passwords and information to all the places they had been as well.”
“Give us an example,” Alan said. “Say it’s a personal thing. We had some information that he’s in the process of separating from his wife. Heading to divorce. Is this something an angry ex could use in a divorce case? Or to gather information for blackmail of some sort?”
“Absolutely. You’d be able to tell everywhere he went via his smartphone info. Presuming he has the location setting turned on, and most people do by default, it would track him wherever he went. Pairin
g that with the fitness tracker, you’d always have his location even if he didn’t take his phone. Good info to have. Even better, you’d have full access to all information on his phones, computers, and tablets. Text messages, voice mails, any photos sent. You could also tap into his surveillance cameras. He didn’t have any inside the main house, but he does have them around the perimeter and in the pool area. If he was cheating there, you’d have proof. He also has a video doorbell. You’d have pictures of anyone who came and went and when. Very lucrative divorce info.”
“It’d be legal too. If she’s the wife, it's technically her house too. She’d have legal rights to any of that technology,” Kim said.
“Casey and I….” She paused, blinking back her welling tears. It was hard to talk about him. “Casey and I thought of this and discarded it. Mr. Minsky isn’t very concerned with hiding his indiscretions. We found a ton of pictures of him with other women all over the web. We didn’t have to look very hard. Seems a bit redundant for the wife to be behind this. She doesn’t need the ammunition,”
Alan seemed thoughtful. “Okay, and if it’s a business thing? Give me an example.”
“That’s a little more theoretical,” Cameron said thoughtfully. “I’ve been giving it some thought, and I can tell you what I’d do. Mr. Minsky works at a bank, right?” They nodded. “So, if he goes to work and takes his iPad and his laptop, and he logs into the wireless network there that’s secured, then when he goes home at night and the devices connect to the HTH, it would pass along his saved password information and most of the authentication you’d need to get into their system. It wouldn’t take much for someone skilled in technology to hack into that bank and do anything they wanted.”
“Holy shit,” Will breathed. “We could be looking at a bank robbery or securities fraud? This could be about corporate espionage?”
“It could be,” she confirmed. “But it gets even worse. It would do the same thing with any network he connected to. Most corporations have guest networks, like you do here, for visitors to log into. They keep all their sensitive stuff on another network only for employees. But not all of them do, and even if they do, sometimes people will put you on the regular network anyway. They tend to be faster and allow for better presentations. Happens to me all the time.” Kim was nodding along; it tracked that she’d be able to relate to this part. “Think about this. Mr. Minsky goes to meet a customer. By all accounts, his customers are large Fortune 500 companies. He has his iPad at their office, using the wireless access given to him while he was there. The same thing would happen. When he got home, that info would be transmitted as well.”