by Kat Wheeler
She was saved from answering too quickly by the waiter bringing their plates. By the time he walked away, she’d put away her anger and was mostly feeling disappointed.
“You know, I thought you were the kind of cop who would see this through.” She reached into her bag, grabbed two twenties, and threw them on the table. “There’s evidence out there, Will, and regardless of what it’ll prove, it’s a loose end. People have died. I almost died. Don’t you think we deserve the truth?”
And with that, she walked out. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed that he didn’t even try to stop her.
Chapter Thirty-eight
“I’m sorry” and “my bad” mean the same thing. Unless you’re at a funeral.
Funerals were never fun. She’d gotten a rental car from her insurance company the day before and had planned to keep it for at least a few weeks until she could buy a new Jeep. She’d covered up the stitches on her forehead to the best of her ability, but she knew they still looked awful. The service was crowded with people from SmartTech, and Cameron could feel some of the looks she got were less than friendly, but Bill and Phil stood by her side, and the coworkers who did speak to her were kind. She’d gotten so many strange looks during the service at the church, she couldn’t tell if they were staring at the bandage or if it was her residual guilt making her feel judged. She wouldn’t have made it through without her team. They met her outside the church and didn’t leave her alone for a minute. It hurt seeing people who were her friends and colleagues a few days ago standing in groups together whispering about her. She could only imagine the gossip and what rumors were spreading.
The service seemed to last forever. It was an insanely long Catholic production, and the longer she sat on the hard wooden pew, the more she felt like the walls of the cathedral were closing in on her. Anxiety crept in when she saw Steve, and the hard stare he gave her ate at her until she thought she couldn’t breathe. It was a relief when it was over; she had to will herself to keep a steady pace next to Bill and Phil and not sprint out the door. It was so painful that she debated not going on to the cemetery, but she knew she couldn’t live with herself if she did. She wasn’t a coward; she hadn’t stopped searching for Casey’s killer even after she’d been attacked, and she wouldn’t let fear push her away from saying her final goodbye either. He was her friend; he deserved that respect.
Standing in the cold, wet New Jersey morning with Bill and Phil, waiting for Casey’s casket to be lowered into the ground, made her feel so lost. The chill and the drizzle in the air made a sober occasion feel even more desolate. His wife hadn’t stopped crying since she’d arrived, newborn in tow. Several people she assumed were family had tried to step in and take the baby away, but she held tight, not wanting to let even that small piece of Casey she had left go. It was heartrending.
Cameron stayed away from Casey’s family. She didn’t know what she would’ve said, what they may have known about her involvement in his death. Maybe that was cowardly, but she just couldn’t face it. She was disappointed in herself enough for the day and didn’t want to add to it. She’d failed to convince Will that the case was still unfinished, and upon arriving at the church and seeing Casey’s widow, she couldn’t remember if his kid was a boy or a girl. What kind of friend did that make her? She was sure the team had sent a gift for the baby shower. She knew she’d gotten something off the registry and sent it from the three of them, but for the life of her, she couldn’t even remember the baby’s sex, much less its name. She was feeling shitty all around.
“C’mon, kid,” Bill said after the service, putting his arm around her. “Let’s get out of here and grab a drink.”
“It’s only noon,” she replied.
“So we’ll get Bloody Marys. Come on, I bet you didn’t even have breakfast. Phil, man, you in?”
“Yeah, just let me go tell Misty where I’m going.”
This prompted an eye roll from Bill and a smile from Cameron.
“What’s with the eye roll? You don’t like Misty?” she asked.
“I like Misty fine. I just can’t believe he jumped right back into a relationship so soon after his divorce.”
“He’s happy, and that’s the important thing. Besides, not everybody wants to be out with a different girl every night like you. Some people like being in relationships.”
“Whatever,” Bill answered, steering her toward the parking lot. “Let’s go get that drink.”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Teamwork makes the dream work
They went to an Irish pub located near the office. It was a comfortable spot where the work crew gathered after work at times for drinks to celebrate the end of a quarter if they did particularly well. And they made a killer brunch as well as fancy Bloody Marys with all the fixings, which all three of them ordered immediately upon sitting in their usual booth.
It reminded Cameron of her dinner earlier that week with Will, and that made her sad. Just days ago they were working together to solve the crime, and now she was on her own. Her disappointment in him was almost a tangible thing. She’d thought better of him. It wasn’t rational, but his refusal to believe that they hadn’t yet gotten the whole story had let her down. Such an unrealistic expectation of someone she’d just met.
They shrugged off all the layers they had put on to brave the cold that morning by the gravesite and stuffed them in her side of the booth as the boys packed in on the other side together.
“All right, kid, something is on your mind. Is it the job thing? I’m sure once you talk to Steve on Monday, that’ll all get resolved,” Phil said.
She nodded, appreciative of his support although she didn’t quite agree with his optimism, the “kid” remark glancing off her as she was used to the comment from him. She was the youngest of the group by ten years, and where it had annoyed her upon first joining the team, she’d come to recognize it for the term of endearment it was meant to be.
“It’s that, but it’s not that. I’m just not satisfied with the result of the investigation. I know there’s more to it, and the police aren’t going to investigate any more. They’re convinced they have it all figured out, but I know they’re wrong.”
“What about it makes you think there’s more to it?” Bill asked. “I understand I don’t know as much about it as you, but I’ve followed it in the papers, and it seems pretty straightforward. She was a nutjob.”
So she laid it out for them. Beginning with her discovery of the chip, taking it to Casey, his research into how it functioned, her investigation into Mark Minsky’s network, and taking it to the police. Once she got to the attack on her and the way Tessa had confessed, she had both the boys' full attention. She had to admit it was a crazy story. Unbelievable even though it had happened to her.
“So you see, I just don’t think she could’ve pulled it off on her own. Even if it was only a tool for keeping tabs on her boyfriends, which I still don’t buy. The whole resolution is just too simple for such a complex device.”
“But she could’ve made it,” Phil said. “Technically, I mean. She had the skills, right?’
“She did,” Cameron agreed. “But the scope of something like this is just too broad. Even if it had started that way, the implications of what a device like that could be used for would’ve been apparent. Especially for her. She was the VP of sales for SE. You can’t tell me she didn’t at least recognize the monetary value. And if she was as crazy in love and as desperate as everyone’s making her out to be, she surely would’ve brought her idea to those guys. Wouldn’t the idea have made her more attractive to them in her mind?”
Bill nodded. The most technical of their group, he would easily see where she was going. “I agree. So let’s break it down. The cops have gone through all the data and found nothing to incriminate anyone else, correct?”
“Yes, and that’s another thing that bothers me. Anyone
with the ability to build and manage this kind of technology would never be stupid enough to leave a video that would convict them. So stupid. I think one of the others set her up to take the fall.”
“I could see that,” he acknowledged. “What you need is whatever Matt Rodriguez found that got him killed in the first place. Your assumption is he saved that data, and that’s why he was killed.”
“Yes,” she agreed, getting more animated at finally having someone support her theory. “But the police are satisfied the killer got all the data when they wiped everything at SE and his cloud account. I think they’re wrong. They only found one cloud account. His business account for SE. I guarantee he had a personal account. Hell, my mother has a personal cloud account, and she doesn’t even know what the cloud is. There isn’t any way a guy that technically astute didn’t have a private backup. And if he found something that significant, I’m willing to bet he stored the answers there.”
“Okay,” Phil said, “so if he did have a cloud account or backups that no one knew about, where would it be? And how would you even begin to gain access to it?”
That made Cameron pause, reflecting on their morning. Silence descended over the table as she dug into her eggs Benedict. Usually, she’d have called Casey for any tech issues. He’d have no problem accessing someone’s cloud account, assuming she could find it.
“I know a guy,” Bill piped up after chewing a massive amount of the pancakes he’d stuffed in his mouth. “One of my dealers, he’s really good with computers, and not always in an aboveboard way. I can see if he has a password program you could run that would access that account if you can find it. I’ll call him today. I’ll have him send it to me, and you can throw it on a flash drive.”
That gave Cameron pause, not so much that he had access to something like that but the look on his face when he said it. “Um, is that something you’ve gotten from him before?” she asked hesitantly.
“During my divorce,” he answered, his face turning red. “My ex tried to hide something about her affair and our finances, so I did a little kracking. Technically all legal since we were still married, but still, keep it to yourself.”
She nodded and Phil laughed. Divorce was a common topic in this group. Turned out being a SmartTech sales rep wasn’t a conducive occupation for marriage.
“Well, that solves one problem, but you still have to find it. There are a million cloud hosting services available. How are you going to narrow down which one it is? You can’t test all of them. That would take forever,” Phil stated.
“Especially if he didn’t use his real name to register it. Then you’re screwed,” Bill chimed in.
That again brought quiet to the group, and they all thought about the problem while sipping on their Bloodys and tucking into the food.
“I just keep thinking about that T-shirt Casey bought me. You know, the one he got me after I got the tech team those ‘I’m here because you broke something’ shirts.” They nodded and she continued. “It said ‘There is no cloud, it’s only someone else’s computer.’”
“Well, that’s technically true, ” Bill answered. “But I don’t see how that gets you any closer to knowing where he hosted his cloud account.”
“It doesn’t. I mean, not really, but in a roundabout way. I was thinking where he would've been when he opened an account. He went to MIT. Surely he had a cloud account there? All students would’ve. Maybe he kept that one? It’s probably one of the most secure services you could get. ”
Phil whistled. “That’s a whole other level of kracking. Can your guy's program get into something like that?”
Bill nodded. “Shouldn’t be that big of a difference. You have a better shot at it if you try to access it from their network rather than remoting in. Could you find his old MIT email address? It’s probably the username. That or his student ID.”
“I can get it,” she stated confidently. “I did a ton of research on all of them when I was working with the police. They did too. I’m sure it’s in some of those files.”
“You still have the police files?” Phil asked.
“Well, some of the information was shared digitally. Can you blame me if I saved it all?” A slow smile crept onto her face thinking of what Will would say. “I put it in my cloud account.”
Bill snorted, tomato juice slipping out of his mouth. “The irony, I love it.” He cleaned the mess on his face, still chuckling to himself. “This means you’ll have to take a trip up to Boston,.
“Yep, thought of that,” she answered. “I can head up tomorrow and be at MIT first thing Monday morning. Should give me time to get in, do what I need to do, and get back to Jersey before my meeting with Steve. Can I crash at your place Sunday night? I’d rather not have any record of my trip.”
He nodded. “Of course you can. You know you’re always welcome. But maybe we’re thinking about this a little too hard.”
“How do you mean?” she asked.
“I just think we’re making it harder than it has to be. He was a tech genius. Isn’t it more rational to think he kept his own backups? His own server? And I’ve got to think it would be easier to break into his apartment instead of MIT. And if it’s not there, you might be able to find some evidence of where it would be.”
“Dude, you’re the genius,” Phil replied.
Nodding, Cameron agreed. “Good call. I’ve got his address in the files. Sending it to you both now. Oh fantastic, we’ve done projects in this building. Phil, can you log into the quote system and see if you can find any floor plans? Bill, can you go to the building website and get the apartment layouts? Let’s see if we have anything that’ll match up and give us what we need to get in. See if you can find what kind of locks they have.”
“Can do,” Bill replied. “What are you going to do about the cameras? You know this building has surveillance.”
“I’m not worried about that. Let ’em record me. Buildings like that usually don’t keep those recordings long. They write over them to save storage space. No one should notice I’ve been there. It’s not like Matt’s going to be coming home again. What I’m more worried about is getting past the doorman.”
“That’s easy,” Phil chimed in. “Just follow somebody in. Pretend to be on your phone and walk a few paces behind a group. When you catch the doorman’s eye, just point to the people in from of you like you’re with them. Works like a charm.”
Cameron raised her eyebrows at that. “Something you’ve done often?” Seemed like both the guys had some hidden secrets they were sharing today.
“Once or twice,” he answered with a wry smile. “I’m on this,” he said, resuming clicking away at his keyboard. “What are you going to do?”
“Me? I’m going to get us another round.”
She signaled the waitress and did just that, and the three of them sat in their booth engaged with their screens.
“Found the lock manufacturer,” Bill piped up. “This is cake. You just need a laser.”
Cameron smiled as she remembered the tech support guys teaching them that hack. “That’d be awesome, but remember, he took his HTH out of his apartment. I don’t think we can count on being able to get in that way. I think I’m going to go old school on this one.”
“What? The makeup trick? You think that’ll work?” Phil asked.
“No worries. I’ll go with her,” Ben answered.
“No! Nobody else is getting dragged into this. I made that mistake with Casey. I won’t do it again.” She looked at them both with exasperation and banged her head on the table a few times before finally resting it there. She looked up when she felt someone’s hand brush against her hair.
“You got your hair in the syrup,” Bill told her sympathetically. “I get it. I won’t tag along, but I’m not leaving the city tonight with all this going on. I’ll get a hotel close by and you can come by after. We’ll look at th
e data together.”
“Thank you, that’d be great,” she replied, wiping the syrup out of her hair with a napkin. “But here’s what worries me. If I’m right and Tessa wasn’t acting alone, that means someone out there has probably come to the same conclusion I have, and they’d be looking for the data as well.”
Phil shook his head. “I don’t like the idea that someone could still be after you. That incident in the city was way too close for comfort. That scar on your face is proof enough of that. Why don’t you just take this info to the police again? Make them listen to you?”
“They won’t,” she said confidently, flashing back to her lunch with Will. “It’s easier for them to just brush it off. They have their killer, and that’s enough for them. Also, any delay would make it more likely that whoever else is involved would be able to find it and wipe it before I can. I don’t want to take that chance.”
She could go now. Get in tonight and examine the data on Sunday. Better than rushing to her Monday meeting with Steve. Getting her job back was just as important, and she’d do better if she was fresh for the appointment.
“I should go now. Quit wasting time and just get it over with for good. Can you call your contact and get that program today?”
“No problem. I’ll have it before we leave this place,” he said confidently, getting back on his MacBook and phone.
She turned to Phil. “Keep this to yourself, please. With what happened to Casey, I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to either of you.”