by R A Wallace
Sierra smiled at the laughter in the room. “We also connect them for convenience. We want to be able to control the temperature in our homes, monitor our houses from intruders when we aren’t there, handle our finances without ever stepping into a bank, and monitor our health. But computers now look a lot different than they did just a few years ago.”
“Our cars are getting smarter and so are our clothes. Smart textiles can be used in clothing to help track your heart rate, blood pressure, or other things and transmit that information.” Michael motioned to the room. “You are the programmers and cybersecurity experts of the future. It will be up to you to keep the world safe.”
“No pressure there, right?” Sierra laughed with everyone else as the group began to break up. She put her hand on Michael’s arm. “Good save. Thought I lost you there for a while.”
Michael shared a smile with her as a few students approached them.
“Mind if we ask some questions?”
Sierra glanced down at the name tag the young man was wearing. “Sure. Aiden, is it?”
“Yeah.”
“What’s your specialty?” Michael asked.
“Cybersecurity,” Aiden said. He put up one hand. “I know secure programming is an important part of that.”
Michael waited until the chuckles of the group died down. “What’s your question?”
“Which programming languages do you think we should focus on?” Aiden looked from Sierra to Michael.
“That’s a great question that we plan to talk about in our next session,” Sierra said.
“Will you be able to make it to that one?” Michael asked. He watched as everyone in the group nodded. “Excellent.”
“Are any of you presenting?” Sierra asked. She turned to the first person who raised a hand. “Lily? What’s your area?”
“Programming. I’m hoping I don’t make an idiot of myself,” Lily said with a shy smile.
“You’ll do fine. Try to enjoy yourself.” Sierra smiled to show her confidence.
“I need to go,” Aiden said. “I signed up for the next session.”
“It was nice talking with you,” Sierra said as the others followed him out. She turned to Michael. “Do you remember being that young?”
He laughed. “Don’t ask. That’s where I was when you wanted me to talk earlier.”
Sierra began gathering her things to leave. “Ah. Remembering our youth spent in some of these very rooms when we competed as college students.”
“You were pretty amazing back then,” he said as he followed her out of the room.
“You think?” She smiled up at him. “You barely spoke to me then.”
“You were also pretty scary back then,” he said.
“What?” She laughed. “How is that?”
“Hey, not every lowly programmer-in-waiting has the confidence to talk to a beautiful girl.” He stopped walking when she turned to look at him.
“You thought I was beautiful back then?”
He reached out and caressed her face. “I think…”
“Excuse me? Are you done in that room?”
Michael and Sierra turned to look at the two uniformed guards behind them.
“Ah, yes. Yes, we are,” Michael said. His eyes dropped to their badges. One said Shane and the other Bailey. Shane was the younger of the two and looked like he had a background in the military. Bailey was probably in her early forties.
“The room needs to be secured as soon as you are done with it,” Shane said.
“I didn’t know that we needed to do that, sorry,” Sierra said.
Bailey smiled. “You don’t. We do.” She shot Shane a look. “We’ll take care of your room now.”
“Thanks,” Michael said. He automatically reached for Sierra and put his hand at the small of her back to guide her away.
“Not a problem. Have a good day,” Bailey said.
Michael negotiated around a group of students and continued down the hall with Sierra at his side. Before he had a chance to continue their conversation, they were stopped again. This time, they recognized the pair in front of them.
“Javier, Tammy. Good to see you,” Sierra said.
“We’re so glad you were able to be with us again this year,” Tammy said. “It’s people like you who make our job easier.”
“Sponsoring a program like this must be an incredible challenge,” Sierra said.
“I speak from experience when I say that the students here will benefit from your work,” Michael said.
“That’s good to hear,” Javier said. “If you need anything to make your time with us easier during the next two weeks, let us know. We want to make sure that all of our volunteers have the most positive experience possible.”
***
Greyson stared at himself in the mirror and wondered how he’d ever gotten roped into his current assignment.
“Does this bikini make me look fat?”
He turned toward the voice. The woman in front of him was frowning. He wondered what answer he could possibly give that wouldn’t be wrong.
“It’s a good color for you,” he said.
Her face brightened immediately. “You think so?”
He sighed as she left him alone to his own thoughts. He looked above everyone else to the other side of the room. Makayla was taking her time looking at every bikini in the store. He wondered if she’d stayed awake all night devising the most painful afternoon possible for him. Maybe if he waited outside he wouldn’t be asked for any more impromptu fashion advice by random shoppers? He let out another breath. Waiting outside would mean Makayla was out of his sight. Therefore, it wasn’t an option.
He saw her hold up a bikini for closer inspection. He was pretty sure it was the same one she’d held up five minutes ago. Maybe she was getting closer to her selection? He stifled a groan when she put it back on the rack. He glanced at the time. They’d been at it for hours. Shaking his head, he finally crossed the room to join her.
“Maybe we should try another store?” he suggested. “On another day?”
She smiled sweetly at him before turning her back. He watched her pick up the same bikini she’d already looked at several times. Then she hung it back up. He counted to ten.
“Maybe if I wait outside?” he said. He knew he couldn’t do it, but it felt good to say it.
“Daddy said you’d stay with me to protect me,” she reminded him.
He looked around the store. “From what? No one else seems to want the same bikini.”
“You’ve been keeping track?” She turned to glare at him.
“Of the bikinis you’ve looked at? Sure, what else did I have to do?”
She rolled her eyes and grabbed the bikini again. “Fine. I’ll get this one. Are you happy?”
“Ecstatic,” he said, careful to keep a straight face.
“What if it doesn’t fit?” she asked as she stormed toward the cashier.
“It’s a good color for you,” he said as he followed her.
Chapter Six
“How was your morning?” Callie watched the pair share a smile as Michael pulled the buds from his ears.
“Good, thanks. We had a good group in our session today.” Sierra reached for her water before leaning back in her chair.
“Aspiring programmers?” Callie asked.
“Some of them,” Michael said. “A lot of them were from other areas.”
“We were talking about how old we feel compared to how young the students are,” Sierra said.
Michael grinned. “College seems a long time ago now.”
“Are you saying I’ll barely remember it in another ten years?” Ariana slipped into the room and stood next to Callie.
“With luck, you’ll have fond memories, even though some of them may be a little vague,” Sierra said.
“You won’t forget everything, of course. There are some classes that will probably haunt you forever,” Michael said.
“I think I have enough of those kind
from high school,” Ariana said.
“I don’t know. At the moment, I can’t come up with any from my time in high school.” Callie looked at Sierra then Michael. “Is there any chance you two have time to help me with something?”
“Sure. What’s up?” Michael reached down and turned his music off.
“I need to pick up someone online,” Callie said. “You know. I need to look appealing to a certain type.”
“Is this the catfish case?” Ariana asked.
Callie nodded.
“Do you want to be male or female?” Sierra asked.
“Why might that matter?” Ariana asked.
“There’s no definitive reason for why you might be targeted,” Sierra said. “But typically, men are targeted for their money.”
“Women are too, but might also be targeted for other reasons,” Callie said as she considered it.
Ariana looked confused.
“Don’t send compromising photos of yourself to anyone online,” Sierra said to Ariana.
“Ah, gotcha.” Ariana watched Callie consider her gender.
“I think since our client is a female, we should stick with that,” Callie said.
“I take it we aren’t using real photos of you, right?” Michael turned toward his computer.
“No. Too easy to figure out who I am and that would just alert the scammer that we’re on to them.” Callie crossed the room to stand behind Michael.
“Are you young or old?” Sierra asked.
Callie tilted her head back and forth as she debated the potential benefits of one over the other. “I might appear more gullible if I’m older but our client isn’t elderly. Let’s go with mid-forties to be safe. It puts us in range of our client.”
“You’re well off, I assume,” Michael muttered as he typed.
“I am,” Callie agreed. “Though we aren’t sure yet what this scammer might be after. It could be money, identity theft, or information they could use for blackmail.”
“Or home robberies,” Michael muttered as he continued typing.
“Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons people create false identities to attract other people,” Callie agreed.
“What’s your name?” Michael asked.
Callie made a face as she considered it then turned to Ariana. “Any ideas?”
“How about Kelly Kaiser?”
Callie shrugged. “Works for me.”
“Okay.” Michael sat back. “What do you think? I added you to two different sites. They both have the same information about you but one is geared specifically for online dating and the other is just a typical social media site.”
Callie looked at her new social media page. “I sound a little lonely. That’s probably good. It might speed things up and make me a target more quickly.”
“That’s what I was thinking.” Michael scrolled down. “You just need to go in and post some comments now. I sent the login info to your email.”
“Thanks. I’ll go give it a try.” Callie began walking out of their office. “This is so exciting. My first time being catfished.”
Ariana shook her head as she followed Callie out.
***
Simon finished entering the pre-dated checks into the monthly ledger. Since some of the residents of the retirement community returned to the north in the summer, they left checks with him to cover the costs for the duration they were gone. He entered them accordingly when the time came and submitted them to the bank with the other monthly lot payments.
He heard someone enter the sliding glass door to the front office area so he stood from his desk and went to look.
Kevin was just sitting down. “Oh, were you working here?”
“No, I was in the back office entering the payments. What have you been up to?” Simon walked over to a corner shelf where they kept business cards and flyers from local contractors advertising their services. It helped the residents when they were looking for someone to do some painting, pressure washing, or whatever.
“I took a call while you were out earlier.” Kevin checked the desk to see if there were any new notes since he’d last been there. “Some of the residents thought there might be a problem with the shower by the pool.”
Simon turned to look at him. “Oh? I should go check it out. What did they say, exactly?”
Kevin waved it away. “Handled. I went over to see what the problem was. They were right, the heat wasn’t working correctly. The temperature is all erratic. The people complaining the most seemed to be the group trying to use it first thing in the morning after the water aerobics class.”
“I have the number of the company that handles our plumbing in that directory,” Simon said as he pointed at the computer. Then he remembered that Kevin had contacted the same company for something else.
Kevin nodded. “Already called and they are on site. I was just over there now to check on it. The plumber they sent over said he had the part in his truck. We’ll be back up and running in no time.”
“Excellent.” Simon smiled. As he turned back around to straighten the business cards, he heard Howard’s voice in his head. Kevin wouldn’t really want to take his job. Would he?
***
After entering the billing information for a job Callie had completed the previous day, Ariana printed out the bill and got it ready for the next mail pickup. She glanced at the time on the computer and thought about the other half of her lunch in the fridge. Although the first half had been good at the time, something sweet sounded even better now. Maybe there was something else in the fridge that would work? If not, she could poll everyone else in the office and volunteer to go out for something. Michael was always looking for sugar.
She was passing by Michael and Sierra’s area on her way to the kitchen in the back when she saw Michael sit up straight in his chair and start looking around. She’d only ever seen him do that when food was involved.
She stopped and raised her hands. “Sorry. False alarm. I don’t have any food.”
Michael looked past her and smiled. Ariana turned and found Clara holding a tray.
“I got bored and baked some cookies. I hope no one minds.” Clara lifted the wrapper and held the tray out to Ariana before walking over to Sierra. Once Sierra had selected a cookie, Clara put the tray on Michael’s desk. “Is anyone here on the other side of the office?”
Ariana shook her head as she chewed. “They’re both out on cases right now but Callie should be back soon. If Michael leaves any, I’ll take some over to her.”
Clara looked around with a satisfied smile. “Well, since I’m here anyway, is there anything you need help with?”
Callie let herself in using the entrance on her side of the office. It used to be the entrance to the space when Clara Brzeski owned it. Since the office renovation merged the two spaces into one via a connecting door in the wall between them, there were still two entrances. They used one as the official entrance. Callie and Greyson used the other when they wanted to quickly slip into their own side without passing through the main office.
She could hear voices near Ariana’s desk. Not wanting to interrupt whatever was going on, she went into her office and turned her computer on. Once settled at her desk, she began entering the notes for the case she was working. She was happy to say that many of the legal firms in the city were now using Indigo Investigations for their fact-finding needs. It meant spending a lot of time looking things up and tracking information down, but Callie appreciated the steady income it provided.
“She is here. I told you we should have checked.”
“Sorry. I swear to you she was not there a few minutes ago.”
“How did she get past us?”
“She must have used the other entrance.”
Callie sat back in her chair with a smile on her face and waited for her half siblings to appear at her office door.
“You two haven’t changed,” she said. “You used to argue like that when you were little.”
Aria
na’s accusing eyes slid to Blake. He shrugged and walked into Callie’s office. Ariana returned to her desk.
“What brings you here?” Callie couldn’t remember her brother ever coming to her office in the middle of a workday before. She looked down at his hands as he took a seat.
He dropped his eyes. “Oh, that lady over there said to bring these to you.” He set a plate of cookies on her desk and pushed them toward her.
Callie reached out her hand. “How many did you eat before the plate made it in here?”
“Ah, none. I’m good, thanks.”
Callie’s hand froze midway. Her eyes narrowed at Blake. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just don’t want any cookies.”
Callie crossed her arms. “I have known you your entire life Blake Indigo. That has never happened before.”
Blake brought his hand up to push his fingers into his eyes. “I’m just not hungry, okay?”
“Blake, what’s wrong? Are you in trouble with something?”
“No, it isn’t me.” He dropped his hands.
Callie ran different scenarios through her head. “Is this about Dad?”
He let out a long sigh. “That’s the trouble with having a private detective for a sister.”
“Hey, I come in handy sometimes.”
“Not always and not when there’s chocolate involved,” he reminded her.
“Are we seriously talking about the time Ariana asked me to figure out what happened to her chocolate Easter bunny?”
“You hunted me down and made me confess.”
“You were guilty.” She sat back in her chair. “Tell me about Dad.”
Blakes eyes dropped down to his folded hands.
Callie blew out a breath. “Look. I know he’s the one who found Guy Gallagher at a job site.”
Blake’s eyes met hers but were filled with caution.
“I also know that Dad and Guy Gallagher knew each other in high school,” she said. “Now, tell me what you know.”