by Toby Neal
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Sophie
Sophie’s phone rang as she was waking up from a quick nap in her office. “We’ve had a break in the case,” Raveaux’s accented voice was tight with excitement. “Come and meet us at the Kanekoa residence.” He rattled off the address.
Sophie grimaced. “I’m so sorry! I was supposed to get back to you and Heri about my impressions of the Kanekoa woman yesterday, and what I was able to gather from her. I think she’s hiding something.”
“Her son basically confessed to being the embezzler,” Raveaux said. “What we don’t know is why he did it, and exactly what he’s doing with the money.”
Sophie felt a surge of compassion for Jana Kanekoa. “Don’t do anything with the interview until I get there. I’ve forged a good connection with the mother. It could help us.”
“That’s fine, but I’m still concerned about too many of us being in the room and intimidating them.”
Leede piped up in the background, “I’m sorry, Sophie, you’re on speaker and we’re driving over to the Kanekoa residence right now. I think, if you had a good connection with the mother, that you should come and take the lead. You’re a fresh face after the debacle in the headmaster’s office. You also have the expertise to pry out of the boy how he did what he did from a tech standpoint. You are going to have to fix all of that and close off those holes for the school, anyway.”
Sophie felt a prickle of annoyance. “Fixing their computer leaks was not part of our contract. But I am concerned for Jana Kanekoa, and I would like to be present.”
“I guess that leaves me the odd man out,” Raveaux said. “I’ll wait in the car and listen in if you have any surveillance devices handy. If things degenerate, I can support by lending muscle to the situation.”
“I’m always in favor of your lending any sort of muscle that you want to show,” Leede said.
Sophie felt that flare of annoyance again. She was tired of Leede’s heavy-handed flirtation with Raveaux. “I’m on my way,” she said shortly, and ended the call.
Sophie grabbed her backpack of tech tools that doubled as a purse, and headed out. Soon she was in her pearl-colored Lexus SUV, using the GPS to navigate to a small apartment building in a seedier part of Honolulu. Sun-blasted, open stairs on the exterior of the building, a line of washing flapping in the breeze, and a barking dog tied on the scrap of lawn outside, all spoke to the financial state of the family.
Sophie took the battered aluminum stairs to the third floor and knocked on the door.
Jana Kanekoa opened the door. Her mouth fell open almost comically as she met Sophie’s eyes. “It’s you. The computer tech lady.”
“Yes. I’m Sophie Smithson, with Security Solutions, in case you forgot my name,” Sophie said gently. “I’m so sorry this has happened with Conrad. Let me help you through it, and hopefully we won’t have to get law enforcement involved.”
Mrs. Kanekoa held herself stiffly for just a moment, and then she seemed to sag into Sophie’s arms in a surprising hug. “Conrad’s a good boy,” she said wetly. “I can’t believe he did this.”
“What you can do is help him open up to us,” Sophie said. “We will work closely with you to persuade the Kama`aina School Board to handle this privately.”
Sophie heard the clatter of heels on the aluminum stairs, and Heri Leede appeared, bright as a tangerine in an orange suit. “Mrs. Kanekoa. I’m so sorry that we are imposing upon you again, but the headmaster gave approval for Sophie and me to talk with you both, and see if Conrad will tell us the particulars of where the money went, at least. I’m sure it will go a long way in helping the school figure out some appropriate consequences and how they want to handle the matter.”
“You can’t get the money back,” yelled Conrad from inside the apartment. “It’s already gone.”
“Hush your mouth,” Mrs. Kanekoa hollered back. “Disrespectful boy!”
Sophie brushed past the woman to step inside the apartment with Leede behind her.
The shades were down, casting shadow over a living room filled with overstuffed, secondhand furniture; the room was tidy, but cramped. A kitchenette ran along one side of the living area, and two bedrooms opened off a short hallway with a bathroom at the end. The cupboards were scuffed Formica, and a sliding glass door behind the blinds showed a small balcony. A window air conditioner wheezed in the corner, dripping moisture into an old coffee can. “May we sit down, Mrs. Kanekoa?”
She made an impatient gesture toward the couch. “Conrad!” she bellowed. “Get out here.”
Her son emerged from one of the bedrooms and came to sit in the puffy-looking lounger. The boy crossed his arms over his chest and his chin lowered belligerently. His eyes were a dark sparkle under lowered black brows. “Who are you?”
“Hello, Conrad. My name is Sophie Smithson, and I am a computer expert.”
One corner of the boy’s mouth twitched in contempt. He rolled his eyes. “Expert, huh. Really.”
“I brought along my laptop.” Sophie unzipped her bag. “I can log in remotely to your mother’s rig at work, and any of the computers in the student lounge at the school from right here. We can screenshare, and you can show me how you pulled off that skim. I’ve already tracked your pathway, but I wouldn’t mind having you explain it.”
The boy unwound his arms and sat forward. “You’re bullshitting me. You can’t possibly know.”
“I am not bullshitting you.” Sophie opened her small laptop and activated it with a button. The machine woke up. Her fingers moved in a blur of motion over the keys as she activated her remote access to the different computers. “We’ll be on in a moment.”
Leede seated herself beside Sophie on the couch. “Good to see you again, Conrad. The headmaster has asked us to interview you. What you say and do with us is going to have a big effect on how the school decides to handle the situation.”
“If by ‘situation’ you mean the boy’s hacking and embezzling, I think the time has come to call it what it is,” Sophie said. “Perhaps you’d like to start by telling us why you did this, Conrad. Otherwise, people will assume it was just because you wanted the money.”
Jana Kanekoa seemed too restless to sit down. She headed for the kitchenette. “Can I get you ladies something to drink?”
Leede, ever socially appropriate, nodded. “Please. Monsieur Raveaux is waiting for us in the car, so we hope this won’t take much of your time. But, like we said, if Conrad will talk to us and give us a way to recover the money, I feel certain we can persuade the administration not to press charges.”
Mrs. Kanekoa poured four tall glasses of pale yellow liquid from a plastic pitcher and added some ice. “This is passion fruit juice. We call it lilikoi in Hawaii, and it’s Conrad’s favorite.” She glared at her son. “Go on, boy. Tell these ladies what they want to know. I don’t want you getting dragged off to jail. You should have a brighter future than that.”
“Indeed, he should,” Sophie said. “Your son is quite brilliant, Mrs. Kanekoa. I have been able to discover how he did what he did and where the money is, but not why.” She gazed at Conrad’s sullen face. “Only you can tell us that, Conrad.”
Chapter Forty
Sophie
Sophie accepted the tall, cool glass of lilikoi juice. She sipped. “Hmm, this is delicious, Mrs. Kanekoa.”
“Please. Call me Jana.” Jana handed Heri Leede a glass of juice, took one herself, and left one on the coffee table for her son, pushing it toward him. Her displeasure with the boy was evident in every gesture. Sophie glanced up to observe how he reacted to that.
The boy was stressed, it was clear to see. His light brown skin was ashy beneath his eyes and on his lips. Though she could tell that he was trying to look angry and defiant, his shoulders were hunched, and he stared at his glass of juice. “I don’t want to talk to you in front of my mom.”
Jana, who had just seated herself in the other lounge chair on the other side of the couch, sprang up again.
“I won’t have you disrespecting me! Not in front of these ladies, and not alone either! If you don’t start talking, right now, I might have to send you to your dad’s!”
The boy recoiled. “He’s an asshole, Mom. You can’t do that.”
“Just watch me.” Jana sat down and gulped her juice, setting down the glass with a bang. “I’m staying right here. It’s my right as your guardian to hear whatever you have to say. I need to know it anyway to figure out what to do.”
Leede leaned forward and took a sip of her drink. “This is delightful, Jana! Thanks so much for the refreshment. I understand that these things can be very difficult for families; and it’s clear that you’re shocked and upset by what your son has done. But I encourage you to keep an open mind. He might just have had a philanthropic motive.” Leede angled her body to face the boy. “Do you mind if I record our conversation, Conrad? It might save you having to repeat all this again.”
“Whatever.”
Leede took an electronic pad out of her leather satchel. She swiped to a recording app and pressed it. “Audio only. We are recording now.” Leede named the location, date, time, and the people present. “This is an informal interview, Conrad. An opportunity for you to share what you did, and why.”
“I don’t want to talk about it in front of my mom,” Conrad repeated.
Jana threw up her hands in frustration. “Why? What is so terrible that you can’t say it in front of me?”
Conrad stared at her and tightened his lips mutinously.
Sophie had her laptop fully engaged with the various computers she had been able to tap into. “Jana, maybe it would help if I explained to the group what your son has done, and we could just speculate why he did it. Then he could just say yes or no.”
Jana rolled her eyes. “If that’s what we have to resort to.”
Sophie copied her fellow investigator’s body language by angling herself toward the boy, inclining her upper body as the small laptop sat open on her knees. “Here’s what I’ve been able to discern so far. You set up a series of randomly occurring deductions for the Kama`aina Schools’ bank account, which you had hacked. You had access to your mother’s computer, and you manipulated the numbers you were skimming to feed into the regular bookkeeping. No one noticed the amounts, as they were random, smaller computer-generated numbers, and appeared under various categories of legitimate purchases. You routed the skimmed money to a bank account in the Cayman Islands, opened under a currently unknown alias. Am I correct so far?”
The boy, looking miserable, nodded his head. “Yes.”
Jana opened her mouth, but Leede put a restraining hand on her arm.
Sophie went on. “We also know that you were researching racial-equality type charities. What this tells us, Jana, is that your son was stealing from Kama`aina Schools, but planning to give away the money. A modern-day, anti-racist Robin Hood.”
Jana’s brows drew together and she leaned forward. “What were you doing, son?” Her voice had softened. Her eyes filled. “What did you care about so much that you would do something like this?”
Conrad cleared his throat. His eyes were suspiciously shiny as well. “I know how hard things are for you, Mom. But I feel like it’s wrong that Kama`aina Schools discriminates against students on the basis of race as far as their admissions policy. I took the money and I . . . well, it’s still in the Caymans account, but I was going to give it to a whole bunch of different charities for kids who wouldn’t be able to benefit from a Kama`aina Schools’ education.”
“Like who?” Jana’s eyebrows had risen.
“Black kids. Mexican kids. Even . . . poor white kids.” Conrad stared down at his hands.
“You mean . . . kids the same race as you,” Jana said. Her shoulders hunched suddenly and she covered her face with her hands. “Oh, dammit. This is all my fault.”
“No, it isn’t, Mom!” Conrad flew up out of his chair and ran over to kneel beside his mother, throwing his arm over her shoulders. “You were just trying to give me the best future you could.”
Leede glanced at Sophie, her brows lifted, confusion written plain on her face, but Sophie had guessed the answer to this puzzle. “Conrad is adopted,” she told Leede. “I believe his heritage is black, Mexican, and white. He’s not Hawaiian. His mother forged his papers to get him into Kama`aina Schools.”
“Ah, I see,” Leede said. “Oh, dear.”
Jana’s shoulders shook with sobs as she broke down.
Leede stood up and went to the kitchen, returning with a roll of paper towels. She peeled off a few and handed them to the distraught woman. Conrad continued to try to comfort his mother. “You lied about my heritage to give me a chance. I always knew you were only trying to do what you could for me, and make sure that I had a future. But you should have trusted that I could make my own future, Mom. You should have believed in me.”
“I do believe in you!” Jana exclaimed. “It’s because I believed in you that I wanted you to have a Kama`aina Schools’ education. I wanted you to have a better life than your dad and I could provide!” She threw her arms around the boy. They hugged for a long moment.
Sophie looked down at her computer, uncomfortable with the deep emotion, her own eyes prickling. Leede settled herself on the couch closest to the pair. “Now I understand why you feel so strongly about the Schools’ admissions policy,” she said. “I hope that when the board and the headmaster understand that you were adopted and that you wanted to even the playing field for children of your ethnic heritage, they might dismiss the charges. Especially if the money can be returned.”
Conrad separated from his mother and returned to the lounger. “I said the money is gone. But it isn’t. I can return it.” He looked up at them, suddenly fierce. “But I don’t want to. That policy’s wrong! I was only able to get in because I look Hawaiian!”
“That’s a conversation for another day, with another group of people,” Leede said in her reasonable way. “Sophie, Monsieur Raveaux, and I will be sure to emphasize that you had an altruistic motive.”
“Not totally.” The boy gestured around the shabby room. “I was going to keep a few hundred grand so Mom could get a better place for us.”
“Thank you for being honest about that, too.” Leede got her phone out. “I’ll call Dr. Ka`ula and let him know the outcome of our talk. Conrad, can you move the money back into the Kama`aina Schools’ account? I think that will go a long way to mitigating the consequences for you.”
Sophie proffered her computer. “You can do it right here, right now.”
The boy came to sit beside Sophie on the couch. “I need to log in.”
She handed the laptop to him. “You’ll pardon me if I sit right here and make sure you’re following through.”
Jana winced. “He just wanted to help me. He just wanted to help other kids in his situation,” she pleaded with them. “He’s a good boy.”
“You’ve raised a very bright and compassionate young man,” Sophie agreed. She turned to Conrad, giving in to an impulse. “I’d like to meet with you privately, Conrad, and mentor you in working with computers. Most genius in this area is innate, not taught. You will likely be expelled from Kama`aina Schools, and need to go to a public school. That’s no tragedy if you continue your education privately. I could help you learn tech skills. We could still create a very bright future for you, indeed.”
The boy held himself rigidly, his fingers flying on the keys as he logged into the Caymans account and made the transfer back to Kama`aina Schools. “I don’t know you.”
Jana lifted her face from the pile of wet paper towels. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, son!”
Sophie smiled when she heard one of the first American expressions she’d investigated and learned to use. “You don’t know it yet, Conrad. But this is truly a gift horse you’ll want to ride.”
Chapter Forty-One
Connor
Connor arrived on time for his chess game with the Master. He knocked o
n the door, and heard a shouted summons. “Enter, Number One!”
Connor opened the door and stepped into the sunken living room area. The Master was still in the bedroom with the door shut, clearly occupied with Pim Wat, to judge by the muffled sounds coming from within.
Connor’s skin crawled at the thought of them in bed; Pim Wat repulsed him on a cellular level. How could the Master be so blind about her? The answer had to be that he wasn’t; and if so, the Master was as foul as she was, if not as directly so.
It had taken Connor way too long to come to that conclusion.
“You’re judging an essential duality,” the Master’s voice said in his mind. “Where would the light be without the darkness?” Didn’t mean Connor would ever embrace that darkness, in himself, or in others.
Connor scowled as he walked across the room to the sideboard near the fireplace.
A tea set was already arranged on the sideboard and the hot water pot gently steamed; the Master’s new manservant had already set it up. The service was one of those fussy Victorian things embossed with roses; Connor could only suppose that Pim Wat had brought it to the Master’s spare but luxurious quarters. Neither Pim Wat nor the Master ever poured out; the safest way to do away with both of them was to doctor the whole pot.
Connor poured half of the container of poison into the teapot, dropped in the full strainer ball, and filled the pot with hot water from the pot.
Connor breathed slowly and deliberately through his nose as he went to the nearby bathroom and dropped the poison bottle down the commode chute. He had meditated all afternoon to gain the degree of control he needed—he must wipe away even a thought of his plans. The Master was able to detect almost any change in Connor’s electrical field or his mental state. He’d been outrageously lucky that the Master was otherwise occupied at the moment and he didn’t have to try to conceal doctoring the tea; and in case the Master sensed something wrong, he’d thought of a reason he might be agitated.