Geek Mafia: Mile Zero

by Dakan

  "It's an interesting theory," said Isaiah, his face blank.

  "And you suspect Eddie?" asked Winston.

  "Yeah, Eddie's the most likely candidate isn't he? Or maybe it was the replacement he has in mind who went ahead and acted alone. Or maybe they were both in on it together." Paul was excited now that last night's events were finally starting to make sense to him. Something about Eddie had rubbed him wrong from the moment they met, and now he knew why. The man might be a murderer.

  "It's worth investigating," said Isaiah. "If Eddie does indeed offer a replacement at my meeting with him, then I'll be sure to keep both him and the new potential player at arm's length while we look into the matter."

  "But you need to be careful, Paul," Winston chimed in. "You and Chloe need to take every precaution when you're dealing with Eddie. If he is behind the murder, then..."

  "I know," said Paul. "Then he's very dangerous. Well, if I've learned anything in the last twenty-four hours, it's that you can't be too careful."

  Winston nodded in approval. "And don't hesitate to ask either of us for help."

  "And keep us updated on your progress every three hours," Isaiah added.

  "Yes, sir," Paul shot back, not liking Isaiah's commanding tone.

  Isaiah ignored the sarcasm and stood up. "Well, we're done here. I'll pay downstairs. If you two want more breakfast, feel free to stay."

  "Thank you, Isaiah," said Winston, who remained in his seat. "I too would like some eggs. Paul, will you stay and eat with me?"

  "Sure," said Paul, "Sounds good." He'd welcome a chance to talk things over with Winston without Isaiah's intimidating presence in the room. Isaiah gave them both a blank look and then nodded, leaving without another word. Winston poured Paul a glass of juice.

  "Now, Paul," said Winston. "Can you tell me what you really think is going on here?"

  Paul looked around the room. At the framed pictures on the wall and the clock and the little ceramic sun and Chapter 16

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  the plastic flamingo. They could all have cameras or microphones or both. After Isaiah's morning demonstration of his omniscience, Paul doubted that he would have left him and Winston alone in a room without a bug.

  "Sure, I'll tell you whatever you want to know," Paul lied.

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  Chapter 17

  CHLOE fumed as she hit the street. The whole world was spinning out of her control. Nothing pissed her off more than being out of control. Isaiah's little "message" to Paul through that fucking game had been a real shock to her. Despite all her many misgivings about being in Key West, she thought at the very least that they'd managed to create a secure environment for themselves. Between Bee's spy cameras and their own security measures around the house and the network of contacts she and Paul had cultivated, they should have had some hint that Isaiah was poking around in their affairs. But for all she knew, he could have been surveilling them for days or even weeks, and she'd never had a moment's suspicion that he was out there.

  Could he and his crew be that good?

  Once again she cursed the fact that they didn't have a real hacker in their crew anymore. Raff had been brilliant with all the computer stuff, and given the time and resources, there wasn't a system he'd failed to crack for her and her Crew. But Raff had turned out to be a fucking rat bastard. She needed a non-rat-bastard Raff. But surprisingly enough, the city of Key West was known more for its margaritas and bare-breasted festivals than it was for its booming tech industry. Isaiah had her totally outflanked on the hacking front, and that scared her. Their system at home was as secure as they could make it, but she and Bee weren't experts.

  And when it came to computers, Paul was basically useless.

  It took her and Bee an hour to finish sweeping the computer room upstairs. After that, she left her friend to finish the rest of the house. As far as she was concerned, the whole place needed to be treated as compromised from now on, no matter what Bee's equipment found. There would be no talking outside of Bee's safe room about anything important until all this bullshit with Isaiah and Raquel's murder was resolved and these crazy fuckers left her island.

  Now Chloe buzzed along on her scooter, on her way to see the girl that had first told Paul where Raquel was staying. She was the receptionist at Raquel's guest house who worked the day shift and was staying in one of the rental properties the Crew controlled. Her name was Riva Lindell, and she'd never done much to earn her keep before as far as Chloe could remember. She was a friend of a friend of Sandee's and had been living for free in a time-share off Roosevelt for two and a half months. Sandee said she was a good kid, a party girl, and that she'd be cooperative.

  The house where Riva was staying was really more of a tiny bungalow, tucked in behind a larger house that the Keys Condos and Estates also managed. The bungalow had been a guest house originally, but at some point the original owner had sold it off as a separate property. It was a cute little place, although it could use a new paint job. Now that hurricane season was over, the owner might actually want to spend money on something like that.

  She knocked on the door louder than was polite. Riva wasn't supposed to be at work for another two hours, and odds were that she was still asleep. Getting no response to her first round of knocks, she pounded on the door even harder. It took a third barrage to finally rouse the resident. A heavyset, bleary-eyed woman with a tangled mass of brown hair flung the door open, looking very angry. She wore only an oversized Miami Dolphins jersey that barely came down to her upper thighs.

  "What?" she shouted, rubbing her eye with one knuckle.

  "Hi," said Chloe. "Sorry to..."

  "Who're you?" Riva asked sleepily. "Do I..."

  "I'm your landlord," said Chloe.

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  That woke Riva right up. "Oh, I'm just... it's a friend's place..." she stammered. "I'm just..."

  "It's ok, Riva," Chloe assured her. "I'm a friend of Sandee's."

  "Oh, shit, thank God," said Riva with relief.

  "Can I come in? I've got a question or two. You're not in any trouble, and you don't have to move out or anything. I just think you can help me out."

  "Um... sure. Of course," Riva replied, looking over her shoulder nervously. Chloe peered past her into the one-room bungalow and saw that there was someone else lying in the bed. "Sorry about the mess. My boyfriend..."

  "Why don't you throw on some pants, and we'll talk out here," said Chloe. She didn't know who this guy in the bed was, but she didn't want to have to deal with him right now.

  "Sure," said Riva. "Just a sec." Riva shut the door again and Chloe thought she heard anxious whispering between her and the boyfriend. Chloe thought about how well the real estate scam had worked out for them.

  Taking over Keys Condos and Estates had been a stroke of genius and it continued to pay unexpected dividends. There was no such thing as affordable housing in Key West, and it wasn't like they were making any more land. Property was king on the tiny island, and the more properties they controlled, the more influence they had.

  Riva had thrown on a pair of jeans and some sandals and tied her hair back with a scrunchy. "Sorry about that," she said as she stepped out.

  "Don't be. I'm the one who should be sorry for waking you up," Chloe assured her. "It's just that I have a ton of stuff to do today, and I needed to get these questions out of the way while I had some time. It's nothing too important, just a few little things."

  "Ok, sure. What do you need?"

  "You talked to my business partner last night about a guest at the place where you work."

  "Sure, I remember. That woman."

  "Exactly. Well, I've got a few other questions about her, if you don't mind."

  "What's this about?"

  "It's a business matter, that's all."

  Riva looked like she might not be satisfied with that answer, but she nodded. "Ok." Living off the books as she was, she couldn't afford to ask any qu
estions.

  "Do you remember seeing her with anyone else?" Chloe asked.

  "No, I don't think so. She came in and out a few times while I was there, but always by herself."

  "And she checked in yesterday?"

  "Yeah."

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  "Ok. Did you see anyone else come in who was unusual? Or who you didn't recognize?"

  "I don't think so."

  "Are you sure? Maybe a man? This would've been last night, before 9 or 10."

  "I get off at 10."

  "Right, before that then. A man, or maybe two that you didn't recognize. He would have walked right by the front desk probably. Probably didn't even look at you." Chloe was just guessing here, but that's how she would've done it.

  "Oh, yeah, that guy! I was on the phone at the time. Yeah, I know who you're talking about."

  "What did he look like?"

  "Middle-aged. Maybe late middle-aged. Kind of a big guy. He had a beard, I know that."

  "And did he come back out?"

  "Not while I was there. But I got off about half an hour later."

  "And you got a good look at him?"

  "Yeah, pretty good."

  "Are there security cameras where you work."

  "No."

  Chloe thought for a moment, then asked, "Were you talking on your cell phone?"

  "Yeah," Riva admitted. "Making plans to meet up with Gary. My boyfriend."

  "Can you get the phone?"

  "Why?" asked Riva, confused.

  "I just want to check the exact time of the call."

  "Oh..." said Riva, suspicion creeping into her voice. "Sure, I guess..."

  "Thanks," Chloe said quickly. "I'll wait out here."

  While Riva went to get her phone, Chloe thought things through, picturing Bee's camera network and wondering if anything was close enough to have caught this guy on video. There was nothing within five or six blocks (they didn't have much coverage in the more residential areas). But there might be something close by that caught him on his way here. After a minute, Riva returned with her phone. She scrolled through her call history and then showed Chloe the display, which showed a call to a local number at 9:27 p.m. last night.

  "So," said Chloe. "How long after you started your call did he come in?"

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  "I dunno exactly. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes?"

  "And he came in through the front door?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Do you remember what he was wearing?"

  "Um, sure. Nothing special. He had on a blue shirt and dark pants. Maybe black jeans?"

  "A T-shirt or a button-down shirt or...?"

  "A T-shirt. I don't think it had any writing on it."

  "Ok, Riva," said Chloe. "That's great. Do you remember anything else about him? Tattoos or jewelry or anything like that?"

  Riva thought for a moment before saying, "No, not really."

  "Not really?"

  "No."

  Chloe flashed Riva a wide, reassuring smile. "Ok, Riva, thanks so much. That should do it. I'm sorry I woke you up."

  "Oh, it's ok. I've gotta go to work in a couple hours anyway. Is there anything I should...?"

  "No, no, you're fine. You should be able to stay here for at least another couple weeks. Sandee will let you know for sure, and then I'll make sure we find you another place if you need it, ok?"

  "That'd be great," said Riva with a smile, no doubt happy to have her free housing continue as long as possible.

  "Ok, I gotta run," said Chloe, shaking Riva's hand. "Have a good one."

  "You too," Riva said as Chloe climbed back on her Vespa.

  That was something useful at last, thought Chloe. The guy with the beard sounded like a good lead. At the very least it was a place for Bee to get started with her search.

  BACK at the house, Chloe found Bee scanning the living room for listening devices.

  "Hey," she said to Chloe as she walked in. "Any luck?"

  "Nope," said Chloe, even as she made a quick chopping gesture with her hand below waist level, which Bee should recognize as code for "yes."

  "Too bad," said Bee.

  "How 'bout you?" Chloe asked.

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  "No luck here either," Bee replied, her own hand making a slight, downward motion that confirmed that she had not, in fact had any luck. Either there were no bugs upstairs, or she couldn't find them.

  "Ok, well I'm going to go upstairs and lie down. I'm beat." Chloe, who was looking right into Bee's eyes, gave a meaningful glance upstairs and then balled her hand into a quick fist and released it just as fast. This gesture indicated that Bee should follow her as soon as was convenient.

  "You look real tired," said Bee, not acknowledging Chloe's gesture.

  "Yeah. Is Paul back? Or Sandee?"

  "Neither one," said Bee.

  "Ok, I'll be upstairs. Don't wake me unless the world ends."

  "Gotcha."

  Bee's bug detecting equipment was as good as it came, just like the rest of their security measures. Chloe doubted that Isaiah had actually gotten inside the house, no matter how good he was, and he probably couldn't track their movements inside. So she figured it was a safe risk to go directly into Bee's secure room rather than actually going to bed. Although going to bed sounded really, really tempting.

  About ten minutes later, Bee came up and joined her. They said nothing until they'd sealed the room once again, ensuring their privacy as much as they could.

  "What's up?" asked Bee "What did you find?"

  "I've got a time and a place and a description."

  "Those are all good things," Bee said as she sat back in her chair. Most of the screens were black, having gone into power-saver mode. As soon as she touched her keyboard, three of them sprang into life, including the big screen with the city map on it. There were no longer dots for her, Paul or Sandee. They'd all agreed to turn off the trackers on their phones in case Isaiah had hacked their system. There had been no new contacts on Eddie's RFID tag.

  "Where and when?" asked Bee.

  "He was outside Raquel's guest house around 9:35 last night, give or take fifteen minutes. He's a middle-aged guy with a beard, wearing dark pants and a blue T-shirt."

  "I don't have any cameras there," said Bee.

  "I know," said Chloe.

  "Well, I've got cameras there now, but I didn't last night."

  "I know."

  "Still nothing on those in her room and outside by the way," Bee said as she called up an activity log for the cameras in question. The one in the room had a motion detector that only picked up the maid service, and there was nothing suspicious there.

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  "Ok," said Chloe. "Do you think you...?"

  "I'll start searching right away," said Bee. "If we had a picture of him, I could try out that facial recognition software."

  "But we don't have a picture. Just a guy with a beard and a blue shirt. How many of those could there be?"

  "Hopefully just one," said Bee, sipping at a warm Red Bull she'd left beside her keyboard. "Or I'm going to be here a while."

  "Hopefully it's at least one," said Chloe. "Otherwise we're fresh out of leads."

  One of the other screens that had been dark flashed to life, displaying an image of the outside of their house.

  This was part of their own security system, which was right now showing Winston and Lily standing on their front porch.

  "Hey," said Bee. "That's your friend."

  "It sure is."

  "I didn't know you'd told them where we lived," said Bee.

  "I didn't."

  "Well, they sure know."

  "They do," said Chloe, wondering if it was Isaiah or Paul who'd told Winston, or if her mentor had been spying on her as well. The doorbell rang. "I guess I better go let them in."

  She padded downstairs, glancing around out of habit to make sure there wasn't any
thing lying out in the open that she didn't want Winston and Lily to see. Of course, since Bee had just swept the place, there was nothing.

  She opened the door to see Winston smiling widely at her.

  "Fuller brush man," he said.

  "You're so fucking old," Chloe joked in reply. "Does anyone even know what the hell a Fuller brush is anymore?"

  "I'm not even sure I remember."

  "Hey Lily," said Chloe.

  "Hello, Chloe. Thanks for setting us up in the house. It's great."

  "No problem." Chloe looked past them at the midsize RV parked in the middle of the road. "Did you two bring that?" she asked.

  "We did indeed," said Winston. "We're here on official business, I'm afraid. We're going to take Raquel off your hands.

  "In an RV?" she asked.

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  "It was all I could find on short notice that was big enough," said Lily.

  "It certainly is big enough," Chloe said. "What're you going to do with her?"

  "Lay her to rest in a dignified manner where no one will ever find her," said Winston.

  "Sounds good to me. Do you need help finding a place?"

  "No, we have everything well in hand, fear not."

  "If you say so," said Chloe. "She's your problem now. Follow me, and I'll show you where she is."

  Chloe led them through the house to the back yard and over to the workshop. She was relieved beyond words to have the body gone from her house. She'd only seen two other dead bodies in her life, and she'd never had to hide one like this before. It was unnerving. She'd pushed her worries deep down where they couldn't distract her from the tasks at hand, not thinking about what she would actually do with the body long-term. To have someone take that responsibility away from her lifted a tremendous weight from her shoulders, and the fact that it was Winston, someone she trusted, made it all the better.

  "I just had breakfast with Paul," said Winston.

  "Oh?" said Chloe. "He give you and Isaiah the updates on everything that's happened since we last met?"