by Jeff D Ellis
“One last thing. Did she have any death threats or enemies?”
“She gets threats all of the time, but nothing really new. She always had us toss them out. Do you think someone killed her?”
“As of now, we are treating this just as a missing person. Do you think anybody actually wanted her dead?”
“I’m not sure how she keeps getting elected. Many people hate her. She is tough on crime, pro-abortion, rights of business over the environment, etc. We get picketers all the time from pro-choice and anti-GMO groups. Her support of biotech companies rubs some people the wrong way. Liberals here don’t want Frankenfood and the conservatives don’t like stem cell research. If biotech didn’t bring in so much money to Seattle, I would think she would be against it.”
“Do you have any of those death threats? I would like to see them.”
“No, but it's normally from women’s rights groups and anti-biotech people.”
Hammer and Abby started moving towards Ms. Prescott's office door. “Thank you for your time. We’ll go look at her office now to see if we can find out who her last meeting was with.”
“Wait! You can’t go in there.”
Hammer waves the warrant. “This warrant says we can. Don’t worry, when she turns up, we’ll take the heat for looking through her office. Please wait outside.”
Anna Petrov mumbled something in Russian. “Damn bitch makes life hell for us even when she’s missing. Hate her. Hope she is dead.”
Abby gave her a stern look before going into the office. “I don’t think she knows Prescott is dead. She was saying she hates her and hoped she was dead in Russian.”
“You speak Russian?”
“I have a gift for languages. That reminds me. We should ask about the missing assistant. I wonder if she knows more.”
“Good thought. I shouldn’t have missed asking about that.”
“I’ll call Jeff and get things going on the computer.”
Abby pulled out her phone and dialed Jeff’s direct line.
“Hey, Abby! Ready to get started?”
“Yes, we just made it into her office with her desktop computer.”
Abby heard a screech. “What was that? Did you hear it on your side or was it just my headset?”
“I heard it, but it’s from your side. I think we may have a problem there. I’m going to need to make a trip down there with some other equipment. Until then, be careful of what you say in the room.”
“Got it. She has a private entrance to her side of the office one door down from the main entrance. I’ll let you in there. See you soon.”
Abby looked over at Hammer and held her finger up to her lips and sent him a text message that read, “Jeff thinks the room is bugged. He will be here soon.”
He nodded back and looked at his phone and gave her the thumbs up.
“I think I will go back and talk to Anna about the missing assistant while you look the room over.”
“Good idea. The room will probably be a dead end.”
Hammer went back to the main area and closed the door behind him.
Abby started looking around the room. There was a large wooden desk, two guest chairs, the tall-backed leather chair behind the desk, a clock on the wall facing the desk, and some binders on a shelf. Abby looked in the binders and they seemed to be proposed city statutes, and such. Nothing stood out to Abby about them, but she really didn’t know what she was looking for. She checked the desk, but the drawers were locked. The computer was running, but the screen was password protected. She decided to wait for Jeff to put the device on. He might have different ideas.
Hammer came back into the room. “Tracy Keen is the name of the missing assistant. It seems like she has a habit of disappearing from time to time and pissing off her co-workers who have to pick up the slack. It seems like Prescott let her get away with shit. I have her address and phone number here.”
Abby nodded. “Not much here. The desk is locked and nothing else seems to give me a reason for her to be missing.”
Hammer reached into his pocket for his lock picks, but Abby stopped him with a wave and pointed at her phone.
Abby sent Hammer a text message. “Maybe you should wait for Jeff to use his equipment before picking the locks. What if they have video as well as sound recording?”
Abby looks at her phone and frowns. “My phone just lost its connection. Is yours working?”
Hammer shook his head. “No signal. I had four bars when we came in.”
Abby heard a knock on the door and opened it up to find Jeff Row wearing gloves.
“It should be safe to talk for the moment. I turned on a signal jammer while I sweep the office for bugs.”
Abby looked confused. “How are you going to find the transmitters if the signals are blocked?”
“It's okay. Any bugs would still be trying to transmit, but they won’t get anywhere with the interference. I do have to be closer to the bug and we need to be quick before too many people notice it and track down support people.”
Jeff quickly went to work. Using a box with an antenna and readout, he systematically went around the room. He pulled the clock off the wall and set it on the desk. After clearing around the walls of the room, he started looking under the desk at the computer. After messing with the wires, he placed a small USB device on the desk. Jeff took the back off the clock and removed a memory card from it.
“It should be safe to talk now. The clock had a hidden video camera in it. I removed the bug and the memory card from the clock. There was also a keystroke logger between the keyboard and computer. Someone really wanted to keep an eye on this councilmember. I wouldn’t be surprised to find malware on the computer. I’’ll turn the jammer off now and get started on the computer.”
Jeff pulled the computer out and hooked everything back up on top of the desk. Hammer quickly picked the locks like an expert and opened the drawers. He found a bound book with what looked like dates, numbers, and initials written on the pages. Nothing else looked to be of interest to the case.
Jeff looked up from the computer. “I think at least one person has hacked into this computer. I better take it back to the lab and mirror the hard drive before doing anything more. It’s possible that it will wipe itself clean if we’re not careful. With the key logger in place, we might be looking at more than one hacker.”
Jeff pulled some bags from his kit to put the memory card, key logger, clock, and bound book in separate bags. “Is there anything else you want me to go over back at the lab? I will fingerprint this stuff and the computer there. I could dust the desk for prints, but I think what matters will be on the stuff we are taking back.”
Hammer nodded. “I think you’re right. The best suspects will be the ones who were spying on her.”
Abby gave the room a look. “Do we have a bug we can leave behind to catch someone coming back to check on their work?”
“Not a bad idea, but our warrant doesn’t cover putting surveillance in this office. I could have fudged it a little if I left the computer with our software on it, but that would have been the most I could do. I’ll head out the side door and get this stuff back to the lab. It would be best for you to go out the way you came in.”
Jeff managed to get everything out in one trip. Hammer and Abby headed out and warned the staff to stay out of the Prescott’s office until the councilmember turned up.
It was a short drive back to the Marshals office.
***
David was the first to make it back to the office. He took the laptop down to Jeff’s lab and left the it on the bench.
He stopped at Gwen’s desk. “Hey Gwen, is everybody still out in the field?”
Gwen looked up. “Yes, they found some listening devices in her office, so Jeff had to go help. They should be back soon. Perry is off looking at the archive for more information related to Ms. Burke. How are you doing, David? You’re looking tired.”
“I’m still feeling the effect, but I’m managing i
t. Can you check with the alarm company as to when the alarm has been turned off and on in the last twenty-four hours? Everything was extremely clean in that house, like no one has been there in a while. Maybe she had a very good maid service, or someone cleaned things up to hide evidence.”
“I’ll call them and see if there is a pattern as to when the alarm is active. Maybe if things are out of the norm, it will show up. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
David went to his desk and sat down. Abby’s raven Ember was sitting on the perch at her desk. Abby had met the Native American god Raven in the spirit world, and he gave her Ember as a familiar.
David looked at the raven. “Ember, how did you get in here, and where have you been the last couple of days? It would be nice if I could talk to you like Abby does.”
The raven started to shimmer and standing next to the perch was a woman. She had raven-black long hair, pale white skin, dark brown eyes, and was wearing a dress that looked like it was made out of black feathers. David’s mouth went dry.
“Ember? Are you a Shapeshifter? Does Abby know you can do that?”
“Now you can talk to me, David. Abby doesn’t know I can do this. Right now, only you can see me. It's the advantage of being a spirit animal.”
David smiled. “It’s like when Raven changed from human to animal form in the spirit realm.”
“It's the same thing. You asked to talk to me. Ask your questions.”
“I was just curious where you had been. Nothing important. I’m very happy to properly meet you and be able to talk.”
“It’s nice to properly meet you as well. I can feel how much Abby loves you and was hoping for a reason to meet you properly. Abby gave me some time off to go see the world. I’m not part of this world and wanted to see some of it.”
“Did you have a good time?”
“Yes, I did. Watching humans has been interesting. I would like to know more about you and what it means to be human.”
“Being human isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I assume it’s the same with for you. I expect it has its good and not-so-good aspects.”
Ember reached over and touched David on the arm. “I like you, David. Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Do you know of a way to fight the poison?”
“If Abby approves, I can check with Raven.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“What’s it like being a spirit animal? Is that something I can become?”
“It’s a bit lonely here in your world. In my world it’s being part of a big family. I have never heard of someone like you becoming like us. Not sure you can.”
“It was nice meeting you in person.”
“I agree, thanks for the talk.”
Ember shimmered and was back to being a raven sitting on the perch. It was strange. He could still feel her touch in her human form.
Perry Crow entered the room. “They’re back! Time to hit the conference room.”
The Chief was the last to enter the room. “Time for a status update. David, let’s start with you since you were the first back.”
“I went to Ms. Prescott’s home and brought back her laptop and put it on Jeff’s desk. The house seemed to be outside of what someone could afford on a city council salary. It was also extremely clean, no signs of anybody living there, other than her clothes in the closet. I was wondering if something happened there and pros were brought in to clean it all up. Gwen is checking for any pattern as to when the alarm was off. She might have a normal cleaning service that happened to be there right before I showed up.”
Gwen checked her notes. “I called the alarm company. Normally three days a week, the alarm is turned off for about two hours during the day when the owner was at work. It was off for two hours today before David showed up. It seems like she has a cleaning service.”
The Chief nodded. “Abby, what do you have?”
“One of her staff was out today and seemed to normally get better treatment from Prescott than the other staff members. We will check that out. We found a logbook of some sorts with numbers on it. It could be for tracking bribes. If we believe Greta Burke, that she was paying protection money, and maybe others were as well. It seemed like one or more people were watching everything Ms. Prescott did at work. We, as in Jeff, found a camera in a clock, and her computer was hacked.”
The Chief nodded. “Remember: the goal is to find the killer, not prove corruption. Follow the leads to find suspects. It could be someone got tired of paying her off or it could be unrelated. Jeff, do you have anything yet?”
“No, I need some time in the lab. I will start with the video, then get the computers going.”
“Make it a priority to find any schedule on her computer. Our best bet is still retracing her steps. Any luck on her cell phone records? Where is her car?”
“Nothing special on her cell phone records. Her phone had its GPS disabled and it's currently off. Last known location was downtown around 4:00 p.m. It could be she has a pre-paid phone she used for privacy. Maybe the SPD could put out an APB on her car?”
Hammer pulled out his phone. “I will put in a request for that.”
“Do we have a report on the body yet?”
Perry looked at a report. “She died around eight to ten last night. She is missing her internal organs. The work was done with surgical precision. The bones did show signs of baking. She had a broken neck that was mostly likely the cause of death, but with all the missing parts, it’s hard for them to be certain.”
The Chief nodded. “Sounds like we are done here. Let’s get back together after we get our next set of data.”
Hammer stood. “I’m heading back to PD to check on things. Call me when we have more information.”
“David, Ash wants to see you in medical.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Dinner with Kat
DAVID NODDED AND touched Abby’s arm. “Abby, why don’t you call Kat while I go see what the doctor wants. I should only be a couple minutes.”
“You sure you don’t want me to come along?”
“It’s probably nothing. I’ll be right back.”
“Doctor, you wanted to see me?”
“The Windigo samples were degraded and are of no help. Make sure you get samples as soon as you can, and they need to be fresh. For your sake, the sooner the better.”
“I’ll do my best. Any other news about my condition?”
Ash shook her head. “You need to find your Windigo fast.”
“We’re all set for dinner with Kat. Everything go okay with the doctor?”
“The samples were bad. We need fresh ones. No news otherwise.”
Abby bit her lip. “We better get going. We’re meeting Kat at the restaurant.”
Abby had made arrangements to meet up at Ricardo’s Family Mexican Restaurant. Ember rode on Abby’s shoulder as they went to the car. On arriving, Ember went off on her own, flying around the area.
Kat had said to meet her in the bar area where it was a little more private than the main dining room. The first thing people noticed when walking into the bar area was a mirrored wall lined with shelves full of bottles, lit up with blue lights behind the dark wood bar. Dark wood beams crossed a lighter wood ceiling and banners of Mexican beers hung from it. The booths were tan with brown vinyl trim. There were a few people sitting around the bar and some Mexican soccer game was playing on the TV.
As usual, Kat was waiting for David and Abby in the bar. David had not seen Kat since he first met her along with Abby’s friends. Kat would be Abby’s maid of honor and they needed to discuss the wedding plans.
Abby waved at Kat. Kat stood and gave them both a hug and took a seat in the booth. After a moment, a server came by and took drink orders.
Abby, I sense magic around Kat. It’s similar to what I sensed from Greta Burke.
Okay, be diplomatic about it.
David smiled at Kat. “It's really nice seeing you again, Kat. Last time at The Che
esecake Factory, you and the girls were trying to get me all flustered.”
Kat laughed. “It was all in good fun.”
“Since you’re Abby’s best friend, I think it’s time I got to know you better.”
Kat smiled. “I was telling Abby that when we last met up at the Issaquah Brew House. What do you have in mind?”
David smiled. “Can I trust you?”
Kat winked at David. “It’s okay if you’re having fantasies about me.”
“You’re totally hot, but that’s not it. I’m not the same guy you met back at Cheesecake Factory. I’ve changed a lot, and I can see things about you that I wasn’t able to before.”
Kat gave David a stare like she was seeing him for the first time. The server brought drinks and made a comment about coming back later to see what they wanted for dinner.
Kat nodded. “You’re not the same as before. I’m seeing a confidence you didn’t have, as well as something I can’t quite touch on. Before you were fun to toy with, but now you have an animal magnetism that’s very sexy. Abby is lucky.”
“Funny you should say animal magnetism. I can literally become an animal.”
“That a figure of speech, or …”
David nodded. “We’re not Human and neither are you.”
Kat looked around the room before meeting his eyes. “You’re actually a Shapeshifter?” Kat's face blushed. “Wait. You know what I am?”
David smiled. “I think I know exactly what you are and it's okay.”
Kat seemed to notice she had been leaning forward and sat back into the booth.
David smiled. “I met Greta Burke today.”
Kat pulled her hand back and stiffened up. “Don’t say that name around me ever again!”
David gasped. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you in any way.”
Kat glared. “Promise me you’ll never tell her you know me.”
Abby leaned in. “We promise. Why don’t you tell us about her?”