“No, I was supposed to coordinate that KKK hack. It’d been in the planning for over a year. They had somebody on the inside who got let go before he could get into their servers. Instead, I wrote a virus that would look for emails and search histories and report back. It would infect the next host, and on from there and so on, based on the search parameters. That way, whenever a new KKK member was found, it would email us all the data, and the worm would continue to replicate its way in. That was my solution and fix. I gave them that code when Mephisto got busted trying to get a job with a library where the Grand Wizard lived…”
“So he got caught?” I asked, surprised.
“No, just found out.”
“Well good, then we have someplace to start,” I said.
“Start what?” Johanna asked.
“Finding out who Mephisto is, unless Skye knows him.”
“No, no I don’t,” Skye said softly, her tears drying up. “But I’m going to find out.”
I took a deep breath. Jo believed her, and I was starting to. In a situation like this, I reverted back to default—don’t trust anybody. I had believed the worst in her and wasn’t going to give her the chance to redeem herself. Shoot, they involved me, so I would have to deal with this no matter what.
“Ok, I’m heading downstairs to unlock the IT computers. I want you to tear apart my email, and let’s see if we can figure out who and where this Mephisto is coming in from.”
“Any ideas on that?” Johanna asked.
“Well, it was the Michigan KKK that Mephisto was trying to infiltrate, but that’s all I know,” Skye said.
“Ah, ok. That makes things so much easier. Johanna, would you get one of the cars ready for a road trip?” I asked.
“Uh, yeah. Where are we going?” Jo asked.
“Cohoctah,” I answered her over my shoulder.
“What’s that?”
“I think that’s the town where the Grand Wizard used to live. It’s a starting place at least,” I told them.
“Hold on, Jarek…” Johanna said. “He used to live. They move around. We need to research this.”
“That’s what we’ve got Tech Support for. In no time at all, she’ll be elbows deep into this again, watching Japanese anime porn and pretending I didn’t see her boobs.”
“Jarek!” Skye all but yelled, but her lips were curving up, almost but not quite smiling. “That’s embarrassing.”
“Sorry,” I admitted. “I was trying to joke.”
“That was actually pretty good,” Jo whispered. “Good timing, lightened up the mood. You’ve been practicing?” she asked me.
“In the mirror,” I told her.
“Don’t try so hard next time. She’s embarrassed and worried she’ll let you down.”
“Then I won’t let her,” I told Johanna and headed towards the elevator.
“Where to now?”
“I have to find out where this library is if he isn’t in the same town anymore,” I admitted.
“Jarek, I’m sorry,” Skye shouted from behind me as I mashed the button for the elevator before my door closed behind me.
“I know,” I told nobody.
5
After two days of trying, we got nowhere with the email. Whoever Mephisto was, he wasn’t your normal everyday hacker. Skye said she was better than him, but he showed the earmarks of being good. Exceptional even. Nothing was left to chance, and everything I tried got me dead ends.
“Skye,” I asked her, walking into IT, “your VPN script, does Mephisto have something like that?”
“Yeah, he made a variation to the code I wrote for mine,” she answered.
I’d let her apologize for two days now, until I was tired of saying “it’s ok” and begged her to move on with it. Neither of us had responded to Mephisto. It was a calculated move. If he got any hint that we were looking, he could spring whatever it was on us that he was planning.
“So is this Mephistopheles acting on his own, or is this Anonymous as well?” I asked her. “And why is he focusing on you?” This was probably the fourth time I’d asked her that question today.
“I told you, we found out we were both from Michigan, and we just sorta…chatted. Iirc, you know… totally anonymous for Anonymous,” Skye said, her bubbly attitude back. “But I did get the impression he sorta…liked me. I don’t think he’s working with the network per se, just…I think he wants me back. I really wish I knew how he got that picture.”
“Any luck tracking down whoever the new Grand Wizard is?”
“No, after the one died in Argentine, it’s changed hands a few times. It isn’t that they’re being secretive though.”
“What do you mean?” I asked her, curious.
“If anything, they aren’t really hiding anymore. That’s why the program I wrote worked out so well. The internet has kind of made meeting face to face pointless and dangerous. They network online or through the cellular network and set things up that way,” Sky said. It was the same info I’d found on my own as well.
“I wonder if Susan can help,” I said, pulling out my phone.
“And I got another email last night,” Skye said softly. I almost missed hearing it entirely.
I was dialing as Johanna opened the door into the IT room and stood there, motioning for me to come out.
“Hey, I’m just calling Susan,” I told her, holding the phone up to my ear, hearing her end pick up.
“Hello?” Susan O’Hara said.
“Hi Susan, it’s Jarek—”
“Of all the things…if you didn’t want to come out here and talk to me—”
“Wait, what?” I asked her.
“I’m in your conference room,” she told me and hung up.
“I was trying to tell you,” Johanna said, smiling. “Susan is here, and she is being tight-lipped.
I followed Jo out of the room, and before the door closed, I heard the speakers in the IT room start playing Abingdon Boys School, a band Skye was trying to get me to listen to over and over. Her love of anime was something different than anything I’d ever run across, and it made me smile to myself. I pushed the doorway of the conference room open and walked inside. Susan and Pete were sitting there, side by side, sour expressions on their faces.
“What happened?” I asked them, guessing they weren’t here for coffee and stale donuts. Well, at least Susan wasn’t. I could see Pete was already digging in.
I sat across from them, and Jo settled in next to me.
“How well do you know Miss Erickson?” Pete Rolston said by way of opening and greetings.
“Skye? Pretty well actually,” I told them. “But she’s become especially close with Johanna here. Why? Is there some sort of problem?” I asked them, already feeling something in the pit of my stomach, and it wasn’t the butterflies.
“Not to her—” Pete started to say, but he was cut off by Susan.
“A man claiming to be her brother was found passed out in Skye’s apartment. I guess there were screams and banging around. When a patrol car finally got there, the door was cracked, so they went in. They found Mr. Erickson passed out on the bed with a syringe in his arm. There was…” Susan coughed and then slid a picture over to us.
It was her brother all right. He looked dead, and there were dried splatters of blood all over him, the bed, and the wall next to the bed. It was horrifying to look at.
“Wait, you said he’s claiming to be her brother, he’s alive?” Johanna asked, confused by the picture and the wording.
“The cop did a quick check of the pulse and couldn’t find one, so they called in the crime scene unit and a bus. They were processing things, waiting on the coroner, when he woke up. I guess they’d already taken pictures. Surprise,” Pete said.
“Surprise,” Jo agreed.
“What happened?” I asked.
“He’s on his way to the hospital with an escort so he doesn’t run, but the blood wasn’t his. I guess his wife or girlfriend and him got into an argument. He claims he shot up and
then woke up as the cops were fixing to skewer him with a big needle,” Susan said.
“Checking the liver temperature,” I muttered, and they nodded.
“Does heroin act like that?” I asked them. “Slow the heart rate down so low that it’s hard to tell?”
“I never heard of that happening like that, but we’ve got a bigger problem than him almost getting his liver temperature checked. His wife slash girlfriend is missing, and we’re to presume the blood is hers. We’re here to talk to Skye, but I wanted to talk to you first, so you can…” Pete started to say.
“There’s no good way to say something like this over the phone, and we wanted to respect your space, especially since the brother said she moved in here,” Susan finished for him.
For being decades apart in age, they could finish each other’s sentences, and despite their total incompatibility, I think they’d make a good couple together. Pete probably made Susan gag, but they’d shared a car, and then an office for as long as I could remember her being a detective. Besides, he’d have to be blind and stupid not to want the Irish red-headed cop.
“You want me to break it to her?” I asked them, confused on what my purported role was supposed to be.
“No, I’ll tell her,” Susan said, standing. “But I’d like to do it here. Is that ok?”
“Sure,” I said, standing to vacate the room.
“No, let’s wait here. Let’s be here for her,” Johanna said, pulling on my suit coat’s sleeve.
I sat down slowly. When both Pete and Susan left the room, I turned to Jo, a question dancing on my lips that I didn’t dare ask while the cops were in here.
“Mephisto?” we both chorused.
I looked down at the table. I wished she had been the one with answers.
“It doesn’t sound likely,” Jo said.
“Sounds like everything about this seems different.”
“Can you help me? With Skye?” Johanna asked.
“You think she’s going to come apart?”
“I think so. I don’t know how close she was to her sister-in-law, but…”
The door opened, and Skye entered, followed by the police detectives. She had a concerned look on her face. I let the voices tune out as Skye sat next to me. Jo was on my other side, and I was going to suggest changing places when they evidentially gave her the news. She immediately latched on to my arm, her fingers digging deep into the sore flesh. Soon, I saw her head move and she’d leaned into me. I felt Jo nudge me, and I put my free arm around Skye.
I could see everyone’s lips moving, but I was following a thought. A trace of a thought. Right before Johanna came in and I was already calling Susan, Skye said she’d gotten another email last night. I didn’t know what it was about, so I said nothing in front of the cops. Susan lifted an eyebrow when she saw me wrap Skye in a one-armed hug, but Pete gave me a look that shook donut crumbs off his shaggy mustache, and then he gave me the guy nod.
That was something I understood. It meant, do it. Do what you have to do. That was one nonverbal cue my dad taught me. The nod. It could be used in many, many situations to convey meaning. It was one thing so simple, yet it could say so much…but only to other guys. Somehow, women and girls were on a different wavelength, and the nod didn’t work well for them when it came from a guy. At least, in my experience it didn’t.
“Will you be able to come down later on?” I heard Susan’s words finally and realized she was talking to Skye, who nodded.
“We need to find out more about your sister-in-law. In the meantime, they’re typing the blood, and if there’s a way to match DNA…”
“Her toothbrush is there, it’s the green and purple swirly one,” Skye said.
“That’s what your brother told us. He seemed to be quite helpful, but he’s strung out, and we can’t just take his word…”
“I know,” Skye said. “But he’s my brother. I’ll help, even if it means that…”
Skye stood, making me break contact. I pulled my arm back and looked to Johanna, who gave me a thoughtful look.
“Even if it means he goes to jail or treatment?” Pete asked.
“Treatment might be the way to go anyways,” I said, remembering that I was a voice in the room too.
Everybody turned to stare at me. I shrank back in my chair.
“Ok, if there’s nothing else, let’s say we meet up later on about 4 p.m.?” Susan asked.
“Susan, one thing before you go,” Johanna said, looking at me. I nodded.
We’d talked about it last night after we’d watched another episode of OITNB at Skye’s while sharing a bag of popcorn. Johanna walked out with Susan and Pete, leaving me in there alone with Skye. She sat on the edge of the conference table. I was expecting tears, but when I looked up into her face, her eyes were red and dry.
“I knew something like this could happen someday. I’m sorry I dragged you into this too, Jarek…it’s just that I wanted to help my brother get clean, but I couldn’t stand the fighting and the drugs. That’s why I needed my own space. Now…it’s just too much.”
I stood, ready to steady her if needed. “Do you think your brother did it?” I asked her.
“I don’t think so, he’s not the violent type…but until he came to stay with me, I’d never seen him on heroin before. It does funny things to people.”
“Is that why you were excited to get the job?” I asked her. “When you sorta hugged all of the air out of my lungs?”
“The day we met? Yeah. It meant I could get him into a methadone clinic. The problem I had was that it was a voluntary clinic, and he walked out twice.”
I grunted. I knew nothing about the horrors of drugs, except for what was on television. What she was saying made sense. I’d thought my offer was too low at first and she was going to attack me, but I ended up almost in a panic attack when she’d launched a vicious hug against my body. I barely survived with my ego intact, the bloated thing it’s become lately.
“Do you think this is related?” I asked Skye. “To Mephisto?”
“I don’t think so,” she said.
“What was that email you started to tell me about?”
“Oh, OH!” Skye said, pulling a leather case out of her oversized purse. It was tooled cowhide with silver and glittery bedazzle things, according to the television.
She pressed the screen of her tablet, slid her fingers around, and then handed it to me.
To: Skye
From: The Devil
Subject:
Still haven’t heard from you. Since you’re not answering covertly, time to be overt. I’ll be sending you a personal message. If that doesn’t grab you, Grayson gets one next. Are you sleeping with the boss? You filthy whore!
“Wow. That’s harsh,” I told her, handing it back. “But it does hint that he was going to be sending you a message. Maybe what happened to your brother is the warning or the message?”
“I don’t think Mephisto is capable of something like this. He’s basically a hack, a social engineer and even more of a script kiddie than I am. At least I can write my own code.”
“And it’s some damn fine tight code too,” I said seriously, knowing how close she was to stumbling onto the same sequences I used the more and more we worked together.
“Are you implying something?” she asked me.
“What?” I said, confused.
Jo walked back in.
“Jo, can you decipher something for me?” she asked.
“Sure, go ahead,” Jo said, giving me a look.
“He just said I have some damn fine tight code.”
“What’s that mean?” Johanna asked me.
“Her coding is tight. Isn’t that the new word nowadays for when something means good? It’s pretty tight instead of it’s pretty good? You know?”
The girls groaned, and I got to my feet so they wouldn’t tower over me.
“No matter what, Skye’s brother is staying in the hospital for a few days. He hasn’t been charged yet, bu
t they don’t know what’s going on. We could go to her old apartment, or we could start running down the lead I got from Susan just now…” Johanna said.
Skye smiled, and I did too. It felt good to have at least one direction to go, one way to turn. A starting place finally.
“It’s going to be ok,” I told Skye as I walked by her.
She pulled me close, stepping in and squeezing me, laying her head against my chest. I could feel my heart rate shoot through the roof, and Jo stepped behind her. I was expecting her to pull Skye away, but when she didn’t, I took a quick breath, and then another. I could feel Skye’s chest moving. For a second I thought she was laughing, but when she looked up, her eyes meeting mine, I saw she’d started to cry.
“Tell me it’s going to be ok,” she begged.
“It’s going to be ok,” I said, not knowing if I was telling the truth or not.
The diminutive figure gave me one more big squeeze before I put my arms around her and squeezed back. I felt her back pop, and she squeaked in surprise, so I let her go. She stepped back, wiping her face. I saw one small damp spot on my starched white shirt, but no makeup stains. I could deal with that.
“You ready?” Jo asked.
“Yeah. Skye, head to IT. We’ll phone in and coordinate. Then we’ll be back to take you downtown later on so you don’t have to face the detectives alone,” I told her.
“Ok. Thanks you two,” Skye said and then launched herself at Jo.
Jo gave me a panicked expression and was almost bowled over as Skye gave her a hug. I had to smirk at the expression on Jo’s face. Did I look like that? When it was me in her place? It was certainly funny to imagine so, especially seeing Jo suddenly uncomfortable like that. After a few moments they separated, and I headed towards the front of the lobby where Annette was, knowing I couldn’t take more tears without overloading.
“Are you heading out?” Annette asked.
“Yes. Johanna and I are going to be running down a lead. I think it’s in Shiawassee County, so we may have spotty cell phone signal. You may have to call us with the OnStar if you can’t reach us otherwise.”
“Running down a lead means you’re going to get the back seats all sloppy, and I’ll have to call the detail men back out like I did that time you snuck out there when you were nineteen with the client’s eighteen-year-old daughter…what was her name—”
Framed: A Jarek Grayson Private Detective Novel (Grayson Investigative Services Book 2) Page 5