“Oh.” Jane heard the disappointment in her friend’s voice.
“Champagne? What for?”
“We got the Hollywood film company contract.” She did a little arm pump.
“Congratulations. That is cause for celebrating, but with David? Come on. Let’s go have a girl’s liquid luncheon.”
Here she goes. “Yes, with David. He is my partner. We are going to celebrate. We’re going to do a big shindig of a costume party. I’ll tell you all about it as soon as I know the details.”
“Sounds fun. Can’t wait for the invitation,” her best friend mumbled the last part over the phone.
“Oh, come on. Don’t be like that. You and I can go out tonight for dinner and have our own party.”
“Okay,” Amy replied, her voice a little higher, happier sounding. “Then you can tell me all about your hottie from the other night.”
“Hottie?” Jane held the receiver away from her head, stared at it in confusion then pressed it against her ear again. “What are you talking about?”
“The hunk. The bar. You left with him the other evening.”
She felt her cheeks flush. “Uh. Let’s just say it didn’t exactly go off as planned.”
“What? How could that be? The dude was on fricking fire! And he wanted you in a big way.”
She gnawed her bottom lip. Amy was right. Cooper was definitely hot and he knew how to heat her up. But she didn’t need to tell her friend all the details. “Suffice it to say we got interrupted.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. Just because she was the one who did the interrupting. She wasn’t ready to share with her friend about the night after that. As far as she was concerned, it was a one shot deal and it wouldn’t happen again. Ever. Except that it had. Twice.
“Does that mean you are back on the computer dating circuit again?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“We’ll talk about it tonight.”
“Great. Um, how about 6 o’clock at Fratello’s?”
“Perfect. See you there.”
Amy clicked off and Jane hung up the phone. “Time to go celebrate.”
The new contract that she had worked for almost six months on getting was more than enough reason for celebrating. Grabbing her bag from the desk, she snatched up two glasses, spun on her heels and strolled out of her office and toward Research and Development. Toward David’s domain.
When she reached David’s office, she slid through the doorway, leaned one shoulder against the frame and smiled. He had his face practically pressed against the computer monitor; a look of pure concentration creasing his brow.
“What’s up?” she asked with the hand that held the two glasses tucked behind her back.
David’s head popped up. He turned his attention from his computer, slid tortoise-shell glasses from the bridge of his nose onto the desk and beamed a wide grin at her from behind mahogany wood.
He looked so handsome and so right surrounded by mini terracotta pots filled with herbs and flowers. She loved him. Loved him in a way she would a father if she had had one.
“What’s up yourself? You look like the proverbial cat that caught the canary. Spill it.”
Her grin widened. Yes, she really loved David. For all his gray hair, subtle wrinkles at the corners of his blue eyes, and his infatuation for wearing coveralls, she loved him. Sometimes she even wished she could find a younger version of him. Someone who listened, talked, encouraged, and made her feel safe and loved and who would support her dreams and goals as if they were his.
That was what she was looking for…in all the wrong places.
Pushing away from the door, she extracted the bottle of champagne from her bag and waggled it and the two glasses at David as she sauntered into the room. “We are toasting my hard work, and our success.”
“You got the Hollywood contract!”
It wasn’t a question but an excited statement of fact. He had that much faith in her.
“We got the gig,” she bubbled just as David popped the cork and champagne bubbled over and into the two glasses she held in her hands.
After David set the bottle on his desk, he held his glass in the air. “A toast. A toast to a truly fantastic partner.” He gave her a wink and a crooked grin before continuing. “To much success at getting the Hollywood scene to go green.”
“To us. To Not-so-plain-Jane’s.”
They clinked glasses and chugged. The chugging became a ritual as part of their celebration toasts that she and David came up with when they received their very first contract. They’ve chugged a toast for every contract since, no matter how big or small. A win was a win.
David eyed her over the rim of his next glass of champagne and lifted one gray brow.
“What?” she asked and swiped at her nose. “Do I have something on my face?”
“Hmm.” He ran a hand across his chin. “You look like a woman who has been thoroughly kissed. You’re practically glowing.”
Heat flushed her cheeks when a crooked grin slid across David’s lips. She looked away from his knowing gaze and tried to think of a response.
“Sit.”
She set the glass on the desk then flopped down in one of David’s guest chairs.
“Talk.” David shut his office door. He set down in his own chair opposite her and refilled both their glasses.
She picked her glass up and swallowed liquid courage. Then gulped some more. Whew! Her head felt a little light. She shook it off and stiffened her spine.
“I had sex with Cooper,” she blurted.
David was mid-drink when he set his glass with great care onto his desk. He leaned back in his leather chair, clasped his fingers together across his stomach and stared at her.
Was it hot in his office? She was hot. She started fanning herself and tugging at the collar on her blouse.
“I see.”
He sees? What does he see? She had sex with Cooper. A cop. Not just any cop, the mother of all cops. The gosh-darn-frickin’ Chief of Police.
“More than once,” she divulged and downed the rest of her champagne. She hiccupped as she set the glass on the desk in front of David.
Oh-my-gosh! She said it. She said it out loud. She said it to David. David, who knew her, was her partner, her mentor and closest friend. The one person who knew and understood her entire background. The man who knew everything, including her fear of police and badges. The only person who knew her real name. She hiccupped again and slapped her fingers across her lips.
Last night he picked her up, carried her upstairs to her bedroom, and tucked her underneath covers in the aftermath of their lovemaking. The sweet gesture made her want him to stay even more, but he didn’t. True to his word, he left her before the sun rose.
She slumped forward, laid her arm across David’s desk and used it as a pillow for her head. “Oh, David, what am I going to do?”
His deep rumble of laughter made Jane look up and squint. “What are you laughing at?”
“You. You had sex with a man. What’s the big deal?”
She narrowed her blurry eyes even more. “You know damn well what the matter is. He’s a cop.” Jane sat up straight and slammed a fist against her hip.
David’s wide shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug. “And you like him,” he pronounced with a face-splitting grin. “I like him. He seems like a decent enough guy.”
“For a cop,” she growled with disdain.
“We’ve had this conversation before. Not all cops are bad guys, Jane. Some of them, I bet most of them, are actually good guys. You’re a pretty good judge of character, go with your gut. What does your gut tell you?”
Jane clutched at her stomach. “My gut says he is a cop and to back away.”
She already tried backing away but it didn’t work. He just kept turning up like a bad penny. What the hell was wrong with her? It was as if all her willpower had vanished. It wasn’t like he was the only man on the face of the earth. She had dated plenty of men. Plenty of loser
s, she corrected. But he was a policeman.
“Oh!” She slapped a hand to her forehead and wiped it down her face. “I almost slipped up and told him about my mother.”
David sat forward, set his glass down on the desk. “What?”
“Cooper asked me about my mother. I almost said someone had killed her. I caught myself at the last second.” She gnawed her lower lip then sighed. “I did mention that she was in computer forensics.” She covered her face with both her hands, let them slide down and drop to her lap. “Why would I do that? I mean I never tell anyone anything about my past.”
David cleared his throat.
She glanced up and smiled a crooked quirk of the lips. “Except you.”
“Maybe your gut really isn’t saying to run away. Perhaps it is saying to trust him.”
She shook her head with adamancy. “No way, no how.” She sucked in her lower lip and bit down. Did she trust him? How could she? She barely knew Cooper Chance. It wasn’t like he had been an open book last night. In fact, he barely told her anything about his day and hadn’t shared anything about his past.
On a long exhale, she sat back in the chair. Then again, she hadn’t asked any questions about him. Nothing personal, nothing about his past. Why hadn’t she asked anything beyond his day?
She knew why. Because she lived in the here and now. She had no past beyond becoming Jane C. East and she had to keep it that way. If she didn’t…well, she refused to think about it. She had buried her past, buried Cleopatra Jane West, buried Jane C. Smith, and she meant to keep them buried.
With a shake of her head, Jane pulled herself out of her past and into the present. “Change of subject.” She slapped a hand on David’s desk. “We are celebrating our largest and best yet contract with a party.”
David groaned.
“Oh, hush. You will love it. We’re going to host a Hollywood costume party.”
“Costume party,” he whined. “Why a costume?”
“Because Halloween is just around the corner and the timing is perfect with our celebration, not to mention a certain someone’s birthday.”
“Oh no. We are not celebrating another candle on the cake for this man. I’m too old. The place will burn down if we do that.”
She chuckled and reached out to clasp her hand over his. “You are not old.”
He arched one gray brow.
Releasing his hand, she rose and went around his desk. She wrapped her arms around his wide shoulders then planted a loud, smacking kiss on his cheek. “Okay, you’re older, but you are not old. I love you. Everyone loves you. We want to celebrate you, Halloween, and this contract. Please,” she begged and laid her head on his shoulder.
David patted her hand, lifted it and kissed the top. “Fine. You know how to get your way. We’ll have a costume party.”
She stepped back and beamed at him. “Thank you.”
“Get out of here. I’ve got work to do.”
Knowing when to retreat she picked up her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and spun on her heels to leave. “I was thinking about taking a drive out to our pilot boutique and see how things are going.”
“Great idea,” he said. “Check on the lavender shampoo. See how that is selling for me.”
She gave a two-finger salute and kept walking.
“Oh! I better get one heck of a good present if I have to go to a party,” David hollered behind her.
At the door, she paused and glanced back at him. “You just wait and see.” She winked, opened the door and left to go back to her realm in the business.
TWENTY
On his way into the office, Cooper called Jack and told him about Janette’s computer. He took a detour by her apartment, picked up her laptop and brought it back to the office. After tagging it as evidence he checked it back out to do some investigation.
His department was too small to have a computer forensics specialist on staff. He could call in a state forensics specialist or he could do the work himself. With his experience, he opted to do the work himself.
With his hope to find out the name of Joey’s father, he plugged in the computer, booted it up and sat at his office table to get to work. There was even the possibility that Janette kept her appointment book online. That would give them another avenue of investigation to go down. He was desperate for any information, any leads to catch the bastard beating and now killing women.
From his pocket, he extracted a flash drive equipped with an arsenal of computer forensic tools and set it on the table. If he could not get past Janette’s password in a few tries, he would pull out one of his tools, an advanced password breaking application and crack it.
He nailed the password on the first try. Janette had broken the cardinal rule of never using a password that was your birthday, anniversary, or a relative’s name. She had used Joey’s name.
“Too predictable,” he muttered as the screen came to life and let him into her computer.
Not that it made any difference to Janette now, but when would people understand that any information on a computer was free reign for hackers and given the opportunity, a hacker would steal a person’s information, identity, and use it for profit and worse to destroy a person’s life, as they know it. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Cooper started with Janette’s email, found messages to and from Joey’s babysitter. Found a few correspondences with other friends, but no mention of Joey’s father. He confirmed Janette had taken some online college classes just like the babysitter said. He saw emails from an English teacher. She had gotten an A in her composition course.
He found some messages between Janette and a couple of Johns, but nothing that appeared threatening, and none of them for dates in the last week. He would have to track them down and question them anyway, if for no other reason than to see if they knew of anyone who wanted to hurt Janette. He made a note on a piece of paper.
After stretching his neck and cracking his knuckles, Coop took a quick gander at Janette’s electronic address book. He didn’t find any new names beyond what he had seen in her email. She appeared to have a very small circle of friends. Next, he checked her calendar. Nothing there except regularly scheduled checkup appointments for Joey, play dates, and her online class schedule.
“Shit.” Cooper raked his hands down his face. “There had to be more. A woman with her meticulous and consistent personality did not let anything slip through the cracks. She had to have something on her computer.”
He stood up, walked away and paced his office. “Another application. She kept her work separate from her personal.” He snapped his fingers and rushed back to the table. “That’s it,” he mumbled and tapped at a few keys.
Sure enough, he located another calendar application. This one, however, was password protected with something a little more secure than her son’s name. He slid the flash drive into the laptop’s USB slot and after a few seconds, he accessed the password breaker software, plugged in the application information for Janette’s electronic calendar, clicked a button and let the password breaker do its magic. In a matter of minutes, it could break a 40-bit encryption. A larger encryption would take longer.
“Bingo!” He did an arm pump then looked up from the monitor at a knock at the door.
“What’s up?” Jack asked from the doorway. “Is that Janette’s computer? Find anything?”
Jack walked into his office, stood behind him, and watched in silence as he continued to checkout at Janette’s computer.
“Haven’t found anything yet, but she had a separate application for her business. It appears,” he glanced over his shoulder and pointed at the screen, “that Janette used hidden applications to keep track of her business. So far I located her electronic calendar that she used for her business.”
“How can you tell?”
“See this?” He pointed at the calendar on the screen. “This looks like someone’s initials and the word ‘regular’ sitting next to it. I think that is some guy who was
a regular of hers. She was not just a street corner hooker. She had regulars.”
“Huh. No one that I’ve interviewed seems to have known that.”
“She may have gotten referrals too. At least that’s what I’m thinking when I see annotations like this.” He aimed a finger at a typed note on the screen. “See the letters REF next to some initials?”
“Yeah.”
“Next to that she has another set of what I believe is a man’s initials. Plus, it says ‘first’ next to some of the names.”
“Like their first time with her,” Jack suggested.
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“How do we find out what all those or who all those initials refer to?”
“She probably has another address book I haven’t located yet. Let me look.” With a few click of the keys, he accessed the list of her applications and the hidden files. He found a file titled ‘friends.exe’ that looked promising. He attempted to open the application, but of course, Janette had password secured it.
“I’ll have to use the password breaker on it.”
“Did she have any appointments scheduled for the night she was murdered?”
“I hadn’t gotten that far yet.” Cooper punched a few keys and switched back to the calendar application, flipped to the day, and sure enough, there were two sets of initials. “I see two appointments. One of them is marked ‘regular’ and the other is marked ‘first’.”
“We need to find out who those initials belong to.”
“We will,” he assured Jack. “Give me a little time and we’ll break all her codes and locate all her Johns.”
“While you do that, I’ll be working with the sketch artist and the two witnesses to see if we can get a better description of the guy seen entering the diner.”
“When you finish with dropping off the witnesses with the sketch artist come back and check in. Hopefully I will have some details we can start to chase down by then.”
“You got it.”
Jack spun on his booted heels and hurried out of Coop’s office while he got back to seeing what other hidden applications Janette had on her computer and what information they might reveal. As the password breaker chugged away, he decided to cruise through her Internet favorites and history as well as search for other hidden applications.
Phish NET Stalkings Page 16