Cold Case
A Cold Harbor Novel - Book Four
Susan Sleeman
Edge of Your Seat Books, Inc.
Published by Edge of Your Seat Books, Inc.
Contact the publisher at [email protected]
Copyright © 2018 by Susan Sleeman
Cover copyright © 2018 by Susan Sleeman
All rights reserved. Kindle Edition Printed in the United States of America or the country of purchase. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, and incidents in this novel are either products of the imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real people, either living or dead, to events, businesses, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Epilogue
Thanks for Reading
Susan’s Other Books
About Susan
1
Cancel your classes or your computer isn’t the only thing that will be DOA.
Eryn Calloway couldn’t look away from her computer. Away from the blue screen—the visual known in the computer world as the “blue screen of death,” warning of a fatal system error.
But this warning was different. Very different.
It wasn’t a Windows error. Not a virus. Her machine hadn’t crashed.
Someone was threatening her life. Here. Now. At the annual Policing in the Modern World Conference where she was teaching computer courses as a representative of her team, Blackwell Tactical.
How could this be?
She was smack dab in the middle of a crowd of law enforcement officers mingling in the lobby of The Dunes Resort and someone wanted her dead.
Craziness. She shook her head at the absurdity, but fear had a hold of her stomach and it wouldn’t let go.
“Eryn?” Deputy Trey Sawyer’s deep voice jolted her.
She whipped around to see him approaching her, weaving through the crowd.
If she hadn’t recognized his voice, his red hair would make him easy to find in a crowd. But his voice stood out to her much like a mother instantly picked out her child’s voice in a group. Not that Eryn’s feelings for him were motherly. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
She filled her lungs with air and connected with his grayish-blue eyes that were often calm and reflective of his easygoing personality. But not today. He looked darkly dangerous and very intimidating.
Every bit of air she’d drawn in whooshed out. She’d never seen this side of him, but man, she liked it equally as well as the laid-back guy.
He ran his gaze over her. “You’re as white as a sheet. What’s wrong?”
No way she was telling him anything. He was the last guy she wanted to share her problem with.
She reached for the laptop screen to lower it. He shot out a hand and pressed it over hers, halting her movement. His touch amplified the usual tingle of excitement she felt in his presence, and her already stressed-out mind whirled.
She swallowed hard and did her best not to reveal her unease about the hack and about seeing him again. They’d danced around their mutual attraction for a year now, and she found him almost impossible to resist. Almost. But she managed it so far. The key was to eliminate the time they spent together.
Today was no exception. She would move on as soon as possible, and while he was here, she wouldn’t display even a hint of her feelings. Not when she would never let things develop with him. Or any other man for that matter.
He bent forward to stare at the screen and released her hand. He worked the muscles in his strong jaw for a moment then turned his gaze on her, the intensity there making her gasp. “What in the world is going on, Eryn?”
“It’s nothing.” She tried to sound casual, but she didn’t manage it.
“Right. Nothing made all the color drain from your face.” He grabbed a chair and turned it to face her. He straddled the seat and rested powerful arms on the chair back.
She took a moment to look at him. Not a good idea, but then she didn’t have good ideas around him. He wore black tactical pants much like hers, and an Under Armour tactical shirt in an army green color that fit him like a second set of skin, accentuating his muscular build and broad shoulders.
Her gaze wanted to linger there, but she forced it back to his face. She steeled her expression and her voice. “It’s nothing. Leave it alone.”
She closed her computer and started to get up.
He rested a hand on her shoulder, effectively stopping her from rising. She held there, midair, and refused to look at him.
“I can’t let this go, and you know it.” The vehemence in his tone surprised her. Where was the laid-back guy she knew? “Someone is threatening you, and you need help.”
Right. His help. She shook his hand off and stood up. He was acting like most guys—assuming she wasn’t capable of taking care of herself. But as a former FBI agent and cybersecurity expert, she was capable. Very capable. She turned to glare at him and walk away, but his eyes were locked on her like a sniper eyeing his target. Leaving without discussing this was pointless. He would trail her and corner her in another location.
She sat back down and lifted her chin. “I can handle this.”
His gaze softened, his eyes bluer now, a striking contrast to his rich red hair. “Why do you always think you need to be so tough?”
She did have to be tough in the law enforcement world to ensure that men took her seriously. Fortunately, her male teammates at Blackwell Tactical respected her skills and abilities.
She deflected his question with a wave of her hand. “Why do you have to interrogate me? I said I can handle it.”
He eyed her but didn’t budge.
“Look. I’m a cyber professional and know how to deal with this hack.” She leaned closer so they wouldn’t be overheard in the crowded lobby. “The guy deployed ransomware. You’ve likely heard of the software that locks a computer until the owner pays ransom to have it released. Well in this case, he doesn’t want money. He probably did it to show off. It likely happened when I logged into the unsecured resort network. I’ll restore my machine, trace the hack back to the offender, and turn him over to the authorities. End of story.”
Trey shook his head. “That doesn’t explain why this hacker wants you to cancel your classes, and he’s threatening your life if you don’t.”
Her gut was twisted in a knot over that very thing, but she ignored Trey’s concern. “He’s likely just testing my competency.”
Trey’s eyes hardened to steel. “Or this person really does want you to stop teaching and is going to kill you if you don’t.”
Eryn sat back, putting a wall up between them. “You’ve been in law enforcement too long for your own good—seeing a problem where one doesn’t exist.”
&n
bsp; “No.” He planted his hands on the table. “I’m seeing what was right in front of my face before you closed your computer.”
She didn’t know how to respond, so she said nothing.
He made a low sound in his throat like a growl, then shook his head. “Tell me about your classes.”
She wanted to rush up to her room to take care of the computer issue. But Trey was tenacious and wouldn’t let it go until she explained, so she would get it over as quickly as possible. “I’m teaching two classes. One is about how every cell phone is unique and pictures taken on a cell can be traced back to an individual phone due to these unique characteristics.”
He sat up a little higher. “I’ve never heard of that.”
“It’s a new discovery and not readily used yet, but I want detectives to start thinking about the possibilities of how to utilize this element in their investigations.”
“Explain,” he demanded.
At his tone, she thought about refusing, but again, he would keep badgering her until she answered. “Digital cameras are built identically, but manufacturing imperfections create tiny variations in the camera sensors. The variations cause some of the sensors’ pixels to project slightly brighter or darker colors than they should—called pattern noise. It’s not visible to the naked eye but can be found with deeper examination.”
“Very interesting, but worth killing you over?” He shook his head. “I don’t get that.”
“I agree, which is why it’s likely just an attention-grabbing measure.”
“Don’t be so quick to dismiss it without further thought.”
She should’ve known he would keep after it. She would, too. The minute she reached her room. She shifted to stand.
“And the other class?” he asked, stilling her.
She had to appease him. “It’s about the Internet of Things.”
“Is that a new term? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Not new, but fairly recent, I guess. IoT devices are those with on and off switches and connect to the Internet and/or to each other. Things like cars, televisions, phones, and refrigerators.”
“Yeah, I can see that. Computers have invaded our world. There’s a ‘smart’ everything these days.”
“I know, isn’t it great?” She chuckled.
He frowned. If he couldn’t laugh at her joke then he really was upset.
“What are you going to do about the hack?” he asked.
“First, I need to get my PowerPoint presentations up and running on my computer so I can teach my next class.”
“Now wait a minute.” He sat forward. “You’re not going to ignore the warning.”
“Wouldn’t you?”
He blinked. “Yeah, likely, but—”
“But you’re not a helpless girl like me and can protect yourself,” she finished for him and crossed her arms.
“Wait, no. I don’t think you’re helpless.”
“But I do need protecting.”
He rolled his eyes and ran his fingers through his fiery red hair, leaving it in disarray. “I can’t win here, can I?”
“Honestly, no. I get tired of the double standards in law enforcement. Either I’m as capable as you are or I’m not.”
He clenched his jaw. “You know that’s not all it is. I care about you, and when I care about someone I do my best to make sure they’re safe. Just like you and the rest of your team have each other’s backs. If one of the team members is in danger, the others step up.”
He was right, and she couldn’t argue. He knew the team well. He was good friends with Eryn’s boss, Gage Blackwell who owned Blackwell Tactical. Their friendship went back to their military days when Gage was a SEAL and Trey served as a Green Beret, and they’d worked on a joint team together. And a year ago, Trey helped Blackwell out when someone threatened Gage’s wife. That was when Eryn had met Trey. Since then, he’d attended several of their law enforcement trainings at the team compound an hour up the coast in Cold Harbor.
She didn’t mind acknowledging the team dynamics, but she wouldn’t respond to his comment of caring about her. That would take them through a rabbit hole she didn’t want to go down.
“You’re right,” she said. “We do look after each other and have a strong bond. Maybe stronger than most teams since injuries took us out of our chosen professions. It’s a bond we all share. But we don’t overreact, and you’re overreacting, Trey.”
He shot her a testy look. “No. I’m stepping up here like the team would. You’re not going to stop me, so you might as well quit wasting your effort trying.” He jabbed his finger on the table. “You can’t teach the classes.”
“See? You are overreacting.” His behavior made her even more stubborn. “I’m not going to back down on that. I’ll be teaching my scheduled classes.”
He jerked his legs back, the muscles rippling against his pant leg as if he was ready to spring from his chair and fight her foe. He grimaced, but it disappeared as fast as it started. He’d been shot in the leg helping Hannah and still hadn’t recovered.
He met her gaze and held it. “You’re not teaching if I have anything to say about it.”
She worked hard to remain calm and not snap at him. “Why would you have anything to say about it?”
“Because someone has to watch out for you.”
“Please,” she said and resisted rolling her eyes. “There are five big strapping guys on our team. They’re all I need.”
“So, you’re going to tell them about this, then?”
She hadn’t planned on bringing it up. Not when there wasn’t proof that this was nothing more than an idle threat. But she wouldn’t tell Trey that. Lying went against her Christian beliefs, and she wouldn’t start now simply to calm Trey down.
He glared at her. “You tell Gage or I will.”
Trey wouldn’t hesitate to call his buddy Gage. It would be far better coming from her. “Fine. I’ll tell him.”
“Today.”
She stood and stared down on him. “I’ll do it the moment I get my computer up and running.”
“How long will that take?”
She rubbed her neck to ease the tension. “If all goes well, a few hours or so.”
“Okay, I’ll cut you some slack and give you three hours. If you haven’t told Gage by then, I will.”
She eyed him. “You really are a pain, you know that?”
He smiled, his eyes softening. “A pain who cares about you and doesn’t want to see anything bad happen to you.”
She blew out a breath. “I appreciate that you care, Trey. I just wish you didn’t care so stinkin’ much.”
Trey didn’t like letting Eryn walk away from him when she was irritated with him. For so many reasons it was hard to count. But most of all, he knew she hated it when guys underestimated her abilities. Was one of her pet peeves actually, and he fell prey to it all the time.
At five-foot-seven, he thought of her as petite compared to his six-foot-four height. A petite and very pretty woman. She had long black glossy hair that she usually wore in a ponytail, but today it was free flowing and swung with each step. She wore her usual black tactical pants and a no-nonsense knit shirt revealing upper body muscles that she worked hard to build and maintain.
She looked tough, but at the same time managed to appear so feminine that the combination did a number on him. Couple that with her big brown eyes, delicate eyebrows, and a full bottom lip that he dreamed of kissing for months now, and he was captivated by her. Smitten—if truth be told.
He got up to keep an eye on her, his right thigh aching with the movement. He’d suffered a gunshot wound to the thigh when he was helping apprehend a thug bent on killing Gage’s wife, and Trey had been confined to desk duty since then. He was starting to believe it wasn’t going to fully heal, and he would never go back to patrol.
Eryn slowly made her way through the sea of officers lingering between classes, and many of them paused to follow her progress across the room. A stab of jealo
usy bit into him. Not that he thought she would be any more interested in one of them than she was in him.
She lost her husband four years ago and was solely focused on raising her four-year-old daughter Bekah. Trey had once asked Eryn out, and she said she had no time for a man in her life. But then, there were moments when he caught her looking at him with such longing, he couldn’t help but hope she would change her mind if he was just persistent. So he had been. Very persistent because she was so worth it.
But now? Now he needed to lay back. His leg wasn’t one hundred percent, making his future employment uncertain. Not a good time to start dating, and he wouldn’t want to lead her on. He had to get his mind right about his future job before embarking on a relationship.
He sighed out a long breath. Life was so complicated at times, even with God’s guidance. He knew God heard his pleas since the injury and would point him in the right direction, but Trey had never been faced with such a big U-turn in life. God would show Trey the way as long as he kept the lines of communication open and didn’t step out before the timing was right. But man, he wanted to step out. Wanted to get back to work. Forget the mounds of paperwork and get back to actively helping others.
He shook his head, clearing his mind, and started through the lobby toward the coffee stand in the corner. His leg throbbed with each step, but he tried to ignore it to smile at the barista as he ordered a black cup of coffee. None of that fancy stuff for him.
“Trey,” Gage Blackwell’s voice came from over Trey’s shoulder.
He turned and schooled his expression so he didn’t let on about his worry for Eryn. As much as he’d pushed her, he wanted her to have a chance to explain the situation to Gage.
Cold Case Page 1