Cold Case

by Susan Sleeman

  “Sure. We partner with ODFW to facilitate enforcement of resource management goals,” he said as if spouting off an official position statement. “Basically, each year local biologists set enforcement priorities by species, and we meet with them to discuss concerns regarding social issues, seasons, areas, and local issues so our troopers can enforce them. The foxes are part of those species concerns so when one was trapped, my investigator got involved.”

  “And have you had any success?”

  “I’m not really free to discuss the investigation.”

  “I understand that, Sergeant, but I might be able to help you with those pictures.”

  “I’d appreciate your help, I really would. But right now, I think it best that I contact whoever’s officially in charge of this murder investigation, and we go from there.”

  She didn’t like his answer, but she understood it. And if he wouldn’t talk to her, then putting him in touch with Blake was the next best option. “Sheriff Blake Jensen is in charge. I can have him call you.”

  “That would be perfect.”

  “Can I give you my phone number in case your deputies know of an animal rights group?”

  “Go ahead,” he said, but she could tell he really didn’t plan to work outside official channels. Not unusual, but she didn’t like it.

  She gave him her number and hung up. Trey was still on the phone with the reporter so she called Blake.

  “Anything new in the investigation since we talked?” she asked.

  “Unfortunately, no.”

  She told him about her phone calls. “Would you give this sergeant a call?”

  “I can do that.”

  She gave him the phone number. “Trey is talking to the reporter whose story I read. If he doesn’t come up with a lead, I’m going to head over to Harney County to start asking around about this woman.”

  “I’d tell you that’s a bit premature, but I know anything I say isn’t going to stop you. Not once you have your mind set on it.” He was so right.

  “When we get home, I’ll ask Hannah make a sketch of the woman for me to show around town. I’ll let you know if I discover anything.”

  “Be careful, Eryn.” He paused, maybe to let his warning sink in. “Many people who live in that remote part of the state don’t appreciate people asking questions. They’re out in the boonies for a reason.”

  His point was valid, but she wouldn’t back down. “Trey and Riley will be with me.”

  “Then you’re bound to draw a good bit of attention. Even more reason to be careful.”

  “I’ll take that into account.” She disconnected, found Trey had finished his call and was watching her. “That was mostly a waste of time. You learn anything?”

  “The reporter couldn’t give me any specific information on the animal rights group he mentioned in the story.” Trey stood and shoved his phone into his pocket. “In fact, the longer I talked to him, the more his article seemed sketchy. I don’t think he did much research. Maybe didn’t even talk to an activist.”

  “That’s odd, right?”

  He came over to the desk and rested on the corner. “I don’t know much about reporting, but the guy freelances—sells his stories to smaller papers. Maybe they don’t fact check.”

  “Could be,” she replied as she pondered the implications and did her very best not to notice that he was close enough for her to catch a hint of minty soap from his morning shower.

  He crossed his legs at the ankle and leaned back, stretching out his long frame even more. “I’m starting to wonder if he was sensationalizing the rights group part of the story when there aren’t any groups interested in this at all.”

  “Then how do you explain this woman’s costume?”

  “I can’t.”

  “It’s official, then. The only way we’re going to figure this out is to take a trip.”

  He cocked his head in question. “Where exactly are we going?”

  “Burns is our first stop.”

  “Why Burns?”

  “The OSP office in charge of investigating the trapping is located there. Here, I’ll show you.” She opened a map of Oregon on her computer, located the mountains that Neil mentioned, and tapped the screen. “This is where the fox was taken.”

  He leaned closer to peer at the computer. “I’ve never been there but heard it’s a pretty desolate part of the state.”

  “Definitely desert type landscape.” She looked up at him and scooted back when she realized how close he was. “I only hope that Riley or Coop can find a spot to land, or we’ll have a long drive ahead of us.”

  Her phone rang, and she saw Denise Frazier’s name pop up on the screen.

  “The resort’s IT person,” she told Trey in case he’d forgotten her name. Eryn tapped the phone to answer on speaker.

  “We have a problem,” Denise’s voice shot into the room. “A big problem.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “We’ve had an intrusion, and before I even looked at the logs, it was clear we’ve been hacked again.”

  “I don’t understand,” Eryn said. “How can you know you’ve been hacked if you haven’t looked at the logs?”

  “Get to the lobby and look at a monitor. I promise, it’ll be clear enough for you.”

  Trey found the lobby filled with officers. Not unusual. Classes weren’t in session. But they weren’t engaged in conversation as usual. They were clustered around the various monitors. Trey pushed through so he and Eryn could see one of the screens. Filled with a firehouse red background, the message read, “When you can’t get into your room, blame Eryn Calloway.”

  Trey fisted his hands. He was a fool to think they might make it through the morning without another threat. But he shouldn’t be surprised. After all, Eryn was attacked and a woman was murdered. If their hacker was responsible for these actions, then the hacker meant business and wasn’t going to give up.

  Denise found her way through the crowd, her expression downcast. Trey was sorry she’d gotten caught up in this mess, and he wished he could fix things for her. At least, he knew Eryn would be kind again, and that would make it easier for the other woman.

  Eryn turned to look at Denise. “Your look says this is worse than these monitors indicate.”

  Denise stepped closer and lowered her voice. “It’s not only the keycards, which is a total nightmare in itself, but he has control of all of the resort computers including reservations and room management.” She sighed, and it sounded to Trey like she felt like the world rested on her shoulders. “And all of these officers are going to be checking out soon.”

  “We’ll figure this out.” Eryn smiled, but Trey could see it was forced. “When was your last total system backup?”

  “We do a daily back-up at four a.m., but honestly that could be compromised, too, right?”

  Eryn nodded. “But hopefully he didn’t touch it.”

  “So how do we fix this?”

  “There’s no ransom request so the resort can’t pay to have the system released,” Eryn said, sounding like she was thinking through the solution as she spoke. “If the backup is good, we can restore the system from that.”

  “But what about reservations, check outs, and registrations since that?”

  “We won’t be able to capture those. But it’s early in the day so I doubt you’ll be out a lot of information. You need to speak to your manager to get permission to restore from backup. Then I’ll take the necessary forensic snapshots that the sheriff will need to prosecute once this guy is found, and we’ll restore the system.”

  “I’ll go talk to them.” Denise looked skeptical.

  Trey thought she had a right to be. Eryn was good at her job, but could she really do what she said here, or was she just trying to reduce Denise’s stress?

  Eryn laid a hand on Denise’s arm. “Remember to breathe. We’ll get through this together.”

  Denise’s gaze remained skeptical. “Where will I find you after I talk to my manag
er?”

  “Text me, and I’ll come to your office.”

  Denise nodded and scuttled away.

  Trey moved closer to Eryn. “Is it really not as big of a deal as you’re making out?”

  “No, it’s a big deal. Huge.” She frowned. “The resort has an online reservation system so hopefully we’re only locked out of it, but the data will be intact. I won’t know until I dig into the system.”

  “Sounds like that could take some time. Can you do this and teach the class at ten?” he asked, honestly hoping the answer was no.

  Her frown deepened. “Not likely. “

  “Which is probably what the hacker was hoping for.”

  She crossed her arms and widened her stance. “Well he’s not going to win. I’ll talk to Martha and see if we can postpone the class a few hours.”

  Not the answer Trey had hoped for. She spun and stormed down the hall toward Martha’s room. He hurried to keep up with her and wished he could convince her to let the last class slide. Not that even with his plea, she would. She’d find a way to notify each participant of the change, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she even offered to buy them all lunch. She really was quite a woman.

  It took Martha little time to get the classes rescheduled, and then he escorted Eryn to Denise’s office where she sat down behind a computer proclaiming the same message. The screen suddenly cleared.

  “Say what?” Denise gaped at the screen. “Just like that, we have the system back?”

  Eryn rubbed her forehead and stared ahead. “I don’t know what this guy’s up to. If all he wanted to do was display a message on the hotel’s monitors, he could have easily done so without locking up your entire network only to release it. Makes no sense.”

  “Maybe he’s trying to prove his skills to get your attention,” Trey suggested.

  “He got my attention all right,” Eryn muttered.

  “So what do we do?” Denise circled her arms around her waist, and her face took on a blank stare.

  “He may have infected the network with additional malware so I’ll take it offline. And then, I’ll dig for his code for later review.”

  Denise’s gaze flitted around the room as if she was searching for a solution. “This is awful. Just awful.”

  “Hey, look on the bright side.” Eryn smiled. “With the system unlocked, we can locate any new reservations since the last backup and print those out for later entry. I’ll then restore from backup, clearing out his code, and you’ll be back in business soon.”

  Denise released her arms. “You sure that will work?”

  “I can only hope so.” Eryn swiveled back to the computer. “I’ll know more once I take the network down.”

  17

  Eryn had so looked forward to her time at the resort, but she was now glad that the place was in the SUV’s rearview mirror, and she could get home and let her guard down a bit. Trey left his car at the hotel and would pick it up after they returned from their trip to Eastern Oregon, so Gage drove, Trey rode shotgun, and she sat in the back with her mother and Bekah. Riley and Alex followed in the other SUV with everyone’s luggage and equipment.

  Eryn glanced at her daughter, sleeping peacefully. Her head was tilted to the side, her thumb in her mouth, and her blanket scrunched up next to her face. She’d dropped off to sleep almost the moment they’d left the resort. Not surprising. They didn’t depart until two, which was Bekah’s naptime. But at least Eryn got the resort’s systems restored and was able to teach her class, too.

  Now they were finally heading south on Highway 101, which had some of the most amazing views out over the ocean. Beauty this majestic couldn’t be randomly created, and Eryn often felt closer to God on this road. It also helped keep her mind off Trey. She still wasn’t sure why she agreed to let him come along, but she obviously let her emotions from last night sway her common sense.

  She had to forget all about that. With everything she had on her plate, that shouldn’t be hard. First, she would meet with Hannah who was a sketch artist to complete a drawing of the victim. Then Eryn would spend the night at her computer reviewing the logs and code from the resort hack in hopes of finding a signature to lead her to the actor. For some reason, it appeared that he wanted her to see his code. Maybe he left her a message in it. Maybe he wanted her to know who he was. But why? That was what she couldn’t figure out.

  Her phone rang, and seeing Blake’s name, she quickly answered.

  “I talked to Sergeant Corrigan,” he said. “His deputies didn’t have any insight on local animal rights groups. He said the only group that was mentioned at all is located in Bend.”

  She brought up a mental map and plotted the city in relationship to Burns. “That’s two hours away, right?”

  “About that,” Blake replied. “Why are you looking in Burns? I don’t get it.”

  She wasn’t sure of anything, but she wouldn’t admit that aloud. “It’s the closest town of any size to the kit fox abduction area.”

  “About the fox. Corrigan said they don’t have much to go on in their investigation. The video taken at the crime scene didn’t capture any faces. And the forum was a dead-end for them.”

  Might be a dead-end for them, but that didn’t mean it would be for her. “Did you get the forum name?”

  “Yeah. ACT—Animals Count Too. You gonna dig into it?”

  “Yes. It would help when we head to Burns if I had more to go on.” She asked Blake to keep her updated and disconnected.

  Trey swiveled to look at her, and before he could ask about the call, she shared Blake’s information.

  “So you’ll be looking into ACT then,” he said.

  She held up her phone. “I’ll start right now.”

  He tilted his head and looked at her like Barkley often did when confused. “Could you ever go anywhere without an electronic device?”

  “I could, I suppose, but why would I?” She chuckled.

  “Honestly,” her mother said. “I don’t think you could.”

  “I agree,” Gage said. “Never seen you without your phone.”

  “I don’t sleep with it.”

  “But you do keep it on your nightstand.”

  “That’s for safety reasons.”

  “Um-hm,” her mother said.

  “Well, computers are my job.” Eryn fired her a mother a testy look.

  “But you don’t have to work 24/7,” her mother said, ignoring the look.

  Eryn wasn’t going to get started on that subject with the guys around so she turned away and opened the Internet to enter Animals Count Too into the search engine. She found the forum and kit fox listing right away. She opened the pictures to look for any leads but saw only desert-like surroundings and a cage holding a small terrified fox. She also saw the transmitter laying on the ground.

  She imagined it wouldn’t be easy to remove the device from a scared fox, but it didn’t look like the animal had been tranquilized. So the person who cut it off was either not very bright or had experience in working with wild animals. A vet maybe.

  She moved on to the comments but felt the SUV slow and turn so she’d have to wait to read all one hundred of them. Tonight she would have to try to track down each person who’d weighed in. She was in for a long night.

  She stowed her phone as Gage pulled up to the compound’s heavy iron gate and lowered his window to press his finger on the print reader. The gate swung open, and he drove into the compound. Because they kept a large weapon arsenal and owned very expensive equipment, the property was surrounded with a tall fence and state-of-the-art security. She was safer here than anywhere else, and as the gate clanked closed behind them, she could feel the stress pouring from her body.

  Gage glanced at Trey. “You can bunk in a cabin, or you’re welcome to stay with my family if you want.”

  “Actually, I’m staying with Eryn.”

  “What?” Eryn and her mother asked at the same time.

  He looked back at them, his gaze going between the
m both before settling on Eryn. “In case you forgot, I’m in charge of your safety. I’ll be taking the couch so no worries about propriety.”

  “But the compound is secure,” Eryn replied. “You don’t need to stay with us.”

  “Is it? Didn’t someone breach the perimeter a while back?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “But he was bent on hurting Hannah,” Trey interrupted. “And a guy who wanted to hurt you could do the same thing. Especially someone who has the skills to take the security cameras and system offline.”

  “Good point.” Gage pulled up outside his single-story house. “I’m sure Eryn will be glad to let you bunk on her couch.”

  Glad? “Sure. Whatever. That will be fine.”

  The front door of Gage’s house burst open, and his children, Mia and David, came racing out. A jumping black puppy followed, nipping at their heels.

  “Looks like my welcoming committee has spotted me.” Grinning from ear to ear, Gage hopped out, and the kids rushed him. Barkley danced on his hind legs, and then bumped into Gage and tumbled to the ground.

  Hannah stepped out, too, wiping her hands on a kitchen towel. She was about Eryn’s height with bright red hair and freckles that matched her son David’s. This past month Gage had officially adopted David, Hannah adopted Mia, and both kids were over-the-moon happy.

  Hannah reached over the children and kissed Gage. Not a quick peck, but a lingering kiss that reminded Eryn of last night, and she felt herself color. Hoping no one noticed, she turned to Bekah and gently woke her. She stretched her arms overhead and rubbed her eyes.

  “We’re home, pumpkin.”

  She frowned and buried her head in her blanket, telling Eryn her daughter could use more sleep, and they might be in for another cranky fit.

  “Mia and David are outside,” Eryn said hoping to help her daughter come fully awake.

  Bekah didn’t respond.

  “Barkley’s with them.”

  Her eyes popped open, and she squirmed to free herself from the straps. “I want down.”