by R Weir
“That is great news.”
She said it like she didn’t mean it.
“Really it is. Something with some meat to work with. Once I know more I’ll let you know.”
I’m not sure if I convinced her or not, but I knew it was only a matter of time before all the pieces fit and I would know for certain what I was up against. We said our goodbyes and I went to change.
Since it was a nice summer day, I dressed in running shorts, a long tank top and my best jogging shoes. I lathered on some sunscreen, hopped in my car and headed to the park. Washington Park was 165 acres of grass, tall majestic trees, tennis courts, trails, flower gardens, a busy recreation center, and two lakes. It had been around since 1899 and had hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. Today was no different with people running, playing and resting. Mandy had told King to meet her at the north end of the park, south of Smith Lake near the boat house. I planned on getting there early and jogging the area until I found him. I wore dark sunglasses and a skull cap, to make for a simple disguise. Even though I was essentially one-handed, I figured I could handle him. After lightly jogging for about twenty minutes I saw him off the trail waiting by some trees. I passed him and then circled around coming up behind. He never sensed me, as I snuck up and tapped his shoulder. When he turned around I popped him once in the jaw dropping him backward into the grass. Once his eyes cleared, I removed my sunglasses, so he could recognize me.
“Surprise,” I said, with a cheer.
“What the fuck, Jarvis?” he bellowed. “What is the idea of the cheap shot?”
“I needed to get your attention.”
He started rubbing his jaw. He would have a bruise pretty soon.
“So did it work? Are you going to listen to me?”
“Why should I?”
“Because it could be worse. I could have kicked you in the balls. Because it is ballsy you coming onto one of my clients after what happened the last time.”
He looked around to see if anyone was coming to his rescue.
“I don’t know what you are talking about. I was just waiting here for a client and you came up and attacked me.”
“You mean my client, who you won’t leave alone.”
“She called me.”
“No she didn’t. Just like the last time. You can’t find your own clients, so you come and try and steal mine. This is the last time I warn you nicely. The next time I pop you and then serve papers my lawyer will draw up, suing you. So leave Mandy Bailey alone, or else.”
King picked himself up, looked around again and then pulled out his gun.
“I could shoot you right here and now, and nobody would fault me. I was defending myself from some maniac, and bang, I took him down. I was in fear for my life.”
I laughed. Not sure why, since he held the gun, but I didn’t really think he’d shoot.
“Put that damn thing away. You know you can’t shoot me. You’re just mad at yourself for getting caught again.”
His anger was subsiding, and his gun went back into this holster. He turned and walked on, mumbling something, about this not being over. I couldn’t tell for sure but didn’t care, for I’d made my point again with him. Now all I had to do is prove to my client he wasn’t right about me.
Chapter 34
After a decent night of sleep, I was ready to try and workout when I got a call from Bill.
“They found your two assailants and brought them in for questioning a short while ago. I thought you’d want to stop down and see the proceedings.”
“Who is handling it?”
“Mallard, I believe.”
“Do you think he’ll mind?”
“Does it matter? You generally don’t give a damn about what others think.”
“So true. I’ll be right there.”
Changing course, I put on some jeans and shirt and drove to the precinct. Once there Bill got me signed in with a guest ID and escorted me back.
“Guess who just showed up to bail them out?”
“Don Bristol?”
“Yep. Probably still have an hour before the paperwork comes through. But hell, they didn’t even make a call and he shows up.”
“Nice to have friends in high places. And I’m pretty certain who that would be.”
We reached the interrogation room. Mallard was standing outside next to Cummings. Both looked up and showed no joy in seeing me. Bill walked away before they could say anything to him. Not that it mattered, because, like me, he didn’t give a damn what they thought.
“One of these days Malone and I are going to have a long chat about his friendship with you,” said Mallard.
“Gee, I’m sure he would listen carefully to everything you said, and then flip you off and stroll away laughing. Why waste the energy. I’m here because those two attacked and threatened me.” I held up my bandaged hand. “You need me here to identify them, so I’m here.”
Mallard sighed and waved me to come into the adjoining room, with a view of where Cong was sitting and waiting. He was dapper as ever, dressed as if he was going to a fancy soiree. He still had his hat, with beige jacket and slacks, a silk shirt open to show some of his hairless chest. He seemed to be singing to himself while he waited. Something in his native language. He didn’t look nervous or worried, for he knew he wouldn’t be held long.
“That is Cong,” I stated. “He is the man who made the threats against me. What do you know about him?”
“Not much so far,” said Cummings. “Nothing in our system about him. But we figure he isn’t from here. Has a California license. Last name Niu.”
“I have some contacts at the FBI that may be able to help. What about Lok?”
“He is in the other room,” said Cummings. “Also a California license. Last name Feng. He has crazy eyes. Calm, but there is danger behind them.”
“Yes, I know that look. He is the one that rearranged my fingers. Did he put up any resistance?”
“Not at all,” said Mallard. “Officers pulled them over and they came quietly. There were three cars on the scene when they were cuffed, guns at the ready just in case.”
“It may not have mattered,” I said. “I had a gun on Lok and still couldn’t stop him. I’m guessing they figured they had nothing to gain by confronting the cops. Have they said anything?”
“Not a word,” said Mallard. “They are refusing to talk. Waiting on their lawyers. Don Bristol is hard at work springing them. We don’t expect them to do anything but sit and wait to be released.”
“Can I go in and talk with Cong?” I asked.
Mallard looked at Cummings and shook his head, which was no surprise.
“Look, I’m not going to do anything. I want to make sure Cong understands I’m not backing off this case.”
“It would appear you are setting yourself up for them to make a run at you,” said Mallard.
“My client deserves my best. Walking isn’t my best. If you poke the hornets’ nest sometimes it reveals something. Right now I don’t have all the answers and this might bring them to light. They are working for WANN Systems. And Aaron Bailey was killed in their parking lot. Someone in that company had him killed, and I plan on finding out who it was.”
“Or die trying,” said Mallard.
Cummings smiled, as if he would be happy with my death.
“Like I stated, my client deserves my best.”
“You can have ten minutes.”
“Damn, Stu,” said Cummings. “Do you always give this gumshoe what he wants?”
It was the first time I’d heard Mallard’s first name used. He shot a stern look at Cummings.
“Dan, I’m the senior detective and I decide. You don’t like it, go running to the chief. Jarvis here might be a pain in the ass, but he does get results.” He turned back my way. “Don’t make me regret this. I’ll be watching.”
I stepped out of the room and walked into where Cong was sitting. He looked up at me with a smile as I sat down across from him. I star
ed for a couple minutes, contemplating what to say. He actually spoke first.
“Good to see you again, Mr. Mann. I hope you are doing well.”
“Except for my left hand, I’m great.”
I showed him the bandaged digits.
“Oh my, what happened?”
“You know the answer to that. Your man, Lok, was making a point with me that you wanted delivered.”
“I’m sorry to say I don’t know what you are referring to. I hope you aren’t in much pain.”
“He did an expert job. Oh, it hurts, but nothing permanent was damaged.”
“Sounds as if you were fortunate, this time!”
“I was. And so were you. Next time I plan on turning the tables.”
“Really. That sounds most courageous on your part. I hope you are up to the challenge. I’d hate for something worse to happen the next time.”
“Oh, I will be. But let me tell you something for you to take back to your employers.”
“You may say what you wish.”
I learned forward and spoke softly this time, so the microphones in the room couldn’t hear me.
“I won’t be stopping my investigation. I’m kind of silly about things like that. I complete the job, one way or another. Send your best, but I will find out who killed Aaron Bailey.”
Cong’s expression never changed. I doubt I scared him, but I was pretty certain he’d pass on my words to those in charge. I leaned back in the chair and matched his smile, when Don Bristol walked in the room, followed by Mallard. He was not at all pleased to see me.
“What the hell is he doing here?” he said sternly. “He has no right to question my client without me present.”
“Oh, don’t worry any, Don,” I said. “I wasn’t questioning. Only talking with Cong. We had a pleasant and revealing discussion, didn’t we? We needed to clear the air on a couple of matters.”
“Jarvis was telling me about some, how do you put it, pie in the sky morals he has,” added Cong. “Most interesting listening to his point of view.”
“I don’t care,” bellowed Don. “No one talks with my clients without me present.”
“Don, there is nothing to worry about here,” I said. “And no client to defend. I plan on dropping the charges.”
“What the hell, Jarvis,” said Mallard.
“It was a simple misunderstanding between us. No harm, no foul. As far as I’m concerned they are free to go, and Don, you can get back your bail money.”
Mallard turned around and walked out of the room in disgust, as Don and Cong followed him. Once they retrieved Lok and the paperwork was processed, both walked out the front door, going to get their car, which had been impounded. As Don left I followed him too, and confronted him before he could get in, my hand holding the door closed.
“Don, I don’t know what or why you are involved,” I said. “But these are bad people here, who are trying to injure and even kill me. Whatever you are into, get out now, or else you can go down with them.”
“I thought you said it was a misunderstanding?”
“They weren’t going to spend a minute in jail. There was no shot of any charges ever sticking or of it going to court. They have better things to deal with. I know they will be coming after me again and this time I won’t be the one to get hurt. So I will make this clear to you. Walk away, because this is going to get messy.”
He looked at me hard, but I knew he was stubborn. I stepped away from the door, and he climbed in and drove away. The seeds had been planted. Now it was a matter of seeing what grew out of them. My neck was going to get sore, for I would be looking over my shoulder a lot from now on.
Chapter 35
After reading though and not getting much more out of the pages of information the hacker Wilmar had provided me, I was sitting in one of the hundreds of Starbucks that seemed to be on every other corner in town. This one was in Aurora, a couple blocks from Rangeview High School. Across from me sat the cyber security teacher of the school, Phil Brand, going through the pages for a second time. In front of him was a flavored coffee, more like warm soda, and a cranberry orange scone. The second of two, the first he’d polished off before beginning to read. He was reading through the copy of the documents, the original locked away in my safe. He sat the pages down and took a long draw on his drink.
“Interesting reading,” he said. “I’m guessing you aren’t understanding what it all means.”
“You are correct,” I replied. “Too much geek-speak. I was hoping you could break it down to me in layman’s terms. Something a simple-minded PI could understand.”
“Certainly. I’m used to talking to school administrators. They don’t understand binary all that well either.”
I nodded, while drinking my own hot chocolate and taking a bite of a whole-grain muffin. Whole grain sounded healthier, though it likely wasn’t. When Phil had first arrived, he didn’t strike me as a school teacher, let alone a cyber expert. He was wearing long beige cargo shorts, a black and red Rangeview T-shirt and ball cap. He had white sneakers and socks, pulled up to nearly his knees. He had a round chubby face that matched his round belly. What hair I could see under his cap was white and he wore prescription glasses, dark in tint from being out on the sunny day. His handshake was solid and he didn’t hesitate to order what he wanted when I offered to buy. The way he ate the first scone, in two bites, made me glad I’d not taken him to lunch, though Starbucks prices would mean it might still add up to a hefty bill.
“Let me first start off by saying that I’m only going by what I’m reading on the page,” he said. “I have no way to know if any of this is true or not. It could all be an elaborate fabrication.”
“You are saying it could be pure fiction?” I asked.
“Possibly. WANN Systems have been around for some time. And have certainly staked their claim to a decent chunk of the multi-billion-dollar networking business.”
“Have you ever used their products or know of others who have?”
“Within the school system, no. We use Cisco products only. And in our cyber competition we only use Cisco, as they are a big supporter of us. But I know Cisco is highly aware of them as a competitor. And have even reacted by cutting some of their pricing to better match WANN’s. Though they are still more expensive.”
“What have you determined from reading this?” I said while tapping the pages on the table with my index finger.
“WANN makes routers, switches and firewalls, along with the operating systems that run them. They even have security software and appliances, intrusion and malware protection. Designed to detect breaches as they are about to happen while keeping companies safe from the bad guys on the Internet. From what I’m reading here, is that in their stealthiest, they are in reality a Trojan horse, gathering and stealing information as it crosses their gateways.”
“What type of information?”
“Anything of value. Personal IDs, passwords, security questions, credit card numbers, birth dates and social security numbers. Whatever it deems worthy of retaining. It caches the information and then sends it off to various servers elsewhere in the world, where the data is mined.”
“What can they do with it?”
“Pretty much anything. They can sell it to other cyber thieves. Identity theft, for stealing or ransoming users to free up their information. Cyber theft is a lucrative business.”
“I’m hardly an expert. But I thought when much of that type of information is transmitted, I thought it was encrypted. Making it impossible to snoop.”
Phil ate down his second scone, this time in one swallow, followed by more of this coffee. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his face, his appetite seemingly satisfied for now.
“When going to secure sites, banking, and when purchasing online like via Amazon, yes, you are running via HTTPS connections which are secure. But oftentimes people will transmit that information via email, or messaging services, which aren’t secure. They can even be spoofed into thinking it
is a real site, put in their personal information thinking it is secure, when it isn’t. But here is where it gets interesting. From what they saying here, when using WANN’s native encryption, which some of their customers do via software they provide, it isn’t secure at all. Though it claims to be 256-bit, it really isn’t and can easily be decoded while in transit. And when you install their software, there is a key logger embedded caching everything you type, and sending it off to cyber space before encryption, for data mining.” He took another long sip. “Again, I can only repeat what I’m reading, but if it’s true, it is some pretty serious stuff.”
“But wouldn’t some regulatory agency catch this? Surely there are monitors in place checking for this type of crime or fraud.”
“The Federal Trade Commission has some power. But like with most government agencies, they are underfunded and lack the technical brain power and equipment to keep up with the thieves. And with Net Neutrality being the big buzzword these days, where the Internet is free and open without limits, there is little they can do to stop it without solid proof. They are powerless. By the time someone has built any type of case, it’s too late. Most companies who lose money to cyber theft just write it off as an expense of doing business.”
“Doesn’t the FBI have a cyber division?” I asked.
“Sure they do. And again, they do what they can. But they and the NSA are mostly concerned with stopping terrorists before they blow themselves up or knock down another skyscraper with a jet. They snoop the information superhighway, using various keywords themselves. But stealing someone’s credit card number and buying a bunch of merchandise is small potatoes in their eyes.”
“So in your opinion is all of this possible? Could it all be true?”
Phil stopped for a minute, adjusting his glasses, then rubbing his jaw of day-old gray whiskers.
“With all that goes on in this world, yeah, I believe it is possible. The Internet is a wonderful place, with information at your fingertips. It is also full of porn, violence and hatred. In an open society the good goes with the bad. You’d like to think people would respect each other, but we know that isn’t the case. Companies are in the business of making money and some do it any way they can. Lie, cheat and steal is their mission statement.”