by Lyn Cote
Absorbing this news, Jack stared at his mother. It felt as if she’d hit him with a one-two punch.
“Life goes on. Mike, Cliff, Gloria and I are going on. Don’t get stuck in the past, Jack, and miss your future. Don’t mess things up with Annie.” She got up and went back to the sink.
He heard the homey sounds of his mother drying and putting away dishes and silverware. But he felt removed from her. The yo-yo’s inside him slowed but did not stop. What just happened here, Lord? I can’t process it all.
He rose and started toward the door. “’Bye, Mom. I...”
She came to him at the head of the back steps and hugged him. “Call me tomorrow, okay?”
He nodded and headed out. He got into his car and started driving. He went over and over what his mom had revealed. He barely paid attention to where he was driving. He just couldn’t stop. A restlessness pushed him on and on, up street after street. Twilight glowed and dimmed. Night fell. Finally, he knew where he had to go.
Minutes later, he stood at Annie’s back door and knocked. A sense of urgency bubbled in him. Annie would know what all this meant. She would put it all in place for him.
When Annie opened the door, his heart turned over when he saw her troubled expression. “What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Nothing.” She stood at the door but did not welcome him in.
“You look sad.” He had to hold his arms down to keep from drawing her to him. I didn’t want to make you sad.
“What do you want, Jack? It’s late.” She looked down, not meeting his eyes. She wore a pair of cutoffs and a tank top, just as she had at the cabin.
“I need to talk to you.” Hold you like I did at the lake.
“About?” she asked in a drill-sergeant tone.
“My mom and my dad.” Jack edged a step closer to the door, to Annie.
With a long, very, intense look, she held him at bay. “Your mom and your dad, not my dad?”
He thought that over. “Right.”
She stepped back. “Okay, come in.” Without a backward glance, she led him to the cozy living room and sank onto the couch. “Sit.”
Still standing, he couldn’t stop gazing at her, so petite and lightly golden, against the blue and white sofa with yellow throw pillows. She folded her shapely legs under her as though shielding herself from him.
Don’t hide from me, Annie. I need you to put everything together for me. So I will understand it. He forced himself to keep his distance, but the memory of kissing Annie filled him with a hopeless anguish.
He finally eased down onto the edge of a chair across from her. She watched him as though he might sprout a third eye. Even that first time he’d come here in May and she’d been so upset about her sister leaving, Annie had been more welcoming. This is my fault. I made my parents unhappy and I’ve made Annie unhappy.
“What can I do for you?” she asked him.
He stared at her, trying to figure out how to open up, how to begin. I can’t. I can’t tell her.
His cell phone rang in his pocket He took it out “Yes?”
“Jack, I need you to come right away to the main Hope financial office,” Cliff said, his words rapid-fire. “I got a call that some files have been tampered with—”
Not now. “Did anyone touch them?”
“No, I’m here to make sure no one does. And I think the hacking just happened. Can you come right—”
“I’ll be there as fast as I can.” Jack snapped the phone shut “I’ll be back. My dad needs me at Hope.”
Chapter 15
After parking in the deserted lot, Jack hurried inside past the security guard and up the elevator. As he exited the elevator, he saw ahead in the low light, Cliff stood guard over the computers at Hope’s main financial office. The cubicles were silent and the night showed dark at each large plate-glass window.
Jack hurried through the glass door into the room, his eyes going to the bright computer monitor. He looked to his dad, recalling their recent parting, and didn’t know what to say.
“I made sure no one messed with the files.” Cliffs voice was gruff and he looked grim.
“Good...thanks.” Jack took cover in his role as computer expert. Would he finally get a clue to the hacker’s identity and finish this job for good? He sat down at the monitor and began tapping keys.
“Someone was working late, noticed that some files had just been changed and called me. I told them, ‘Don’t touch anything,’ and then I headed straight here and called you right away.”
“You did just what you should have.” Jack accessed the file that showed the system activity, who had been in and out of the files that day.
“Will you be able to get him?” Cliff leaned over Jack’s shoulder, also reading the computer monitor.
“I don’t know. It depends on how good...” Jack fell silent as a window opened on the screen and showed someone in the act of accessing files.
Jack shoved the chair back and flipped through a notebook of passwords he’d brought with him. He watched the files being altered right in front of his eyes. “It’s happening,” he breathed. “The hacker is doing his thing right now.”
“What?” Cliff sounded shocked and bent farther to view the monitor.
“And now I know who it is. It’s a Board member.”
“Collins?”
“No.” Jack showed his dad the page with his thumb by the entry and the password, and then got to his feet. “I’m going to catch him red-handed.” Jack charged out of the room.
Cliff raced after him, shouting questions.
Jack ignored them. It was good to take Cliff along as a witness. But after last night, he’d have chosen almost anyone else.
Within half an hour, Jack had driven out to the suburbs and up to an imposing home on a quiet street in an exclusive subdivision. He’d been there before.
“I can’t believe this is true,” Cliff said again. “You’ve got something wrong.”
Cliff had questioned him over and over on the way. Jack had ignored most of the questions. Why talk? He was right and he could prove it.
“I’m going in.” Jack opened his car door and got out. He confronted his dad. “I didn’t get it wrong. You saw someone at this house use Dunn’s password while we were at the main computer. Whoever it is began altering numbers in accounts without permission.”
His father tried to interrupt.
Jack refused to be stopped. “This hacker has done everything but mess with patients’ medical records. But he might in the future. That could cost people pain and maybe even their lives. We have to stop this. Are you coming or am I going in alone?”
Without a word, Cliff got out and kept up with Jack as they raced up the drive to the front door.
Jack rang the doorbell.
Two minutes passed by his watch.
He rang the bell again.
A muffled, irritated-sounding shout came from inside.
The door swung open and Dunn in pajamas glared at Jack. “What the heck are you two doing ringing my doorbell at this hour—”
Jack shoved past Dunn and looked around the dimly lit house. “Where’s your computer?”
“What?” Dunn gawked at him.
“Your computer,” Jack demanded. “Where is it?”
“Upstairs in my office.” Dunn rubbed his forehead. “Do you have any idea what time—”
Jack ignored Dunn and darted up the staircase. “Hey! My wife’s up there!” Dunn chased after Jack. “We’re all in bed for the night. Hold up.”
Jack topped the stairs.
“Stop!” Dunn roared.
Jack glimpsed the light under the first door at the top of the landing go out.
Mrs. Dunn, fastening a pale shiny robe around her slim form, met Jack in the upper hall. “What are you doing here?”
“What’s in that room?” Jack pointed to the closed room, which had suddenly gone dark.
“That’s my son’s room.” Dunn came up behind Jack. “I’m going to ha
ve to ask you to leave.”
“Dunn, it’s about the hacker.” Cliff appeared at the top of the staircase, too.
Jack stepped forward. He twisted the doorknob and thrust open the door.
Sitting at a computer desk, Dunn’s preteen son glared at Jack by the light cast by the glowing monitor. “Hey, this is my room!”
Jack strode in and flipped on the wall light switch. There, beside the computer, was Dunn’s “token key,” a small rectangle with a liquid-crystal display that cycled an endless variety of combinations of four numbers every fifteen seconds. Numbers that had to be entered along with the password to gain access to Hope files.
Jack grabbed up the token key and swung around to Dunn. “Why did you give this to your son?” He shook the key in front of Dunn’s face. “You knew it was to be used by you alone.”
Dunn gaped at Jack.
Mrs. Dunn and Cliff clustered behind Dunn in the doorway.
“Well?” Jack prompted.
“I didn’t give it—” Dunn began.
“I took it!” The son’s jaw jutted belligerently. “I’m the hacker.” The boy barked a dry, cheerless laugh, sounding much older than he should. “Took you long enough to find me, big shot computer geek.”
Jack heard Mrs. Dunn gasp.
“Damon, no!” she exclaimed. “You’re making that up.”
“No, I’m not! I did it.” The thin kid with spiked hair wearing summer pajamas folded his arms over his thin chest. “Dad says I can’t do anything—”
“Stop lying, Damon,” his mother pleaded. “They might believe you.”
“Listen to your mother, boy.” Dunn shouldered past Jack. “You, the hacker? Make me laugh. You couldn’t do it. You don’t have the brains. You—”
“Just because I don’t get good grades, doesn’t mean I’m dumb,” Damon retorted. “I outsmarted Mr. Computer Nerd here!”
“Yeah, right,” Dunn sneered. “You outsmarted our very experienced, very expensive computer expert—”
“I started by adding zeros ’cause you said I was just a zero.” The son’s tone matched the father’s, dripping sarcasm and disrespect. “Then, ’cause you’re so cheap, I decided to give everyone raises.”
“Dunn,” Jack cut in, disgusted and embarrassed by the father’s behavior, more than the son’s, “now that I know where the attack came from, I can trace your computer and prove it was the one used in compromising the Hope system. But I don’t have to. He’s got your token key in hand. That’s proof enough.”
Everyone fell silent—the four of them standing around the boy at the computer desk. In the leaden silence, Jack heard the air conditioner whine as it cycled on.
Then Mrs. Dunn began to sob. “I told you to spend more time with Damon. I told you something was going on with him. Why don’t you listen to me?”
Dunn rounded on her. “I have work to do. He’s past the age where I should have to be around holding his hand. You want me to bring home the big bucks? Well, I have to work long hours to do that.”
“Who wants you around more anyway?” Damon jeered, his arms wrapped around himself.
Jack eased backward. Solving the mystery had excited him. But he hadn’t considered the effect of his unmasking the Dunns’ son as the hacker. Hadn’t expected the hacker to be just a kid.
“I don’t need you here—” Damon’s voice rose as he verbally attacked his father “—watching me, telling me what to do. I don’t need you at all.”
This last sentence—so bitter, so acidic—echoed through Jack. His memory summoned up a scene. He was standing outside his mother’s back door, shouting at his dad, “Go on and leave. I don’t need you!” His heart raced, making him a little nauseated. His words had been lies, said out of hurt and rejection. He glanced over his shoulder at his dad. I don’t want to see myself in this situation. This has nothing to do with me and my dad.
Cliff’s face looked frozen in a deep frown. He motioned for Jack to fall back.
Jack obeyed, leaving the mother, father and son alone in the room.
What would happen now? The kid was a minor, but he’d broken laws, caused all kinds of expense, stuff the kid hadn’t even considered. He’d just tried to get his dad’s attention. Show him that he should be respected, but in the worst possible way. There would be consequences for him and his family.
With a hand on Jack’s sleeve, Cliff led him farther down the hall. “I think we should leave.”
Jack didn’t know what was best to do and really, the present dilemma wasn’t occupying him.
In the dark hall, recollection after recollection poured through his mind—scenes of Cliff slowly, painfully moving away from him when he was in high school, basketball games Cliff never showed up for, the evenings Jack had shot baskets alone in the drive while his dad worked late.
And then scenes where, in turn, Jack rejected his dad. The anguish and anger roiled back as potent as they had been years before, now rubbing Jack raw inside. “Okay,” he managed to mumble.
They shuffled down the stairs side by side and quietly let themselves out. Without exchanging a word, they got back into the car and Jack drove off.
The silence lasted until Jack pulled up in front of the Hope financial offices building.
Jack kept his eyes forward, looking at the pattern of lights on the building. No words came to him except the ones he didn’t want to say.
Silence.
“I know we had to find out who was doing this,” Cliff finally said. “It was too serious to ignore, but I feel awful for the Dunns.”
Jack nodded, his tortured stomach doing a free fall.
“Well, I guess I’ll get home.” Cliff reached for the door handle.
“Dad—” Gripping the steering wheel, Jack turned to him. “I’m sorry...”
In the glow of the nearby streetlight, Cliff froze, looking back at Jack. Finally, he asked, “You mean about how you treated Gloria?”
“Yes.” And for a lot more. “It won’t happen again.” Jack felt a little sick, as though he’d been running and was dehydrated. “I’d like to make it up to her...and you.”
A pause.
“Good.” Cliff cleared his throat. “Good. I’d like that, so would Gloria.”
Able to loosen his hold on the wheel, Jack offered Dad his hand. “Thanks.”
Cliff accepted his hand and shook it “Good.”
Healing flowed through Jack, warm and freeing. He took a deep breath.
Then Cliff closed the door. Through the open window, he said, “Call me and we’ll make another date.”
“I will.” Jack’s pulse still pounded in the aftermath of this exchange. And his reaction included a new realization about what God wanted from him. I nearly wrecked everything. I’m so sorry for my unforgiving, judgmental spirit.
“Good night, Son.”
“Good night, Dad.”
Jack drove straight to Annie’s house and parked in the alley by Mike’s garage.
Her neighborhood was quiet and dark, but Jack had to speak to Annie. Make things right. Getting out he recalled their parting conversation last night. “You don’t get it, Jack,” Annie had said. Lord, I get it now. Help me prove that to Annie.
I love her.
He ran to her back door and knocked hard. He waited. Mosquitoes buzzed his ear and he swatted them away. Finally, the back light was switched on and Annie drew aside the little curtain to peer at him through the high back door window.
She unlocked the door and opened it a wedge. “It’s after midnight,” she whispered in a what-are-you-nuts? tone. “What do you—”
“I caught the hacker.”
She opened the door and let him in. She was dressed in rumpled shorts and T-shirt. Her hair was tousled and Jack had the undeniable urge to kiss her. He pulled her to him, pressing his face next to hers. “Forgive me, Annie.” He kissed her.
For a moment, she relaxed against him, joining in the kiss. Then abruptly, she pushed him away. “Why are you kissing me?”
He let her go. “I was wrong.” He raked his hands through his hair. “But I finally got it tonight.”
“Got it? Got what?”
“Remember? Last night you said I didn’t get it but you did. Tonight, I got it.”
She motioned him toward the worn wicker furniture on the screened-in back porch. She sat down on a porch swing. “Start at the beginning. Where did you go tonight when you left me? You said—”
“My dad had been called about someone tampering with the files at the Hope financial center.” Jack sank down beside her. The swing swayed under him. He fought the urge to forgo explanations and just kiss her again. Sitting on the unstable swing reminded him just how he felt about persuading Annie to forgive him, love him.
“What did Cliff want?”
“Cliff called me and then stood guard so no one would tamper with them.”
She nodded. “Go on.”
Annie, can’t we stop talking? I want to kiss you again. No, he had much to say, much for her to hear. “Anyway, while we were looking at the files,” Jack explained, trying to get it over with, “I saw the hacker enter the system and I immediately saw the password he used.”
She drew in a sharp breath. “Who was it?”
Annie, just let me hold you. “It was Dunn’s password. Remember him? We went to his pool party.”
“Yes, but Dr. Dunn? I don’t get it. Why would he hack into Hope files?”
“My dad and I took off for his place—”
“Why would Dr. Dunn tamper with files?” she repeated.
He rushed to clarify. “It wasn’t Dunn. I found his son using his token key. He looked barely twelve or thirteen.”
“His son? How awful.” Annie’s voice sank.
Her instant sympathy moved him and he sat closer to her. The swing shifted under him again. “It was bad. The kid...name’s Damon...said he did it to show his dad he was smart even if he didn’t get good grades. It was an ugly scene. Everyone was mad, but...” He shifted again, unsettling the swing again. “I saw it all...finally. Not just about the Dunns but about me...”