by Jack Gibby
“Is that right?”
“Mm hmm,” Brooke hummed. She kissed his shoulder once more, her hand still working underneath the sheets, and then she kissed Dunn delicately on the lips.
Dunn and Brooke’s bodies pressed together, the kissing continuing, their hands exploring one another. The heat in the room grew quickly, and it wasn’t long before Brooke climbed up on top of Dunn and straddled him. Errant strands of hair hung down her face as she switched between kissing him and just smiling. Dunn’s eyes went back and forth between her lovely face and her full, bare chest.
And then, in a single deft movement, Brooke reached down below and guided Dunn with a smooth, fluid motion and sat down on top of him.
“There it is,” Dunn said with a grin. Brooke returned his grin.
“Feels nice, doesn’t it?” said Brooke, beginning to slowly slide up and down.
“What happened to protection?” posited Dunn.
“I trust you,” said Brooke. “Just don’t finish inside me, all right?”
“All right.”
After their morning romp, Dunn stood downstairs at the stovetop frying up some eggs. He had some toast off to the side on two plates, and when the eggs finished he slid them onto the toast with a spatula. A little bit of cheese, another slice of toast on top, a knife down the center, and Dunn had two breakfast sandwiches prepared. He brought them over to the kitchen table and set the two plates down. From a carafe of coffee, he poured the mugs full.
Brooke came walking downstairs with an easy smile, dressed in the same clothes from the previous night, using a small white towel to blot her wet hair. The wooden stairs subtly creaked with each of her steps. As she walked through the living room and into the kitchen, she smiled upon seeing what Dunn had prepared for her.
“Look at this,” Brooke said with a happy expression. “You made me breakfast.”
“We’ll see how it tastes,” said Dunn, pulling out a chair. Brooke took the hint and walked toward him. Dunn took the towel from her, let her sit, and then pushed her in to the table.
“It looks great, Gannon. Really,” said Brooke. She poured some cream into her coffee and took a drink.
“Was the shower all right?” he asked, sitting down at the table himself and having some coffee as well.
“Oh yes,” said Brooke. “Perfect, really. This house is really nice. You’re living large here.”
“I lucked out,” said Dunn after taking a bite of his sandwich. Brooke began eating as well.
“I’d stay here all day and lounge if I could,” mused Brooke. “But I’ve got to do grocery shopping for the week, and then Logan comes back later this afternoon.”
“How is that?” Dunn asked casually. “Sharing custody? Is it hard?”
“Yeah,” said Brooke, some of her happiness fading. “It’s hard. But it’s just how it goes.”
“You said the guy, your ex,” said Dunn. “Jake?”
“Jake,” affirmed Brooke.
“You said he was an asshole,” Dunn continued. “How’s that with Logan?”
“Jake is an asshole with me,” said Brooke. “He’s good with Logan. That’s generally how these situations go, you know. But I will say you’re lucky that you didn’t have any kids with your ex. Sharing custody is rough. And even though you’ve left the person, with a kid you’re tied to that old relationship forever.”
Dunn thought about what Brooke said, and he slowly nodded. Things with Amy had ended in a less than ideal way, but he never considered her an asshole. Whenever he thought of her, it just made him a little bit sad.
“But whatever,” said Brooke. “It’s just the reality of it. It’s not like I’d leave Traverse City to get away from Jake if Logan didn’t exist. I’m the one who’s from here. Jake’s the transplant. This will always be my home.”
“Is that a dig at me?” Dunn replied. “Because I left Chicago?” Brooke laughed and reached across the table to touch his hand.
“No,” she said. “That’s just coincidence. It’s not a dig at you at all.” Dunn smiled.
Dunn’s phone buzzed on the table. Both he and Brooke looked at it. Dunn looked up to her, and she rolled her eyes. Picking up the phone, he looked down into the text on the screen.
“What’s up, Dunn?” the text from Missy read. “Are you in?”
“Another text from your friend?” Brooke said.
“Yeah,” said Dunn.
“That girl, right?” said Brooke. “Missy?”
“There’s nothing going on with that,” said Dunn. “I told you. It’s just a friendship. She’s actually a really good person. You’d like her.”
“Maybe,” Brooke replied, not impressed.
“She just had some more thoughts about the shooting,” said Dunn. “She wants to do a little recon.”
“Recon?” blurted Brooke with wide eyes and a short laugh.
“Yeah,” said Dunn. “Just a little digging at the marina.”
“Gannon, she wants to sleep with you,” said Brooke. “That’s what this is about.”
“It’s not,” Dunn insisted. “It’s not like that.”
“I think you’re being a bit naive,” said Brooke. “Maybe purposefully so.”
“I’m not being naive,” said Dunn. “We just have a connection, that’s all.”
“We had a connection,” Brooke implied. “Last night, and this morning. Did you enjoy it?”
“Yeah, absolutely.”
“I did, too,” Brooke said and offered a smile. “I enjoy you, Gannon. I’m glad you’re here. I hope you and I can have many more connections. I just think that maybe you should focus on the woman in front of you who’s obviously quite enamored, and not the girl who showed you how to drive a boat.”
Dunn felt torn by Brooke’s words. He almost spoke up to correct her on Missy’s age, but he wasn’t dumb. Brooke was a beautiful, smart, sensual woman and she wasn’t someone he wanted to let slip through his hands. Dunn knew you had to pick your battles, and this wasn’t a battle he wanted to fight over breakfast.
“All right,” said Dunn with a half-cocked smile. He took Brooke’s hand. Brooke smiled in turn, and squeezed his hand.
“Good,” said Brooke. Her happiness was bubbling back up.
As Brooke reached for her egg sandwich once more, focusing in on it, Dunn’s eyes looked toward his phone. Missy had texted again, but he didn’t reach for it. He’d have to touch base with her later.
“This guy’s totally in love with me,” Missy said. She and Dunn walked in through the front door of the building at the marina. Dunn looked around, checking to see if anybody would notice them or think suspiciously about their entrance.
“Yeah?” said Dunn, returning his attention to Missy and following her confident walk through the lobby.
“Yeah, he’s a maintenance guy around here,” she continued on. “A building engineer or something. Nice guy. But I think if I lay it on thick, we’ll get what we want.”
“All right,” said Dunn. “I’ll leave it up to you.” Missy looked to Dunn and offered him a knowing grin.
They came upon a door down a hallway, and Missy yanked it open. It lead to a stairwell. Dunn felt a bit odd about the trespassing, but Missy didn’t seem to care. She walked into the corridor and down the stairs like she owned the place. She had the self-possession of someone who’d probably always gotten her way. It inspired Dunn.
“We’re going to stop by the maintenance office down here,” said Missy. “If he’s in there, I’ll get his attention. This will be a breeze.”
“Should I make myself scarce?” asked Dunn.
“Nah, just hang back a bit,” said Missy as the two of them approached another door with a small window on it about eye-level. Missy looked inside, and then back to Dunn. She grinned and gave him a thumbs up. “Jackpot.”
Dunn took her advice and hung back, though he was not out of view of the door. Missy gave the door a few hard knocks. After a moment, a young man pulled it open. It was Harry, the young guy wit
h sandy hair who had seen Missy off when she left her job.
“Missy,” said Harry with an obvious excitement in his voice. “What are you doing here?”
“Hey Harry,” she said with a smile. “How are you?”
“I’m good,” he replied, looking slightly confused. His eyes went from Missy, to Dunn, and then back to Missy. “What’s going on?”
“I had forgotten a personal thing in the school office,” said Missy. “And I ran into this guy,” she said thumbing back to Dunn. “He was a student of mine, and he’s coincidentally a new IT guy to help with security.”
“Really?” Harry said, looking to Dunn again. “I didn’t hear they were sending a new IT guy.”
“Yeah, I don’t know,” said Missy with a shrug and cute smile. “I just ran into him upstairs and I told him I’d show him down here.”
“All right,” said Harry carefully. He looked like he was buying the story.
“Could you let him into the IT room?” asked Missy. “I don’t think anyone else is around who could do it.”
“Yeah, sure,” said Harry. “Yeah, I can do that.”
“Thanks,” said Missy, giving Harry a wink. “You’re great, Harry.”
“What did you say your name is?” Harry asked Dunn.
Dunn was about to speak, but Missy quickly interrupted him.
“John,” said Missy. “John… um,” she stammered, looking again to Dunn. “McEnroe.”
“She’s right,” said Dunn. “John McEnroe,” he repeated, sticking his hand out to shake with Harry. Harry took his hand.
“Okay,” said Harry, his expression conveying clarity. “Yeah, that name is familiar. I must have read it in an email or something.”
“Terrific,” said Missy, clapping her hands together. “I’ll leave you two to it, then. Good seeing you, John.”
“You too,” said Dunn.
“Thanks, Harry,” she said, reaching out and tapping Harry on the shoulder. “I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Yeah,” said Harry, looking to his shoulder where Missy had touched him. When he looked up, she had already turned and was walking her way back down the hall. Harry kept his eyes on her for a moment or two too long.
“Can you show me the IT room now?” Dunn asked, breaking Harry from his reverie.
“Oh,” said Harry. “Yeah, of course. Follow me.”
Dunn sat on a stool in front of the computer screen. The light in the IT room was dull, and there was one large black server rack in the middle of it with only a few machines installed in it. But they were noisy nonetheless. It wasn’t the cleanest server room Dunn had ever been in, with a few boxes of odds and ends—cables and keyboards and manuals and whatever else—and some old hardware stacked in a corner. But it wasn’t bad. Dunn was looking into the security system, getting a handle of how many cameras were installed around the area.
After a few moments, there was a light knock at the door. Dunn stood up and approached.
“Dunn,” he heard Missy say through the door in a loud whisper. “Open up.”
He obeyed. Opening the door, a smiling Missy stood on the other side. She pushed herself in and quickly closed the door behind her.
“What did you find?” she asked in an impatient tone. “Anything juicy?”
“Not yet,” said Dunn, sitting back down in front of the computer screen. “I did find the camera that would have caught the shooting.”
“Did you go back to the date it happened?” Missy said, eyes widening. “Did you check that?”
“I did,” said Dunn. He clicked on the screen a few times, going back to the date in question. “The footage of that camera is gone, along with a few other cameras that point near that area of the parking lot. But that’s it. All the other cameras around the building were functional.”
“You’re kidding,” said Missy. “That makes it so obvious. Someone deleted the footage. The system wasn’t down. Those cameras are working now, right?”
“Yep.”
“Someone deleted it,” she repeated. “I’m sure of it.”
“Now it’s just a matter of seeing if we can undelete it somehow,” mused Dunn. He sat and thought about it for a moment, staring at the screen. Then it came to him. “You know, I know this software. I’ve used it before. It’s not enterprise level stuff like I was most accustomed to, but I know I’ve used this before. It’s Linux-based, I’m pretty sure.”
“I don’t know what that means,” said Missy with a smile. “But I’m glad you do.”
“Let me see,” Dunn said. He clicked around with the mouse a few times, causing the full-screen window to minimize into the tray. The desktop wasn’t something Missy recognized. It was simple and empty. “I bet this is Debian,” mused Dunn with his eyes trained on the screen.
Missy’s grin grew larger as she watched. It was obvious that Dunn knew his way around this computer.
“If I recall right,” Dunn said, clicking into another program. A small black window popped up on screen with a flashing white cursor. “This program configures a cronjob when you install it. It backs up a month of video onto another drive.”
“A cronjob?” repeated Missy. “Sounds like an insult.” Dunn gave a half-laugh, but didn’t pull his eyes away from the screen. Instead, he typed a command into the terminal. It prompted him for a password.
“We need the root password,” he said. He looked to Missy. “The administrator credentials.”
“Maybe this is it,” Missy said, pulling a sticky note with faded writing on it from the desk. She handed it to Dunn.
“If they left the root password on a sticky note…” Dunn said, trailing off and shaking his head. He tried the password. It worked. “God. There it is.”
“What would you do without me?” Missy smiled sweetly. She patted his shoulder.
“I probably wouldn’t be sitting here breaking into someone’s computer system,” Dunn teased.
“You never know,” Missy said and shrugged. “You might.”
Dunn rolled his eyes at her. Then he continued on, inputting more commands into the terminal. Missy watched with excitement. She didn’t understand what Dunn was doing, but she didn’t care.
“Yep,” said Dunn. “Here it is in crontab.” He pointed at the screen. “This thing is backing up video hourly to another drive in this machine. It deletes video older than a month. It hasn’t been a month yet, right?”
“Nope,” said Missy. “It hasn’t.”
“Then we might be golden,” said Dunn. Exiting the file he was in, Dunn quickly typed in more commands and found the directory he was searching for. Another command, and a list of all the videos appeared on the screen with date and time stamps.
“Wow,” said Missy. “That’s a lot of videos.”
“We’ll just take everything from the parking lot cameras on the day of the shooting,” said Dunn. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a small USB key and pushed it into the slot of the computer. Then he typed some more into the command line.
“We can’t watch it here?” said Missy, obviously feeling impatient.
“I think we should get out of here as soon as possible,” said Dunn. A text-based progress bar moved in the window on screen, and Dunn watched as the videos copied over to his drive.
“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” said Missy.
It didn’t take much longer before the files were done copying. Dunn pulled the USB key out of the machine and slipped it back into his pocket.
“A few things,” he said to Missy. “The terminal on a Linux machine like this records your command history. So we need to clear that.”
“Okay,” she said, watching as Dunn typed in the appropriate command.
“We’ll also clear the screen,” he said. Dunn simply typed ‘clear’ into the terminal and hit enter. The black screen cleared of everything he had done. Just back to a simple cursor. “Then we exit.”
“All right,” Missy said with a nod. When Dunn typed ‘exit’ the window disappeared.
/> “We’ll put this away,” he said, placing the sticky note back where they found it. “And bring the live camera feed back.” Soon, the monitor looked just as it did when he had arrived. “And now we make our escape.” Dunn smiled at Missy, and she smiled in turn.
“This feels good,” she said, getting a taste for the subterfuge. “I like this, Dunn.”
Dunn stood up and pulled Missy lightly by the shoulder, turning her around to face the door.
“Let’s save those feelings for when we get back in the car and on the road,” said Dunn. “For now, let’s make our break.”
“We’re a good team,” said Missy, pulling open the IT room door. She looked outside to check if they were alone. “Ready, Dunn?”
“Ready.”
Chapter Five
Missy’s mind was elsewhere. Although she had been shadowing Wes McMullin, her father’s operations manager for the winery, trying to pick up the job her father had created for her, all she could think about were those security videos she and Dunn had stolen from the marina. Because there were so many videos to sort through, the plan was that Dunn would analyze them one by one and figure out which videos contained the footage they were after. The suspense was killing her.
“There’s someone I’d like you to meet,” said Wes, a short, somewhat plump man in a dark suit. “I think he’s back in our shipping area right now.”
“All right,” said Missy, smoothing out her grey wool skirt. She had taken her father’s advice and dressed more professionally, wearing a skirt and a white blouse.
“Follow me,” Wes said, waving Missy along as they walked through the tasting room lobby.
Missy had seen all of this before. She’d grown up around the winery. Although she had spent far more time there during her grandfather’s reign, she had been around for the renovations and construction after her father took over. There was a small warehouse off to one side of the building, with a huge garage door. Emperor Vineyards really only supplied the state of Michigan with their wines. Missy’s father’s plan, however, was to expand that much further.