by Sijal Aziz
Kate looked at the time and it was 7 already.
“It’s nothing urgent, I will discuss it with you tomorrow” Kate said hanging up the phone.
She completed her report for the day, wrapped up and went straight to the reception window. She did not want to be without her phone again. She forgot to turn on her phone.
On her way home Kate could not shake the backdoor off her mind. It puzzled Kate. If her company had made a backdoor and the government had demanded it to be made, wouldn’t it have been mentioned in the manual?
Why was it not mentioned anywhere in the manual?
When she reached home, her phone was ringing. Kate picked up the phone. It was Matt.
“Kate, I have been trying to call you on your cell, but it’s powered off. I just wanted to let you know that I am calling you from Dublin. I have a layover here for a few hours and I will be back by noon tomorrow. How about a lunch date tomorrow? Why don’t I treat you to a French gourmet lunch made by your very own chef de cuisine Monsieur Matthew Raymond?”
Matt was an excellent chef. All Kate could fix for herself was a sandwich, but Matt could cook gourmet food with as few as four ingredients.
“I cannot wait to be with you. I am lonely and I am horny. I have a million things to discuss with you from work. I have been assigned to the Gamma testing department and I am working long hours so that they don’t kick me back to Beta” Kate said excitedly.
“Just a few more hours and I will take care of all your basic needs like food and sex”, Matt joked, “Congratulations on the new assignment. I know how important the Gamma testing department was for you. We have many reasons to celebrate once I am back. How about lunch at 1:30 tomorrow? Can you get some time off? There is something very important that I want to discuss with you”
“Sure, I will take my lunch break late tomorrow. Please hurry back. I am missing you”, Kate replied and hung up the phone.
Kate fixed herself a bubble bath to take her mind off the problem of the backdoor. She lit up some candles and put them on her bathtub. She laid down in the bath tub for an hour letting the warm water wash all over her.
After the bath she went to sleep. The next day, the drive to the office was uneventful with the usual traffic.
Upon reaching the Kent and Cooper campus, Kate took the elevator to floor A and after going through the regular security checks in the Gamma department, Kate went straight to her office and placed a call to Alexander Cooper. He picked up the phone on the second ring.
“Mr. Cooper! This is Kate. I was wondering if I can discuss something urgent with you regarding the drone policing software?”
“Please see me in my office in 10 minutes”
“Thank you, Mr. Cooper”, Kate hung up.
Alexander Cooper stared at the receiver in his hand and put it back on the cradle. He hoped Kate hadn’t found anything in the software that was not supposed to be there.
Kate paced in the room to kill 5 minutes. It seemed to take forever. She then started making her way to Alexander Cooper’s office.
She knocked at the door before opening it and then entered.
Alexander Cooper had a spacious, brightly lit office. Most of the light was streaming through the French windows behind Alexander Cooper’s expensive Parnian desk. In front of the desk were three chairs for visitors. Further to that there was a couch and coffee table. The room was decorated with modern wall art.
“Hi Katherine, please take a seat. What was it that you wanted to discuss with me?” Alexander Cooper said looking at his watch.
“Mr. Cooper as I was doing my vulnerability test on the drone policing software yesterday, I found that the program is operable through two ports.
I have carefully gone through the program manual many times and it only mentions one port there so I thought that maybe this could be something you can look into”, Kate said concerned.
“Oh, don’t worry about that. We have built the program in that way. It has two custom ports built into it, so if one stops working all the data is saved in the other port”, Alexander Cooper said hoping that Kate would buy it.
He didn’t understand how this woman was able to find the backdoor.
He had not assigned vulnerability testing to anyone in the Gamma department because they were experts.
If she worked in the Beta department, she wasn’t supposed to be an expert. He should have looked into her deeper, before assigning her to the program.
The idiots at the government would never have been able to find the backdoor as they were useless when it came to computers. Even an expert level computer programmer wouldn’t have been able to find it.
Alexander put a smile on his face and asked, “Katherine I am rather impressed, how did you find that the program was listening into two ports?”
“I was looking at the process chart for all the processes opening in the program while it was running, and this main1.exe, kept popping up and disappearing within a couple of seconds. That seemed suspicious so I looked into what it actually did”
“Ok. Now that this is cleared, I want you to finish testing the program and I expect your signed report on my desk by Friday.
I will check up with you after lunch on today’s progress. Please do not mention main1 in your report. I don’t want the government to know about it since it is for our use only and I do not want them to worry”, Alexander Cooper added.
“Sure Mr. Cooper” Kate started to say something but was hesitant.
Alexander Cooper looked at her and asked patiently, “Is there something else you want to discuss?”
Kate said hesitantly, “I will be having a late lunch break today. Instead of 12, I will go home at around 1. There is something important I have to do. It will not affect the schedule as I will make up for the time”
“Ok, just remember that I need the report by Friday”
“I will make sure that it is completed by Friday and thank you” Kate said and got up and left.
Kate went to her office and worked on the report till 1:00 and then logged out to go home. She was alone in the elevator till the fifth floor. At fifth floor the elevator stopped, and Alison came in. Her eyes were swollen, and it looked as if she had been crying.
“Alison, is everything alright?” Kate asked concerned.
Alison burst out in tears and said, “Kate, Ian is dead. He died in a car accident three weeks. I just found out last night”
“I am so sorry to hear that, Alison”, Kate said hugging Alison who was sobbing uncontrollably.
Kate kept quiet until Alison’s sobs subsided and then let her go and asked her, “What happened?”
“Kate, they said that Ian was over speeding and his car got out of control on a crossing and hit a tree at a speed of over 120 miles per hour. The speed limit on the road was 50. Ian would never have done that”, Alison said.
“Maybe he was in a hurry to go somewhere”, Kate suggested.
“Kate, I lived with Ian for more than two years and I never saw him driving a car over 40 because he was scared of doing so. His parents had died in a car accident when he was 12. His father was over-speeding as they had to reach a Christmas party.
Ian made a promise to himself that day that he will never do that. So, no matter how late we were for anything he never went over 40 and this was one of the things we fought about a lot”
Alison started sobbing uncontrollably again and continued “K.. K Kate he called about 24 days ago and asked me to meet him. I said I could not because I was seeing someone else. He said he had something urgent to discuss and it was a matter of life and death. I asked him to see me a week later, but he said it would be too late”
“I am sorry to hear that Alison. He worked in the gamma department, right?”, Kate asked.
“Yes”, Alison said.
“That’s strange no one at the office mentioned his death”, Kate said.
“It was because he took three weeks off from work”, Alison said.
Alison was visibly
shaken. Kate wanted to go home to Mark, but she knew he would understand when she told him about Alison. So, she said, “Why don’t we go and sit in the canteen?”
Alison nodded again. Too choked up to speak. They both headed to the canteen.
CHAPTER 5
Matt’s flight arrived at noon. He always travelled light with just one carryon bag so that he did not have to wait for the baggage.
Once he made his way out of the airport, he hailed a taxi and headed straight to the apartment. Matt never knew he could fall in love with someone the way he did with Kate and he wanted to propose to her over lunch. Matt touched the ring in his coat pocket again. Although it had cost him 3 months of his salary, but he did not mind. He wanted to make Kate the happiest woman in the world.
He arrived at the apartment building at around 1:00PM. He pressed the elevator button many times, but it refused to come down. So, he decided to take the stairs instead. He did not want to be late as he had to prepare lunch, set up a romantic lunch table and propose to Kate to be his for the rest of his life.
Upon reaching the apartment door, Matt automatically took out the key to open the door, but it was ajar. As he entered the apartment, he saw a man standing behind the kitchen counter. He was staring at Matt.
Matt looked at the man and asked, “Who are you and where is Kate?”
“I am Kate’s colleague. She went to the toilet. She will be out in a minute”, the man started walking towards Matt as if to shake his hand.
When he reached Matt, he said, “I am Simon Carter”
Matt extended his hand to shake hands with him and then everything happened in a split second, the man held Matt by the hand and pulled him towards him and rammed a knife into Matt.
Matt hit him back with a punch to his face. The man grimaced and stabbed Matt again. Matt let out a loud cry for help as excruciating pain shot through his body.
There was blood sprouting out from just under his right ribs. He clenched the spot with his hands and fell to the floor.
The man saw that the door was open, and Matt’s scream could have drawn the neighbors’ attention. He stabbed Matt one more time and ran out of the apartment.
Matt shouted for help again as loud as he could.
Matt opened his eyes and with every last inch of strength he had left in him he took the cellphone out of his pocket and turned it on. The phone took forever to turn on.
When it turned on finally he placed a call to 911 “Hello, I have been stabbed…my girlfriend Kate…I am at her apartment”, then Matt gave the address to the operator and said, “please hurry”
The operator at the other end was asking Matt many questions but all he could see was a bright light. He saw Kate walking towards him smiling. He said “Kate” one last time and then did not move again.
Kate finished her lunch with Alison and tried to calm Alison down. At around 1:30, Kate tried calling Matt a couple of times, but she was unable to reach him. She left the office at around 1:35 and headed home.
When Kate arrived back at her apartment, she found that the door was open, which was strange.
Then she figured that Matt must have left it open for her.
She entered the apartment in anticipation of seeing Matt and called out to Matt. There was no answer.
She made her way further into the apartment and saw Matt lying on the floor in a pool of blood with his eyes open.
“Oh God no, Matt, Matt, wh what happened”, Kate asked kneeling down on the floor beside Matt.
Matt did not move. Kate put her head on his chest to check whether he was breathing. She couldn’t feel or hear anything.
“No, no, Oh God, no, get up Matt. Don’t die on me”, Kate shook Matt and started crying hysterically.
Then she started screaming at Matt, “Get up Matt, get up come on. You cannot do this”, Kate said and looked around.
She saw a knife covered in blood close to Matt. She picked up the knife in a haze and was about to throw it away when the police entered.
One look at the whole scene and detective Derek Markus shouted, “Metropolitan Police Department! Throw the knife away and put your hands in the air away or we will shoot!”
Kate looked at the police and could not understand what they were saying. Then she looked at her hand again and the knife. It was covered in blood. Matt’s blood. Kate threw the knife away.
The detectives ran towards Kate and put handcuffs on her.
“What is your name”, one of the detectives asked.
“My, my name is Katherine Hawkins”, Kate stuttered.
“Ms. Hawkins you are under arrest for the murder of this man”, Detective Markus said.
Kate looked at him in a haze and then looked at Matt again and started crying hysterically.
The cops were asking Kate to do something, but she did not know what. She looked at Matt again and then she saw one of the detectives bend down on Matt and check his pulse. Then he took out his radio and reported the homicide.
The detective with the radio approached Kate and asked, “Do you know the victim’s name?”
Instead of replying Kate lost consciousness and fell to the floor.
There was a nurse standing next to Kate when she woke up again. She looked around, she was in a hospital room, “How are you feeling?” the nurse asked.
Kate wondered why people asked such questions. How does one respond to such a question when you have just lost someone?
“I, I am fine. Kate suddenly felt very thirsty. Can I have some water please?” Kate said trying to get up in her bed.
“Sure, I will call in for water”, the nurse said and then looked at her chart and went away.
After what seemed like centuries a canteen staff member from the hospital brought Kate some water and she gulped it all down in one go.
As she finished water, the detectives came in the room again.
“Ms. Katherine Hawkins?”, One of the cops asked.
Kate nodded.
“I am detective Derek Markus, and this is detective Ryan Gibbons. We are with the Homicide division of Metropolitan Police Department second district. We have some questions that we would like to ask you. How did you know Mr. Matthew Raymond?”
“Matt is.. was my boyfriend”
“Why did you murder him?”, Detective Markus asked.
“I did not murder him”
“Ms. Hawkins, you know Matthew Raymond, placed a call to 911 before he died. In that call he implicated you as the murderer. So, you better come straight with us”, detective Gibbons said.
Kate just stared at him and replied after some time, “I did not murder Matt, he was my boyfriend. We were in love. Why would I have murdered him?”
Detective Gibbons looked into Kate’s eyes and said “Ms. Hawkins we have recordings of Mr. Matt’s phone call to 911 and you were standing over his body with the murder weapon in your hand. That is enough evidence to put you in jail for the rest of your life unless you cooperate with us and save the state the cost of a trial”
“But I would never hurt Matt”, was all Kate managed to say.
“Ms. Hawkins we will have to take you downtown for questioning when you are discharged from the hospital. If you are thinking of escaping from here, I have to warn you that there is no way you can do this, since we have stationed two officers outside this door”, detective Markus said.
“You have to believe me, I did not murder Matt”, Kate said again to the detectives.
“Then what is this?”, Detective Markus said and played the conversation Matt had with the 911 operator on his phone
“Hello, 911 what is your emergency?”
“Hello, I have been stabbed”, Matt said in a weak voice.
“Sir, did you just say that you were stabbed? Do you know who stabbed you? Where are you now?”
“My girlfriend Kate”, Matt breathed heavily, “I am at her apartment”, then Matt gave the address of the apartment.
“Sir, stay with me, the help is on its way”
&n
bsp; “So, you are saying that your girlfriend Kate is the one who murdered you? Is that right?”
Mark said, “Kate”, one more time and then they could hear the phone dropping onto the floor.
“Doesn’t leave anything to doubt, does it? Ms. Hawkins,” detective Markus said and put his phone into his pocket again and then they both left.
Kate simply shook her head. How could this have happened to her?
Outside detective Markus said to Gibbons, “Well it does not get any weirder than this. Not a day passes by when I do not learn something new. Now look at her, she looks like miss nice and if it had not been for the 911 call, she could have convinced me that she actually loved her boyfriend and didn’t kill him!”
“Well no matter how much I hate these damned phones, they sure have their advantages. Let’s get some coffee”, Gibbons said.
An orderly brought Kate a lunch tray. She ate as much as she could and turned the TV on. She was on the news.
The reporter was saying, “The police has a Ms. Katherine Hawkins in custody, who is believed to have murdered her boyfriend, one Matthew Raymond. Ms. Hawkins used to work at Kent and Cooper”
Kate turned off the TV. She could not let the police arrest her for a murder she did not commit. She wanted to run away before she was taken to the station for questioning.
She slowly opened the door and found two detectives seated in front of the door staring at her. She closed the door again and went to the window and looked down. She could see the road at least twenty feet down.
How did people manage to run away from the hospitals in the movies? It was impossible in real life! Kate thought bitterly. The thought of her being in prison scared Kate to her core and the words of Detective Markus reverted in her mind “We will take you downtown for questioning”. Kate looked down the window again.
After having coffee at the hospital canteen, detectives Markus and Gibbons headed back to the police station.
They worked in the Metropolitan Police Department in District 2 or D2 as it was known. The Washington DC police department is divided into 7 districts. Each district has a total of 7 to 9 Police Service Areas or PSAs that work to fight crime around the clock. They had been partners for over a year now. Ryan was married with two kids and his world revolved around them.