Blindside

by James Patterson

  “Usual.”

  “You follow some of the hackers online, right? I mean, staying up with the trends.”

  “I guess.”

  Computer prodigy or not, he was still a teenager. No conversation was that easy. I said, “You talked to me a couple times about networks and some of the different programs you use. If I had the MAC address of a computer, is there any way to pin down where it shows up on Wi-Fi?”

  Eddie hesitated. I could see him working the question over in his mind.

  I said, “This is unofficial, not Dad asking. If you can do it, I really need to find someone. You won’t get in trouble, no matter what sketchy websites you have to visit for this.”

  Eddie said, “There are different programs out there. Or, I should say, networks that keep track of that kind of stuff. I’m sure there’s someone at the police department who knows how to do it.”

  “Let’s say I was just trying to keep my distance from the office. And that time was a little bit of an issue. If I gave you the MAC address, do you think you could find some leads for me? No questions asked about how you do it.”

  The kids knew that when I told them they wouldn’t get in trouble, nothing would happen. Once you start hedging on promises, it’s a slippery slope. The kids won’t trust you and can’t come to you with real problems. Eddie knew this.

  He smiled and said, “This could be a good little test.”

  I gave him the twelve digits my odd contact from Columbia University had provided, the MAC address for Jennifer Chang’s computer.

  Eddie said, “I might need a while to find this. I have a couple of websites I can look at.”

  “It won’t show a name or anything that gets out on the internet, will it?”

  He just gave me a little condescending laugh. I mostly deserved it.

  I watched him for a few seconds, then turned to head into the kitchen. Before I made it five steps, Eddie said, “Got it.”

  He spent another minute or two finding more information. He looked up at me and said, “It looks like this computer regularly signs on to a Wi-Fi network run by a coffeehouse kinda near Columbia. The place’s name is Brew.”

  Chapter 36

  I drove a little north from our apartment to the area around Broadway and 123rd, to a short street called La Salle. I had a feeling deep inside me that things were not nearly as they appeared. This case was turning weird fast. The fact that one of the witnesses I needed to find, Tommy Payne, had been murdered made it more immediate.

  Whatever had happened to Natalie Lunden, I no longer thought she was just a spoiled kid acting out. I’ll admit, like any human being, I’d approached this with a little bit of an attitude. Maybe it was because of my feelings for the mayor. Maybe it was experience. I’d thought after digging around for a day or two I might find Natalie hiding at a friend’s apartment. Just another kid who basically ran away from home.

  Now, the more I looked into it, the more concerned I became. I’d had some guys from the NYPD Intelligence Bureau see if they could find out anything about her or her friends. So far, it looked like she hung out with mostly computer people, and it looked like some of them didn’t follow the rules. That worried me even more.

  I had to start considering the possibility that she’d been kidnapped. But there had been no ransom demand or any other contact with her parents. That was weird if it was a true kidnapping.

  I wondered if it had something to do with the mayor’s unpopularity. But the fact that he’d approached the police about his daughter made me believe he would’ve told us about a threat.

  Add in the element of computers and programs like the one Eddie had used to find this coffeehouse, and my mind had started to swim. I don’t consider myself an old guy, but I was beginning to feel like one. Technology had left me behind. Sure, I could text and send an email. But when Eddie started talking to me about the things he did on the computer, it was like he was speaking another language.

  I drove past the coffeehouse. It was so average it could’ve been used on Seinfeld. Just a simple square storefront with the word Brew scrawled in an odd font against a plain background. Wide glass windows on either side of the front door showed a brisk business.

  As I looked at the cars parked in the area and the people walking along the sidewalk, I realized I wasn’t exactly sure what immediate threat I was looking for. Maybe a couple of big mobbed-up guys in suits. Perhaps some skinny kid in a T-shirt with an odd computer saying on it.

  For a cop who knows the city and understands his job, it was disconcerting to be at such a loss.

  The other thing that had been nagging me was the Tommy Payne murder. That meant someone else might be looking for Natalie Lunden. Or for Jennifer Chang. Maybe that seemingly typical thirty-something couple who visited Payne’s building the night of his death. I needed to be alert.

  I dumped the car in a lot a few blocks away and started heading toward the coffeehouse. The entire way, I kept looking for anything out of the ordinary. Then it hit me. Was I jumpy from the shooting? Was Mary Catherine right? Should I have taken more time off?

  It was tough to wonder if I was as good a public servant as I thought.

  Today I wore a light windbreaker just to cover the Glock on my hip. I felt like I blended in, that no one would necessarily assume I was a cop. I noticed a patrol car parked at the end of the block. I was suddenly questioning my skills, but I hoped I wouldn’t need assistance.

  After all, I was just looking for a twenty-four-year-old female computer nerd. How rough could it get?

  Chapter 37

  Alice and Janos took a cab uptown. Alice had insisted the driver let them off near City College. She didn’t want anyone to connect them to the coffeehouse Oscar had told them about. They had been so careful up to this point; they’d even eliminated two potential witnesses and destroyed the surveillance videos at Oscar’s apartment. Alice didn’t want to screw things up now by stupidly letting a cabdriver know exactly where they were going.

  Once they were on foot and walking south toward La Salle Street, Alice started to plan things more carefully. There was no one around to hear them talk, but still, Alice wished they spoke a common language other than English. Janos had picked up very little Dutch or French, even with all the time they had spent in those countries. Alice couldn’t say much in Janos’s language. She had worked with him for three full years and hadn’t picked up ten words of Romanian. She didn’t tell Janos, but she felt like it was useless to learn a foreign language that so few people spoke.

  Now, walking the streets of New York, they spoke the same language as most of the people around them as Alice finished her reasons for why they should just kill Jennifer Chang and move on.

  Janos shook his head and matched her quiet tone. “I’m not used to being the rational one. What do you have against this girl? We were told to make her a job offer and not to hurt her. We may not like Henry, but he is our employer. At least for a little while longer.”

  Alice said, “It’s a waste of time to look for this girl. We already know she’s not going to accept the job offer. And it’s too hard to try to force her to come back with us. All she’d have to do is let out one loud yelp on a plane and we’d both be facing armed TSA agents. She knows what we know. Henry’s turned into some kind of a monster. I even sent him a text the other day telling him this was our last job for him.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He’s a condescending prick. He just texted me back and said, ‘We’ll see.’ I don’t even know what that means.”

  Janos said, “Why do you want to kill this girl?”

  Alice took a moment to answer. “We make the offer and if she accepts, great. If not, she’s just another witness who can identify us. She has to go.”

  Janos shrugged. That was his universal sign that he somewhat agreed. Or at least it made some sort of sense to him.

  From Broadway they turned east, onto La Salle Street. They could see Brew across the street and up a block.

/>   Just as she always did, Alice checked her purse to make sure she was ready. The homemade garrote in her hand and a knife she’d bought at a hardware store made her feel more secure and confident.

  She noticed that Janos reached back to feel the butt of his pistol. He always kept it in his belt line in the small of his back. That way he could wear untucked shirts and the pistol would be hidden, and also available to Alice in an emergency.

  Like that time in Tallinn, when a drug gang had been trying to pressure Henry, and Alice and Janos were sent to talk to them. Immediately it had been clear there was going to be more than talk. While the three drug dealers were looking at Janos, Alice was able to draw the gun from Janos’s back.

  Five shots later and Henry had no more problems. He’d given them a huge bonus. That was back when he was still sane.

  Alice missed that Henry. He had been a good boss then.

  Chapter 38

  I stepped in the front door of the coffeehouse. I don’t know what I had expected would happen. Maybe I thought I was like a sheriff in the Old West, that everything might come to a standstill when I walked through the front door. Then I sprang back to reality. I was in one of thousands of coffeehouses in New York City. No one noted my arrival.

  I took a moment to scan the whole room. There was a counter and about twenty small tables. On the opposite end of the counter was a take-out service with its own door to perhaps an alley in back. That was smart.

  The counter was nearly full. Most everyone in the place was young. About ten of them looked like my idea of a stereotypical hacker: raggedy clothes, long hair, and expensive computers.

  Two men at the counter turned and looked me over. They looked like tourists. Definitely not Americans. Their red Zappos and the Kappa logos on their jackets told me that.

  No one else in Brew stuck out to me. Everyone had their nose buried in a tablet or computer. There was almost no conversation. This was unlike the Starbucks I occasionally frequented near the office. (But I still wouldn’t walk into our squad bay with a Starbucks cup.)

  Then I saw her. Almost in the middle of the room. Jennifer Chang was difficult to miss, even prettier in person than in the photograph from Columbia. She still had the purple streaks in her hair, but she had the hair tied in a simple ponytail. She had bright eyes that were currently focusing on an iPad in her hands. The diamond stud earrings told me she might have done some of the same lucrative work that paid the high rents Thomas Payne and Natalie both afforded.

  I considered different ways to approach her. Sometimes you didn’t have to use shock and awe. She had no record. She probably had never dealt with the police before. She’d have no idea how to act or what to say.

  She was only a handful of years older than Juliana. That always seemed to me to be a good approach: treat younger people like you’d want your kids treated. I needed information, not an arrest.

  I worked my way through the busy coffeehouse, careful not to knock anyone’s computer off the table. I wasted no time once I was in front of Jennifer Chang’s table. I slid out the chair and sat down across from her.

  Her dark eyes looked over the top of her stylish tortoiseshell glasses, then did a quick scan around the room to see if anyone had noticed me sitting down with her. She didn’t look frightened.

  Her eyes drifted back to her iPad for a moment.

  I kept quiet. Now I was curious as to what she might say.

  She set the iPad on the tiny table in front of us, pushed her glasses up her nose, and said, “I don’t see any reason why I should talk to the police.”

  She’d turned the tables on me. Dammit. Now I was the one who was surprised.

  “What makes you think I’m the police?”

  “Aside from the way you stepped in here and surveyed the whole room? Then how you stepped right up to me and sat down without invitation? I’m sorry, in New York that screams ‘Police.’”

  “Aren’t you curious why I’m here to talk to you?”

  “I know why. So the only thing I can say to you now is, I want to talk to my attorney.”

  Chapter 39

  Alice Groff skidded to a stop when she looked through one of the windows of Brew. The only thing she could focus on inside the coffeehouse was the pretty and vivacious Jennifer Chang chatting with the cop they’d seen at her apartment the night before. No matter how she did the calculations, this did not turn out well for her and Janos. Jennifer talking to the police. And too many witnesses to act right now.

  Janos nearly ran into her when she stopped short.

  “What is it?”

  “The tall cop from last night. The one who tried to get into Oscar’s apartment. He’s in there talking to Jennifer.”

  “No shit. That’s a puzzler.”

  Alice was losing her patience. “And what do you propose we do about this puzzler?”

  “What can we do about it? As I see it, we have two choices. We can lay back out of sight and try to get to Jennifer later.” He stopped talking as he looked over Alice’s shoulder at the coffeehouse.

  Alice prodded him. “Or?”

  “Or we deal with both of them at the same time. You wanted to eliminate Jennifer anyway. Why don’t we see if they leave together? I have my pistol. We can surprise them and just keep moving quickly. We can also tell Henry we were trying to keep Jennifer from talking to the police about him.”

  Alice considered the plan. It was surprisingly satisfying, considering Janos had come up with it. The plan also had the benefit of being simple and direct.

  Janos had a tendency to make elaborate plans and then not stick with them. Once, in London, they had set up a job where Alice would pick up a target, act like she was ordering an Uber, and Janos would pick them both up. After driving the victim to a construction site, Alice intended to garrote him.

  All went well until Janos made a pass down the crowded street and saw the man standing on a corner. He ran the man down and kept going. Janos did not understand why Alice was so angry. He said, “I saved us hours. No one can pin the stolen car on me. We’re still getting paid. What’s the problem?”

  Alice didn’t want to admit it at the time, but she had been excited to use her garrote. Janos had stolen the opportunity. She didn’t want that to happen this time. Not with Jennifer Chang.

  Alice stepped away from the window so no one from inside would notice them. She pulled Janos into the empty, recessed doorway of an apartment building next door. She pulled him in close so if anyone noticed them they would think she was being affectionate.

  Alice said, “We can’t screw this up. We need to get in there to see how well they know each other. Maybe this is the first time he’s been able to talk to her. I’d also like to hear what she’s telling him.”

  Janos said, “Then I can blast them when they come out?”

  “We might have to be a little more subtle. Maybe figure a way to lure them into an alley.”

  “So you can use that horrible garrote?”

  “You mean the silent garrote?”

  “Something tells me the cop would be hard to handle. Even for you.”

  “I have less interest in him. Let’s see if Jennifer leaves with him or alone. That will dictate how we proceed.”

  “Listen to how well we can communicate in English now. We fit right in here.”

  Alice had to smile at her partner’s sincerity. He really didn’t think they spoke with accents. She reached up and caressed his face. The Romanian could be charming and sweet.

  Janos had a broad grin. He was displaying the deficiencies in Romanian dentistry. His two front teeth were straight and white. But after that there was almost no pattern to the way his teeth grew, all of them at different angles. It was only now that she realized this was why he smiled with his lips closed most of the time.

  Alice said, “What are you grinning about?”

  “You can be nice. But right now you don’t want to be subtle. You want to be able to use that garrote on that girl.”

  There
was no time to play games. “So what if I do? Are you with me on this plan?”

  Janos nodded.

  “Neither of them have ever seen us. We can walk right into that coffeehouse, sit down right next to them, and they will never know who we are.”

  “Until we kill them.”

  Alice nodded. “Until we kill them.”

  Chapter 40

  I’ll admit to being a little surprised that Jennifer Chang made me for a cop so quickly and that she wasn’t going to say anything.

  She leveled another glare at me and said, “When do I get to speak to my attorney?”

  “You’re not under arrest. I just want to talk to you.”

  She immediately started to pack up her iPad and slip it into her purse.

  I leaned back in the chair and let her think I didn’t care. Finally I said, “Are you going back to your apartment above the casket warehouse?” That one caught her by surprise. Now she knew I was serious. I had to keep going. “I’m not looking to cause you any grief. I’m just looking for a missing girl. That’s it. I swear to God.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  “Because I’m a good Catholic. My grandfather is even a priest.” I waited. That one usually killed with a slightly older group. I had no idea how millennials viewed Catholicism. They sure didn’t care much about cops one way or the other.

  “What’s the name of the girl you’re looking for?”

  “Natalie Lunden. I just want to make sure she’s safe.”

  “So you’re really not looking to arrest anyone?”

  “I didn’t say that. If Natalie is being held somewhere against her will, then whoever took her has to pay the price. As well versed as you are in criminal procedure, you probably understand the street law as well.”

  She settled back into her chair. “I haven’t seen Natalie in almost a month.”

  “No one has. Her mother’s frantic.” I didn’t know if Jennifer knew who Natalie’s father was.