Framed: A Jarek Grayson Private Detective Novel (Grayson Investigative Services Book 2)

by Boyd Craven III

  “What do you mean?” I asked, looking back over the dividers and seeing Skye getting on the elliptical.

  “You went outside your comfort zone. Her real brother is the only family she has, and he isn’t much of a role model, you know? Anyways, you helping her out and sitting with us really made her feel at home. She was a little choked up this morning when she saw that you’d covered us and put away the food.”

  “Why would she be choked up? I was just trying to prevent a fly or rodent problem from developing, and I had assumed that you’d both succumbed to a carbohydrate-induced coma from foods full of MSG and—”

  “Jarek, stop,” Jo said, reaching a hand in and splashing water at my face.

  It was hard to accomplish because of the overhead rain valves, but she managed to hit me in the eyes and I sputtered as I wiped them.

  “Get a room!” Skye shouted.

  “You could always join me,” I told Jo seriously as I watched her let the warm water hit her hands.

  “No, I can’t. Besides, the kid is in the room.”

  “I wasn’t talking wild monkey—”

  “Jarek!” Jo admonished.

  “I just meant, you could always join me. That shower stall is free. I don’t know how long you two worked out, but I can hurry mine up so you and Skye can have both free. I’m trying not to be weird here, just practical.”

  “No, you just want two women naked in the showers at the same time.”

  I will admit, her teasing often went right over my head, as it must have this time.

  “Now that you mention it, it would be a sight to see—”

  Her hand shot out quickly, and she once again got the spray in my eyes. Yeah, she was joking, and I took it literally. I could always figure out how mad she was at me later. I turned my back to her and tuned her out so I could finish in a hurry. When I turned the water off, I expected to hear her berating me, but the gym was silent except for the rhythmic sounds of the elliptical. I turned, and both Jo and Skye were working out, their headphones on. Skye shot me a smile and Jo flipped me the middle finger.

  I wrapped myself in a clean towel and then headed into the only other divided off space in the apartment, my bedroom suite. I laid my clothing out on the king-size bed and sat there, hearing the girls talking in the background. I couldn’t make out the words, but somehow I felt comforted knowing they were close. One thing I never talked about, even with Deborah, was that when my father died, I was absolutely terrified that I was going to be alone. I knew I was different, and the very first thing I did when my father did pass away was look at my life as if it were a gambling bet.

  What were the percentages? What would I need to do to increase my odds? Everything pointed to me not being alone if I wanted to continue the illusion of having as normal a life as possible. Heck, even if I wasn’t normal, I wouldn’t be normal. I saw the tablet’s blue light flashing, alerting me that I had an email or video message. I decided to check that, since very few people had access to me directly, and it had to have been something important.

  To: Jarek Grayson

  From: Anonymous Sender

  Message:

  You think you can hide Skye behind your real and virtual firewall? I know where she is, and if you don’t have her get back online with us soon, I’ll have to involve you as well. Tell the kid that the Devil is calling, and he’s hungry.

  “That’s no good,” I said, standing and stretching.

  I pulled my clothing on, and a soft knock at my door caused me to pause. I was about to tell Jo to come in when she did anyways. She had given up on the pretense of being uncomfortable around me, probably did that in the eighth or ninth grade, so I wasn’t surprised.

  “You were joking, weren’t you?” Jo asked me.

  “I’m sorry about that, I was being literal. It just threw me off, seeing the both of you in matching tight clothing, working out. I just blurted out the first thing in my head, and I honestly didn’t mean anything—”

  “Ok, shhhhhh. I’m sorry, Jarek, I’m just…this is weird, ok? You and I? We’re weird.”

  I pondered that.

  “I mean, I get so jealous sometimes, but we’re not dating. We don’t even have a relationship. I just think that sometimes I’m too close to you.”

  “Like now?” I asked her, pulling my pants on.

  “Yes, I mean, how is this even normal? It’s like we’re dating or married or…”

  “Have you ever heard the expression ‘work wife’?” I asked.

  Jo looked at me mutely and then nodded.

  “Is it possible that that’s what we’ve become to each other? A faux relationship because we live in the same building and spend almost every waking moment together? Not to mention the fact that you’ve been my best and only friend for as long as I can remember.”

  “Jarek,” Jo said, picking up the button-up shirt and holding it out for me to put my arms through. I sat still on the edge of the bed as she did my buttons.

  “I can do those,” I told her, feeling uncomfortable.

  “I know, just hush,” Jo said. “I don’t want you to feel obligated. Hell, I don’t want a relationship, and you admitted that you aren’t ready or capable of one. I just…need to figure this out.”

  “So, you’re breaking up with me? Does that mean you’re quitting or that—”

  “No, no. But if your therapist has time for a separate opening, I’d like to talk to her. Not that I think I need the extra help, more like I want to make sure I am doing this without hurting you.”

  “You aren’t hurting me…” My voice trailed off when I heard a quiet knock on the door. It swung open, and Skye was standing there, her body in silhouette.

  “Uh...oh my God,” Skye almost screamed and retreated.

  “What?” I asked and then realized.

  Jo was still buttoning up my shirt, and Skye probably thought Jo and I were once again getting ready to perform one of the oldest acts that goes all the way back to Adam and Eve.

  “Oh God,” Jo said, laughing softly. “I think we’ve scarred the kid for life.”

  “I can get this,” I told her, putting my hands over hers and finishing the buttons.

  “I’ll meet you downstairs,” Jo said, standing.

  “Good, and get Skye too. I got an email and I need to talk to the three of you,” I told her. “So let’s all meet in the IT room.”

  “Ok boss,” Jo said, before messing my hair up.

  I didn’t even complain, just watched her figure as she walked away and closed the door behind her.

  “I can’t win.”

  * * *

  “So this is the email I got this morning,” I said, putting it up on the big plasma.

  To: Jarek Grayson

  From: Anonymous Sender

  Message:

  You think you can hide Skye behind your real and virtual firewall? I know where she is, and if you don’t have her get back online with us soon, I’ll have to involve you as well. Tell the kid that the Devil is calling, and he’s hungry.

  I watched as both Jo and Sky quickly scanned the words on the screen. “Who is this Devil, and why is he threatening me?” I asked Skye.

  If it was possible for a pale woman to go even paler, it happened right before my eyes.

  “Skye, are you feeling faint? If you are, I’m sure Miss Nash here can revive you. I didn’t mean this to sound—”

  Jo grabbed Skye by the shoulder and shook her gently, and the woman refocused on her.

  “Mephisto,” she muttered. “You son of a bitch…”

  “Mephisto?” I asked.

  “Mephistopheles, or Mephisto, used to be one of the team back before I came to work with you. He’s good, but I don’t think he’s good enough to have gotten your personal email. It’s just…He’s hungry? That makes no sense, unless he’s being somewhat literal, meaning he is not going to be patient…”

  She let her words trail off, and I flopped into one of the oversized computer chairs that had the thick pad
ding and was infinitely adjustable. All chrome, leather, and comfort.

  “Did you get a similar email?” Johanna asked Skye.

  “Let me check,” Skye said, her fingers already flashing across the screen.

  She logged into a Hotmail account and went to the draft folder. Sure enough, there were two or three un-sent messages. Since we both were using the same terminal, I went into the newest email with my keyboard and mouse and clicked on it. It had obviously been meant for her.

  To: Me

  From: Me

  Subject:

  Skye, we’ve been working on the KKK hack and you missed your deadline for getting the botnet up and running last month. I know you have gotten a new job, and I know that it’s in the field. I need you to leverage yourself into a position there so you can infect Grayson’s computers. He has access to information that we don’t.

  I realized what it was immediately. It was a shared email account. Very hard to trace when no messages were ever sent or received. I hit a couple hot keys and locked Skye’s control to the terminal. Her eyes became wet as she tried to type furiously, her mouse hand moving in a blur.

  “He has access to information we don’t,” Johanna read over my shoulder, and then flopped into an open chair between us.

  “No….” Skye said. “It’s not what it looks like.”

  I opened an older email that was titled “Mephisto.”

  It was just a single picture. Skye was lying on her back, topless. Her dark shiny hair was splayed across the pillows of a bed I didn’t recognize, and I could see that her tattoos did in fact travel down her body all the way to her panties, the only bit of clothing she was wearing. Johanna gasped, and I hit two buttons, clearing the screen.

  Skye sobbed.

  “It isn’t what it looks like?” I asked.

  “Jarek, wait!” Johanna said.

  For one of the very few times in my life, I was angry and I was fuming. I opened my mouth to say something, and instead found myself pointing a finger at Skye. I dropped the hand suddenly, sat back down, and hit a few more keys, locking down IT and only giving access to the terminals through my office.

  “I can’t…process,” I told them truthfully and started walking.

  Lied. Used. I’d been trusting. I’d given the kid access to everything that made our business tick and many of the tricks I’d developed myself for the NSA. Of course, that’s how I had access to a lot of the information and hacks that the FBI and government used—I’d written them. It had been my own penance when I was a kid, for being stupid and getting caught. I didn’t freelance for them anymore, but when I found something juicy, I sent them a USB stick via courier or priority mail, and they left me alone.

  I considered going to my office, locking the doors…but my brain was whirling too fast, and my heart rate was through the roof. I was becoming overloaded. Skye was sending naked photos to this Mephisto, who was now threatening to involve me and my business with what was going on with Anonymous. I trusted her. I believed her. I let her drive me to Moy Kong!

  “Jarek.” Jo’s voice floated through the hallway as I punched the elevator button.

  I could hear Jo running, but the elevator door closed before she could get there. I got my keycard out and entered my apartment, knowing that Johanna would be up soon. Hopefully she’d take care of firing Skye for me, because I didn’t know if I could do it. It was too much. I considered where I should go, and in the end, I sat on the floor between the bed and the big window that overlooked the street just a little bit below. I pulled a pillow off the bed and held it close as I heard the elevator door ding and then the electronic lock of my door. Didn’t matter, overloaded…

  * * *

  “Hey,” Jo said, rubbing my cheek.

  “Hi,” I muttered, rubbing my hand across my eyes and mouth.

  I’d overloaded and fallen asleep. Just that fast, my brain could lock up, and I needed to be somewhere safe. My dad used to think of them as almost like seizures when I was younger, and that’s when the doctors and neurologists came to the conclusion that I was different. They weren’t seizures, they were my brain’s way of coping with too much stimuli.

  “You were crying,” Jo said, rubbing under my eye.

  “I don’t cry,” I told her, knowing it was a lie.

  “Your eyes were leaking water.”

  “Must have something in them,” I said, wiping them again.

  “Skye’s insisting she never sent that email to Mephisto. You know the one…”

  “The nude picture?”

  “Yeah, that one. She admitted to taking it, but she never sent it out. She was going to send that to an old boyfriend a long time ago, and that night she found out he was cheating on her, so she never sent it.”

  “So she says,” I told her. “Did you see the first email?” I asked, knowing how close I was to shutting down again.

  “I did, and she pulled it up on her phone. Just because you locked her out of IT doesn’t mean she couldn’t access her email.”

  “I know, but I don’t know if I can trust her now. That’s why I locked it, before I knew I was going to have to come up here and slow down,” I admitted.

  “Slow down? You’ve been out for almost twenty-minutes. Can you get up? So we can all talk?”

  “What’s to talk about?” I asked. “You really think she didn’t use her position here to do that hack? What’s our exposure here, Jo? What’s our liability? I don’t mind taking the fall for something I ask people to do, but I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want to be involved with a radical activist group like Anonymous.”

  “Yet you hired one of their best, gave her a new life, a great job, an apartment, and became somewhat of a big brother to her,” Jo said.

  “Yes, and that’s why the betrayal is so—”

  “That girl loves you,” Jo said. “The way she can’t love her big brother. You’re the big brother or uncle figure in her life. No, don’t get any ideas up there,” Jo said, tapping my temple with her fingers. “You’re family to her.”

  “But I—”

  “You’re overthinking it. I told Annette to have the others downstairs handle any calls so Skye and I can come up here and talk about this. It is a problem, but it’s not one Skye made. It’s one you made, Jarek.”

  That caught me up short, and after a moment, Johanna offered me a hand. I took it and she pulled me to my feet.

  “Don’t be weird,” Jo said, and then pulled me behind her to my living-room area.

  Skye was sitting on the sofa that we’d laid her down on during the kidnapping case when she’d passed out after three days of caffeine, sugar, and no sleep. I still needed to get that couch fumigated. I sat in an overstuffed leather chair, and Jo sat on the arm beside me.

  “I swear to you, Jarek,” Skye said, her mascara streaking down her pale features, “I did not use you or the company. In fact, I broke away from Anonymous the month I left. I left word that I was moving on, and that I’d given it up.”

  I pondered that, tried to read her body language. The tears and raccoon features made it hard to read her expression clearly, and the soft sobs were doing something to my nerves, putting me on edge. I said nothing.

  “I never sent Mephisto that picture. I thought I’d deleted that picture off of my phone. I told Jo what happened when I took that—”

  “She told me it was for an old boyfriend,” I said softly, interrupting her.

  “And you’re pissed about that too!” Her words rose in volume until she was almost screaming.

  Was I upset with that? Shocked maybe. Seeing her nude torso on a larger-than-life plasma screen was the last thing I’d expected, but was I angry?

  “I am not pissed about that. In fact, I don’t know if I’m even pissed at all,” I admitted.

  “What?” both Johanna and Skye chorused.

  Jo walked over towards Skye, a tissue in her hand, and sat down next to her, giving her the Kleenex.

  “I will admit, my first thought was that yo
u used me and the company to help the agenda of your friends,” I said. “And when I saw the older email, I was curious, so when I saw you practically nude on an LCD almost six feet tall—”

  “Jarek,” Jo warned.

  “I leapt to the conclusion that you had in fact done so because you were more than a little involved with the hacktivist group. But it occurred to me, why would you have left yourself open to attack like that? The entire name of the group, Anonymous. There’s no way you’d want to share a photo of yourself, even a photo used for ‘sexting’ purposes.”

  Skye flinched at the word and blew her nose. I tossed her the box of Kleenex that had been sitting on the table next to me under the lamp.

  “So it was sent as a message for me. Whoever Mephisto is, he’s shown me that he’s competent, and the picture of you wasn’t to throw me off base or get me to think you were still working with them, it was to show me that they could get to you. If they can get to you, they can get to me.”

  “If that photo got out there,” Skye said, her voice wavering, “it’d be…”

  “You’d be on the cover of Playboy Magazine within ninety days,” I told her bluntly.

  Jo sputtered. Skye turned a furious shade of pink and opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out of her mouth. I reached inside my pocket and re-read the message I got.

  “So here’s the real question, what does he want?”

  Jo blew out a breath she’d been holding, probably saving it to start cursing me for my bluntness, but Skye was taking a deep breath and then she spoke.

  “They want my botnet and my zombies,” she said softly.

  Doesn’t matter how good of a hacker you are, at some point you need something like that. A lot of worms and viruses are designed to make your computer into a virtual terminal on the botnet. An infected computer would use a tiny amount of the resources to do the bidding of the hacker. With one command, a hacker could suddenly have 10,000 computers all doing the same sort of activity. Cracking a password, running a DDOS attack, or brute force scripting.

  “Is that all?” I asked.