“We need to talk to you.” Quinn pushed past Odell before he could refuse.
“I didn’t invite you in.”
“I invited myself.” Quinn stared down at the slight man. “The sooner you quit complaining, the sooner we’ll be out of your hair.” Quinn continued to eye the man until he caved and led the way to a small dining area. He dropped onto a chair and flicked his ashes into a nearby ashtray. Nina took the chair next to him. Quinn remained standing, in case he needed to react.
Nina held up a flash drive they’d picked up on the way over. “We’re here for the database.”
“Then you wasted your time,” Odell snapped. “I’ve already told you that it’s not happening without another warrant. And I don’t see one in your hand.”
“Though I’m not at liberty to discuss our investigation, I can tell you it’s related to national security and viewing the database could help us prevent a catastrophic incident.”
“Hah!” He sneered at her. “If that’s so, you’d have the warrant for the information by now.”
Quinn had said he’d let Nina talk, but he didn’t like the way Odell was staring at her. Quinn glared at the man. “Don’t make me step in and ask for access, or you’ll wish you hadn’t.”
In his periphery, Quinn saw Nina fist her hands. He suspected she was glowering at him, but he wouldn’t turn away from Odell to check.
The man seemed to be warring with what to do.
Good. Quinn had the guy on the fence. So he took a step closer. Crossed his arms. Flexed his muscles. Took another step and let his hand drift to his gun. “Now.’
“Fine.” He swung his gaze back to Nina. “I don’t care if you’re an agent. The minute you leave here, I’m calling the police to report your abuse.”
Quinn had to give Nina credit. She didn’t react at all except to say, “Guess you need to do whatever you need to do.”
“But you might want to wait a few minutes before making the call.” Quinn smirked. “I might decide to turn around and come right back.”
“I’ll get my computer.” Huffing, Odell grabbed a laptop bag hanging on a nearby chair. Once he had the computer running, he sat down. Nina stood behind him to watch. Quinn hung to the side—after all, he had no idea what to look for on the computer, but he sure knew how to keep Nina safe.
“I’m creating administrator access for you.” Odell started typing.
“So you can turn around and delete my account the minute we walk out that door?” Nina thumped the guy’s shoulder. “I don’t think so.”
He glared up at her. “So what do you want, exactly?”
She waved the flash drive. “If you’ll get up, I’ll take over and download two copies of the current database, daily backups, and log files.”
His eyes narrowed. “You don’t need the backups or the logs.”
“You’re right,” she drawled. “I don’t, unless of course, I want to check to see if any records have been deleted.”
Odell ground out his cigarette, his thumb mashing the butt flat. “I haven’t deleted a thing.”
“I guess we’ll see about that. Because I’m not leaving here without the backups or logs.”
Quinn wanted to step forward and jerk the guy out of his chair, but he shoved his hands in his pockets and stood back to let Nina resolve this.
“Don’t worry,” she said to Odell. “I know what I’m doing. You can watch my every move.”
He stared up at her. “I can do it.”
“No,” she said, her voice brooking no argument. “I want to be sure I have everything I need.”
Odell didn’t move.
“You don’t want us to have to come back, do you?” Nina gestured at Quinn. “My friend here gets very cranky when he has to waste time. Trust me, you don’t want that.”
Odell tapped another cigarette from his pack and stood as he lit it. He moved slowly, acting as if he was in charge, but Quinn could see he was mad and frustrated at the same time.
Nina sat. Quinn stepped behind her where he could see what she was doing and still keep an eye on Odell. She clicked on a link called “phpMyAdmin”, whatever that was. Quinn wouldn’t understand even if he asked, so he didn’t bother. She clicked on Export and files started downloading to her flash drive. Odell watched her, too, alternately puffing and blowing smoke. She repeated the process, over and over.
Thirty minutes later, she removed the flash drive. She stared at Odell. “Now I’ll take that admin access, and we’ll get out of your hair.”
Odell sat and within a few minutes, he’d given Nina a login and password. She recorded it in a note program on the iPhone Quinn had given her and then confirmed it worked.
“Thanks for your cooperation,” she said, stowing the phone. “I suggest you refrain from disabling my access.”
“Let me guess,” Odell said. “Your friend will come back if I do.”
Quinn cocked an eyebrow. “You’re a quick study, Odell. Remember what I said about waiting to call the cops. I will come back here, and you’ll wish I hadn’t.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
AT THE RESTAURANT, Nina sat across the table from Quinn and sipped her coffee. She saw Becca step through the door and pause to search the room. She caught sight of them and frowned.
“I don’t like the look on Becca’s face.” Nina watched her friend wind her way though the tables.
“I’m assuming she knows Ty is no longer in their custody,” Quinn said. “But do you think she’s found out about Hamid’s death or our visit to Odell?”
“With the size of her frown, it could be all three.” Nina prepared herself for the upcoming conversation.
Becca smiled a wan greeting, then dropped the folders she was carrying onto the table before falling into a chair as if exhausted. “I have some bad news, I’m afraid.” She glanced around and leaned closer to Nina. “Hamid’s been murdered.”
Nina couldn’t fake a shocked reaction, nor would she lie to her friend. “I already know. I found the body.”
“You what?” Becca exclaimed.
Nina recounted her story, including as much detail as possible. “I’m not proud of taking off and leaving him there, I can assure you.”
“That’s a tough one.” Becca furrowed her forehead. “Under the circumstances, it was the only thing you could do, I suppose.”
Nina slid the cell she’d found outside the cabin across the table. “He left this by the door. I looked it over and didn’t find anything, but maybe one of the techs will see something I missed. I doubt they’ll recover any prints. This guy seems too smart.”
“I’ll get someone on it the minute I get back to the office. Hopefully, this will lead to our killer.”
Memories of the crime scene came flooding back. “Do you know the cause of death?”
Becca nodded. “As you know, Hamid had a heart condition. He had an ICD implanted in his chest. This device detects an abnormal heartbeat and delivers a shock internally to correct it.”
“I don’t follow,” Nina said. “The ICD killed him?”
“Unfortunately, yes.” Becca sat back and explained how the murderer had used Hamid’s own monitor to kill him.
Quinn cast Becca a skeptical look. “You’re certain of this?”
“DHS got a tech from the ICD manufacturer out to the morgue. He read Hamid’s implanted device which recorded the shock.”
Tears started welling up, and Nina worked hard to keep them in check. “That poor kid. What a horrible way to die. His parents must be sick.”
“His mother is,” Becca said. “I did the notification call with Connor. It wasn’t easy. Especially when Mrs. Ahmadi realized she’d forgotten to take the monitor to the hotel. If she’d remembered, it would have been with her instead of at the house.” Becca took a few deep breaths.
“She’ll spend her life feeling guilty.”
Nina knew that grief. She’d lived it since Garrett died. “I wish I could help her.”
“The best way to do that is to find the person who killed him,” Quinn suggested.
Becca frowned.
“What is it?” Nina asked, sliding forward. “What’s wrong?”
“With your computer background, reprogramming the transmitter would be a natural way for you to kill someone.”
“There’s no natural way for Nina to kill anyone.” Quinn squared his shoulders as if ready to do battle. “This transmitter or monitor or whatever you call it. Have you found it?”
Becca shook her head. “Not yet, but a call was made to 911 using a phone we found in Hamid’s hand. The caller claimed to be Hamid and said Nina was trying to kill him. So, Sulyard thinks that when he finds Nina, he’ll find the monitor.”
“Unbelievable.” Nina sat back and crossed her arms.
“The killer most likely made that call,” Quinn said.
“Yes, but with Hamid dead, we can’t do a voice recognition comparison to prove it wasn’t Hamid. Sulyard has no choice but to consider Nina a murderer.”
“So I’m not only wanted for acts of terrorism, but murder, too.” Nina huffed a sour laugh. “There’s something I never thought I’d hear come out of my mouth.”
“I wish that was all, but there’s more.” Becca pulled a report from a folder. “Agents recovered a prepaid phone when they searched your car.”
Nina shook her head. “The hits just keep on coming.”
“I’m sorry, Nina. I wish I had better news.”
“This isn’t your fault.” Nina nodded at the report. “Let me have the rest of it.”
Becca tapped the top page. “As you can see, the phone was activated and registered to you on Monday.” She turned the page. “Another phone was found under Hamid’s body, also registered to you.”
“This makes no sense,” Quinn said. “You don’t register a phone in your name if you plan to kill someone and want to keep things on the QT. It defeats the purpose.”
“Agreed.” Becca looked at Quinn. “We can see that, because we know Nina’s not guilty. But when you add the phone to the other evidence Sulyard has gathered, it makes a compelling case against Nina and a jury might buy into it.”
Nina couldn’t believe they were talking about a jury evaluating anything related to her, but she agreed with Becca. There was enough circumstantial evidence to cast serious doubt on her innocence. She had to figure this out before that happened. “So what was on the phone?”
Becca turned to another page of her report. “It was used to access your bank account and make the $20,000 transfer to Hamid. Plus there were texts from the last few days going to and from one number only. That phone was also registered on Monday in Hamid’s name and he was holding that phone when he died.”
“Hamid?” Nina looked up. “He couldn’t possibly have sent any texts. He was in custody and didn’t have access to a phone.”
“The report supports him having a phone in his possession.” Becca flipped to the last page. “The analysts cross-referenced cell tower hits to the texts received on the phone registered to you to get a geographical location where the text originated.”
Nina scanned the report, her heart sinking. “Texts from Hamid came from the hotel where we put up the teens.”
Becca tapped the report. “And check out the texts you supposedly sent. They originated from towers by your house and one near work. The last text occurred yesterday morning.”
“Then this creep had to be where you were, watching you all this time.” Quinn met Nina’s gaze, and she wasn’t surprised to see anger flaring in his eyes. “He could’ve . . .”
“What? Hurt me? Killed me?” She shook her head. “I feel so dumb for not having seen him.”
“He didn’t want to be seen,” Becca said.
Quinn leaned closer to Nina. “Which means he’s good at this, and we need to keep our vigilance up. You’re not to go anywhere alone from this point forward. Got that. Nowhere.”
“Relax,” she said. “It’s not like I’m planning to ditch you.”
“That’s good, then,” Quinn said, sounding relieved.
“I agree.” Becca eyed him. “At least until we find the killer.”
Quinn cleared his throat, as if he didn’t like her last comment. “So I have to ask. Since the texts originated from the hotel, is there any chance Ty could be involved in this?”
“Hamid and Ty had no interaction at the hotel and we found the phone on Hamid,” Becca said. “Still, I suppose we could have missed something.”
“I’ll talk to Ty as soon as we get back to our safe house.”
Becca arched an eyebrow. “Not the cabin?”
“I thought it was best to change locations.” Quinn met Becca’s gaze. “Is there any way this guy could be learning our location from your people?”
“No,” she said quickly.
Quinn held up a hand. “Don’t be in such a hurry to dismiss the idea. I checked our vehicles for GPS trackers and found none. So that means he had to have heard about it somewhere.”
“Kait and I are the only ones who know the cabin location.”
“Did you talk to Kait about it on the phone?”
She nodded.
“Then maybe your phone is compromised.”
“Not likely, but I’ll turn it off for now and check it when I get back to the office.” She picked it up from the table and turned it off. “If for some crazy reason I’m the leak, I don’t know your new location so that will be the end of that.”
“Back to the investigation,” Nina said peering at Becca. “Do you think Hamid really sent the texts?”
“Honestly, no. I doubt he could have gotten his hands on a phone. But we were unable to lift any physical evidence, DNA, or fingerprints from it, so we can’t prove that he wasn’t the one who sent the texts.”
“My gut says he’s being set up like Nina,” Quinn said.
Becca arched a brow. “How can you be so sure of that?”
“I’ve seen Ty in action. He’s more savvy about electronics than most adults. Hamid’s the same. He may be a teenager, but if he planned to do something illegal, he wouldn’t be dumb enough to register a phone to himself, any more than Nina would.”
“True,” Becca said.
“What do these texts sent to my supposed phone say?” Nina asked.
Becca flipped a few more pages to another printout. “The first text from you to Hamid was sent Tuesday at three a.m.”
“That’s when you guys made me go home to try to sleep and the NFL was hacked.” Memories of that night came back, and her throat went dry. “He was outside, then. When I was in the shower. In bed.”
Quinn gritted his teeth and settled a hand over hers, but didn’t say a word. Nina didn’t protest as she read the text aloud. “Test finalized. Screenshots attached. Money to follow shortly.”
“Screenshots? What’s he talking about?” Quinn asked.
“The NFL.” Becca turned the page revealing pictures of the No-Fly List data entry screens. “Check out the date. This isn’t Ty’s initial hack, but the one done from the computer recovered at your house.”
“Okay. So, he hacked the NFL and took screenshots,” Quinn said. “Why?”
“Maybe as proof that he has access to the database. That could be what generated the cash we found in your account. Sort of like a down payment or a good faith payment.”
“That makes sense,” Nina said. “I mean $40,000 is a lot of money. But we all know having unfettered access to the NFL is worth far more.”
“At first I believed he was making changes to the database for smaller payments, but check these out.” Becca pointed at the next few t
exts. “The first is from Hamid to Nina on Tuesday morning.”
Money received. Proceed with sale as planned.
Then Becca pointed at the last one. “Nina, this last text originated outside your house around the time Sulyard showed up. I think our suspect was sitting there, saw Sulyard arrive, then planted the cell in your car.”
“Could be, I suppose.” Nina read the last one from her to Hamid sent on Wednesday morning. They’re on to us. Am regrouping at our usual spot to complete transaction. Should have final payment tomorrow night. Don’t use this cell again. Will be getting new ones. Give one to you at the meeting.
“Okay,” Nina said, thinking this through. “Was Hamid really involved or was he another patsy to make it look like I’m in cahoots with someone of Middle Eastern descent, bringing in the terrorism angle?”
Becca shrugged. “I know I sound like a broken record, but we still haven’t found anything to suggest Hamid was involved, beyond hiding the computer.”
“I was thinking,” Quinn interjected. “If Hamid didn’t send the texts, then the suspect knows about the hotel, too.”
“We’ve considered that possibility, so we’ve moved Bryce as a precaution.” Becca flashed a sharp look at Quinn. “Of course you’ve taken Ty, so he’s not in any danger.”
Quinn crossed his arms. “I’m not discussing that, so don’t even try.”
“What about hotel security videos?” Nina asked, bringing them back to the matter at hand before Quinn and Becca started arguing. “Has anyone reviewed them?”
“We’re doing it now.”
“I should probably tell you, we met with Odell,” Nina confessed as she dug out one of her flash drives. “I made a copy of the database for you. I plan to scour it as soon as we get back to the safe house.”
“You know we can’t use this.”
“Why in the world not?” Quinn demanded.
“Because it was obtained without going through the proper channels and protocols for retrieving data.”
“So you’ll ignore it because of your confounded rules? With a killer running around?”
Web of Shadows Page 26
