Deadly Pasts (Agent Nora Wexler Mysteries)

by CR Wiley

  “You’re going to be great and everything is going to work out,” Nora said. “And you really don’t have to try to spin yourselves to make it sound like you’re having troubles. Enjoy it as much as you can, and don’t sweat the little doubts that crop up for everyone.”

  “Steph’s right though,” Caroline said. “I’ve got a decent paying job, but I can already tell I don’t want to be working in the Admissions Office forever. Meeting with snotty high school kids and reading essays about the big game that defined their lives or the horrible breakup that should justify accepting them to Cal isn’t exactly what I’m meant to do with my life either.”

  “That’s why you go on to be associate director of Admissions, then director, then you keep working your way up the chain and become queen of UC Berkeley, which is what you always wanted. You were trying to run this school back when you were involved in the Student Association, and it’s why you couldn’t leave after we graduated. You just have it in you to love this school and tell everyone about it,” Nora argued.

  The remark hit home and Caroline couldn’t help but smirk.

  “Maybe that’s why I practically forced my little sister Lauren to come here. It’s a good thing I wasn’t on staff when her application came through, or else everyone would say I pushed her through. But I am glad she made it in.”

  “How is she liking it?” Steph asked.

  “I think she likes it fine, but the way she spends her time is ridiculous. Other than wandering into a class now and then, I think she spent today sunbathing on one of the glades with her book as a pillow, shamelessly trying to use her body to get attention from the football players. I can’t believe how much that makes me miss college!”

  “Do you think she’s out right now?” Nora asked, grinning.

  “I’m sure she is, but where she goes is anybody’s guess. She could give a GPS the slip. I go to the usual places but never see her. Let’s just say she’s not in any danger of missing out on the full college experience,” Caroline said, her eyes drifting over to a few guys walking by.

  “Oh, but that’s so normal though. Everybody lets loose once they get to college and then settles down just in time to salvage semester grades. It’s just something you have to do when you’re eighteen, while your body feels no fatigue, cold, or hunger. We all went through that,” Caroline said.

  At that, Nora had to laugh.

  “Well, I certainly didn’t feel any cold. Being from the northeast, I thought I was standing on the surface of the sun. Do you remember when we met during orientation? I was sweating so much I thought my entire body was going to dissolve into an oozy puddle,” Nora said.

  “Of course I remember orientation,” Caroline said. “I think I was trapped in a perpetual state of shock and awe. The entire place blew my mind, and I was totally in love with all of you.”

  A flood of fond memories from their early days together hit Nora. What were the odds that the people she’d grow closest to would be standing by her side as soon as they arrived on campus?

  “Do you remember during the president’s address, as soon as he finished speaking, when Maria got up and asked him what he was going to do about rising tuition costs? I think that was the moment everyone fell in love with her,” Nora said.

  “That was amazing. I think we’d all just handed over our checks and we were all feeling dazed because of the money, but she was the one who stood up and said something,” Caroline agreed.

  Nora shook her head, letting her eyes settle on the empty fourth seat. “I’m just going to say it. It’s horrible that Maria isn’t here with us. It’s like something is wrong with the universe and we have to do something about it. I think we should at least go there as a way to remember her.”

  “You want to go…‌there?” Caroline asked, her face growing skeptical. “I’m well capable of remembering Maria from right here without having to wander down a dark alley, where you know what kind of things happen.” She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat.

  “What do you think, Steph? Wouldn’t it be nice to go there and show that we still care about her? We haven’t forgotten about what happened, and maybe there was something they missed,” Nora went on.

  “Nora, I get it, really,” Caroline said. “If I did what you do, I would feel guilty too about what happened to her.”

  The pressure in Nora’s chest continued to build. Steph simply listened.

  “I don’t feel guilty about it,” Nora said. “We were all in the bar together that night and we all watched her leave with a gorgeous guy none of us knew. After dancing with her for a while and sharing a drink, he came over and said two words to us before leaving a hundred dollar tip and walking out with her.

  “That was how it worked: when a guy looked that good, there was no reason not to go home with him for the night, if that’s what you wanted to do. Other women were tripping over themselves to trade places with Maria and get his attention, but she was the one who ended up dead. So I don’t feel guilty about letting her go. What I feel is indignity that we live in a world where something like that can happen to a woman, her life cut tragically short, and the killer can get away free and clear.”

  Caroline paused. She looked a little ill. The entire ordeal had racked her terribly while it was happening, and Nora understood that she didn’t want to relive it.

  “The police did the best they could, but that guy just vanished and no one ever saw him again. I can’t even remember what he looked like anymore. Not a soul had any idea who he was, what car he drove, anything,” Caroline said.

  Nora nodded. It was hazy for her too, but the details started coming back to her.

  “I don’t remember what he looked like either, but I do remember the cops shrugging their shoulders and going through the motions. They had no confidence they’d find the guy, and it might’ve been a self-fulfilling prophecy. They might’ve overlooked something or missed talking to somebody. Knowing what I know now, it should’ve been possible to piece together more of what happened that night.”

  Caroline was silent, her head slumped against her shoulder. Nora knew this wasn’t fun for any of them, but the injustice of it didn’t allow her to let it go.

  “If going there will get it out of your system and satisfy your curiosity, will that allow us to enjoy the rest of the weekend afterward?” Steph asked.

  Nora nodded, and Steph glanced over at Caroline.

  “Fine. Let’s just get this over with,” she said, grabbing her bag and rolling out of her chair.

  Nora was adamant that going back to that alley would be the right thing to do to honor Maria.

  The alley off Delaware and Milivia streets by the northwest corner of campus was damp and breezy. They place where Maria had been discovered still contained little more than a few dumpsters and crates.

  Caroline kept the car running, probably hoping that it would be a quick stop, but Nora wanted to spend at least a little time looking the place over. Four years after Maria’s death, there was little chance she’d stumble on any intact clues, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something important to be found.

  Nora took a deep breath as she stepped into the alley that was only illuminated by the windows of a few apartment buildings on the upper floors. She’s trusted the police, but had they tracked down everyone who lived in those apartments and asked them if they’d seen anything that night?

  Caroline and Steph trailed behind. Nora had a hunch they were feeling the same things as she was, shock, resentment, and anger. Her time at Quantico training with the FBI had taught her how to deal with the emotions that came with investigative work, but she hadn’t been with them long enough to internalize it all. The place felt hallowed in a way, almost sacred for how it stood out as a singular fixture of the problems in the world.

  “She was right here, remember?” Nora said, kneeling down a few feet away from one of the green dumpsters. She could almost see the young woman’s body sprawled out on the pavement, blood seeping from her head. Sh
e’d been hit from behind by something hard, a bat or a pipe. “She might’ve run into the alley to hide, but whoever had caught up with her here only needed one swing to put her out cold.”

  “I remember,” Caroline said, annoyed and wheezing.

  “They didn’t find any traces of drugs in her system, or any other injuries. No skidmarks along the road indicating a hasty getaway. Fingerprints on her jacket came back inconclusive. She died here alone as if not a soul in the world knew her,” Nora said.

  Caroline was sniffling and beginning to cry.

  “Wait a second. This is from a kid’s party I put together with a friend back home,” Steph said, reaching in her bag. She produced a birthday candle of the number four and some matches, which she used to light it before setting it down on the pavement. “There will always be four of us in spirit. Maria’s guiding us from above. She wants us to remember her as the altruistic person she was and let that inspire us on our journey.”

  It was enough to bring a tear to Nora’s eyes. The three of them stood together with their arms around each other. Caroline continued to weep softly.

  “I’ll do exactly that,” Nora said. “I’m going to solve this case and find out exactly what happened to Maria, no matter what it takes.”

  It felt good to declare it, to make it real. She said it loud enough that she hoped Maria could hear and be comforted by it.

  “That’s not exactly what I meant,” Steph said, a rueful smile on her lips. “I think Maria would want us to move forward with our lives.”

  “Move forward where? I have no job and nothing else to do. What if my forward is to look at Maria’s past?” Nora said.

  “Caroline, don’t you agree that she should let this go? We came, and there’s nothing here,” Steph said, running a hand through her frizzy hair.

  “No,” Caroline said in an unusually declarative manner. “She should find the killer and put Maria’s soul to rest.”

  Nora breathed deeply, getting that sensation in her arms and legs.

  “I did find something here, something about myself. Position with the FBI or not, I investigate crimes and solve them. If I can’t do that for one of my best friends, what else am I good for?”

  Steph’s smile grew warmer. “How could anyone possibly disagree with that? If it makes you happy, more power to you. I hope you catch the killer,” she said.

  “I will,” Nora said, more determined than she’d ever been in her life.

  CHAPTER 4

  18 CHAPMAN DRIVE

  ALBANY, NY

  Who knew so much time could be wasted on the Internet? That and other revelations like it were the primary results of Travis Greer’s Saturday morning investigation of OpenSwordsed. He’d started out by performing a Google search but was immediately thrown off course when it appeared they didn’t have a website for their group.

  Somehow he ended up on a site called 4Chan, where some people were having vitriol-fueled arguments about Apple iOS 8 and who could break it, but none of them seemed at all connected to the group. Poking around Facebook and Twitter produced so many cat pictures that Travis was convinced the entire Internet was just a big animal shelter. OpenSwordsed and Danny Paulk seemed to be the only things he couldn’t find on it.

  In a fit of frustration, Travis grabbed the edge of the laptop screen and shook it.

  “Just tell me where you are!”

  He released the screen and rolled a few inches back in his chair. He skipped a trip to the forest for this.

  But in truth, it wasn’t even the unforthcoming nature of the Internet this morning that had him stewing. Dingo was now slumped against the wall and resting on a jacket that he had probably tugged off the coat rack. Travis loved the dog dearly, but at the moment he was a reminder of the unsatisfying night earlier in the week when he’d let Vanessa outmaneuver Nora into being the one who stayed with him that night. Her car had a split hose that Travis was able to patch up in a way that stopped the leak, but it still wasn’t safe to drive. Once Nora had left, Vanessa dropped all pretense of being affectionate and watched TV until she passed out, leaving him alone in bed gritting his teeth about the night that could’ve been.

  The truth was that since Nora’s job situation had changed, there’d be one less grueling schedule to work around and their relationship might finally have some room to grow. It didn’t bother him that they’d technically been together for weeks without taking their bodies for a test drive, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t eager to run his hands over her bare skin.

  There wouldn’t be another missed opportunity. When Nora came back from her trip, energized from a weekend with her friends, he’d impress her with his net sleuthing and reconnaissance about the data breach. Showing her how much effort he’d put into righting her ship would pave the way for a very tactile expression of gratitude.

  Except the Internet wasn’t going along with the plan, and it was time to change course. Travis pulled out his phone and flipped through the address book, looking for any suitable reinforcements. Leaning on anybody in the office was out of the question because it would lead straight back to Boffman. There had to be somebody outside of his division who would point him in the right direction.

  Travis landed on the name Rory Kinitz, thought for a moment, and punched in his number.

  “Rory, it’s not even noon. What are you doing up by now?”

  “How many people have you been calling to borrow money for crack before you got to me, Travis? Can’t you just confiscate some for yourself?” Rory said in a nasal voice.

  Travis smiled. They immediately fell back into the old rhythm they shared back in the bunkers of Iraq. Rory was the computer whiz who always managed to keep everyone entertained with a never ending stream of movies, TV shows, and games that were otherwise inaccessible out there in the desert. Next to the note in the address book, Travis had written only “CIA.” It was a good guess he was putting his skills to use there.

  “Does that mean you’re looking to get busted?” Travis asked. Neither of them were the type for drugs, but conversations always tended to drift toward the dirty stuff.

  “Nah, man,” Rory chuckled. “The way they’ve got me right now, I couldn’t even rip a fart without getting some kind of censure.”

  “Hmm,” Travis muttered, trying to parse what that meant. “Does that mean you can’t give some straight up advice to an old Bravo team comrade? I need some help on this one. Lips sealed. Hands down.”

  A pause on the line made Travis doubt this whole thing. It would be incredibly embarrassing for the FBI if the CIA got wind of a cover up and ran it up the chain.

  “Hey, it’s me. We’ve trusted each other with our lives. That’s not something I left behind in the sand.”

  Travis nodded. It’s the same kind of thing he would’ve said. He still felt the bond he shared with his team and would’ve taken a bullet for any of them.

  “I need you to talk to me about hacking into a government server. I just need to figure out what happened,” Travis said. He tried to keep the severity of it out of his voice, but that was the first thing Rory picked up on.

  “Whoa, that’s not kid stuff. I’d say you’re in over your head. Last time I saw you with a computer you could barely find the power button,” he said. It was another joke, but Travis needed Rory to focus.

  “I’m not kidding, Rory. This one’s off the books and I can’t even get near it. I need to wrap my head around it.”

  Rory clicked his tongue a few times, making Travis remember some of his old mannerisms. The man had more muscle than a championship weightlifter, despite spending all of his time on a computer, and his voice made everyone dead sure he was filled head to toe with steroids. But it was all natural. The way he would bang on the keyboard always seemed like he was trying to break it.

  “With nada for details, I’m not sure what I could possibly tell you that would be useful. It’s not like there’s one kind of server with one way to break into it that one person knows about. The whole dea
l with this is that there are unknown possibilities that nobody thought of until someone realizes they’re there and tries to exploit them.”

  “So how do I figure out what happened?” Travis asked.

  “The same way you solve any case, meathead. You can either start at the beginning and go forward, or start at the end and work backward.”

  Travis pursed his lips.

  “You might find this farfetched, but I was actually hoping for something a little more specific.”

  “Can you follow the intruders and retrace their steps?” Rory asked.

  “I have been trying to find them, but there’s been no luck.”

  “Well do you at least know what was taken? Then you can start to piece together how they got to it and why they did it,” Rory continued.

  “I don’t know any of that either.”

  “Hate to break it to you, bro, but until you figure out one of those two things, you’re out of luck. If you get your hands on something and think I can help, call me, but if it is ultra-confidential like you said…‌remember what I told you about unknown possibilities.”

  “OK, gotcha. Thanks, Rory. Keep your head on.”

  “Keep your head on.”

  Travis ended the call and leaned back in his chair, taking another long look outside. A dangerous thought occurred to him, one that could either cost him his job at the FBI or his relationship with Nora. Rory said to either ascertain how they got in or what was taken, but Travis didn’t see why he couldn’t go after both.

  Making another call, he waited for five rings before getting an answer.

  “Lance, it’s Travis. You’re not kidding anybody by waiting so long to pick up. I know you’re working. I’ll do you a favor and meet you at the back end of the Macy’s parking lot in fifteen. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.”

  Boffman needed a little more convincing than that, but eventually the meeting was set and Travis was grabbing his jacket. He put his head against the door and tried to think it through one more time. It was the only way to find out if he could clear her name, and a lot of it depended on what Danny Paulk did, but above all he wondered how badly Nora would hold it against him.