In Deep with the FBI Agent

by Lynne Silver

  Sam stood and looked at Eric, the IT admin Paulson had put on duty as Sam’s guide into their department. “I think I’ve narrowed it down to three women.”

  “Who? The person whose password was used? You think it was a woman?”

  Sam nodded.

  “Okay, who?” Eric asked. “Let’s go get her.”

  “She’s not the hacker,” Sam said in the interest of keeping a good working relationship, “but she was coerced or accidentally gave away her password. I’d like to talk to all three women, starting with”—he glanced at his paper—“Jennifer Burns.”

  “All right. I can call her up here.”

  “No.” Sam stood. “I want to surprise her at her desk. I also want to see her workspace.”

  “Okay,” Eric said. “I’ll walk you down there.”

  Jennifer Burns wasn’t at her desk when they arrived, so Sam pulled up a vacant desk chair and waited near her cubicle. He took the opportunity to browse around Jennifer’s desk while he waited. He didn’t touch or move anything, but he was able to get a sense of who she was by what she’d chosen as her office décor.

  From what he’d gleaned, he guessed she had no children. There were no photos or drawings. She was also new to the company. Her desk was too clean. There were people who were organized and maintained a spotless desk, but their keyboard letters were worn down or their phone cords were twisted. Everything on Jennifer’s desk looked newly acquired.

  Interesting. “How long…” he started to ask Eric, but Jennifer appeared at that moment and looked surprised to see her two visitors. As soon as she recognized Eric, her body stiffened. Obviously news of the data breach had spread, and if an IT guy came to your desk, it wasn’t a good thing.

  Sam knew he wouldn’t get far with company. “Thanks for showing me down here,” he said to Eric. “I’ll meet you back upstairs soon.”

  Eric blinked at him, but acquiesced and turned away.

  Sam held out a hand to Jennifer. “Hi, I’m Sam Cooper.”

  Automatically, she grasped his hand, but only maintained contact for a fraction of a second. She sat at her desk and swiveled her chair slightly away from Sam. “I have a lot of work to get to. What is this about?”

  “I believe someone stole your password and used it to hack into the database,” Sam said.

  She spun back to face him, and gasped. “Me?” She was leaning toward him, looking worried. “Oh, my God. No. I’m very careful with my password. It’s a complicated one, I swear.”

  He pulled out his badge now that he had Jennifer on his team. “I’m an FBI special agent. I specialize in this kind of security fraud.”

  “Am I in trouble?” she whispered, staring unblinking at his badge.

  He flipped the leather case closed and shook his head. “No. I don’t think you committed the attack. I’m here to help Paulson figure out who got your password and how he or she did it.”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” Jennifer said. “The IT team around here has been acting as if everyone was a potential hacker or that I’d leaked my password.”

  “Well, you can understand their caution,” Sam said. “It was a major breach and the reputation of the company is at stake.”

  “Oh, I know,” Jennifer said. “I’ve worked here three months and already got a promotion. This is like one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.” She started to ramble about her last two jobs and how awful they’d been while Sam listened with one ear, his attention scanning her desk for anything that stood out.

  In her effusiveness, Jennifer’s elbow hit her mouse, which lit up the sleeping computer monitor. Her Facebook page flashed on-screen. She glanced at Sam with pink cheeks. “I was just checking before lunch. My boyfriend’s been out of town and I wanted to see if he posted any photos.”

  “Understandable,” Sam said, and then he blinked as he thought he recognized someone on Jennifer’s Facebook profile picture, but she’d already closed out the window, revealing a more work-appropriate spreadsheet.

  “No, go back,” Sam ordered.

  “To Facebook?” She frowned in confusion, but followed instructions.

  “Who is that?” He stood to lean over Jennifer’s shoulder, trying for a closer look at the man in her photo. It was a blurry phone shot, but he knew the man’s face. It was the same man he’d seen on Casey’s phone.

  “That’s my boyfriend, Matt.”

  And the same name as the man on Casey’s phone. “How long have you been dating him?”

  She smiled and flushed. “It’s pretty new. Just a few weeks. He’s camera shy and didn’t want to be in the picture. That’s why he’s ducking. But I got him.” She grinned, not realizing she’d cracked Sam’s case wide open.

  It took a little while, but after calling in for backup from the local FBI field office, he had the support he needed to officially question Jennifer. Paulson arranged for a conference room, and he, Jennifer, and a female field agent and her SSA—supervisory special agent—gathered around the table.

  Sam went to his chair and reclined back into it, a notebook at the ready. “Tell me everything you know about Matt. For starters, what’s his last name?”

  For the next half hour, Sam grilled Jennifer about her boyfriend, going over every detail once, twice. He learned that Matt picked her up in the Starbucks down the street. They kept meeting by accident and finally sat to drink their coffee together. Accident, my ass.

  He learned that Jennifer hadn’t been to Matt’s apartment yet. It was being painted. If painting your hotel room was allowed. He also had to travel a lot for work. Travel to each city in which he had a fake girlfriend.

  The pattern was becoming clear. This Matt guy, whoever he was, would pick a target, probably all like Jennifer, young and naïve—except for Casey, of course. Then he would get to know them enough to either steal their password or guess it. Once he had a password, it didn’t take a hacker of unusual skill to get in, hide his tracks, and get what he needed.

  The one thing he now understood was motivation. The guy owned a tutoring and test-prep company, which was his front. He’d changed a few grades to boost his reputation, and then seeing the ease, realized he had a ripe opportunity to steal identities, credit cards, and more. A lot of criminals overseas were willing to pay a lot of money for information, and this criminal Matt had data on some of the wealthiest people in the nation by targeting prep schools, which were a much easier target than banks.

  “Did Matthew ever come see you at your office?” he finally asked. “Could we get a fingerprint?”

  “No, but he has been to my apartment.” Jennifer looked stunned. Her eyes were glossy with held-back tears. “Do you really think Matt is the hacker?” Her palms covered her eyes, and she hunched over. “He’s nice. Are you sure?”

  “Not until we talk to him. Do you know where he is now?”

  She shook her head. “But I think it’s somewhere warm. He was shopping for bathing suits online.” That didn’t help much, as it was nearly May, and most of the country was having swimming weather.

  “We’re going to need access to your apartment to get prints to run.”

  “All right.”

  He broke down the procedure of how it would work and arranged for access to her apartment. He left Jennifer, looking stunned and shaken, in the care of the local agents. He couldn’t be sure Jennifer wouldn’t call Matt to warn him the FBI was onto him, so they had to keep her under watch until they had the guy. He had to head back to the IT department and update Eric.

  Poor Jennifer. She’d been thinking she was falling for someone, and he was nothing but a criminal who’d used her. Nothing like he and Casey had been. They’d had a real connection.

  The thought of Casey made his finger freeze on the elevator’s Up button. Casey wasn’t still in touch with this Matt guy, was she? Thank God she hadn’t liked the guy that much or she could’ve been embroiled in the scandal. He jammed his finger quickly against the button, willing the elevator to hurry. He rode up eight stories, pulling
out his cell phone to call Casey, but it went straight to voice mail. “Dammit.” He sent her a text to call him immediately and then had to go back to work. They had their first big lead on the case, and he had to assemble his team to bring the dude in.

  The next day, it turned into a full-blown manhunt, but they were keeping it quiet, or Matt would disappear with a new identity and never be heard from again. Sam flew back to D.C. to manage the hunt from his home base. They’d been able to pull fingerprints from Jennifer’s apartment, but they were clean. Either this was Matt’s first foray into law-breaking, or he’d never been caught before. Which meant they were running a hunt for a man based on a blurry profile picture; but he knew someone who had a better photo, and he again picked up the phone to call Casey.

  Casey glanced at her buzzing phone, but she couldn’t see who was calling, since her vision was currently obscured by tears that were both angry and sad. Today ranked as one of her crappier days in life because she’d been fired. The day had started off as a normal day, but after lunch, Nancy had called her into her office, rehashed the conversation they’d been having for the past few weeks about Casey’s credibility and honesty. Despite her protests, she’d been fired. According to Nancy, the parent body was screaming for answers about the cyber attack and wanted someone to blame. The arrow had landed on Casey, and Nancy got to fire her.

  She let the call go to voice mail. Two minutes later, it rang again, and she wiped away her tears and glanced at the caller ID. Awesome, it was Sam; the very last person on the planet with whom she wanted to speak. Click, straight to voice mail.

  She went back to cleaning out her desk, feeling Annie’s worried gaze on her through the doorway. Annie should be worried. As soon as she took a day to mourn the loss of her job, she was coming to this place with the meanest lawyer she could find, and then they were going to rename the school after her. She’d deserve it after winning her wrongful termination suit.

  Buzz. This time he’d sent a text. Dammit, Sam. He needed to learn when he wasn’t wanted. She should’ve known better than to get involved with a guy who’d had a hard-on for her for fourteen years. Really, talk about stalker.

  Casey. We need to talk.—Sam

  Oh, really? Maybe if he’d done more talking and less mooning after her, she wouldn’t be in this predicament.

  When her office phone rang, she finally picked it up. “How dare you call me? You are the last person I want to speak to.” Click. Casey stared at her phone, praying that had indeed been Sam. Otherwise she’d hung up on a potential parent or school donor. Oops. Oh wait, she didn’t work here anymore, so screw the parents and screw the donors.

  Casey heard Annie’s phone ring, and ten seconds went by before Annie popped her head through the doorway. “It’s Sam,” she whispered, “and he says he really, really needs to talk to you regarding the hacking case.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and her assistant—correction, former assistant—backed out, and Casey heard her whispering something to Sam. If Sam wanted to talk about the hacking case, it was way too little, way too late. She continued tossing personal items in the box given to her, until Annie returned.

  “He says he knows who the hacker is, and you know him too,” Annie said. “They need your help finding him.”

  Casey looked at her wide-eyed at his audacity. “The FBI wants my help? That’s rich. Their help got me fired. You know what? I will talk to him. I’ll tell him exactly what kind of help he can expect from me. Get him on the phone.”

  Annie sprinted back to her desk and a few seconds later she called, “I’ve got him on the line. I’ll put him through.”

  Casey picked up her handset and interrupted him before he could speak. “Sam.” Casey’s grip on the phone was adamantine. “I can’t talk to you.”

  “Casey, don’t hang up,” he said rapidly, trying to avoid losing her again. “I get that you’re busy, but I need your help.”

  “Hah,” she said. “Busy? I wish.” She was about to hang up when his next words stayed her hand.

  “Casey, you may be in danger.”

  “From what?” she mocked. “From being fired? Too late.”

  There was a long pause. “What are you talking about?”

  She suddenly noticed her body had collapsed down onto the office chair, as if exhausted from holding up the weight of her woes.

  “Nancy fired me today. Your investigation at Montgomery Prep…my user name and password being used to log in…Ring any bells? The board wanted to blame someone, and they picked me. It was a concrete action they could take to the parents to show that something was being done.”

  “Oh.” He sounded angry. “Shit, I’m so sorry. Casey, I’ll call them. This is all my fault. They’re not being rational about the security breach. I can’t believe they think you were responsible in some way.”

  “Nancy said she doesn’t think I shared my password or was the hacker, but it calls my trustworthiness into question, especially since I’m the public face of the development office. They’re worried my reputation is already tainted and donors will be wary of giving to me. It makes her life easier to point the blame at me and then the school can move on. She’s had it in for me for a while, and this was her chance to get rid of me.”

  “That’s bullshit. If anyone should be fired, it should be that Dan guy who has no clue what he’s doing.”

  His outrage on her behalf comforted her. “I agree, but there’s not much I can do. The school is a private entity and they can fire and hire whomever they want. They were sure to cover their asses when firing me, and brought up a whole bunch of complaints on how I didn’t raise enough money or get enough participation from alumni.”

  “Again, bullshit. What are you going to do?”

  “What can I do? I’m packing my office and then I’ll go job hunt, but who’s going to hire me? It’s not as if I’ll be getting a stellar recommendation from here.”

  “That makes things tricky for both of us.”

  She froze. “What?”

  “I’m sorry, that was insensitive. It’s just that we ID’d the real hacker, and we need your help in bringing him in.”

  “My help? How could I help?”

  “You know him.”

  “I know the hacker? Who is it?” Despite herself, she was curious, and leaned forward in the desk chair.

  “It’s Matt. That guy who owns the tutoring company.”

  “I dated the hacker.” Her mouth dropped open. “I can’t believe it.”

  “Believe it, and don’t take this the wrong way, but he targeted you. At each school, he found a young employee, asked her out on a few dates, and from there, was able to get her password.”

  “Oh, my God. I have to tell Nancy. Maybe they’ll hire me back. Did you arrest him yet?”

  “I’m going to call Nancy for you. My data analyst finally got through the log files with time stamps. One of the times he logged in was when we were at our cooking class date. It proves you were innocent.”

  At the reminder of their fun date, her heart plummeted. “That’ll help,” she said snarkily. “Let’s remind Nancy that I lied to her about dating you.”

  “They can’t dictate who you date, Casey. It’s illegal. But, no, we haven’t arrested him. I was hoping you could email me the photo from your phone. The only photo we have is poor quality, and we’re in the midst of a national manhunt.”

  “I deleted it. I didn’t see a need to keep it. I’m sorry.”

  “Damn,” Sam muttered. “When’s the last time you backed up your phone to the cloud?”

  “Not recently. Why? How often am I supposed to?”

  “Daily would’ve been helpful.” Sam’s sigh tickled her ear through the receiver. “We can get the photo, but it’ll take time. Time we don’t have.”

  Though she was still reeling from getting fired, the idea that she was at the center of a national criminal manhunt was kind of exciting and terrifying. “I can’t believe he used me. That asshole. And that he had the balls to call
me the other day and ask me out again, even after he’d stolen my password and gotten what he needed…What a jerk.”

  “Wait, he asked you out again? After the school had already been hacked?”

  “Yes, but you and I were dating by then, and I told him I was in a relationship. He said he liked me and to call him if things didn’t work out between us.”

  “And we’ve got our man,” Sam gloated.

  “What are you talking about? Sam, I’ve got to get back to packing. If you could call Nancy and let her know I’m totally innocent, that would be helpful.”

  “He actually liked you.”

  “Thanks. It’s hard to believe I’m likeable?”

  “Casey, shh. You know I love you. What I meant was, you’re the only woman he returned to after he stole their password. No one else ever saw him again. The fact that he returned to ask you out again means he likes you. I think we can use that. We may have to.”

  “Use it how?” She didn’t let her brain examine his comment that he loved her. It had to be a throwaway line, right?

  “I need to talk to Ted first. I have an idea, but I need to get a team assembled and work out the kinks. I’m going to call you back very soon. Can you please answer this time and not hang up?”

  She sighed. “Fine.”

  “And stop packing up your office. You’re not losing your job.”

  “I don’t really see how you have any say over the matter,” she responded tartly.

  “And there’s the sassy Casey that I love,” he answered.

  There was that L word again. It wasn’t fair of him to keep using it, especially not when they were broken up. “Don’t say that, Sam,” she responded quietly.

  “Why not? It’s the truth. I’m sorry you don’t want to hear it. I’ve been miserable since you broke up with me.”

  “Me too,” she confessed, “but you know why I had to do it.”

  “I understand why you thought you had to dump me. I respectfully disagree. I’m not disappearing from your life that easily, Casey. I backed off for a bit to let you get your work life sorted, but I’m done backing off. I’m not letting you deal with your mom and your job loss alone. We’ll sort it out.”