“Yes, I guess he would.”
“I know this is going to eat you up for a long time. Trust me, I know that. Maybe you should talk to someone to help you deal with this?”
“A shrink for a shrink?”
“I always wondered if you guys shared each other as patients.”
“Shared each other?”
“You know, like psycho babbled each other as patients not colleagues.”
“You’re an ass.”
“Yes but you love me.”
Kissing Frankie has got to be the best addiction I’ve ever had. Look sex is great, it’s amazing even, but it’s nothing like kissing her. There could be any emotion packed into a kiss and it’s freely given to me. I swear it tells me she loves me without saying a word. Or without having to quickly get dressed because the kid will be up and demanding breakfast in a few hours.
Pulling away from my lips, she smiles at me and takes a calming breath. Sometimes a kiss can do that too.
“Will called while you were sleeping. The gang should be here soon to go over the case like old times.”
My mother always felt when you found your true love, you would know it. I knew it the moment I laid eyes on Frankie. I wanted the house, the picket fence, the two point five kids and a two car garage. Or a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, I’m not picky. But…
“I always wanted to have more than one kid.” I smack myself in the face covering my mouth. What the hell did I just say out loud? Looking up, I see Frankie staring at me wide eyed, dumbfounded.
“You what?” She looks innocent, but she wants me to repeat what I said. I know it. It’s a way to prove I wasn’t an ass and actually said, what I really meant to say. Damn Freudian slip. Removing my hand, I have to face the music, storm, ramifications and all that of what I just said.
“I’ve always seen us with more than one kid. Just not our own.”
“Okay, I don’t follow.”
“I have no desire to give birth. I mean seriously, I have absolutely no desire to deal with watermelon sized things with an escape route the size of a pea. I just can’t.”
“Your mother…”
“STOP!” My hands slam onto my ears like a five year old hearing how they were brought into this world. Who am I kidding, I’m still five in a lot of ways. Frankie pulls my hands away and sits back down on the bed.
“I’m sorry, I forgot how you feel about that.”
“The stork is real. That is all.”
“Yes, dear. You were saying?”
“We have so many obstacles facing us. People placing legal discrimination laws, certain states allowed to re-educate us, hell some want it to be a criminal offense punishable by law. I don’t want to bring a newborn into that. They wouldn’t have asked for this.”
“So, we adopt a child and put them into this horrible life we have?” The sarcasm is dripping from her words and I know I am on thin ice.
“No. Well, yes, but not like that. We have all this crap swarming around us in general, but we also have so much love to give a child you know? These kids have no one to help them. They’re alone without anyone to truly call on for anything. Maybe, we can bring someone who has nothing and offer them a little bit of crazy.”
“A little bit of crazy, huh?”
“Depending on if XBOX is involved, then it’s a lot crazy.”
“You two and your games.” Her lips meet mine and I’m reminded once again how amazing this woman is. I wonder if my mother would mind me living in sin or scream at me to marry Frankie. Interesting how I could reasonably agree to adopting a kid, but marriage freaks me out. Maybe because I know adoption can take years.
“You head downstairs. I’ll be there in a minute for more coffee.” Grabbing the file folder, I flip through things making sure it’s still in the proper order.
“I love you,” Frankie whispers before moving out into the hallway. I’m going to marry that woman… someday.
***
There is a comfort one finds in friendly chaos. It’s something we have no control over, but yet we seem to embrace it. We willingly watch the orchestral movements as if there was some master waving their hands to and fro. Maybe we all subconsciously do it, but the end result is the same. A beautiful ballet of crazy.
Will’s wrangling the white board into the room, while Chase sits on the couch bored. Frankie flips through some file folder on the table. Must be one of Kaley’s. Victor is animatedly waving his hands all about trying to communicate with Will. My Marine partner on the other hand looks like he’s disarming a weapon of mass destruction as he tries to get the board not to flip. Reminds me of Christmas morning when Chase was little. He would carry everything over to the wrong person and start to open it. Sometimes he’d tell you what it was, ‘Here you go Frankie, it’s a wallet.’ I think that should be the definition of family. Not about blood distinctions or choice, those who create a chaos we feel comfortable in. Family equals total, unequivocal, chaos.
“You agree with me, don’t you Jazz?”
“What?” I mumble before taking another long sip of the delicious liquid.
“Victor, she’s only on cup number one.” Frankie smiles at me, giving me an excuse to hide in my thoughts for a bit longer. After our conversation upstairs, I wasn’t sure how she would react around our friends. She knows how I feel about keeping things quiet until they are true, happening and physically cannot be taken away. We’ve been through so much together, I don’t want either of us to feel that loss again. You can get your hopes up, tell the world and enjoy the excitement, then feel the pity as it doesn’t happen. So, we air on the side of caution. No matter what it is, from Chase wanting to switch sports to adoption, we stay quiet.
“Shesh, it’s like you people allow anyone to come here!”
Victor breaks my reverie with his words. His arms wrapping around Hadley as she hesitantly walks into the room. Frankie and Will follow suit before Chase jumps off the couch and rams his not so little body into her. His face hidden as she kisses his head. Chase nods his head at something Hadley says. She hands him something and he runs off to his room. Has to be something for his XBOX, probably from Logan, but who cares as long as the kid is happy. Unless it’s porn, then I won’t be happy. Seriously, I am more my mother every day.
“You going to sit there and stare into space or are you going to say hello?”
Standing, I give Hadley a hug and drop my head on her shoulder. As I loosen my grip on her body, I feel her pull tighter. It’s a simple gesture, she needs the hug as much as I do. Maybe it’s her way of healing, making sure I’m real. Survivor’s guilt can and does suck.
“Hope you don’t mind me coming by. Vic called and told me about the crime pow wow. Thought…”
“Of course, why would you think…?” I stop talking as I see her face fall. I’ve been avoiding her up until recently, why else would she feel this way.
“Ladies, can we get started?”
Hadley finds a space on the couch and I feel a game of Pictionary coming on. Will pulls out a picture of Harry Brandt and sticks it to the white board with a magnet. Pulling out the black marker, he scribbles some things under the picture.
“Okay, so far we have Harry Brandt, possible suspect. Being a bit of a hard ass so it’s hard to get a read on where we stand with him.”
“The software used to access the Deep Web…”
“Dark Web,” Hadley corrects me. I wave my hand and give her the floor. She’s dating the man, so he would of course fill her in with the details.
“The program is open source, anyone can download it at any time and make various changes. What he’s not saying is that the program itself was designed to be the gateway to the unknown space. It was up to the other coding people to change things to suit their needs.”
“Might help us get a warrant.”
“No way to prove intent in the coding. He could simply say he designed it to search the entire web, the usage was unintentional.”
“Logan is really rub
bing off on you,” I say proudly. She looks lighter, happier, free of the drama.
“Who’s Logan?” Victor pipes up and Hadley’s face drops to a mix of fear and trepidation.
“He’s the tech guy, huge Hadley Moreno fan. Didn’t he come by the convention the other day?”
Hadley turns to look at me a slight smile on her face. It’s the one that says thanks, but it isn’t necessary.
“Yes, he did. He should be here to fill in the gaps with all this technology stuff. I only know what we discuss over dinner.”
“You should have brought him,” Frankie casually tosses out. There’s a feeling where you are part of something but you have no concept of what’s really going on. I’ve got that right now. It seems like I am missing something.”
“We have enough coffee to go around. Why don’t you give him a call?”
They all know who he is. They aren’t asking anything about how they met, who he is or whatever else friends would normally grill about. They all knew. It’s an odd sensation, knowing your friends all kept something from you. Sure there are extenuating circumstances, but seriously, right now I don’t care. It hurts. No matter how much you grow as an adult, you can still be easily hurt by those you love. Either you deal with it or your hide it deep inside and let it fester.
“So, going back to the program?” Or you ignore it and move on. Effectively, I let things fester. Good old reliable ignoring the problem with the hopes that it will go away on its own. Like Chase’s smelly gas explosions. You just pinch your nose and walk away.
“Brandt had to know what it would be used for, but there’s no way to prove his intent.”
“True, but it might be enough to get us a warrant for the IP addresses. Then we go from there.” Will writes on the board as he speaks.
“That’s all well and good, but how does Kaley fall into all of this?”
“She decided her only option to end the abuse was via murder for hire.” Victor calmly states as he props his feet on my couch. My brother’s nice couch, to be exact. Just as the anger bubbles and I feel the words on my lips, Frankie pushes his feet off the couch.
“If you stay here, feet off the furniture.” She says as she sits down next to him, blocking the return of Victor’s feet.
Victor closes the marker and cracks his neck as he walks away from the board.
“Basically, we have everything tied up in who got the program and who they contacted.”
“If the IP addresses help us at all. Who’s to say the people who downloaded it are the actual people using it. These people are kings of anonymity.” I say as I stand and move to the board.
“It might lead us to who his guy is, but there’s no trail in CODIS. No DNA in the system. Even if we could find out who did this, we could only connect him to it by emails.”
“Which are time and date stamped,” Hadley defends her position.
“All it takes is a defense attorney capable of putting people on the jury who either hate the Internet, hate the government following our searches, or kids who feel once it’s deleted it’s gone.” Frankie rubs her eyes in frustration.
“So, I’ll go over the bodies again and dig for more,” Victor tosses up. I love it when people try to prove points and defend their positions. They offer up more work, yet in my mind you technically should have done that in the first place. Considering Victor is as anal retentive as he is, I know there is nothing more for those bodies to tell.
“Well, if the information turns out to be a dead end, then Brandt might be your only suspect.” Hadley leans back on the couch, sending a text to Logan I assume.
“Had, I appreciate that, but there’s no forensic evidence to link him to it.”
“You’ve gotten a DA to indict on circumstantial evidence before.”
“She’s right, Jasmine. This is a solid lead on Mr. Brandt. He could be the man in question. Physically he easily fits the profile. Mentally he is very close to it.”
“But he doesn’t fit it financially, Frankie. He needed help.”
Picking up the marker, I start to write Irving Garrison’s name on the board. I hear Will grumble in the background, but I really don’t care. This is right in front of their faces, and they are choosing to ignore it.
“What does he have to do with this?”
“Had, it’s all about the money. If you follow the money, we have a perfect triangle of cause. Garrison funds Brandt’s office and has him develop the Dark Web access coding. Miller asks his childhood friend Garrison to give him access. After that, Miller contacts D.B.M. to kill the family, so he can have Kaley for himself. It all connects.”
“Theoretically, but not in a factual sense. It might be logical, but why would he want the code? Why would he allow everyone to have access? How would it benefit him? Irving Garrison is not a giving man, so this seems all out of character.”
I see Frankie’s eyes, begging me to forgive her for speaking up. That betrayal emotion creeps up, especially knowing that I was the last to be aware of Hadley’s relationship. It’s hard to let that go, but as an adult I’m expected to.
“Will, let’s go see if the district attorney will get us a warrant for Bridge the Gap customer listings.”
Without saying another word, I grab what I need and leave the room. Sometimes it is better to say nothing than to try and defend yourself. If this was any other person, I guarantee you no one in that room would be saying anything about connections. Yet, because it’s the father of the fool who shot me, I’m obsessing. Maybe I am, but it’s not anyone. Why is it when you want support, you face criticism, but when you don’t need support everyone wants to help you?
***
Will was quiet the entire ride over and I’m thankful for it. I don’t need him being rational or telling me how they are only looking out for my best interest. Right now, don’t care. Standing in the elevator, I shoot Logan a quick text. At least it feels like someone is on my side. If nothing else, the information he might find can prove me wrong. Either way he isn’t saying no. Could be because of who he’s dating and trying to make a positive impression on me, but I’ll take what I can get.
“Detectives, Mr. Brandt was expecting you.” Kiernan stares at her phone as she speaks. I really want to take that phone and smash it. She reminds me of the person who would break into your house, but sue you when they get hurt smashing a window to leave.
“Mind explaining to me how he always knows we’re coming?”
“You’re the detective, not my fault you all use antiquated methods.” She smiles as she goes back to her phone. At this point, I really wonder what she could really accomplish on the small ass device.
“Yes, well real detective work takes time.” Patience slowly slipping away.
“Right, keep telling yourself that. You remember where it is, right. Cool,” she continues to move her thumbs over the screen. Instead of prisons, we should take away cell phones, computers and gaming systems. Make these non-violent criminals do customer service with a group home and make it a violation of parole to have anything connected to the Internet. That is definitely a great tactic and it would save tax payers millions. I should run for office, or design rides in Disney. It’s kind of the same thing, you control the masses one way or another.
Will walks ahead of me through the maze of desks to Brandt’s office. If you pay attention you can see the slight glances and some glares he gets. Some want to stare at his ass, others want to knock him on it. Human beings obscure reactions amuse me greatly. I wonder if half of these people can hold a conversation outside of instant or text messages. This is the technology generation, they code an android to do it for them.
Will stops in front of Brandt’s office and stares at me. I know the look. He’s silently telling me not to bring up Garrison. I nod in understanding, but I also know I’ll do whatever the case needs. If that leads to connections and questions about his funding, so be it. Walking inside, the two of us take our seats. I’ll let Will take the lead on this one. No one wants m
y opinion right now anyway. Can’t have my gut getting in the way.
“Mr. Brandt, we appreciate you speaking with us again.”
“Not like I had a choice detective. It was either let you in or have you break in the doors. We have a company to run. Can’t afford your men acting like bulls in a china shop.”
“We have a warrant for those addresses.”
He leans forward and grabs the piece of paper. His eyes scan the page and the response we usually get when serving one of these things is gone. He’s distant, calm, less afraid of what we’ll find. He’s not sweating. He’s not freaking. He hasn’t pushed any buttons warning of incoming doom. He is simply, reading.
“As you can see,” Will continues, “it gives us access not only to the addresses where downloads were completed, but also any personal information that customer entered in order to download the files in question.”
“Yes, I see that. My question is why?”
“As we discussed prior, that information would allow us to pinpoint who used your program and when.”
“Yes, but you understand that number is in the millions.”
“We would just need those local to the tri-state area.”
“Again, that could be in the millions. The proverbial needle in a hay stack. Maybe you should focus on what you do have instead of trying to uncover what you don’t. Isn’t the rule to follow the evidence?”
He’s right. We should be following the evidence, but in its absence you have to look for said needle and pray.
“The evidence led us here, Mr. Brandt.”
“Obviously. It also led you to try and trample on my rights of free enterprise.”
I can see Will’s right hand flexed into a tight fist, knuckles white. I might have to open my mouth to prevent him from breaking Mr. Brandt’s.
“Maybe we are,” I pipe up and I can feel the heat of Will’s glare on me, “maybe we’re not. We know you’re connected. None of this shit really matters. One way or another you created the program that was used in the commission of a crime. So, we’ll just arrest you and let you rot in a cell for things you claim you had no control over.”
Melting Steele Page 11
