‘No, nothing like that. You’re a bit of a geek with computers, aren’t you?’
‘I have a degree in IT and Networking. Are you having problems?’
‘Not exactly. I was online and some nutter seems to have taken control of my computer. No matter what I do, I can’t turn it off—’
‘Is it a laptop or desktop?’
‘Laptop.’
‘Good. Unplug it and remove the battery. That’ll turn it off, and then if you can bring it in tomorrow, Scientific Services can investigate what he’s done.’
‘Is there anything I can do to trace him now?’
‘It would take too long to explain… um… keep him talking and I can probably come round if that would—’
‘No, listen, don’t worry about it for now. I’ll do what you suggested and just remove the battery. I’d appreciate you giving it the once-over tomorrow though.’
He was quiet for a moment. ‘Actually, ma’am, I might be able to do something now. Give me two seconds…’ She heard movement down the line for a while and then he returned. ‘Can you tell me your laptop’s IP address? I can access your system remotely, which will allow me to trace who he is without him realising.’
She relayed the information. ‘How long do you think this will take?’
‘A couple of minutes. Just keep him talking for as long as you can.’
The laptop had beeped twice while she’d been on the phone. Reluctantly, Kate accepted Patel’s remote access request and replied to John’s messages.
John: If you were any good at your job, you wouldn’t keep allowing criminals to slip through your fingers.
John: Don’t ignore me, Kate. It’s rude.
Kate: I wasn’t ignoring you. I’m running a trace to find your location, and then I’m going to send a couple of uniforms to your house to arrest you.
John: I never said I was at home.
Kate: It doesn’t matter where you are, I’ll find you. You’ll enjoy prison.
John: I won’t end up in prison. The justice system in this country is too flawed for that.
She put the phone back to her ear. ‘Have you traced him yet? How much more of this shit do I have to put up with?’
‘Nearly. Give me thirty more seconds.’
John: This has been fun, but I told you I’d let you go if you answered one question for me.
Kate: I think you’ve asked more than one question.
John: I haven’t asked you a single question since I made the offer. Answer the question for me now, and I promise I’ll stop messaging you.
Kate: Fine.
John: Would you kill a suspect to save Chloe’s life?
‘Ma’am? Ma’am? Are you there?’
She lifted the phone. ‘Yes, yes, have you found him?’
‘Remove the battery immediately.’
‘What? Why?’
‘Please, ma’am. End the conversation immediately, and disconnect the battery.’
Kate threw the phone down and ejected the battery from the laptop. The screen went black. She pushed it to one side and picked up her mobile. ‘Okay, I’ve done it. What did you find? Where was that prick messaging me from?’
‘That’s just it, ma’am… I couldn’t run a trace on him because he wasn’t online.’
‘I don’t understand. I just had a conversation with him. Could you not see the message window?’
‘No, ma’am. I saw the window, and I read his messages. You don’t understand. He wasn’t connected to the Internet. He was inside your network.’
‘What are you saying?’
‘He’s in your building.’
19
Kate gripped the handle of the large kitchen knife. Leaning forward she peered out through the windscreen of her car at the front of the block of flats. She’d been waiting for ten minutes, and nobody had tried to slip out of the communal entrance or the side gate that led to the garden at the rear of the property. Whoever had been messaging her was still inside.
Patel’s words echoed in her mind: he’s in your building.
The question was, where?
The block was made up of six flats, two on each of the three levels. If he’d been in one of the ground-floor flats, would he have had time to get out before she made it down the stairs? She was certain he wouldn’t. At the very least she’d have heard one of the flat doors closing or the communal entrance being opened. Grabbing the sharpest weapon she could find she’d charged from her flat, taking the stairs down two at a time; there was no way he could have escaped without her seeing or hearing something.
Which meant only one thing: he was still inside.
She’d thought about going door-to-door, but there was the risk he’d slip past somehow. As she craned her neck to see up to the top floor, the only lights visible were those that kept the hallways and stairs permanently lit in case of emergencies. Presumably the other residents were all asleep.
Trish had mentioned last night that she was going to be away for a couple of days visiting her sister, so he was unlikely to be in her flat. But then again, if he’d broken in, he could be in any of the remaining five dwellings. She really should have called her colleagues on the night shift and demanded they search every nook and cranny, but to do so would be to admit that she’d allowed someone like that to get close enough to antagonise her, and she didn’t want any more whispering behind her back.
She jumped at a bang on her window.
Two eyes stared back at her from the darkness and she raised the knife, ready to drive it into whoever it was the moment they tried to open her door. But then she blinked and her mind registered the familiar eyes staring back at her. Exhaling with relief, she lowered the knife and then the window. ‘Patel. Thank God.’
‘Ma’am, any sign of him yet?’
She shook her head. ‘I’ve been watching the building since we ended the call. You got here quickly.’
‘The roads were dead at this time of night. How do you want to do this?’
She got out of the car, tightening the band around her dressing gown and blushing slightly when she realised her subordinate had now seen her in her nightwear. ‘Not a word of this to anyone, is that clear?’
He offered his hands in surrender, with a hint of a smile. ‘Promise.’
Satisfied, she locked the car, and gripped a torch with her free hand. ‘Have you got your ID with you?’
He removed the wallet from his trouser pocket and showed it to her.
‘Good, I left mine upstairs. I haven’t seen him come out, so whoever was messaging me has to be in there still. I think we need to split up. I’ll wait by the entrance, in case he tries to leave, and you should knock on each door.’
He frowned. ‘With respect, ma’am, I don’t know who lives in these flats and whether the person who answers the door belongs there. Can I make an alternative suggestion?’
She nodded for him to continue.
‘We both visit the ground-floor flats first. I can show my ID so they know I’m genuine, and you can see if anyone looks out of place. Once we’re satisfied that he isn’t in either of those, we move to the next floor and do the same, but you hang back by the staircase. You’ll still be able to see the face of whoever opens the door, but you’ll also be in a position to stop anyone charging down from the top floor.’
She nodded in agreement and unlocked the communal entrance to let them both through, taking up position mid-way between the front doors of each of the ground floor flats. Patel pressed the doorbell of the first flat.
At first there was no sound or movement, but three more presses and a light went on from inside.
An angry-looking man opened the door a fraction and peered out. ‘What d’you want?’
Patel held up his identification. ‘I’m sorry to disturb you, sir. I’m DS Patel from Southampton police. One of your neighbours,’ he leaned back so the man could see Kate, who offered a wave, ‘believes there may be an intruder inside the building. I just want to check that you haven’t
seen or heard anyone strange tonight.’
He seemed surprised by the question. ‘No… I don’t know. I was in bed asleep.’
‘Of course, sir, and I’m sorry to have woken you. Would you mind if I came in and quickly looked around? We believe the intruder may have gained access to one of the flats, so it’ll only take me thirty seconds to—’
‘You want to search my flat?’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘You have a warrant?’
Patel sighed. ‘No, sir. I don’t want to search your possessions, I only want to ensure that the intruder hasn’t gained access to your flat and is hiding in there. It’s for your protection more than anything else.’
‘How do I know that ID is genuine?’
Kate stepped forward. ‘It’s Mr Georgeson, isn’t it? I don’t know if you remember me. I’m Kate Matthews from flat three upstairs. DS Patel here is one of my colleagues. If you’d prefer it, could I maybe come in and have a look around? It won’t take long. Please?’
He eyed the knife in her hand.
‘Oh no, don’t worry about this.’ She lowered it to the ground. ‘I was… cooking.’
But it was too late. He closed the door, and they heard the sound of a safety chain being slid into place.
‘Leave him, Patel. I don’t even think he has a computer in his place, let alone the Internet. We’ll try flat two. This time, you watch the stairs, and I’ll knock on the door. And do me a favour: hide that knife somewhere they can’t see.’
Cursory glances in flats two, four, and six proved unsuccessful and were greeted with anger and confusion and threats of complaint. Finally, they reached Trish’s flat.
Kate paused for a breath. ‘I know the woman who lives here and she’s away. There’s no sign of damage to the front door. So where the hell is he?’
Patel thought for a moment. ‘There is one other possibility, ma’am.’ Without another word, he tore off down the stairs.
Kate did her best to keep up with him, but in slippers, it wasn’t so easy. She found him standing out on the main road. ‘What are we doing here?’
He slapped his hand on the top of the green junction box. ‘This is where the main telephone lines come before being routed out to each of the properties in this section of the street. Your Internet and telephone signal feeds from here.’ He removed a small pair of pliers from his jacket pocket and began to fiddle with the locking mechanism. The two doors opened a moment later. ‘Can you shine your torch in?’
She obliged. ‘What are you looking for?’
‘I’m not sure, but I’ll know when I find it.’
Kate waved the beam of light around the complex map of tiny cables. It was like looking at a maze of spaghetti and trying to find which two ends were part of the same strand.
He reached forward. ‘Here we go.’
Kate leaned closer with the torch as Patel pointed out a small white box, the size of a packet of matches. A green LED was glowing at one end. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s a PWN switch. Hackers use them to access networks to steal passcodes and information. It’s very, very cool.’ He apologised when he saw her face. ‘Okay, imagine you’re holding… I don’t know… you’re holding a long black pipe. Right? So, you’re at one end and you shine a torch down it. Whoever is at the opposite end will see the beam of light. With me so far?’
She frowned. ‘I guess, but why would I be shining a torch into a pipe?’
‘The why doesn’t matter, you just are. Okay, let’s say I drill a hole halfway along the pipe, and attach a new pipe that goes from me to the hole I’ve just drilled. And let’s say I attach a couple of mirrors in your piece of pipe, allowing me to see and absorb your beam of light.’
‘Just tell me what that bloody thing is.’
‘It’s the second pipe and mirror. Basically, this little gadget here allows your stalker to see everything you do online. He is piggybacking your Internet and viewing everything. But the beauty of this device is, he can send messages back to you too. That’s why when I ran the trace it said the signal was coming from within your building. To all intents and purposes, he was inside your network.’
‘So, he didn’t need to be physically inside the building?’
‘No. This thing sends the signal wirelessly to wherever he is located. I’d estimate it has a range of maybe five hundred metres, so whoever was messaging you is somewhere inside a half mile radius.’
‘So, he could be anywhere then.’
‘Well, yeah. The nearer he is the quicker he’d see the information.’
‘Would he have to be connected to a wired network to access it?’
‘That’s what makes this device so smart: he could access it with a wireless signal.’
‘He could have been parked in any of the neighbouring streets, and now have driven off?’
The smile left Patel’s face. ‘Yeah, afraid so.’
Kate cursed under her breath. ‘Are you going to remove that thing?’
‘It would be best to leave it for now. I’ll speak with the tech boys first thing and get them to come down here. It might have a trace of DNA that would help your search. They may also be able to reverse the signal and pinpoint where he was when he was messaging you. It’s a long shot, but worth a try.’
‘And what if he comes back and removes it before the morning? No, I don’t want to wait that long. Find a number for one of the tech boys and get him down here now.’
‘Ma’am, it’s gone eleven.’
‘I don’t care, just do it.’
Patel nodded and stepped away to make the call as Kate stared into the darkness, wondering exactly who the stalker was and trying to ignore the uneasy feeling that she hadn’t heard the last of him.
She looked back at the flats and gasped, wide-eyed. ‘Chloe!’
Without a second’s thought, she raced back towards the flats, haring up the stairs through the front door and into the spare room. Her heart skipped a beat as she stared down at the sofa bed, panting.
Chloe’s eyes opened from the commotion.
Kate blinked rapidly. ‘It’s—it’s okay, sweetie. You go back to sleep…’
She slowly backed out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her, before sliding down to the floor, burying her face in her hands.
20
THURSDAY
‘Chloe, we’re running late. You need to get up and dressed quickly, please,’ she called out again on her way to the bathroom.
Kate hadn’t showered in two days, and she was pretty certain that if she didn’t give her hair a proper wash, rather than relying on dry shampoo, someone in the office was going to notice, assuming a room full of detectives hadn’t already.
She pulled the shower curtain back, adjusted the temperature and turned on the taps, meanwhile giving her teeth a two-minute blast with the electric toothbrush the hygienist had insisted she buy at her last check-up. She placed the toothbrush back on the charging spike and stepped behind the shower curtain, almost screaming as the blast of ice cold water hit her.
She squealed and adjusted the temperature knob again, but no matter how much she turned it, the water didn’t warm. By now, her hair was wet around the edges, so she had little choice but to proceed, dunking her head into the cold spray and holding it there while squeezing a large quantity of 2-in-1 into her hand. She managed to remain until the last of the bubbles had seeped into the plughole, before diving out and quickly wrapping herself in a towel for warmth.
Her teeth were chattering as she stepped out of the bathroom, and called out a third time. ‘Chloe, we’re going to be late. Get up and dressed now, please.’
She usually listened to the local radio news while getting dressed, but today her only focus was the single task of getting out of the house within the next ten minutes. She chose a fresh blouse and trouser suit from the wardrobe, dressed, and was outside Chloe’s door in five. She rapped on the door, before entering.
Chloe was still snuggled under the duvet.
‘Out of bed now, please. Come on, I need to get you to Mrs Gillespie’s.’
She’d picked the first name on the list of professional childminders Rob had left in Chloe’s satchel. The shrill woman hadn’t welcomed the call late last night, but had eventually agreed to watch Chloe for the day.
‘I don’t want to go. Can’t we stay here today?’
‘I would love that more than anything, but no. I have an important job to do. I have baddies to catch. Now, come on, put on the clothes you wore yesterday, and I’ll go and make you some breakfast. What do you want?’
‘I don’t feel very well.’
Kate glanced at her watch. ‘No, Chloe, please.’
‘I feel sick.’ Kate stepped into the room and rested a hand on Chloe’s forehead; it felt warm, but then so did everything else after that shower. ‘Please, darling, get dressed, and I promise we’ll do something fun when I get home later. Okay?’
Chloe conceded and shuffled off to her room.
In the cupboard, she searched for anything she could feed Chloe, studying the box of muesli before dismissing it and reaching for the loaf of bread in the bread bin. The slice she pulled out had a speck of mould on the crust, which she pulled off before buttering and spreading with jam.
She lowered the knife and looked out of the window. The clouds overhead left the road looking cold and miserable; it was hard not to imagine what Chloe would have been doing now if she was at home with Rob in Oxford. Serena probably would have cooked a full and carefully balanced meal for them both, while planning a day of exciting activities for Chloe to enjoy.
She sighed and carried the sandwich through to Chloe’s room, relieved to see her reluctantly pulling on trousers. ‘I made you a jam sandwich. I hope that’s okay? We can take a trip to the supermarket later and pick up some bits and pieces that you like.’
Chloe continued to dress in silence, while Kate checked her phone. She’d missed several calls from the supe already. The tech boys who’d removed the transmitter from the junction box had probably complained about being dragged out so late at night. The last thing she needed was another ticking off, but some things couldn’t be avoided. It could wait for now, though.
Dead to Me: A serial killer thriller (Detective Kate Matthews Crime Thriller Series Book 1) Page 8
