by Mike Faricy
My phone rang before I could refocus the binoculars.
“Please hold for Mr. Baker.”
“Hello,” Royal said a moment later.
“Hi, Royal, Dev Haskell.”
“Yeah, any new developments, Dev? Did you get our man?”
“Yes and no. I didn’t see anyone, and Tony and Ashley informed me that I was fired last night.”
“What?”
I went on to explain the previous night’s events. How the two of them were possibly incapable of following the simplest of plans. I mentioned Tony’s confrontational nature and Ashley’s rather unprofessional attitude, although I wasn’t quite sure, given her line of work, that unprofessional was the word.
“I’m sorry to hear all this, Dev. And you didn’t see anyone fitting the bill. No guy following her, maybe lurking in the bushes or the lobby?”
“No, sorry, nothing like that, Royal. But, to tell the truth, they both seemed oblivious to any sense of security. And Ashley’s entry from the time she stepped out of the car until the elevator doors closed and brought her up to I think it was the sixth floor, we’re only talking a minute, maybe a minute-and-half. With any luck, your guy wasn’t around. Who knows? Maybe your security sweeps have finally done the trick.”
“We’ll see, for the time being, let me smooth things over with the two of them. Tony can be difficult, but he’s got Ashley’s best interests at heart. And Ashley is nothing if not headstrong, but the poor thing has been under a lot of stress lately with all of this.”
“Well, keep me posted. In the meantime, if you could email me your list of disgruntled former employees I’ll be doing some research in that area.”
“It sounds as though that may just be our best bet, at least at this point. I’ll have Marilynn email the list to you this morning. Let’s stay in touch,” Royal said and hung up. It wasn’t ten minutes later when the list arrived in my email.
Chapter Twenty-One
Royal’s list of disgruntled employees was less than I had hoped for, a lot less. There were just three names on the thing. One guy was located in India, another in the Philippines, and the third was in Denver. Maybe I was missing something, but at least on the surface they didn’t seem to be very likely suspects to be following an escort around St. Paul and taking photographs.
The list had contact information, including phone numbers. I attempted to phone the guy in India first. It took me three tries, but I finally got through or at least it was ringing.
“Hello?”
“Hello, I’m calling from the United States, I’d like to speak with Chetan, please.”
“What is this in regard, to?” he asked. His accent was heavy and I had to focus to understand what he was saying.
“Is this Chetan?”
“Indeed it is.”
That seemed good enough for me, if the guy was at home in India he wasn’t taking pictures of someone in St. Paul. “Thank you,” I said and hung up. I had the same result with my call to the Philippines, although the guy I called, Nick Santos, sounded a lot crabbier. Then again, I’d called at a quarter to one in the morning, his time, so I had probably gotten him out of a sound sleep.
The Denver call went to a guy named Mickey Cray. After the crabby response I’d gotten from the Philippines, I checked the time difference first, just an hour behind. I dialed and a recording came on the line, “This call may be recorded.” Then the phone rang and a woman answered on the third ring.
“Hello,” she sounded nice, even with just the one word.
“Hi, I’m calling for Mickey Cray.”
“Speaking,” she replied.
That caught me off guard. “Oh, Ms. Cray, I’m sorry to bother you. I received your name from a friend of mine, actually. Do you work with computers, website design that sort of thing?”
“I’m a programmer, if that’s what you mean. I’m sorry, I don’t believe I caught your name.”
“My name is Haskell, Dev Haskell. I received your name from a friend of mine and….”
“A friend? You’re calling from a six-five-one area code, isn’t that Minnesota?” she asked as the sweetness vanished from her voice.
“Why, yes, it is, I hope I haven’t called too early, I….”
“Who gave you my name?”
“Mr. Baker,” I said wishing I could take those last two words back even before she exploded and I felt the heat coming through the phone.
“Baker, you mean that bastard, Royal Baker? What? My restraining order and the lawsuit didn’t get his attention. So, now he’s got you doing his dirty work. Let me tell you something, Mr. Hackle, I’m reporting you to my attorney and he’ll be in touch with your local police. I’ve captured your number on my cell and for your information all my calls are recorded. You can join your good friend, Mr. Baker in the lawsuit. How does that sound?”
“Nice talking to you,” I said and hung up.
“What the hell was that?” Louie asked looking up from a file. “I could hear her screaming all the way over here.”
“Apparently not a real big fan of Royal Baker.”
“Why were you calling her?”
“Baker emailed me a list of disgruntled former employees.”
“I’d say that pretty much fits the description of that last woman.”
“Yeah, anyway, they’re all out of town, two of the three are out of the US. I figured if I called them, and they answered then they couldn’t be the guy taking the photos of Ashley and posting them. That last witch was in Denver.”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
“Kidding? No, why?”
“Dev, didn’t that last woman just scream at you that she’s got your number on her cell?”
“Yeah.”
“So, even though she lives in Denver, she could have been out in front of the building here and she would be able to answer her cellphone. All your call did, other than piss her off, was maybe confirm her phone number, but not where she’s located right now.”
It suddenly seemed so obvious. I sort of did a half glance out the window just to see if there was some woman looking really mad pacing out on the street. Fortunately my phone rang before Louie had a chance to point out any further flaws in my logic.
“Haskell Investigations.”
“Dev, Andy.”
“Hi, Andy, how are things?”
“Well, if you mean are we missing anything else, the answer is a qualified ‘no,’ at least nothing we’re aware of at this point.”
“I’ll take that as good news. What can I do for you?”
“Milo drew a blank on reviewing those security tapes. The good news is there seemed to be no activity, then again the bad news is just that, there seemed to be no activity. What did you come up with wandering around?”
“Nothing, really, other than you’re a lot busier back there than I ever imagined.” My phone beeped signaling another call coming in. “Can I call you back, Andy. I’ve got a call coming in I have to take, probably be back to you in about five minutes.”
“Later,” Andy said and hung up.
“Haskell Investigations.”
“Hold for a call from Mr. Baker,” Marilynn said and then the phone rang, Royal picked up halfway through the first ring.
“Dev?”
“Hi, Royal, what’s up?”
“What’s up is the two images I just had Marilynn email to you. They’ve been purged from our sites, but they were definitely taken last night. It’s the same outfit Ashley was wearing and she’s not the sort of woman to wear the same outfit twice.”
I wondered how Royal knew what Ashley had on last night, but didn’t go there. “I’m going to my email right now, give me a few seconds here, Royal. Say while we’re waiting can you give me any info on the disgruntled list? Anything I should know about?”
“You mean is one of them our stalker. Honestly, any of them could be. I’ve never met Santos, the guy from the Philippine’s, although from all reports he’s brilliant. Chetan, the Indian, the
same. Both geniuses, but greedy and it would be just like them to attack someone like Ashley in an effort to get back at me.”
“If they’re the geniuses you say they are, wouldn’t it be more true to form for them to plant a virus or something on your site. Something that might cripple your entire operation, shut the thing down. It would seem to me that would be a bigger danger than just posting photos of Ashley, pain in the ass that it is.”
“Well, just wait until you see these latest two.”
I noticed Royal didn’t mention Mickey Cray and I didn’t say anything. “I’m just downloading your images now. Give me a minute, here’s the first one coming up.”
The image that spread across my screen was Ashley, all right. She was sticking her tongue out, presumably at Tony although you really couldn’t see him. It was just before she’d slammed the car door and walked up to me on her way into the Gresham. So much for following my plan and getting dropped off at the front door.
I clicked on the second image and it filled my screen. It was Tony, well a view from the back of Tony. Ashley’s legs were wrapped around him and her head was over his shoulder and looking skyward. The two of them appeared to be engaged in a sexual act on the hood of Tony’s snarky blue car.
“Interesting. Well, there you go, Royal. I think I mentioned in the not too distant past that the two of them seemed to be oblivious to security. I guess a picture’s worth a thousand words, in this case two pictures. The shot with Ashley sticking her tongue out, that was when Tony couldn’t be bothered to drop her off at the front door of the Gresham, like we had agreed. The other shot, this one on the hood of the car, what are the odds someone might show up to claim one of those cars parked around them. Of course, what does that matter when you’ve got some guy with a camera right there to record it for history and send it around the world so everyone can see it?”
“I think we should probably all sit down and talk,” Royal said.
“I’m willing to do that, but in all honesty, until they start paying attention to what’s going on around them, I’m not sure it’s going to make much of a difference.”
“Could it hurt?” Royal asked.
Chapter Twenty-Two
I decided to swing past my place on the way over to Royal’s office. I wasn’t looking forward to sitting down with Tony and Ashley, in fact I was ready to tell Royal I quit and he could figure out another way of catching whoever was posting the pictures instead of wasting my time. On my way home, I put a call into Heidi just to give her a heads up that things weren’t going the best with Royal’s client, I ended up leaving a message.
I pulled into the open spot directly in front of my house. I stepped inside my front door and felt something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Everything seemed to be okay. I strolled through the first floor and out into my kitchen. Did I smell pizza? Maybe it was just the restaurant across the street getting ready for their noon business. The sink was wet, but there didn’t seem to be a dripping faucet. I cautiously walked upstairs with my ears perked for the slightest sound. My closet light was turned on, but maybe I’d left it that way. I certainly couldn’t recall. I thought again about the Copper Mountain golf shirt that Tommy Flaherty was wearing yesterday at Andy’s. With all the Ashley nonsense going on I’d forgotten about it for the moment.
My phone rang at that point, “Haskell Investigations.”
“Hi, Dev, returning your call,” Heidi said.
“Oh yeah, thanks for calling back,” I said then made my way back to the first floor. “Look, Heidi, I’m on my way to meet with Royal Baker and that client of his who was having the online harassment problems. I think I’m going to tell him I’m not the guy for the job and well, I just wanted to give you heads up. I don’t think this will screw up anything you might be working on, but just wanted to be sure.”
“All I’m working on is trying to show him a number of options. I haven’t gotten any further on that front than the last time we talked. What’s the problem is it too techy for you?”
“No, the problem is his client is a major pain in the ass. Well, she and her jackass boyfriend or whatever the guy is. To tell you the truth, I just don’t have the patience to put up with the attitude.”
“Gee, there’s a surprise, because you’re such a patient, understanding guy otherwise.”
“I knew you’d see it my way.”
“Believe me, I was just kidding, Dev, the last thing you are, is patient. Thanks for checking, but do whatever you want to do, I don’t have a problem with it.”
“Great, hey you doing anything tonight, free for dinner?”
“I could be, what did you have in mind?”
I wanted to say a chilled bottle of wine and Heidi’s bed, but settled for, “Nothing in particular. You pick the place and I’ll drive or I can bring something over, whatever you feel like.”
“I’ve got an end of day conference call and I would love to just kick back tonight. Would you settle for a late night dinner in my kitchen, say maybe eight, I’ll even pick it up if you want.”
Perfect. “Okay, you pick up dinner, but let me bring the wine. Prosecco to your liking?”
“Oh, God. I’d love it.”
Me too, I thought, the perfect end to a pain in the butt day. “I’ll see you around eight.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Marilynn descended in the private elevator then brought me up to Royal’s office. She seemed deep in thought and other than a brisk “Hello” she didn’t utter a word. Ashley had apparently been with Royal for a while and when he did answer the phone Marilynn then had to knock on his office door. He opened the door after a long moment. “Yes, Dev, come in, come in, thanks for making the time, Ashley is already here,” he said then stood off to the side so I could enter.
Ashley was half stretched out on the couch in a rather unlady-like pose and ignored me as I entered. I detected a trace of powder beneath her nose as she sort of wiggled her shoulders back and forth then tugged her blouse down from either side of her waist in an effort to straighten it out and pull herself together. I noticed a couple of the small cushions from the couch had been knocked to the floor. Royal picked them up and casually tossed them back on the couch.
“Hi, Ashley, how’s it going?” I asked hoping to start things off on a more positive note.
“Are you kidding me? Didn’t you see my site? You completely missed him. He had all the time in the world to take those pictures, but since you had your head up your ass you let him get away.”
“I don’t know how much time he had, I’m sure he liked watching the two of you on the hood of Tony’s car, but that was after you fired me. And as for the shot of you sticking your tongue out, I suppose if you hadn’t sat there arguing with Tony, if you’d done like I asked, gotten out of the car at the front door, it could have been avoided. But, what the hell would I know? You obviously know better, things certainly seem to be working in your favor.”
“Royal, do something here,” she said.
“Dev, please have a seat. Let’s see if we can’t work together here and come up with a plan.”
“I just want this bastard caught and then castrated,” Ashley said then crossed her arms, put on a disgusted look and stared at the floor.
“Royal, any luck with your tech folks finding out how this guy is gaining access?”
Royal shook his head. “Thus far we’re unable to find any trace of an unwarranted intrusion.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, it has to be coming from within our system. What did you find out with our list of disgruntled employees?”
“I’m pretty sure you can eliminate them.”
“Oh, that’s just great. See, I told you he was absolutely worthless,” Ashley said then rolled her eyes.
Royal looked surprised and signaled a calming motion with his hand, then said, “What makes you so sure, Dev?”
“Well, for starters none of them were in town last night.”
“H
ow do you know that?” Ashley said, making it sound more like an accusation than a question.
“I talked to them,” I said and smiled sweetly. “Santos was in the Philippines, asleep. You’re friend Chetan was in India, getting ready for bed. And the always charming Ms. Cray was in Denver and threatened me with a lawsuit. No way any of them could have been here last night and taken those photos then made it back to Denver, let alone to the far side of the globe.”
“You don’t know that,” Ashley snapped.
“Well, just for starters, what time were you screwing on the hood of Tony’s car? It had to be close to one in the morning. Even if Ms. Cray grabbed a red-eye out of here this morning she wouldn’t be able to make it back to Denver and then post those images before I called. And even if she did.” I turned to face Royal. “I think you just stated your guys can’t detect any outside intrusion.”
“Actually, I think the term I used was unwarranted.”
“Okay, unwarranted, but it’s still the same. Say one of these folks had someone local taking those photos, then what? Send them to their computer or iPhone so they could somehow get past your security, undetected? I suppose it’s possible, but it’s a pretty slim chance.”
“So what’s your great idea?” Ashley said.
“Well, for starters, I think you should probably confine your lovemaking to your own home or place of business, maybe take a pass on using the hood of a car in a parking ramp, at least for the time being.”
“Ahem,” Royal cleared his throat to get things back on track. “Do you have a suggestion, Dev?”
“Along with being able to post these images, whoever is involved obviously has access to Ashley’s appointment calendar. I have two suggestions, the first would be for you to establish some other method for Ashley to get appointments. It could be as simple as a phone call confirming.”
“That’s gonna screw me royally. I might as well go back to just stripping for tips.”
“The second thing I would recommend is setting up a fake appointment, using your normal procedure, and see if we can’t set a trap and capture this person.”
