course it is. All the computers in the office are
networked. But I'll be needing to refer to some of
these law books as well, so I thought it would be easier
to work in here—if it's any of your business.”
Nancy tensed. Had Blaine monitored their con-
versation with SEEK from her own computer earlier?
Could Blaine be SEEK? Was Blaine able to track
B&N's movements on-line? There was no way Nancy
could answer these questions. “Okay, Blaine,” she said.
“Good night.”
“See you later,” Blaine said, echoing SEEK's final
message to the girls.
The next morning Carson Drew was not at break-
fast. “He went in early,” Hannah Gruen told Nancy,
offering her a bowl of fresh fruit. “I think he has a
court appearance. I missed you last night,” she added.
“I got together with Bess again,” Nancy said, helping
herself to a banana. “She was teaching me about the
Internet. In fact, I'm going to ask Dad if she can help
with my work at the office.”
“I'd be surprised if you got a chance to see him,”
Hannah said. “I know that new Harris case is taking all
his time.”
“I don't see much of him,” Nancy said, looking at the
clock. “I've got to get going myself. I've got a lot of
work to do, too.” Nancy said good-bye to Hannah and
headed for the front door.
When she arrived at the office Nancy greeted Ms.
Hanson, then went straight to work in the library. After
about an hour she heard her father come in. Nancy
stood up and stretched. Then she left the library and
went to knock at her father's office door.
“Come in,” he called. Nancy entered and smiled at
her dad. His desk was piled high with folders and
papers. “Just got back from court,” he said wearily,
“and this is what greeted me. I thought the computer
was going to usher in the age of the paperless office,”
he went on. “But by the looks of my desk, you'd never
know it.”
“Dad, I need to talk to you,” Nancy said.
“You're not going to leave me, I hope,” her father
said seriously.
“Oh, no, Dad, not till the work is finished. What I
wanted to ask is if Bess could come in and help me.
The work is taking longer than I thought it would, and
I don't want to miss my sailing trip with George. If
Bess helped, we could finish twice as fast,” she
concluded. “Bess is really careful, and she's become a
computer whiz. You should have seen her last night.”
“That's fine, Nancy. I'm sure Bess will be a big help.
Blaine told me you two were in here late last night,”
Mr. Drew said. “She also said that you were on the
Internet. She seemed concerned that you might have
been careless and allowed a computer virus into our
system or an outsider access to our files.”
Nancy's eyes opened wide. “She gave us a start last
night because I thought the offices were empty. We'd
already turned out the lights in the law library when
Blaine opened the door. Believe me, we jumped! But
how could she know Bess and I had been on the
Internet? We just told her we were . . . wait a minute.”
Nancy thought furiously.
“What?” her father asked.
“As we were leaving, Blaine turned on the computer
Bess and I had been using,” Nancy said. “Do you think
she could track what we had done? We had changed
our screen name so no one would know we were
calling from here. How could she have known it was
us?”
“I don't know,” Mr. Drew said. “She told me Byron
Thomas is always going on-line as well, so I guess she
has some way of tracking our Internet use.” Byron!
thought Nancy. I wonder if he tracked me and Bess on-
line—or if Blaine's really the guilty one, and she's
trying to shift the suspicion onto Byron.
“Doesn't Byron have to go on-line to do all the
research she asks him to do?” Nancy asked aloud.
“I think Blaine's just trying to keep track of what
goes on,” Mr. Drew continued. “I explained that it
doesn't cost extra to have people on-line after office
hours, and that I was sure you and Bess were careful
not to compromise our computer security.”
“What computer security?” Nancy asked. “Dad,
everyone knows everyone else's password here. Your
files are available to everyone in the office.”
“We have to operate that way,” Mr. Drew explained.
“Sometimes I need Blaine to follow up on some work,
or Ms. Hanson to print out a file, or Byron or Henry to
do further research. They all have to be able to access
my files.”
He looked at Nancy. “You don't still think some
hacker is breaking into our system and E-mailing out
sensitive information, do you?”
“Something's going on, Dad,” Nancy said. “I'm sure
of it. I didn't tell you last night, but yesterday I called
those clients who had settled early. Three of them cut
me off, but Bob Jamison said someone had made him
settle. And he implied that the threat was connected to
information from your office, maybe from his old case
file.”
“This is serious, Nancy,” Mr. Drew said. “You should
have told me right away. I'd better call Bob, and—”
“Maybe you should wait a day or two,” Nancy said.
“He was pretty angry. I know this could really affect
you and your business, Dad, and I'm going to get to the
bottom of it. Bess and I are meeting with a computer
expert to see if he can help us track the E-mail that was
sent on the first day you received those cases.”
Nancy's father put his head in his hands. “Please
don't say anything yet,” Nancy went on. “I'll tell Bess
she can come help me tomorrow. I know you've got
your hands full with this Harris case, and I should get
back to work now.” Carson Drew smiled at his
daughter as she left his office.
At about noon Nancy decided to go out for a
sandwich. She walked to a nearby deli and ordered
tuna salad on a roll.
While she was waiting at the counter for her order,
she noticed Blaine Warner, seated in a booth with a
young man.
Nancy edged toward the far end of the take-out
counter, and pretended to examine the tray of Danish
pastries. She kept her back to the restaurant area so
Blaine couldn't recognize her.
Nancy listened intently over the din of the busy
restaurant. She thought she heard her father's name
mentioned, and then she overheard the words, “When
we were at Walker . . .”
Oh, Nancy said to herself, it's probably an old law
school classmate of hers. Then she stopped herself. I've
seen him before, though. In the elevator at Williams &
Brown. It's John Brown Junior, I'm sure of it. So, they
do know each other.
Jus
t then Nancy's order came up. Nancy was
frustrated that she couldn't overhear more of their
conversation, but she was unwilling to let Blaine know
she had seen her. Nancy took her sandwich and a can
of iced tea, and went back to the office.
Nancy returned to the library and sat down by her
computer to eat her sandwich. No sooner had she
opened the bag, when the door opened and Henry Yi
appeared.
“Take you out to lunch?” he asked, flashing her a
friendly grin.
“Thanks, I picked up a sandwich,” Nancy replied,
pointing to the brown bag on the table. “But let me ask
you something, Henry. We never got to finish our
conversation the other day.”
“Which one?” he asked, leaning toward her.
“The one about those recent cases that were settled
early,” Nancy went on. “Remember? We were in the
copy room and Blaine walked in on us. I really want to
know why you had that list of client names. The one I
found in the copy machine in your handwriting.” She
looked at Henry, waiting for his reply.
Henry's expression became serious, and in a low,
conspiratorial whisper, he confided in Nancy, “I think
someone may be stealing information and using it to
settle these cases early. But I can't tell you who I think
it is, until I have more evidence.”
Nancy was surprised that Henry was thinking along
the same lines she was. But she didn't want to let him
know that she, too, was investigating a possible crime.
She certainly wasn't going to tell him about the E-mail
log file, her research into the old criminal cases, her
phone calls to the frightened clients, or her seeing
Blaine and John Brown Jr. at the coffee shop . . . or her
suspicions of Henry himself.
“Really? How horrible,” Nancy said. “Have you told
my father about your suspicions?”
“Not yet,” Henry answered, still speaking softly. He
peered over his shoulder to make sure they were alone.
“I don't want to get anyone in trouble until I'm sure
who's behind it.”
“Please let me know as soon as your suspicions are
proved,” Nancy said, “and I'll go with you to see my
father about it.”
“That would be great,” Henry said with a smile.
This is a little too easy, Nancy thought. What was
Henry's real motivation, she wondered. To get ahead
with her father, to get closer to her, or to throw
suspicion off himself!
11. Hide and SEEK
At the end of the day, Nancy called Bess and told her
that her father had agreed that both of them could help
with the computer work.
“That's great, Nancy!” Bess exclaimed.
The two girls talked excitedly, anticipating the high-
tech “spy” conversation they were going to have with
the computer expert called SEEK, and what
sophisticated methods he would use to track E-mail
through Carson Drew's computer system.
“Let's meet at Art-Dot-Café, since we know where
that is,” Bess suggested. “Then we can walk over to the
Cyber Space together. I can't wait to meet this SEEK
guy. He sounds so romantic, telling us to bring a rose.”
Nancy could hear the excitement in her friend's voice.
“He's probably just some computer nerd,” Nancy
teased. “You've been reading too many romance
novels,” she added, laughing.
“Fine, Miss Detective,” Bess retorted, “just for that,
you bring the rose.”
“Okay, I will. See you later,” Nancy said with a
smile. Just as she hung up, Blaine Warner walked in.
“I'll be working late tonight, Nancy,” she said. “I
won't be going anywhere,” she added unnecessarily.
“Are you and your friend planning to play around on
the computers again?”
Nancy pursed her lips at Blaine's condescending
tone. “No,” she said, “I'm meeting Bess for coffee, and
she and I will be here tomorrow morning. My father
said she could come in and help clean out those old
files.”
“This Harris case is turning into a monster,” Blaine
went on. “Next week, we'll be bringing in extra legal
help, and we'll need all the computer terminals. I hope
you'll be done by then, so we'll have room for
everyone.”
“Well, with Bess's help, I should be able to finish up
in another day or two,” Nancy said. “Then I'll be out of
your way.”
She wondered about Blaine's motives for trying to
get her out of the office. Nancy left the library while
Blaine settled in at one of the computer terminals.
On her way downtown Nancy stopped and bought a
single red rose.
Bess was waiting for Nancy in the doorway to the
Art.Café. “Nancy,” she whispered excitedly, “isn't that
your poet guy—Byron what's-his-name?” She pointed
inside the café, where Byron was at a computer
terminal.
“He looks like he's getting ready to leave,” Nancy
said. “Let's go into the ladies' room so he doesn't see
us.”
The two girls slipped into the coffeehouse and made
their way to the ladies' room. They peered out from
behind the door while Byron paid his bill. When he
went into the men's room, they emerged from the
ladies' room and went into the main part of the café.
“Can you figure out what he was doing on the
computer?” Nancy asked.
“I don't know,” Bess said. “Let's take a look.” The
two girls sat down at the machine Byron had just used.
“Look,” Bess said. “He was just on-line with someone
at the Cyber Space, see? That's their IP address right
there.”
“Here he comes,” Nancy said. “Duck down behind
the computer screen so he can't see you.”
The two girls peered around the edge of the monitor
to see Byron leave the men's room and head out into
the street.
“Let's tail him,” Nancy said. “I want to find out
where he's going.”
“What about our date with SEEK at the Cyber
Space?” Bess asked.
“We've got plenty of time,” Nancy replied. “Let's
go.”
The two girls trailed Bryon about two blocks to a
small café in a rundown building on the waterfront.
The sign over the doorway read The Cyber Space Café.
Nancy and Bess exchanged a look, then entered behind
Byron.
The interior of the building was sleek and modern,
much to their surprise. The walls were exposed brick.
Pipes and other building materials had been left in
plain sight and painted a dazzling silver. Under the low
light, brilliant halogen spots illuminated the small
round marble-top tables. People, sitting alone and in
pairs, hunched over small laptop computers placed at
each seating area. On the stage in back, someone was
reciting poetry.
Nancy and Bess saw Byron
take a disk from his bag,
put it in one of the laptops, and begin to type.
“Do you think he could be SEEK?” Bess asked.
“He fits the description,” Nancy said. “Let's find
out.” After she and Bess walked over to his table,
Nancy dropped the rose across his keyboard.
“Hello, SEEK,” she said. “Fancy meeting you here.”
Byron jumped up. “Nancy! W-what are you doing
here!”
“I thought this was where you suggested we meet,”
she replied. “Didn't we speak on-line last night?”
“I—I didn't talk to you on-line last night,” he
replied. “I just came here a few minutes ago. I mean, I
just sent in a poem from the computers over at the Art-
Dot-Café, and they said I could come over and read it
onstage. Out loud and in person, you know? It's open-
mike night, see?” he said, gesturing to the person
reading poetry in the back of the performance space.
“You mean you aren't SEEK?” Bess said.
“I don't know what you mean,” Byron said to Bess.
“Is this some sort of joke?”
“Henry told me you were a poet,” Nancy inter-
rupted, “but I didn't know you were so serious about
it.”
“I am serious,” Byron admitted. “I'm only going to
law school to satisfy my parents, so I can support
myself in the future—after I pay off all my loans, that
is. What I really want to do is write poetry.”
“So when you go on-line, it's not to do legal
research?” Nancy asked.
“Not always,” Byron confessed. “Sometimes I use
the office Internet access to work on my Web page. I'm
finally beginning to get some serious attention in
underground publishing circles. Tonight's just open-
mike night,” he went on excitedly. “But if they like my
stuff, I can have my own reading on Friday. Maybe you
and your friend would like to come and hear me?”
“That sounds great,” Bess said.
“Let me know if you get it,” Nancy said. “You can E-
mail me the invitation,” she added with a grin.
“Meanwhile, if you're not SEEK, we're supposed to
be meeting someone else,” Bess said. She picked up
the rose Nancy had dropped on Byron's keyboard. “I
hope we haven't scared SEEK off. Come on, Nancy,
let's get our own table and see what happens.”
“See you later, Nancy. Nice to see you again, Bess,”
Byron said.
The two girls made their way to an empty table and
The E-Mail Mystery Page 8
