by Liz Shoaf
He did. On several of his big cases in Chicago, he’d been under scrutiny from the public and the media, but he’d ignored them and done the job. Some investigators were pushed into getting a conviction as quickly as possible and mistakes were made along the way.
“I need to see the video before we go any further.”
“What kind of system do you have here at the station? I had to leave my laptop and smart phone behind because they could be tracked and I didn’t want to wipe the hard drive. The FBI guy said my laptop was missing when they found the body in my apartment.”
“How do you know this FBI guy, and what made him notice your laptop was missing?”
Her thumbnail flew to her mouth, but her hand stopped midair, and she slowly laid it back on her thigh.
Gotcha.
EIGHT
Chloe was expending way too much energy trying to stay one step ahead of Ethan.
“He’s an acquaintance. I presume the killer removed my laptop under the assumption that I might have recorded the murder.”
His chair creaked when he leaned back. It reminded her of the way Stan’s chair had sounded when she was a scared, rebellious sixteen-year-old, sitting in a hard chair in front of his desk while he grilled her about the hacking job she’d done on the bank’s computer system.
She reminded herself that she was an upstanding citizen now and she didn’t have to take any guff from Sheriff Hoyt.
“You didn’t answer my question. Exactly how are you acquainted with this FBI agent?”
“That information isn’t instrumental to the case,” she deadpanned.
He gave her a hard stare. “Fine. I don’t know what kind of computer system we have. How are you going to show me the video on my computer?”
Chloe relaxed. This was her area of expertise. “As I said earlier, I store everything in a secure hybrid cloud, protected by a virtual firewall. I also have detective control. That means when I access my cloud, I will be notified if anyone has slipped in the back door and retrieved my information.”
A dark brow lifted over one piercing green eye. “I’ll take your word for it.”
He opened the laptop sitting on his desk and slid it toward her. She cracked her knuckles before placing her fingers on the keyboard. Ethan grunted at her antics, but she ignored him.
“Okay, your operating system is Windows 10.” She tapped the keys rapidly. “I see you’re on a multiuser system?”
She looked up and caught the blank look on his face. She got that a lot from people who had only basic computer skills. “You’re connected to other computers here at the station?”
He nodded, and she smiled to herself. The good sheriff was used to being in full control, and his lack of computer knowledge didn’t seem to sit well with him.
“I’m checking to make sure no one has slipped in the back door and messed with my stuff.”
Chloe blew out a sigh of relief. “I’m accessing my cloud and no one has hacked in. Both videos should be safely stored, but just in case, do you have a thumb drive I can back everything up on?”
He pulled a drawer open and handed her a thumb drive. Chloe checked the storage data. “This should work.” She stuck it into a USB port and hit the download button.
“It should only take a few minutes to—” Chloe sat straight up in her chair and her fingers frantically hit the keyboard. “Oh no, you don’t, you slimy toad. You’re not stealing a copy of my files.”
“What? What’s going on?”
Ethan’s voice barely penetrated her brain. “Be quiet! I need to concentrate.”
Chloe was in the heat of a cyber battle with an unknown. It didn’t take but a few seconds to realize the person who had followed her through the door she opened to her cloud wasn’t deleting her information, just copying it. But why? And how?
She used every trick she knew—and she knew almost all of them—to stop the person, but nothing worked. Whoever was in her system was just as computer savvy as she was, maybe even more so, and that was very impressive. The download and copy was completed simultaneously and she went on the attack. “Come on, come on, come on.” She chased the worm back through the system and was able to attach a worm of her own before it disappeared into cyberspace.
She flopped back in her chair and stared at her computer screen. Unbelievable. No one ever got the drop on her. She was that good. It wasn’t bragging, it was just fact.
“What happened?”
It took Chloe a few seconds to refocus. “Someone piggybacked me into my cloud and copied my files.” She looked up. “That means someone else out there has a copy of the murder video.”
“Will the person who stole your computer have a copy, too?” Ethan asked.
“Let’s just say I have good security on my computer. It’s possible, but highly unlikely.”
“So what about the person piggybacking in your cloud?”
She gave him a saucy grin. “I tagged his tail. Let’s see if we can find our little thief.”
She downloaded a program, put in her password and opened it up. Within seconds a screen popped up and she watched her worm traveling across a map of the United States, then it went international. She released a long whistle.
“Whoever slipped into my cloud is good. Better than good.”
“You sound impressed,” Ethan said from across the desk.
Her eyes stayed on the screen as her worm hit server after server. “I am. Not many people in the world could have accomplished what this person is doing. I’ve matched computer skills with the best, and no one has come close to this person.”
Chloe wanted to kick herself for accidentally revealing that little piece of information. She didn’t expect Ethan to miss her slip and he didn’t let her down, but she really wished he would have.
“And where did you match computer skills with all these people?”
She looked him in the eye and fell back on her old standby. “That’s not relevant to the investigation.”
Ethan closed his eyes. She didn’t doubt it was in frustration, but she didn’t care to reveal her life story to the man.
“When am I going to see the video?” Yep, Ethan definitely had a little frustration thing going.
She checked the path of the worm and scooted to the edge of her seat, shocked at what she was seeing. “Ethan, do you know of any computer whizzes who live in Jackson Hole? Because the tracker I placed on the worm is headed straight back here. Unless...”
“Unless?”
She looked up. “Unless this person is so good they’re sending my worm back to me.” She slid the laptop sideways so he could watch. The red dot had returned to the United States and was making its way back to Wyoming. Although it didn’t return to her computer, it finally stopped at a place not far from them. Chloe enlarged the map and pointed at the stationary blinking red dot.
“The person who slipped into my cloud is there, at least their computer is there. Of course, this could have been done remotely.”
Ethan leaned forward and stared at the map. “Well, I’ll be. That’s Ned’s mountain.”
“Who’s Ned and what do you know about him?”
His furrowed brows indicated he wasn’t happy with the situation.
“Ned showed up in Jackson Hole about three years ago, bought a mountain a mile or so from here and built a cabin. He comes into town for supplies and that’s about the only time anyone ever sees him.”
“I can run a search. What’s his last name?”
The wrinkles between his eyebrows scrunched up even more and Chloe almost laughed. The sheriff wasn’t a happy camper.
“I don’t know his last name. He’s never caused any trouble and keeps to himself. On occasion he even finds lost hikers in the mountains and brings them back to town.”
“Do you know the address on the mountain?”
“No.”
“No problem. I’ll check the records at the courthouse and see who purchased the property.”
“Fine, go ahead, and then I want to see that video.”
She pulled up the Jackson Hole courthouse website, and Ethan gave her the name of the road leading up Ned’s mountain. He didn’t know the street number, but when she looked at the records, it didn’t matter. The land mass was huge and there was only one name on record on that road. She laughed.
“What’s so funny?” And didn’t the sheriff sound grumpy.
“Well?” Impatience had edged into his voice and Chloe bit back a grin.
“The person—or company, I should say—recorded as buying Ned’s mountain is RBTL.”
“That makes no sense. Don’t they have to give their full names to buy property? And what does RBTL stand for?”
Chloe’s lips curled at the edges. “It’s ingenious, really. In computer slang, RBTL stands for ‘Read Between the Lines.’”
* * *
Ethan absorbed this new piece of information. Ned had never broken the law or given Ethan cause to look into his life, but now they needed to have a little chat. He wasn’t sure if Ned had broken any laws, but then again he didn’t understand computers.
He looked at Chloe. “How did Ned, or this person, follow you into your cloud?”
Pulling the laptop closer to her, she started typing at an impressive speed. A few minutes later she looked up and her dimples appeared when she smiled. “Good thinking, Ethan. Ned, or whoever is on the mountain, planted a worm at some point so the police station’s computers could be monitored.” She grinned even wider. “Ned, or someone, has access to everything coming into the station via computer. That’s against the law, you know.”
Horror filled him at the thought of someone spying on police business. Maybe it was time he found out more about Ned.
It also seemed to him that Miss Spencer knew an awful lot about the law. “Yes, it is.”
She frowned, and he got a bad feeling. “What now?”
“Well, it’s possible that someone else routed everything through Ned’s computer so it would appear to come from his server.”
Ethan felt a headache coming on. Give him a solid homicide any day over this computer mess. He knew how to work email, and get on the police sites, but anything more than that was beyond his capabilities.
“Let’s take a look at the video, then I’ll pay a call on Ned before we go any further.”
“We’ll pay a call.”
“What?”
“You said it yourself. You don’t know squat about computers. You might need my help.”
The tiny hammers working at his temples increased in rhythm.
“Fine, you can accompany me to Ned’s. Pull up the video. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Ethan wasn’t really worried about Chloe going with him up the mountain. From the small amount of time he’d been around the mountain man, he had never sensed any bad vibes. The guy just wanted his privacy. But then again, if Ned was actually spying on the police station’s computers, that would change things.
Chloe did some fast typing on the laptop and turned it around for him to see. Neither one of them said a word as he watched it in its entirety. He also watched the second video where Chloe taped herself. When it ended, he leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers.
“Well?”
Her voice held anxiety. He didn’t know if she was telling him everything, and she was a computer expert. He wasn’t, but he was a quick learner and he had picked up some things in the last few minutes.
“Could your computer have recorded this remotely?” The person threatening Chloe on the video was a man, but he knew pictures and videos could be doctored.
She snarled, sounding a little bit like her poodle, tapped a series of keys on the laptop and pointed at the screen. “That’s why I record myself. You can see my apartment in the background, so the location of the device can be verified. See the clock on the wall behind me? I placed it there for a reason. The second hand is moving, proving I’m at that location, present tense. In my line of business, it pays to protect myself.”
Ethan bit back a grin. The anxiousness in her voice had been replaced by righteous indignation. He believed her, but he tried to reason with her one more time. “I still don’t understand why you don’t want to go to the police or FBI, and who is Stan? The killer mentioned him in the video.”
She shrugged. “He’s just someone I know, and you’re forgetting about the body being found in my apartment, even though they know Peter Norris wasn’t killed there.” She lifted a defiant chin. “Are you sticking to the deal, or not?”
Ethan sighed. She’d run if he didn’t do it her way—and probably get herself killed in the process.
“I’m sticking to the deal.” He stood and grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair. “Come on, let’s pay a visit to Ned, and then we’ll swing by the school and pick up Penny.”
Instead of exiting at the front of the station, Ethan led Chloe from his office, down the hall and out the back door.
“What are we doing back here?”
Ethan pointed at a red Jeep parked in the rear entrance along with two other cars. “We’re taking my personal vehicle. It’s better suited to mountainous roads and terrain. I keep it here for these types of occasions.”
She grinned. “That’s a cool ride. Not as nice as my Harley, but a close second.”
Ethan shook his head as they climbed in. Chloe was in a class of her own, but he did like her spunk.
The engine roared to life and he pulled out of the parking lot and into the street. “It shouldn’t take over thirty minutes to get there.”
She grunted a response and he glanced at her profile while she stared out the window. What was it about this woman that intrigued him? She was the complete opposite of Sherri. She was feisty with a healthy dose of self-confidence.
Not that he would do anything about the temporary attraction. He had a daughter to raise, and he hadn’t done the best job of being a husband the first time around. Plus, Chloe Spencer had secrets.
Ethan looked ahead through the car window. He always felt like a speck of dirt under the towering old-growth pine trees when he visited one of the mountains in the area. He also felt God’s presence more vividly in the wilderness.
Chloe’s rear bounced off the seat and she mumbled something under her breath when he hit a particularly deep rut.
“You call this a road? It looks more like a ravine to me.”
Ethan grinned. “I guess a city girl like yourself isn’t used to roughing it.”
She snorted. “I know all about roughing it. You’d be surprised at some of the places I’ve been to.”
He jumped on that opening. “Tell me.”
He glanced at her and felt bad at seeing the blood drain from her face, and then she shrugged.
“You have my real name now and can find out anything you want to know.” She looked at the passing scenery. “I grew up in North Carolina. My parents were missionaries and were killed on the mission field. I was ten at the time. I spent six years in an orphanage before I found a home. End of story.”
The Jeep hit another rut and he almost lost control of the vehicle. After using brute strength to guide the Jeep back onto the road, he thought about what Chloe had said—and hadn’t said. There was anger mixed with frustration and a deep hurt she tried to hide during the short, nonchalant recap of her life. Was it her parents’ deaths on the mission field that caused her to ask if he believed in God? Had she lost her faith?
The cabin came into view and he tabled his thoughts. He could process this new information about Chloe later. Right now he needed to interview Ned. He unbuckled his seat belt.
“Stay in the car while I approach the cabin.”
She chuckled. “Unsure of
your welcome?”
The woman was sassy. “Just stay put while I check things out.”
She threw up her hands. “Fine, I’ll play the little woman and hide out in the car.”
Ethan chuckled. He couldn’t help himself, and he was smiling when he opened the door. He noticed his bootlace was untied and bent down to tie it just as a bullet whizzed over the top of his head. He jerked upright and twisted back into the seat, slamming the door behind him. “Get down! Get down!”
NINE
Chloe bent over, her head almost in her lap. “Was that what I think it was?” She couldn’t believe someone had gotten the drop on them again. “This is starting to tick me off.”
Ethan turned his head, a look of absolute disbelief written on his face. “Is that all you have to say? What kind of a life have you led that someone shooting at you doesn’t upset you?” He shook his head. “Never mind. We have to get into the cabin. I’m going to start the engine and drive as close to the porch as I can. I think the bullet came from above us and to the left. The porch is on the opposite side. We should be safe enough.”
Chloe ignored his outburst and grabbed her door handle as Ethan peeked over the steering wheel and drove the Jeep right up to the porch steps and cut the engine. He pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket.
“Okay, you go first. Open the door and run. We’re on the side away from the shooter, but I’ll cover you.”
“What if the door is locked?”
“I was up here once before to check on Ned during a blizzard. He doesn’t have a lock on his door.”
She shot him a saucy grin and he frowned. She enjoyed keeping him off balance. “Okay, here we go.” Chloe took a deep breath, flung the car door wide, ran up two steps and pulled the front door open. Placing her body behind the safety of the door, she peeked around the side and watched Ethan slide to the passenger seat and exit the passenger door. In seconds, he ran past her and slammed the door shut behind them.
“Stay away from the windows.”
“Duh, like I don’t have enough sense to do that.” He gave her a look similar to the ones he gave Penny when he was exasperated. She really didn’t mean to sound snarky, but his comment about her life ticked her off. She should apologize, but he moved through the cabin, checking the two rooms.
