A Huge Mistake

by Laney Kay

  He looked irritated. “Unfortunately, it was an old, crappy flash drive and whatever information he tried to copy wasn’t recorded properly. Jerry Jeff is trying to recover some more information from the original, but unless he does, we still don’t know any specifics about what the program does.”

  They both sat there, lost in thought. Finally, Lola spoke. “Okay. Let’s just say that this is all the information we can get. Why would someone be willing to kill someone over a program that is intended to retrain the brain? There are already a ton of those programs out there, so what could this one do that would be so different?”

  Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. Let me show you what I found out today about your little buddy, Mitch.” He closed the file and opened another one. This one had “Mitch Willard” written across the top and showed an index below it with tabs beside each description.

  Lola smiled as she read the index out loud. “Lawsuits, bankruptcies, personal life, financial records. I’ll bet you found lots of interesting things here.”

  He laced his fingers behind his head, leaned back in his chair, and smirked. “You could say that. I found his hidden bank accounts.”

  Lola sat up straight and grabbed his arm. “Shut UP! You did not. No way. Everyone has looked for that money, over the years. The FBI, every local law enforcement agency, hell, even the DEA got involved once when he was suspected of stealing money from some drug guy.”

  He grinned as he grabbed the mouse and clicked on the financial records tab. A long list of several offshore accounts came up, each of them with anywhere from a few thousand to over a million dollars in them. She smacked his arm. “How in the hell did you find these?”

  He laughed at her disbelief. “Uh, hello, this is what I do. I investigate.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Yes, but that’s every cop’s job, and the FBI’s job, and not one agency was ever able to track this down. And you did it in one day.”

  He smirked. “And that, my friend, is the difference between working in the private sector versus the government. I was in the FBI for years, and it always drove me nuts that all of the different law enforcement agencies protect their information instead of sharing it. So, when my partner and I opened this business, we decided that we would find a way to use all of the information available to help protect our clients and our country. Jerry Jeff and I designed a program that basically uses data mining technology to access information from every database you can think of, local and federal law enforcement ones, banking, travel information, shopping information, hell, we can even access some of the commercial DNA registries. Any info you want, I can find it with the help of my buddy, Big Al.”

  She was intrigued. “Big Al?” Then her face screwed up as she got the reference. “Wait. Big Al. Isn’t that the name of the elephant that’s the Bama mascot?”

  He grinned. “Yep. Roll Tide. But that was actually just a happy coincidence.” He winked at her and she rolled her eyes. “Actually, Jerry Jeff and I started calling it that because all of the names that actually described what it did, sucked. The shortest title that best describes what it does is ‘Assimilating Law Enforcement Data using Artificial Intelligence,’ or ALEDAI, which is a shitty title, but the first letters were ‘A’ and ‘L’, so Al, then that became Big Al. I guess we could market it under ALEDAI.” He wrinkled his nose like something smelled bad. “But honestly, after 10 years in the Bureau, I have a special dislike for using acronyms.”

  “If you can’t use ‘Big Al,’ why not just use ‘Al?’ You know IBM’s big supercomputer is called ‘Watson.’ Al is short and sweet.”

  Jake nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. And Al is a lot more fun that ALEDAI, or whatever other stupid acronym we could come up with.” He laughed. “Let’s face it, no one’s going to care about the name. Everyone will be way too busy screaming about how we’re invading people’s privacy. I expect the first few years we’ll be the poster boys for the idea of weighing the rights of privacy against public safety.”

  Lola wrinkled her nose. “Unfortunately, I’m sure you’re right. That’s what lawyers do.” She was thinking rapidly. “I’m sure you’ve got plenty of lawyers lined up to fight this?”

  Jake shrugged. “Pretty much. Let’s face it. We are accessing a ton of data from all kinds of sources, including law enforcement, government, commercial, and private sources, and using that data to track people, to track money and resources, to detect crime patterns, to predict everything from recidivism rates to likely terrorist targets. There are plenty of things it can do that definitely skirt the line of violating individual privacy.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “Hmmm. Is it legal for you to be accessing and using this information, Mr. Morrow?” She put her hand on his thigh and slowly rubbed back and forth. “I’d hate for you to get into trouble.”

  He looked at her hand on his leg and his breath caught. He put his hand over hers, and slid it up a little higher. Her eyes widened and he could see the pulse in her neck jump. He leaned forward and kissed her just below her ear and smiled when he saw her skin break out in goosebumps under his lips. He whispered in her ear. “You don’t have to worry, Ms. Lola. It’s all perfectly legal. We do a lot of work for the government, and we all have top security clearances. We are specifically allowed access to various federal databases, and we’re in negotiations now to sell access to our program to several different federal law enforcement agencies. Different agencies will have different levels of access, but pretty soon, thanks to Big Al, following money trails and finding fugitives will get a whole lot easier for everyone.”

  Lola pulled away from him and sat back in her chair so she could see his face. Her brows drew together and she wrinkled her nose. “Wow. That’s a little concerning, Jake. The whole thing sounds a little big brother-ish, don’t you think?”

  He shrugged. “Sure. But let’s be realistic. Lots of the information we access is from public sources. You’d be amazed at how much of your personal information is out there just because of the websites you access, where you shop, where you bank. Commercial databases can help us hunt a person down just as much as law enforcement ones.

  Lola’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Can anyone can buy access to commercial databases?”

  “Sure. If you have enough money. That information is extremely valuable and big companies sell that stuff all the time to whoever wants to pay for it. Think about it. Every time those multipage privacy policies come up on a website, pretty much everyone just clicks ‘I accept’ and moves on. Nobody actually reads it so no one knows what they’re agreeing to.” He leaned forward and pulled up a popular shopping website, then clicked on the privacy policy. It was over ten pages long and he scrolled through them rapidly. “Look at all this. If you want to buy a pair of boots, you’re not reading all this shit, you’re clicking ‘I agree’ and ordering your boots.”

  Lola nodded. “That’s true. I’ve never read any of that stuff and I’m a lawyer.”

  Jake closed that window and turned back to face Lola. “If it makes you feel better, my partner and I both agree that we’re only selling to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. No commercial applications. I don’t mind helping to catch criminals and terrorists, but I’m not going to be involved in businesses hijacking private information for personal gain.”

  Lola rolled her eyes. “Come on Jake. Like the government has never used individual’s private information improperly before?”

  Jake ran both his hands through his hair, obviously frustrated. “Again, I understand we’re walking that line every time an investigation is started, and there are always going to be individuals that cross that line. I can’t help that. But I think the benefit outweighs the negatives when it comes to being able to stop crimes and stop terrorists. When you’re talking about organized crime and drug cartels and terrorists, do you realize how much you can do to fight them if you can track their money? This is a total game changer."

  Lola had spent several years prosecuting white colla
r crimes, and she knew exactly how important following the money could be in an investigation. She nodded. “You’re absolutely right. But I can’t help but be a little squeamish when you start talking about people’s private information being accessible like that.”

  “I’m not saying you’re wrong, and I’m not even saying I disagree. I just think that there is always going to be a tug of war between individual rights and public safety, and our program isn’t going to change whether people are going to do the right thing, or not. I think you’ll find that there will be a quick rush to establish what kind of searches require a court order or a search warrant, but it’ll all work out in the end.”

  Lola nodded her head. Hell, they could argue this all day. “Agreed. Okay, back to Mitch. So you and Big Al found his money, what else?”

  He clicked on one of the accounts. “Well, it looks like he might be back to his old tricks. There was a series of money transfers from DeLeon Labs to one of these accounts. So either he was stealing, which is most likely with his history, or he was being paid money for something other than his regular job.”

  Lola looked at the account and her brows drew together. “How do you know that?”

  He clicked on another account. “Here’s his regular bank account, and you can see his paychecks were directly deposited into his account twice a month, like clockwork.”

  “Okay, so what were these other deposits?”

  Jake shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe it was a project he was working on. Maybe he was stealing some every month. Maybe he was blackmailing someone in the company. I guess we’d have to talk to his boss to figure that out.”

  “Anything else?”

  Jake shook his head. “Not on here. Jerry Jeff was running tests on Big Al most of the day, so I only got to run a very quick check on Mr. DeLeon, and that was kind of interesting. He is the CEO and founder of DeLeon Labs and he actually started this company when he was in college. He’s from Florida, and while he was in college at Florida…” As a Bulldog fan, Lola involuntarily winced at the mention of the University of Florida and Jake laughed at her reaction, then he continued. “…He started this business. He began by importing a super strong sunscreen from Australia, then he got a degree in chemistry and then a PhD in biochemistry and started making his own. He got interested in skin care, then he somehow bought some patent that was about to expire for an opioid drug and found an offshore company to produce it. Supposedly, it is designed so it works a little differently than most opioids and you can take less of it and get the same effect.”

  Lola found that interesting. “Is that true? That could be pretty valuable if it is since everyone’s freaking out about the opioid epidemic.”

  Jake scanned the page. “Nope. No studies could duplicate the findings, so they couldn’t make the claim. It looks like now they’re in the process of trying to reformulate it so that they can extend the patent or get a new one, but there’s nothing definite at this point.” He flipped the page and continued reading. “It does look like the pain med is their biggest money maker, so I’m thinking that extending the patent is a pretty big deal to the company’s bottom line.”

  “Okay, so that’s somewhat interesting, but still doesn’t seem to be something that could get someone killed.” Lola’s eyes narrowed. “Did you have time to look into Pandora Unlimited?”

  “I did a quick search in a regular database and found a couple of Pandora Unlimited companies registered in a few states, but none of them looked relevant. Most looked like holding companies, or private investment groups. I didn’t see anything that looked like it dealt in research or some kind of software business, but I can do a more thorough search on that later.”

  Lola sat back in her chair and slid down on her tailbone with her long legs in front of her and her head draped back over the top of the chair and let out a heavy sigh. Jake swiveled away from the computer and smiled at her disgruntled expression. “So what do you think, Ms. Lola?”

  She rolled her head so she could see his face. “Well, Jake, the way I see it, we have an idea of what’s on the flash drive, but we’re no closer to knowing what’s going on, if anyone knows I have the flash drive, and if it’s a problem that I have it.” She stood up, put her hands on her hips and leaned over Jake. “Is that about it?”

  He nodded. “Yep. Pretty much. Hopefully, Jerry Jeff will be able to recover the lost info on the flash drive, but until he does, I’m afraid that’s all we got. So what should we do about it?”

  She put her face right next to his. “Well, I guess I’ll just try to be careful and see if anyone comes after me. And in the meantime…” She took her hands off her hips and placed them on either side of Jake’s face. “I guess I’ll just have to keep myself busy and take my mind off the whole situation.”

  She leaned in and placed a sweet kiss on Jake’s mouth. As she slowly drew back, Jake put his hands on her waist and pulled her toward him. She put her hands on his chest to stop him, grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head. He sucked in his breath at the sight of her in her little lace bra and pulled her forward so that she was straddling his lap and his face was buried in the curve of her neck. He kissed and sucked and nibbled her neck as he pulled down the stretchy cups of her bra, pinching her nipples into little hard points. Lola moaned at the sensation and she grabbed his head and pulled it up so she could give him a kiss that was anything but sweet. Jake groaned in her mouth, wrapped his arms around her middle and stood up. She locked her legs around his waist and he walked her through the door of the Batcave, through the closet, and into her bedroom. Jake sat on the edge of the bed with her still wrapped around him, and pulled his head back so he could see her face. She was flushed, her lips were swollen, and her eyes looked like they were glowing electric blue in the dim light of her room. They were both breathing hard and Jake reached his hand up to take her ponytail down. “So what are you in the mood for, Ms. Lola? I promise I’m game for anything.”

  She rose up on her knees and stepped backwards off the bed so she was standing in front of him. “Let me get this started, and you can hop in whenever you see a jumping place.” Lola winked at him and slowly unhooked her bra and slid it down her arms. Her nipples were hard and she cupped her small breasts and fondled them as he watched every move she made. She then ran her hands down the front of her body until she reached the button of her jeans. She unbuttoned them and slowly slid her hands down into the front of her pants, then around to the sides so she could push her jeans down over her hips and down to the floor and off her feet.

  When she stood back up, wearing only a black, lace thong, Jake’s breath caught in his throat. Holy shit, she really was his perfect woman. Long and lean, with a tiny waist, a perfect little round butt, strong legs, freak smart, a great smile, and a ton of attitude. He also loved the fact that she was only a few inches shorter than he was, and it certainly made pretty much any sexual position a lot easier. He grinned at the thought and reached out to grab her arm. He pulled her so that she was standing between his legs and he put his hands on her shoulders and slowly ran them down her back, down her hips, and finally stopped with both hands on her ass. He fondled her slowly, squeezing gently at first and then harder and he finally used both hands to grab her close and grind her against him. They kissed for what seemed like hours, deep kisses that got hotter and wetter.

  Finally, they broke apart, their hands rubbing whatever part they could touch, and stared into each other eyes, breathing in short, ragged gasps. Lola grinned. “Damn, son, if it gets better than that, it’s going to kill one of us.”

  Jake agreed, and winked at her as he laughed. “Yep, but what a way to go, Ms. Lola.”

  Lola ran her hand down Jake’s chest and hooked her fingers in his waistband. “Baby, these have got to go.” She tugged, and he obligingly stood up. She unbuttoned his pants, slowly pulled his zipper down and slid one hand into the front of his Levi’s. When she touched nothing but hot, bare skin she smiled and wrapped her hand around him. Of
course, he wasn’t wearing underwear, the show-off. And, of course, that part of him was just as impressive as the rest of him. He grabbed the bedpost on the footboard for balance, sucked in a breath and his head fell back as she squeezed him firmly and slowly moved her hand up and down. “How’s that, Jake?”

  He wasn’t sure he could form words, at that point, but he managed to groan and push his pants down to the middle of his thighs to give her better access. He wrapped his hand over hers, squeezing her hand harder around himself and moving their hands slightly faster. He managed to choke out a strangled, “Amazing,” before the power of speech completely left him as Lola reached between his legs and began to slowly fondle his balls with her other hand.

  Jake finally released her hand and stepped back out of her grasp. He pushed his jeans to his feet and kicked them off and then slowly stepped toward her. “Your turn, lady.”

  Lola held out her hand and pushed against his chest to keep him back. “Nope. We need to skip a couple of steps and get right to the good stuff. No more fooling around. I need you inside me now.” She turned her back to Jake, slid her panties down her legs, went toward the bed, and bent over with her hands braced on the footboard. With her legs slightly apart, she smiled at him back over her shoulder and lowered her upper body toward the bed, raising her ass toward him and making sure he could see how wet he’d made her. She winked at him and slightly moved her hips from side to side. “Hey Jake, how’s this work for you?”

  Jake stood there with his mouth open, his eyes glued to the scene in front of him. Without breaking his gaze away, he reached down, grabbed his wallet out of his discarded pants, and pulled out a condom. He slowly moved toward her, ripped the packet open with his teeth, and rolled it on roughly. When he reached her, he bent over and gently kissed the back of her neck as he rubbed his hair-roughened chest against her back. He fondled both breasts, slowly massaging and then pinching and rubbing her nipples until they were hard and distended and her breasts were swollen. Jake stood up and rubbed his hands over her hips and down the back of her thighs, then up the inside of her legs, constantly rubbing and fondling, until he finally reached between her legs.