Silver Thaw

by Catherine Anderson

“Hold him,” she shouted to Bozo. “Don’t kill him. Just hold him.”

  Bozo didn’t need direction. Every time Mark wiggled or tried to speak, the mastiff increased the pressure on his throat. Amanda heard a thud at the back door. Jeb. He must have heard the gunshot or the siren. She ran to let him in. The instant she disengaged the lock, he burst into the room.

  “It’s Mark,” Amanda cried, hoping Jeb could hear her over the wailing horn. “I don’t know how he did it, but he got the front door open, and I couldn’t reset the system!”

  Jeb gave Amanda a quick once-over to check for injuries. Then he strode around the table, retrieved Mark’s weapon from the floor, and took stock of the situation.

  Amanda wasn’t sure what she expected Jeb to do, but laughing wasn’t on her list. His hair gleaming like molten gold in the overhead lights, he gave his dog a thumbs-up. “Good job, Bozo! I always knew I could count on you.” Jeb circled the snarling mastiff and the visibly terrified Mark. “Wow, I don’t envy you! One wrong move, and he’ll rip out your jugular.” Jeb pocketed the gun and planted his hands on his hips. More clearly than words, his stance conveyed that the mastiff needed no backup.

  Just then, the house phone rang. Jeb signaled Amanda to answer it. She hurried over to the base unit, put the Magnum on the counter, and grabbed the receiver. A woman said, “This is Deb at central station. Is everyone okay there?”

  Amanda blinked. “A man broke into the house and threatened us with a gun, but he’s been subdued and we have the situation under control now.”

  The woman asked for the password, and Amanda gave it to her.

  “The police are on their way,” she said. The siren suddenly stopped shrieking. “There, that’s better on your ears. Would you like me to stay on the phone with you until help arrives?”

  Amanda couldn’t see any point. “No, I don’t think that’s necessary. The intruder is on the floor and being held—at gunpoint.” She preferred not to paint Bozo as being vicious. “The authorities should be here soon.”

  “Do I hear a dog growling?”

  “Yes. He’s very protective, and right now he’s upset.”

  When Amanda ended the call, Jeb still stood over Mark but was no longer laughing. “I’d call him off, but then I’d have to take over. Given that I’d rather kill you than look at you, I think you’re safer with the dog. Besides, it’s never too late to learn a hard lesson. Now you know firsthand how it feels to be bullied by somebody bigger than you.”

  The glare Mark gave Amanda terrified her. She knew she was safe now, but no amount of logic could erase from her mind all the memories she had of this man. He was afraid of the dog and too scared to move, but his rage and hatred were almost palpable. Amanda hoped the police hurried. You could never underestimate Mark. He’d just proved that again.

  She felt as if her legs had turned into limp noodles. Unable to remain standing, she plopped onto a chair. To her, every second seemed to last a small eternity. Mark. He lay only a few feet away. As the realization sank in, she started to shake. Delayed reaction. She thanked God for keeping her hands steady to hold the gun.

  Just as she heard the distant wail of police sirens, a short, stocky man holding a shotgun burst into the kitchen.

  “Is everybody all right in here?”

  At a distance, Amanda had seen the farmer across the road. Tony Bradley. And he had come loaded for bear.

  Jeb arched an eyebrow at Amanda. “Where’s Chloe?”

  “Hiding,” she replied with a wobble in her voice. “In your bedroom.”

  Jeb turned back to his friend. “Thanks to Bozo we’re all fine, Tony, but I appreciate your coming over. You’re the best.”

  Tony lowered the shotgun barrel, studied the prostrate Mark, and scowled. “If ever a throat needed rippin’ out, it’s his. You oughta tell that dog to go for it. All the lady’s troubles would be over.”

  “It’s tempting, but unlawful. Barney would probably throw me in the hoosegow.” Jeb motioned at Tony’s shotgun. “Can you stand guard over him? I’ve got a little girl I need to check on.”

  Tony brought the gun barrel back up. “It’ll be my pleasure. Long as he doesn’t move so much as a whisker, him and me will get along fine.”

  “Just don’t shoot my dog.” Jeb laid Mark’s weapon on the table in front of Amanda. “Make sure you hand that over to the sheriff. It’ll stand as evidence that Mark entered this house with deadly intent.”

  At the words, Amanda shuddered. Deadly intent. She’d come so close to dying tonight. So very close. If it hadn’t been for Bozo’s surprise attack, Mark would have shot her. Even worse, she knew this wasn’t over. Mark was subdued right now and he’d surely go to jail, but the authorities couldn’t keep him behind bars forever.

  * * *

  Jeb found Chloe in the closet hidey-hole. When he opened the cover, she bleeped in terror, which made him want to kick himself. I should’ve told her it was me. “Hey, hey, hey,” he said when she ducked into the corner. “It’s Mr. Jeb, princess. I just came to make sure you’re all right.”

  Chloe launched herself into his arms. “My daddy—my mean daddy—he’s—in—the house!”

  An ache spread through Jeb’s chest as he gathered the trembling child close. “I know, but Bozo is making sure he can’t harm anyone, and your mommy pressed the panic button to call the police.” He tightened his embrace. “You’re safe. Your mommy is safe. There’s no reason to be afraid.”

  She shrank against his thick jacket. “You don’t know. He does awful, horrible things.”

  “Not anymore, he won’t. Your uncle Barney will lock him up in jail and throw away the key.” Jeb heard heavy footsteps rushing into his kitchen and guessed that the deputies had arrived. He needed to get back out there, but he couldn’t bring himself to abandon Chloe. So instead he sat on the floor, braced his back against the cedar wall, and cradled the child across his chest. Sometimes a guy had to set priorities, and the importance of holding Chloe right now outweighed everything else. “I sure am proud of you, princess.”

  “How come?”

  “Because you came in here to hide. You minded your mommy and didn’t panic. You’re a very smart girl.”

  She sniffed and nodded, which made Jeb smile. This little gal wouldn’t grow up to be a woman with no self-confidence, not if he had anything to say about it.

  “I think Uncle Barney is here,” she whispered. “His voice sounds almost like yours.”

  Jeb cocked an ear and heard his brother speaking. The tension eased from his body. With Barney here, Mark Banning would be cuffed and stuffed before he could blink. Jeb’s thoughts turned to Amanda. She undoubtedly needed some comfort, too, but there was only one of him to go around.

  * * *

  Amanda felt as if her posterior had been glued to the chair. Cops swarmed through the house, their voices droning in her ears like the buzz of hornets. She forced herself to reconnect with reality. Shock. She’d felt this way before—numb, separated from everything by a fog. But now wasn’t the time to succumb to it.

  Barney dragged Bozo off Mark, and two deputies dived in to take the dog’s place. Mark was rolled onto his stomach. A knee, backed by a man’s weight, dug into his spine.

  “Hey!” Mark yelled. “Easy on my arms!”

  The officers ignored him and shoved both his wrists up his back to rest just under his shoulder blades as they handcuffed him.

  “That bitch invited me here for visitation with my child!” Mark cried. “I have a letter to prove it! She set me up! I’ll have your jobs for treating me like this!”

  Barney stood near Amanda, bagging Mark’s weapon as evidence. “Do you always come for visitation armed with a deadly weapon?” he asked Mark.

  “I have permits to carry concealed!” Mark shouted. “A man has a right to defend himself in this country. Check my wallet, asshole! I’m legal in both Oregon
and California!” He cried out in pain when the two deputies grabbed him by the elbows and dragged him to his feet. “Jesus Freaking Christ! You dislocated my shoulders!”

  A husky older man entered the kitchen. He carried himself with an air of authority. Amanda decided he must be the sheriff. “If they’d dislocated your shoulders, you’d be in so much pain, you wouldn’t be able to talk, let alone yell.”

  Mark sent Amanda a glare that cut through her like a razor. “You’ll pay for this. In your letter, you asked me to come! You’ll pay! I won’t rest until you do!”

  Amanda had written no letter. The very idea that she might have was ludicrous. But she couldn’t form the words to contest the accusation.

  As the deputies shoved Mark into a walk, he shouted, “I didn’t pull the gun until the damned dog jumped me! I was invited here, I’m telling you! I was only trying to protect myself!”

  “Put him in a car,” the sheriff ordered the two deputies. “And don’t take your eyes off him.”

  * * *

  Jeb didn’t know how much time passed. He only knew that Barney finally entered the closet and crouched in front of him. “You need better locks, bro. Yours are sturdy, but the mechanisms can be picked. You also need to watch those monitors you had installed. If you had been paying attention, you’d have noticed when the screen went blank.”

  Jeb narrowed his gaze on his brother’s burnished face. “You mean he picked the front door lock? Why didn’t that set off the alarm?”

  “What triggers the alarm is the magnetic connections being broken. When the doors or windows are closed, the connection is intact. You can pick the lock or disengage it with a key. The system senses nothing until a perimeter is actually breached. Then the little magnets aren’t touching anymore.”

  Jeb’s brain felt as if it had been put through a blender.

  “Banning’s lying through his teeth right now, saying that Amanda let him in,” Barney continued. “But my take is, he picked the lock after he hacked into your system, probably sometime after dark, and then he watched through the windows, hoping for an opportunity to open the door without setting off the alarm.”

  Jeb recollected the string of events that had transpired before and after he had left the house through the back door. He’d turned off the alarm and reminded Amanda to reset it. Then he’d kissed her under the ear, asked her to help him dream up better passcodes, and stepped outside. Before setting the alarm, Amanda had locked the door behind him. If Banning had been watching through a window, he would have known the security system was momentarily off. If he’d already picked the front door lock, those seconds had given him time to race back to the porch and open the door before Amanda tried to reset the alarm. She must have been terrified when the panel screen told her there was a fault.

  “Man, he’s a sneaky piece of work,” Jeb said. “He must have plotted and planned this for hours.”

  “And he had to have been watching the house, possibly for a day or more.” Barney rubbed beside his nose, a nervous habit when he was about to say something that made him uncomfortable. “Jeb, you gotta remember that those monitors are useless unless you keep an eye on them. When the screens go blank, something’s up.”

  Jeb couldn’t argue the point. Sometime tonight he’d dropped the ball and allowed Banning an opportunity to get in. “I can’t believe this happened.”

  Barney sighed and reached out to pat Chloe’s head. “All’s well that ends well. I’ll do my best to keep him behind bars.”

  Jeb’s skin tingled. “What do you mean, your best? He broke into my house while armed with a deadly weapon. And what about the restraining order?”

  He rubbed his nose again. “It’s complicated. He’s got a permit to carry concealed in two states. He’s Amanda’s husband. He claims she sent him a letter, inviting him to come for visitation, and that she let him inside. He also claims he didn’t pull the weapon from his pocket until the dog attacked him. We’ve got no physical proof that he broke in or threatened Amanda with a gun. There’s no damage to the door. It could come down to Amanda’s word against his.”

  “Are you telling me you don’t believe her?” Jeb’s voice rose dangerously.

  Barney shook his head. “It’s not about who I believe, Jeb. It’s about the law, and in order to press charges against this dude for breaking and entering with malicious intent, the burden of proof is on us.”

  Jeb tensed. “The cameras. The playback will show that he broke in.”

  “Didn’t you hear me? He hacked your network and turned off the cameras. At least that’s my best guess. The guy’s smart.”

  “How in the hell did he hack into my network?”

  Barney swept off his hat to scratch his head. “Have you ever called a computer company to ask for help with your system and authorized a technician, using Go to Assist or some other remote access application, to get on your computer?”

  “Yes, a couple of times. You see their cursor going everywhere, looking at files as they fix problems.”

  “Well, it’s possible for someone to get on your computer using remote access without your permission. I don’t know how they do it. I only know it can be done, and once they gain access, they can do almost anything, even disconnect your security cameras from your DVR. It’s the only explanation, unless you disconnected the cameras yourself.” He settled the dark brown Stetson back into place. “You’ve got access to the Internet from a tower, not through an underground cable. If someone gets within a certain range of your receiver dish with a wireless device, they can pick up the signal. I think Banning did exactly that, somehow logged on to your network, and disconnected the cameras before he picked the lock. The minute he started saying that Amanda invited him in, I went into your office and tried to do a reverse search of the recordings. Nothing, nada. When he entered the house, your DVR was getting no signals from your cameras. They stopped working at a little after eight.”

  A bitch of a headache took up residence in Jeb’s temples. “Where’s his laptop? Surely there’s evidence on there that he hacked in.”

  “It was in his car, which is parked out on the road next to your driveway. Like I said, I’m no expert with computers, but when I turned it on, I saw no evidence that he’d hacked in. I checked the history. He apparently erased all of it. I’m impounding the vehicle, and I’ll take the computer back to the department so our tech guys can have a look at it.”

  “He parked right next to my driveway to watch the house? Why didn’t I notice it on the monitor?”

  “It’s barely visible. I got the cameras turned back on, and even with the infrared lens that covers your driveway, the vehicle is far enough away that it’s difficult to spot. It’s a gray sedan and blends in with the road. Mostly all you can see are bits of chrome glinting. If I hadn’t known I was looking at a car, I wouldn’t have guessed that was what it was.”

  Jeb forgot he was holding Chloe and said, “Son of a bitch.”

  Barney inclined his head at the child. Jeb clamped his lips tight.

  “You need to get Gowdy back out here to put up some stronger firewalls, and once he does, you need to dream up a lot better network password than the one you have right now.”

  Jeb closed his eyes. “I have temporary password protection on my computer and the network, and I intended to create stronger codes later tonight.”

  “What are your temporary codes?”

  “For the computer, I changed it to my house number tacked onto the end of my first name. For the network, I used my middle name, Paul, followed by the same numbers.”

  Barney gaped at him as if he’d grown a third ear in the middle of his forehead. “Why would you choose such easy-to-guess passcodes?”

  Jeb shrugged. “They didn’t seem that easy to me, and I had to come up with them off the top of my head. Gowdy said I needed stronger ones, and, like I said, I meant to create them later tonight. Aman
da was going to help me.”

  “Jeb, you have a radiant signal, and you left yourself wide open to a breach? As a temporary code, you would have been better off using your Social Security number. At least that’s harder to find online. Not impossible, but harder. Lots of people use their names followed by numbers, and your street address is way too obvious.”

  Jeb’s headache went from bad to worse. “Hello, Barney, we live in Mystic Creek. I know and trust my neighbors. Who in this town would park outside my house and try to hack into my network?”

  “A stranger named Mark Banning,” Barney retorted.

  Chloe looked up. “Does that mean you didn’t lock your computer door, Mr. Jeb?”

  Jeb thumped the back of his head against the wall. “Yes, princess, that’s pretty much what it means.”

  “Oopsy-daisy.”

  “Yeah, a big oops.”

  Barney interjected, “How can someone as brilliant as you are professionally be such an idiot?”

  “No name-calling,” Jeb warned. “I already feel bad enough.” Jeb met and held his brother’s gaze. “Don’t let him walk. We’ve got the photographic evidence that Amanda collected, and she’s pressed charges. Her file was sent to a Eureka judge. The police, both here and there, have been looking for him. If we can’t get him one way, we can get him another.”

  Barney huffed and stood up. “You’re right, Jeb, but that doesn’t mean I can keep Banning in our jail.”

  “Why the h—” Jeb remembered Chloe. “Uh, why not?”

  “Amanda filed charges against Banning here, but the crimes she documented occurred in California. Read the Sixth Amendment. Put simply, it says that a person must be tried in the state and district where the alleged crime was committed.”

  “So you can arrest Banning in Oregon, but he’ll be prosecuted in California?”

  “Yes. Oregon will extradite him to California to face the charges there. At that point it’s out of our hands. The only way we can keep him here is if we can prove that he committed more crimes in Oregon.”