Virtually Harmless

by P. D. Workman

  “I don’t know. But you’re already helping me to find out.”

  He was silent for a moment. Then a cautious reply. “And how am I helping you find out?”

  “I’m having our lab process some DNA evidence. See if I can put a face on this guy. But since I can’t process my own evidence, I had to put it into the system under someone else’s name.”

  As someone who had been known to… push the boundaries of what might be considered legal with his cutting-edge virtual reality software, and who was willing to go above and beyond to help solve the crimes against Ash and even Lace, a woman he had never even met, Michael had seemed the natural choice for Micah.

  “Oh, I see!” Michael’s laugh carried over the line. “So you put it under my name.”

  “Yeah, I needed someone who was already on the system so it wouldn’t raise any red flags. I’ll pay the bill, of course. But I didn’t want you wondering who this unsub was that you supposedly contacted us about.”

  “It’s all starting to come back to me now. I think I definitely remember giving EvPro some…”

  “Fingernail clippings.”

  “Some fingernail clippings to process for me. Yes, definitely.” He chuckled to himself. “No problem, Micah. Your secret is safe with me. I’m delighted to help.”

  “Thanks so much, Michael. You’re a lifesaver.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  She was afraid that she would be awake or restless all night after having slept so much of the day, but she wasn’t. She slept soundly, not tossing and turning like she had the previous night. Micah didn’t ask Marianna what she had given her. Marianna obviously knew what she was doing.

  Cole still slept on the couch, refusing to go home to his own bed. “I’ve got the security company coming tomorrow. After you have new doors, locks, and a proper alarm, I might feel safe leaving you to fend for yourself. Maybe. But not before that. I’m not leaving my little girl, or both of my girls, alone and unprotected while I go home to sleep in comfort.”

  “We would be okay,” Micah protested, but not too strongly, because the truth was, she didn’t want to talk Cole out of it. She knew that she should try to get him to go home to sleep so that he would have an easier night, but she wanted him to stay.

  “Not a chance.” Cole made a motion to dismiss any further argument. “We’ll all sleep here tonight. After the security has been upgraded… we’ll see.”

  For the first time since Micah had moved out on her own, she didn’t want to be the only one in the house when she went to bed. Sometimes a person needed family close by.

  In the morning, she awoke feeling more clear-headed, the spinning sensation gone. Her body was healing, or it was adjusting to the medication. Or maybe Marianna had changed up the medications to see if it would help with the side effects. Micah rubbed her eyes, careful of the bruises on her face. She looked down at her clothes and saw that she still had on the yoga pants and t-shirt that she had donned to go to the office.

  “Mom?”

  Marianna stirred beside her. “Micah? What is it?”

  “I’m going to have a bath. You don’t need to get up.”

  “Are you sure? I can run the bath for you, make sure that you can get in safely…”

  “No. Go back to sleep. I’m just going to relax in the hot water.”

  “Okay.” Marianna’s eyes closed and she let out a long sigh. “You call me if you need anything. I’m right here. I’ll hear you.”

  “Go back to sleep.”

  Marianna didn’t say anything else. Micah sat on the bed while she got out a change of clothing, glad that her dresser was so close in the small room. Then she toddled into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet while she filled the tub for herself.

  ❋

  “You’re looking a lot better today,” Cole observed. “Bright-eyed. More like yourself.”

  Micah nodded. She was able to sit on the couch in the living room instead of staying in bed all day. Even though she didn’t have much strength or stamina, she still felt more human sitting on the couch. She watched the workmen who were upgrading the security at Cole’s instruction. The kitten had been locked away in the bathroom, crying piteously, to make sure that she could not get away while they were upgrading the doors and frames. Micah had a quilt tucked around her to keep her warm, though the weather had warmed up to a balmy fall day, melting a good deal of the snow and turning everything a muddy brown.

  “I’m feeling a lot better. Still pretty sore, but not so sick and… icky.”

  “That’s good. But don’t get the idea that you can go right back to work. You still need time to heal and recover.”

  “I know. But I can do a little today.”

  “No work,” he said sternly.

  “Dad…”

  “Nope. No work.”

  “What am I going to do, then?”

  “Read a good book. Watch daytime TV and see what you’ve been missing all these years. Have a nap.”

  “I’m not watching TV.”

  He laughed. “Only kid that ever had to be told to put her homework away and go watch TV.”

  Micah shrugged. “I enjoyed the homework more.”

  “And then you laid awake all night because your brain wouldn’t shut off. You needed some downtime before bed so that you could relax and go to sleep.”

  “Yeah, well, what you didn’t know was that I had schoolbooks hidden under my blanket.”

  “Oh, didn’t I?”

  Micah couldn’t help giggling. She had never guessed that her father knew what she was up to, flashlight in hand, long after he and Marianna had gone to bed or when he was on night shift.

  “I want to draw,” she decided. “Could you bring me a couple of things from my office?” She gestured toward the spare room so he wouldn’t think she wanted him to go all the way to EvPro to fetch her something.

  “What do you want?”

  “In the second drawer of my desk, there’s a red pencil box. And on the bookshelves, there is a sketchpad with a black cover and a label that says #14.”

  He nodded and went to find them.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  When Marianna returned with several grocery bags half an hour later, she scowled at the sight of the sketchbook in Micah’s lap.

  “You are not supposed to be working. Cole, didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t do too much?”

  “She’s not working.”

  “She’s drawing. That’s work.” Marianna drew closer to get a look at Micah’s picture to prove that she was working instead of relaxing.

  Micah let her see the rough sketch of the baby in several different positions as she explored various ideas.

  “You see? Is that Baby Sweetgrass?” Marianna demanded.

  “No. It’s a picture for a friend.”

  “A friend?” Marianna shook her head at the idea. “Who?”

  “You remember Sara Thompson from school?”

  “Sara? Yes, I remember her.” Marianna’s scowl smoothed out. “You’re drawing a picture for her? I didn’t know she had a baby.”

  Micah pressed her lips together, trying to decide whether she was allowed to tell Marianna what had happened. She didn’t want Marianna approaching Sara at the store to ask her how her baby was.

  “Mom, it’s confidential, okay?”

  “Confidential? What’s confidential?”

  “Sara. She lost a baby. She wants… something to remember him by.”

  “Oh.” Marianna’s face crinkled up. “Oh, the poor girl. I didn’t know!”

  “No, and I don’t think they’re telling anyone, so you can’t bring it up. But I just want you to know… so you don’t ask her any awkward questions.”

  “No, no, you’re right to tell me. I don’t want to cause her any pain.” Marianna sat down on the couch, resting her grocery bags on the floor and taking a long look at Micah’s sketches. “I like this one.”

  She indicated a close-up of a baby’s fac
e; one tiny fist balled up next to the sleeping face. Very peaceful. Sara’s baby, born asleep.

  Micah nodded, a lump in her throat. “Thanks. I really like that one too.”

  Marianna reached over and rubbed Micah’s back briefly. She didn’t normally like a back rub, but she appreciated her mother’s emotional support, and her touch soothed sore muscles and bruises. She put her hand on Marianna’s arm.

  “Love you, Mom.”

  “You too, honey.” Marianna sat there for a moment, then stood, picking the grocery bags up again. “I’d better get these things put away.”

  Micah didn’t ask Marianna what she had purchased. Micah had plenty of staples on her kitchen shelves and fresh produce in the fridge, but Marianna’s and Cole’s eating habits were quite different from hers, and they probably felt like she had nothing to eat.

  ❋

  Her parents stayed at her house one more night but, in the morning, Micah informed them that they would be sleeping in their own bed that night.

  “I’m doing a lot better now. I can get around to get the things I need. I promise I’ll call if I need anything in the night, but I don’t think I will. I’ve been sleeping through and you guys deserve to be back in your bed tonight.”

  “Can I still come back in the morning to check on you?” Marianna demanded.

  “Yes,” Micah agreed. “Sure.”

  They had been there when she needed them, and she didn’t want to cut them off too abruptly. She would try to taper off their involvement over the next few days. And maybe it was time to start inviting them over to dinner now and then. Marianna might enjoy a break from cooking, and Cole a change in cuisine now and then.

  They had been there for her and she realized that they meant a lot more to her than she had previously thought. She could live with having them around now and then without acting like it was cutting into her precious time.

  Marianna looked at Cole to see what he thought of the matter. He had said that once the security was upgraded, he would feel better about leaving her there alone. Cole considered for a long moment and then nodded.

  “I’m sure Micah needs her space. She’s safer now. That security alarm goes directly to a staffed security center. They can send the police at the first sign of trouble.”

  “And we can check in on her in the morning.”

  “We’ll come in the morning,” Cole agreed. “Just to see if there’s anything else we can help with.”

  Micah nodded and, eventually, they both agreed with her. That still left them the rest of the day to get their fill of her. Then when they started to get tired, they could go home and sleep.

  ❋

  She managed to sneak online a couple of times on her computer to monitor her inbox and check for DNA results from Morse’s unsub. As long as she was quick and left other browser tabs open, neither parent could catch her at it. Sort of like the old days, reading her school textbooks under the covers after they had gone to bed.

  She was anxious to get the results and the first chance to look at her attacker’s face. Hopefully, it would match someone already in the system, and they could find a way to put the police onto him without admitting that they had drawn outside the lines. She could say she had drawn a sketch from her recovered memories of the attack, that she hadn’t even remembered how she had pulled off the balaclava. And one of the others in the lab could recognize it for who it really was. They would work it out one way or another.

  It wasn’t until after her parents left for the day that the DNA sequencing and computer-generated phenotype finally showed up on the server. Micah pulled a blanket around her shoulders, shifted the kitten, asleep in her lap, and clicked on the results.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Micah first saw the flat, computer-generated phenotype. Male. Handsome, well-proportioned features, clean-shaven with generic brown hair. The computer, while it did a good job, couldn’t predict his hairstyle, facial hair, or many other features. And Micah would have to look at the epigenome for information like age and other details. She had a pretty good idea of height and weight from direct experience, and she knew that he was strong. She would give him good muscles as she tried out different looks. Hopefully, she would be able to tease a few more details out of the epigenome as well and to make some predictions from the totality of the information.

  She scrolled down through the data on range of skin tones, hair and eye color, racial heritage—mainly white European—and a few other details.

  At the bottom of the profile, there was an alert that there was a profile match in the EvPro database. She would tell the IT guys that they should move matches in the database to the top of the file rather than burying it at the bottom where people might not see it. If there was a profile match, then that should be the first thing the recipient should see.

  Micah was relieved that there was a match in the system. She clicked on the hyperlink to see the identity of her attacker.

  Baby Thompson-Smith.

  The pseudonym that Micah had created for the Lazarus profile of Sweetie’s father.

  Micah sat there in the silence of her house, staring at the screen.

  The man who had attacked her was not someone she had put behind bars and who was trying to get revenge on her. He was the abandoned baby’s father.

  She tried to wrap her mind around it. Why would he attack Micah? Did he somehow know that she was behind the identification of Trisha Madro, and was afraid that she would also be able to identify him? Was he afraid he might somehow be blamed for the baby’s abandonment?

  Or the mother’s death.

  Micah tapped her keys lightly, not hard enough to push down, just enough to make a light clicking as she thought.

  If he was Micah’s attacker, then he was a violent man. He could have killed Micah.

  And he could have killed Trisha Madro.

  ❋

  It was getting late and Micah was exhausted. She had planned to go to bed immediately after her parents left, and had just checked the server one more time to reassure herself so she could go to sleep and rest easy.

  She hadn’t planned to stay up later working on the new profile. And she hadn’t intended to call anyone.

  But that had all changed. Micah couldn’t just go to sleep and forget about it until morning. Who knew how much could happen before then? What if Sweetie’s father had been watching the house, waiting until her parents were gone and Micah was alone once more? He could be out there, planning his course of action.

  She called the number she had previously been able to reach Bellows at, and a brisk female voice answered.

  “Sheriff’s Department.”

  “Oh. I was looking for Deputy Bellows. I thought this would go to him directly.”

  “Deputy Bellows is not on duty right now. How may I direct your call?”

  “I was calling regarding one of his cases. The Sweetgrass Hills baby.”

  “He’ll be in during the day tomorrow and you can go over it with him then.”

  “It’s kind of an emergency.”

  “You didn’t call an emergency line. Deputy Bellows is currently off duty. We don’t route calls to off-duty officers.”

  “I don’t think he would mind you making one exception.”

  “Everybody thinks they are an exception. Our officers need to sleep if they are going to be able to perform their functions. Do you need an emergency responder?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “What seems to be the problem?”

  “I was attacked the other day; there should be a file on your system.”

  “Uh-huh. Yes?”

  “I’m afraid that… the man who attacked me might be back, watching my house.”

  There was rapid-fire keyboard clicking in the background. “I will have an officer dispatched to your house,” she said immediately. “Is this your correct address?” She read it off.

  “Yes. But I don’t know…”

  “Did you see someone hanging around your house
? What made you think the man who attacked you might be there?”

  “I didn’t see him. But I just found out… that he has something to do with a case that I’m working on for law enforcement. On Sweetie’s case. That’s why I wanted to talk to Deputy Bellows.”

  “A case you are working on for law enforcement,” the woman repeated. “Does that mean that you are a law enforcement officer?”

  “No. I work with DNA. I’m a contractor. With EvPro.”

  It was not a big city, and many people knew about EvPro, especially if they were in law enforcement.

  “You work with DNA? And what does that have to do with this man who attacked you?”

  “The man who attacked me is connected with the abandoned baby case.”

  The woman sighed audibly. “A car has been sent to your house. You can explain it to them when they arrive, and they can decide on any further steps to be pursued. Do you want me to stay on the line until they get there?”

  Micah looked out the window. She couldn’t see anything, but it wouldn’t take long before the police arrived.

  “Uh, no, I think it will be okay. Thank you.”

  The woman said goodbye and terminated the call. Micah watched the street in front of the house, waiting for the police. She felt silly about them being sent there on an emergency basis when she didn’t know if her attacker was anywhere close. But he could be and, even with the new security measures, Micah didn’t feel safe.

  She wanted Deputy Frank Bellows. He was the one who knew the case and she needed to tell him the developments. She would have to keep telling the story, first to the officers who showed up and then again to Bellows. Not until the next day, because the duty officer wouldn’t forward the call to him.

  Micah supposed that was the woman’s job, but it was still irritating. She wished she had asked Bellows for his cell number or home number in case anything came up.

  She hadn’t expected to find anything out about Sweetie’s father after hours. That was a complete shock.