Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2) (21 page)

“Where the hell you
learn to drive like that?” Ted heard sirens in their wake as they sped south.
His pulse slowly began to return to normal. “That was just like in the movies.”

“In the movies
they don’t use real bullets. That wasn’t Jim Madison’s friends. That wasn’t the
cops. They wouldn’t take a chance on hurting his family.”

“If it wasn’t the
cops, then who the hell was it?”

Catrina rode up
the Millennium Systems Tower elevator in her best white linen business suit.
She didn’t know quite why, but she felt that it was important to make a good
impression on Alison Clarke today. She knew that her long legs were her best feature;
at least they didn’t sag like nearly everything else on her body. The skirt
might have been a little short for a middle-aged woman, but what the hell. She
loved the feel of the suit’s fabric against her skin.

The elevator
stopped and the door opened on the bastion of one of the most powerful women in
the country.

“Catrina Flaherty,
here to see Ms. Clarke.” Catrina held up the temporary ID card that Security
had issued her in the lobby.

“Have a seat, Ms.
Flaherty.” The tall thin secretary, no he would be called an executive
assistant nowadays, smiled at her. “I’ll let Ms. Clarke know you’re here.”

Catrina leafed
through a copy of
CEO
magazine while she waited. She glanced at an
article on cloud computing, Ted would know what this stuff was all about, and
started reading an article about transformational leadership. That’s what
Alison had done at MS, transformed the company. There weren’t many people, men
or women, who could have done that, taking an organization as large as MS and
completely changing the corporate culture.

Alison was
becoming something of a hero to Catrina as she learned more about her.

“Ms. Clarke will
see you now.” The assistant led Catrina to Alison’s office suite.

“Cat, so nice to
see you.” Alison smiled and held out her hand.

Catrina shook it,
but Alison clapped her left hand over Catrina’s and held it for a long moment.
Catrina’s heart beat accelerated.

“I thought I
should bring you up to speed on the case.” Catrina broke free and headed to the
loveseats around the coffee table. She reached in her bag and retrieved a file
folder.

Alison sat next to
her in the love seat as Catrina spread the black and white surveillance photos
on the table. “Someone sent these to us.” She looked up to see surprise in
Alison’s brown eyes. “We don’t know who, but someone with access to MS security
tapes wants to help us. More importantly, they know we’re investigating.”

Alison took a deep
breath and exhaled. “These are from our cameras?” She picked up a picture of
Donna Harrison reaching up to dust the camera that was taping her. “I’ve never
seen these.”

“Here’s what else
we have. . .” Catrina explained about Steven Winston, the board member whose
developmentally disabled son had died under mysterious circumstances. She went
on to lay out how Jackson Schmidt, Millennium System’s CFO, was cooking the
books and moving half a million dollars a month into an offshore account.

“The bastard. I
never did trust him.” Alison appeared genuinely shocked. “That might be worth
killing for. Six million dollars is a lot of money.”

“Terry Metcalf has
always been at the top of my list,” Catrina leaned back in her seat and crossed
her long legs. “With him, it’s personal. There was something distinctly
personal in the way Donna was killed. The killer wanted to humiliate her. We
haven’t found anything in her personal or work life to suggest that someone
would want to degrade her that way. The killer certainly knew her. Why would he
want to humiliate her so?”

Alison just stared
at Catrina.

“She hurt him in
some way. Something she did deeply offended the killer and he had to pay her
back. What could she have done? Did it involve her investigation for you, or
was it something else? We really don’t know.”

“You mean, you
think she might have been killed for some other reason? It wasn’t about what
she was finding at MS?”

“We don’t really
know at this point. I’m not sure if this is one investigation or two.” Catrina
stopped to study Alison’s face. Alison’s expression was somewhere between disbelief
and relief.

“I have a friend
at Homicide. I know that they’ll do everything in their power to solve Donna’s
murder, but that doesn’t get you any closer to finding out who was leaking your
information about Delphi.”

“Regardless of
what happened to Donna, as sad as I am about that, I still need to find that
leak. I still have a business to run, a product to roll out.”

“There’s more.”
Catrina watched Alison carefully. “Last night we were working on another case,
extracting a battered wife. Someone followed us. Shot at us.”

“Oh my God!”
Alison’s hands went to her cheeks.

Either she was
genuinely startled, or she was one of the best actresses Catrina had ever met.
Catrina would not rule out the latter.

“I don’t know for
sure if it had anything to do with this case or not. My gut instinct is that it
did. Why would a husband shoot at his family? Even if he beat his wife? He
wants her in his power, not in a cemetery.” Catrina paused to gauge Alison’s
reaction, then continued. “The people who chased us, shot at us, were
professionals. They were using automatic weapons that I don’t think my client’s
husband could have procured. I can’t help but think that it had something to do
with this case.”

“Cat, you have to
be careful. I don’t want you getting hurt” Alison took Catrina’s hand in hers. “Is
it time for us to just turn this over to the police?

That was a
no-brainer for Catrina. Outside of Tom, there were few people on the Seattle
Police Department that she trusted. Or rather, that should be, who trusted her.

“No. We’re going
to keep investigating. We can do things the police can’t. They’re
constitutionally handcuffed. We aren’t.”

“I’ll say it
again.” Alison’s voice was barely a whisper. “I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Catrina gulped.
This wasn’t going to be easy. “There’s something else you should know about.”
She looked into Alison’s eyes. “We found this snooping around in your Finance
system.” She slid a print out to Alison. “You and Angie Hopper seem to take a
lot of trips together.”

Alison must be a
good poker player. Her face betrayed nothing. “We often attend the same
conferences. We like each other. We travel together when possible. What
significance does this have?”

“If we could find
this stuff, then so can the police. When they’re investigating Donna’s murder,
the trail might lead back to you.” Catrina paused to let her words sink in. “It
doesn’t take much of an imagination to figure out that you’re having an affair
with Angie Hopper. The police will see that as motive. If someone found out
about it, leaked it to the press, it would have dire consequences for MS.”

Alison stared at
Catrina for a long moment, then apparently decided what she wanted to say.
“Angie and I go back a long way. My husband knows about her. In fact, I’ve
never really kept any of my liaisons a secret from him. As long as I’m not
involved with other men, he knows it’s just for fun. He’s not threatened, he’s okay
with that.”

Alison leaned back
in her seat and smoothed her hair. She twisted her wedding ring around her
finger. “I don’t know, Cat. Maybe I’m just wired differently. Maybe I’m more
like a man that most women. I think it’s the same thing that drives me to
succeed in business, that killer instinct. Sometimes I just feel sexually
aggressive. Sometimes I just need to prove to myself that I’m still desirable.”
Alison’s hands dropped to her lap and her face fell.

“If a male CEO had
an affair, it would hardly be news,” Alison said. “It would be glossed over and
business would go on as usual. Why should I be different? What makes a woman so
special that the press is after them like a pack of wolves?”

Catrina had a
thousand answers for that question. It went back to human kind’s need to know
who the fathers of their children were. There was no doubt who the mother was,
but who fathered that child? If the mother had multiple partners, they could
never be sure. The way to prevent that was to place a taboo upon a woman’s
sexual desires. She thought about the unfairness of it all, but said nothing.

“So what does this
mean?” Alison asked. “Will you tell the police?”

“No. You can count
on our confidence. No one will find out from us. I thought you would want to be
prepared, in case they ask you.”

“Cat, thank you.” Alison
was visibly shaken.

Alison put her
hand on Catrina’s knee. Catrina was startled as a flash of electricity shot up
her leg. She looked into Alison’s eyes and saw desire.

This wasn’t good.
This was business. Never mix business with pleasure.

Alison moved her
head ever so slightly towards Catrina. Catrina gulped. Alison parted her lips
and moved closer.

Catrina hesitated.
Alison touched her lips softly. Catrina felt Alison’s hand move up her thigh.
Electricity crackled from Alison’s fingers to her skin.

“No.” Catrina
pulled back. “I’m flattered,” she said softly, “but I’m not attracted to women
that way.”

The DVD came in a
FedEx envelope like the other. Abeba determined that they had been shipped from
a FedEx store downtown. Paid for with cash. The sender, “John Smith,” could be
anybody. The clerks didn’t remember who sent them. They handled hundreds of
these envelopes a day.

Ted popped the DVD
into his lap top. It didn’t contain another grainy surveillance video. This one
was high-definition color. With sound. Whoever took this video wanted to keep a
record of every word said.

The angle was
different too. This video didn’t look down from the ceiling, it was shot at the
same height as Metcalf’s desk. A hidden camera maybe?

So who was sending
these to Ted? Why wouldn’t they reveal themselves?

On Ted’s monitor,
Jack Metcalf paced back and forth behind his desk, cell phone to his ear.

“You’re sure
she’s spying on us?” Metcalf said.

There was a pause
while he listened for the person on the other end of the phone to answer.

“Well, what do we
do about it? We can’t let her just waltz out of here with that information.”

“Cat,” Ted popped
the DVD from his laptop and ran towards Catrina’s office. “You’ve gotta see
this.”

Catrina sat, head
down, at her battered old desk. “What is it?” Her voice was soft and low. She
still treated Ted like he was diseased, even though he’d made a few brownie
points at the extraction.

“A DVD from ‘Deep
Throat.” Ted held up the shiny disk. “You’ve gotta see this one. I think it
cracks the case wide open.” Ted reached over Catrina and slid the DVD into her
computer. He was so excited he didn’t even notice the close contact with his
boss. “I haven’t seen the whole thing yet, but I think it may be
incriminating.”

Ted ran the DVD
and they watched together.

“Who’s he talking
to?” Catrina asked.

“Don’t know.”

“Do we know who
she’s working for?” Metcalf was talking again. “As if I have to ask. Of course
she’s working for that bitch.”

There was another
pause while Metcalf listened. The speed of his pacing increased.

“What’s our worst
case scenario? What happens if Clarke gets that information?”

Again a pause.
Again more pacing.

“Damn it.” Metcalf
slammed his hand down on his desk.

Both Ted and
Catrina jumped.

“We can’t let that
happen. We’re too close here. I want her stopped. Do what you have to do. Stop
her.”

This time
Metcalf’s pacing stopped. He froze while he listened to the other person.

“Yes, I know what
that means. Keep her quiet for at least three weeks. After that, I don’t care
what you do with her. Just make sure that she doesn’t know who’s holding her.”

Metcalf resumed
his pacing.

“I know that this
doesn’t fit your normal job description.”

Metcalf listened.

“How much more?”

Pause.

“That’s
ridiculous. Okay, here’s my deal. You know I won’t negotiate. Half a million.
That’s it. Take care of this for me. We’re both in this together. When Clarke’s
gone and I get my company back, there’ll be a CEO position open. Keep me happy.
I’ll take care of you.”

Metcalf flipped
his phone shut without waiting for an answer. He turned his back to the camera
and stared into space. Then the picture on Catrina’s screen disappeared.

“We need to find
out who he was talking to.” Catrina was the first to react.

“There’s gotta be
a time stamp on the .wav file. I can figure out when he was talking.”

“That’s a start.”
Catrina pushed back from her desk. “If we know when he was talking and know his
cell phone number, we can trace the number he was calling. Right?”

“It depends on the
cell company. Different companies have different systems.”

“I’ll work on
getting his cell number and the carrier. You work on the time stamp.” Catrina
stood up. “Abeba, can you come in here?”

****

“Bear,
it’s Ted Higuera.” Ted spoke into his desk phone.

“Higgy?”

“Yeah,
Higgy. Listen, I need a favor.” Ted held his breath. He had a good relationship
with Bear while he worked at YTS, but he hadn’t been there long. Would Bear
hold his leaving against him?

“So,
how’s saving the world going?” There was a sarcastic tone in Bear’s voice. “I
haven’t noticed anything different yet.”

“We’re
working on a couple of things. By next week, Ol’ Ted’s gonna cure world
hunger.” Would a little humor soften him up?

“Whatcha
need, Higgy? I’m a little busy here. You know, just making filthy old lucre.”

“You
used to work for Pacific Wireless, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“I
need to get some information from them. I have a cell phone number. I need to
know who they were calling at a certain time.”

“Bingo.
Higgy, you hit the jackpot. I wrote that system. I can tell you how to get in.”

Ted
knew that Bear would have left a backdoor in any system he worked on. A way to
get around the security protocols if he had to get in and make an emergency
fix.
This
, Ted thought,
constitutes an emergency.

****

“I’ve got good news
and bad news.” Ted stood in the door to Catrina’s office. “I can get into
Pacific Wireless’ system. I found the call Metcalf made.”

“That’s great.”
Catrina put down the photos she was looking at.

“Not so much.
Metcalf was calling a pre-paid cell phone. There’s no way to trace it.”

“Shit.” The
expectant look dropped from Catrina’s face. She picked up the photo off of her
desk. “I’ve been thinking about Deep Throat.”

“Yeah.”

“Who would have
access to Metcalf’s personal information?”

Ted thought a
moment. “His secretary I guess. Maybe his accountant or his attorney.”

“Yes.” Catrina
stared hard at Ted.

What’s she
getting at?
“I don’t know who else. These are security tapes, at least the
first one. Who has access to security tapes?”

“Back up, bucko.
You said it a minute ago.”

“What?” Ted
scratched his head. “His secretary? His lawyer?”

“You’ve got it.
Who’s his lawyer?”

“Harry? Chris’
dad.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And Chris is a
paralegal on his case. . .”

Of course.
Chris would have access to Metcalf’s personal files.
“No way. Chris is a
straight arrow. He won’t even talk to me about the case. There’s no way he’d
leak information on a client. Attorney-client privilege.”

Catrina leaned
back in her chair and put her feet on her desk. “You said it yourself. He’s a
straight arrow. What if he knows who killed Donna, but can’t say anything
because of attorney-client privilege? What would he do?”

“Chris would never
violate privilege, but he couldn’t sit on that kind of information.” Ted
couldn’t sit still. He had to get up and pace. “He’d have to do something.”

“Maybe he didn’t
violate attorney-client privilege at all.” Catrina locked her hands behind her
head. “Maybe he’s just a really lousy paralegal.”

There was a long
pause as Ted digested what Catrina had just said. “Or maybe this is a case
where ethics rise above the law.”

****

“Mrs. Flaherty, you
better get out here.” Abeba screeched.

Ted looked up to
see a small, dark, elegantly dressed man with a bushy mustache, backed by three
Seattle Police Department officers pushing their way past the receptionist.

“Hold on there.”
Ted jumped up from his desk. “What do you want?”

“You Higuera?” The
short man in the gray suit had a menacing look beneath his short cut salt and
pepper hair.

“Yeah.” What was
going on?

“Cuff him.” The
man pushed past Ted.

“What the hell’s
going on here?” Catrina emerged from her office. “Petrocelli, what do you
want?”

The man called Petrocelli
was several inches shorter than Catrina and terribly fit. There wasn’t an ounce
of fat on him. The smile on his face looked more like a grimace of pain. He
reached in his jacket pocket and produced some folded papers. “Catrina
Flaherty, I have a warrant for your arrest. And Eduardo Higuera and Jonathon
Jefferson too.” He was taking way too much pleasure in this.

Mierda, what’s
this all about?

“On what charges?”
Catrina held her ground.

“Let’s start with
impersonating an officer of the law. Then we have computer trespass in the
first degree. Then we have my favorite. This is my first chance to prosecute
scum for pretexting.”

“Petrocelli,
you’re out of your mind.” Catrina didn’t flinch. “You don’t have a shred of
evidence.”

“Cuff ‘em boys.”
The evil grin grew even larger. “Flaherty, you don’t know how many nights I’ve lain
awake dreaming of this.”

“Stuff it, Petrocelli.
I know what you lay awake dreaming about, and it involves handcuffs all right.”

The two police
officers stepped forward and spun Ted around. One of them pulled his hands
behind his back while the other applied the handcuffs. They were no less gentle
with Catrina. Good thing Jeff was out of the office.

“You have the
right to remain silent,” the first officer said. He then recited the Miranda
Warning.

Once cuffed, the
cops grabbed their arms and drug them towards the door.

“Abeba, call
Jennifer.” Catrina shouted over her shoulder. “Have her meet us at the court
house. Call Jeff. Ted, don’t say a word until she arrives.”

Ted was shoved
down the long, treacherous flight of stairs and out into the rainy afternoon.
He wasn’t given a chance to put on a jacket and was freezing by the time he was
unceremoniously shoved into the patrol car.

Caramba
,
what’s
Mama going to say?
Ted had never been in trouble in his life. Growing up in
East LA, he had seen his friends hauled away by the cops many times, but never
thought it would happen to him. He needed to talk to Cat, to find out what he
should do. To figure out what was going on.

Catrina was in a
different patrol car. He had to stop and think. He forced himself to steady his
breath. His heartbeat ran wild.

Okay, Cat can
handle this.
She must have a lawyer.
Do I trust her lawyer or do I call
Chris?
Chris’ dad would be able to get him out.

But could he even
call Harry? Harry was working for Metcalf. That DA dude said that they were
being arrested for computer trespass and pretexting, fancy legal terms for
hacking. He had hacked into MS’ systems to get the goods on Metcalf. Would that
be a conflict of interest for Harry?

The cop driving
didn’t say a word during the trip down town. He pulled the patrol car into the
parking garage under the Public Safety Building and drug Ted out the door. The
elevator whooshed them upstairs to a holding cell.

The silent cop
removed the handcuffs and shoved Ted into a cell with three decidedly
unfriendly types.

“¿Para cuál
está adentro?”
The small, dark youth with a scar across his cheek seemed to
be the ring leader. He wanted to know what Ted was in for.

“Para cortar.”
Ted didn’t really know how to say “hacking” in Spanish. This was as close as he
could come.

“What, you give
someone a bad haircut, dude?” Scar face obviously spoke English too.

“No, man. Hacking.
I don’t know how to say hacking in Spanish.” Ted’s revelation didn’t appear to
increase his stature among his fellow criminals.

“Hacking? What
kind of sissy-assed crime is that?” Scar face shoved Ted’s shoulder. The other
two jail birds laughed at his joke. “What, you steal someone’s credit card
numbers, Nancy?”

This wasn’t going
well. He should have told them he was in for an axe murder.

“Higuera, we’ll
talk to you now.” A put out looking detective in a Wal-Mart suit opened the
cell door. “C’mon. I haven’t got all day.”

Ted stepped out
into the squad room. It looked pretty much like every cop show on TV. Rows of
desks, most littered with coffee cups, stacks of paper, take out containers and
pizza boxes. Men and women who looked bored out of their minds sat at the desks,
some talking on the telephone, some talking with people at their desks.

“This way.” The
badly-dressed detective led Ted to an interrogation room.

Also, just like
he’d seen on TV. The room was barren except for a table and three chairs. The
chair they put Ted in was bolted to the floor. A large mirror-covered one wall.

Two-way mirror,
Ted thought.
I wonder who’s on the other side.

“OK, Higuera, I’m
gonna make this simple for you. We’ve got you on three counts of computer
trespass in the first degree. Your boss and her little black buddy are going a
way for a long time. We’ve got them on impersonating an officer of the law and
pretexting. You can do yourself a favor here.”

The bad suit
paused, letting his words sink in. Ted wasn’t about to react.

“You help us out
and I think I can get the DA to lower the charges to second-degree computer
trespass. That’s only a misdemeanor. You could get away with a slap on the
wrist.”

Sweat ran into
Ted’s eyes. His palms were moist. “Hey, dude. I was just doin’ my job.”

“That’s what the
guards at Auschwitz said.” The detective crumpled the paper cup in his hands.
“They were good Nazi’s, just doin’ their jobs.” He tossed the cup into the
trash can, then looked at Ted for a long moment. “Is that what you are? You a
good Nazi?”

Ted sat silent. He
didn’t trust cops. In the ‘hood where he grew up, you didn’t talk to the law.

“I want a lawyer.”

“I’d think twice
about that if I were you, kid. You get a lawyer in here, the deals off the
table. You got one chance and you got exactly thirty seconds to make up your
mind. I call a lawyer and you go down for a felony.”

I can’t trust
this guy.
“Where’s my boss? I want to talk to Catrina.”