‘‘No, that will take a little finesse with the computers. I thought you would want to know right away. She can’t have gotten far.’’

  ‘‘Of course,’’ said Janice. ‘‘We’re on it right now.’’

  ‘‘Tell them to block all the exits to the museum,’’ said Frank.

  ‘‘Hold the phone a minute,’’ she said to Janice. ‘‘She’ll be gone by then.’’

  ‘‘Maybe not,’’ said Frank. He took the phone from Diane. ‘‘Quicker this way,’’ he said, smiling.

  ‘‘Warrick,’’ he said. ‘‘This is Frank Duncan. She may be changing cars before she gets off museum property. There are several access roads around the museum. Have your people get to those roads— quickly. Diane will have her security on the way too.’’

  Diane called her security and told them basically what Frank had relayed to Janice. She put down the phone and looked at Frank.

  ‘‘What makes you think that’s what she’s going to do?’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘She said she had a plan,’’ said Frank. ‘‘What’s that movie that always cracks you up— Tremors? And what is it about a plan that guy says that you just love?’’

  ‘‘ ‘Running’s not a plan; running’s what you do when a plan fails,’ ’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘Well, getting out on the highway in a car she knows you will have seen is not a plan. That’s running.’’

  Izzy laughed out loud.

  43

  Diane, Frank, and Izzy were in Frank’s car trailing the museum security SUV. Frank and Diane were in the front seat, Izzy in the back. Frank followed at a distance. They didn’t want to capture Rikki themselves, but they did want to be extra eyes looking for her.

  ‘‘I think she’ll use that old roadway down by the river,’’ said Frank.

  He was speaking of the Dekanogee River—which was the river referred to in the RiverTrail Museum. He turned off onto the old dirt road, leaving the security vehicle to cover the more heavily used access roads.

  ‘‘Why do you think she would come this way?’’ asked Diane.

  ‘‘She wants to dispose of the hard disk so no one else can get the numbers,’’ said Frank. ‘‘And she needs to get rid of it as soon as possible. I suspect she intends to throw the disk into the river. This is a good place to do that and a secluded place to change vehicles.’’

  The woods were dense in this section of the property, and the roadbed was old and rough. The bottom of Frank’s Camaro scraped the ground in the deep ruts, and the car bounced around badly enough that Diane tightened her seat belt and pressed the flat of her hand on the roof above her to hold herself in place.

  ‘‘I have to tell you guys, my first day on the job has been a real kicker,’’ said Izzy.

  ‘‘It’s not over yet,’’ said Diane. ‘‘What’s that?’’ she said, pointing toward some bushes just ahead. Through the tangle of undergrowth Diane thought she saw a glint from a mirror and a flash of orange. Frank slowed the car as they approached. Diane rolled down her window so she could see better and listen for sounds. Frank drove slowly past the place where Diane thought she saw the car. It was there in the bushes, only half concealed. He stopped the Camaro and called in their location. Izzy jumped out, pulled his gun, and ran in a crouch to the rear of the Geo. Cautiously, gun at the ready, he took a quick look through the windows of the vehicle and scanned the area. He turned toward them and shook his head.

  ‘‘Up ahead,’’ said Diane. ‘‘I hear a car.’’

  Izzy heard it too. He ran back and jumped in the backseat.

  ‘‘I think she’s abandoned it all right,’’ he said. He reached out his window and patted the roof of Frank’s car.

  ‘‘Let’s go,’’ he said.

  Frank looked over at Diane and smiled. He drove the narrow road at a speed greater than Diane felt comfortable with, but she said nothing and held on. Ahead of them they saw the rear of a dark blue Saturn just going out of sight around a curve in the road. Frank drove faster and the ride got bumpier.

  As they rounded the curve, the Saturn was just ahead. The road was smoother here, mainly dirt, and the blue sedan was accelerating and kicking up dust. The Saturn drove out of sight again.

  Frank sped up.

  They popped over a low rise and suddenly they saw it again. It was backing fast toward them, running from police and museum security cars coming fast, head-on. Frank slid to a stop. Diane braced for impact. The Saturn’s brake lights were glaring red; the car skidded to a stop just inches before it hit the front end of Frank’s Camaro. Izzy jumped out of the car, leaving the door open, and drew his gun—as did Frank. Diane opened her door and stayed behind it. She had no gun.

  She heard Janice’s voice calling for the occupant of the car to come out, hands on head.

  Diane watched the person sitting behind the steering wheel in the car. She saw black hair, she thought, but it was hard to see much with the glare of the sun on the window.

  Janice repeated the command.

  The door opened and Rikki stepped out, hands in the air. She was wearing a black wig. That was a relief. The thought had crossed Diane’s mind that perhaps they had disturbed some innocent nature lovers who thought they were being chased by maniacs in a white Camaro. Janice spread Rikki against the car, patted her down, and put handcuffs on her. Only then did Diane stand up and Frank and Izzy let their guards down.

  Rikki cast a wicked glance back at Diane.

  Diane, Frank, and Izzy went to the interrogation room at the police station where Rikki was taken. They stood and looked through the two-way mirror at her sitting with her hands on top of the desk, beating out a tune with her palms.

  ‘‘She doesn’t look too worried,’’ said Izzy. ‘‘Why is that, I wonder?’’

  ‘‘She has a Plan B,’’ said Diane. ‘‘What I wonder is, did she have time to shift the money in the offshore accounts to some other bank account? How hard is that to do? Can you do it with a cell? A BlackBerry? An iPod?’’ she asked, smiling.

  Frank laughed. ‘‘You can do it with a cell or a BlackBerry. It would be hard with an iPod.’’

  ‘‘Is it difficult to track?’’ asked Diane.

  ‘‘Depends,’’ said Frank. ‘‘Could be very difficult. Even if you find it, you have to prove the money doesn’t belong to the person who opened the account. Not easy with some of the offshore banking laws.’’

  ‘‘What’s her Plan B?’’ asked Izzy.

  Janice Warrick entered the interview room and sat down opposite Rikki.

  The observation room door opened and Chief of Police Buford Monroe entered. He stood beside Diane and the others, nodding to them.

  ‘‘Finally getting somewhere,’’ he said. ‘‘You say your guy cracked the encryption?’’

  ‘‘Yes, David and Frank,’’ said Diane. ‘‘It had some very unusual aspects to it.’’

  ‘‘I’ll be anxious to hear about it,’’ he said.

  ‘‘We need to track down who encrypted it,’’ said Diane.

  Janice started speaking. Diane watched Rikki. She didn’t look particularly defiant, and so far she hadn’t asked for a lawyer.

  ‘‘So tell me,’’ said Janice. ‘‘When did you decide to kill Jefferies and Peeks?’’

  Rikki smiled. ‘‘I didn’t kill anyone. I swear.’’ She crossed her heart with her right index finger.

  ‘‘You didn’t, yet you knew about the money?’’ said Janice.

  ‘‘Well, yeah, we all knew about the money.’’

  ‘‘We all?’’ said Janice.

  ‘‘People close to Jefferies.’’

  ‘‘If you didn’t kill them, who did?’’ asked Janice.

  ‘‘For that, I need a deal and a lawyer,’’ Rikki said.

  ‘‘A deal?’’ said Janice.

  But Monroe knocked on the glass. Rikki looked up, smiled, and waved as if she could see them on the other side.

  ‘‘She’s asked for a lawyer,’’ said Monroe. ‘‘I might ought to have had one of the more senior detectives question her.’’

  ‘‘Wouldn’t have made any difference,’’ said Diane. ‘‘Rikki’s working on Plan B.’’

  Diane and the others waited for Rikki’s lawyer to show up. Diane tried to get a moment to speak to Janice, but she was busy running back and forth. Looking for ducks to get in a row, Diane supposed.

  District Attorney Riddmann showed up first. He was another bureaucrat whom Diane had managed to offend with her unpolished diplomatic skills. But he was friendly enough. He commented sympathetically on Diane’s face. She looked forward to the day when the bruises would be gone.

  Diane introduced the DA to Frank, but they knew each other already. Frank apparently could also have some unpolished diplomatic skills on occasion when it came to Riddmann.

  ‘‘You’re out of uniform, aren’t you, Izzy?’’ Riddmann said, patting him on the arm.

  ‘‘Nope. I’m working with the crime lab now. Quite exciting it is too. I had no idea what those folks were into over there,’’ he said. ‘‘Why, decryption alone was worth the price of the ticket.’’ He grinned broadly. Riddmann nodded as if he understood what Izzy was talking about. It was awkward all the way around. Riddmann was not an easy man to make small talk with, even had Diane been good at small talk herself. Janice joined them.

  ‘‘Sorry, I’ve been so busy. You’d think someone who has just stolen so much money could afford her own lawyer. The judge appointed LaCroix. She’ll be here shortly.’’

  ‘‘You think this will crack open the case?’’ asked Riddmann.

  Janice shrugged. She looked at Diane. ‘‘Do you know what she has up her sleeve?’’

  ‘‘She wants to trade Bryce in exchange for a deal for herself,’’ said Diane.

  Janice raised her eyebrows.

  ‘‘Does she have anything to deal with?’’ said Riddmann. ‘‘I understand she’s been caught red-handed, as it were.’’

  ‘‘She has the forceps Bryce used to take the bullet out of Edgar Peeks’ skull, as well as the bullet,’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘And quite a story, I would imagine.’’

  44

  Rikki’s lawyer came bustling in. She was a middle-aged woman, heavyset, with chunky turquoise jewelry and black frizzy hair. Riddmann didn’t like her, mainly because he often lost to her, Diane knew.

  Patsy LaCroix took one look at Diane and put her hand over her mouth. ‘‘Did the police do that to you?’’ she said.

  ‘‘Your client is in here,’’ said Janice. She ushered her into the interrogation room.

  Diane thought she probably ought to go back to the museum, but she was curious to see how this turned out. She sat down with Frank on a bench out in the hallway. Izzy went to visit friends in the department, no doubt to tell them of his adventures so far. Riddmann and Janice stood talking with the chief of police, probably planning strategies, thought Diane.

  ‘‘What did you make of the… I don’t know what to call him,’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘AI, instant messenger?’’ said Frank. ‘‘I’m not sure if he was real or not either. I didn’t detect any outside communications. What did I think of him? Interesting. Very intriguing.’’

  ‘‘Someone must have gotten a photograph of me and programmed it into the computer for the camera to recognize. Is that how it was done?’’ said Diane. ‘‘There are publicity photographs of me available from the museum. It would be easy enough to get one.’’

  Frank nodded. ‘‘It had to be a high-resolution picture. Publicity photographs are good for that. They are usually high res.’’

  ‘‘When?’’ said Diane. ‘‘When would they have done that?’’

  Frank looked at her as if just recognizing the problem. ‘‘I don’t know,’’ he said.

  ‘‘The computer was at the mayor’s house until he was killed. After that they would not have access to it. At the time of his death I wasn’t the director of the crime lab. So, why me? Why would they think I would have access to the crime scene evidence?’’ she said.

  ‘‘That’s a good question,’’ he said. ‘‘A very good question.’’

  Frank sat thinking for several moments. ‘‘Where was the computer taken after it left the mayor’s house?’’

  ‘‘The police station. They tried to get into it but couldn’t get past the encryption. Then it was brought to the crime lab, where it sat on a shelf. It went from there to my museum office,’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘Someone had remote access to it every time it was turned on,’’ said Frank.

  ‘‘How?’’ asked Diane.

  ‘‘Its wireless network adapter. It could connect itself to whatever computer network it detected. The police station and your museum both have local area networks with wireless connections,’’ said Frank.

  ‘‘But doesn’t each computer have to be…I don’t know … don’t they have to have a special card to work with each network?’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘Not with wireless connections,’’ said Frank. ‘‘All the fellow had to do was defeat the security regulating wireless access to the network. For an experienced hacker, that’s a piece of cake, even for your museum network … No offense. Whenever Jefferies’ computer was turned on, it could automatically connect itself to the nearest wireless access point and send out a ping to the hacker’s computer.’’

  ‘‘A ping?’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘Computers talk to each other in the background constantly. A ping is kind of like one computer ringing the other’s doorbell and saying, Hi, it’s me. I’m here, you there? ’’

  ‘‘Its doorbell?’’ asked Diane.

  ‘‘A metaphor,’’ said Frank.

  ‘‘An analogy,’’ said Diane.

  ‘‘A good one. I know how you hate bad ones. The point is, for as long as Jefferies’ computer was turned on, our clever fellow could put anything on or take anything off of it that he wanted—programs, data files, photos of your iris, incriminating lists … anything.’’ Frank grinned. He seemed almost gleeful over his analysis.

  ‘‘Is nothing safe?’’ said Diane. The potential for invasion of privacy was staggering to her.

  ‘‘Not a lot. You need good protections. If I were you, I’d let David take a look at your museum systems. He is really good.’’

  ‘‘Frank, please don’t put him on your list,’’ said Diane suddenly. David would hate the very idea. He reached over and squeezed her arm. ‘‘I won’t. Don’t worry.’’

  She looked at Frank. He wouldn’t, she thought. Another thing she liked about Frank. He was decent. Diane thought a moment. ‘‘So it was someone who wanted to make things right. It’s probably someone on the list of hackers,’’ she said.

  ‘‘He or she probably took their name off the list,’’ said Frank.

  ‘‘So we can’t find out who it is,’’ said Diane.

  Frank studied the wall opposite their bench, lost in thought. ‘‘I can look at the list and see if there are any businesses left off that should have been a prime target—have a look at their employees. I can see if there are any hackers that I know about who aren’t on the list,’’ he said. ‘‘We know Edgar Peeks was recruiting at university job fairs. That’s not uncommon; many agencies recruit employees that way—easier to find the kind of employee you want. The university placement offices should have records on their fairs.’’

  Diane sat up. ‘‘Could that guy, Malcolm Chen, have done it before …’’ Diane shook her head. ‘‘He died several months ago.’’ She looked up again. ‘‘If those are his bones from the field. They might not be. Jin hasn’t finished the DNA analysis yet.’’

  ‘‘It’s worth checking out,’’ said Frank. ‘‘He may have just gone to ground—in another way,’’ he added. LaCroix came out and motioned for the DA and Janice. Frank, Diane, and the chief of police went back to the observation room.

  ‘‘My client can offer you the murderer of Edgar Peeks all wrapped up with a bow. What can you offer her?’’ said LaCroix.

  ‘‘What about the murderer of Jefferies?’’ said Janice Warrick.

  ‘‘She doesn’t know who killed him,’’ said LaCroix.

  ‘‘They weren’t killed by the same person?’’ said Janice. She looked surprised.

  ‘‘They may have been,’’ said LaCroix. ‘‘But my client can only prove who killed Peeks. What can you offer her?’’

  ‘‘She held a gun on four people employed by the Rosewood Police Department and one Atlanta detective,’’ said Riddmann. ‘‘Threatening to kill them. What kind of deal does she think she can get?’’

  ‘‘The gun wasn’t loaded,’’ said LaCroix. She looked over at Janice.

  Janice shook her head. ‘‘It wasn’t,’’ she said.

  ‘‘My client isn’t a murderer. She is a victim caught up in some terrible conspiracies by these men.’’

  ‘‘What about the money?’’ said Janice.

  ‘‘What about it?’’ said LaCroix. ‘‘You have the account numbers. She didn’t have time to do anything with them.’’

  ‘‘We can give her six months,’’ said Riddmann, ‘‘in the women’s facility.’’

  Diane thought that was awfully light, considering they didn’t know what else she had done. Ask her. Diane wanted to knock on the window. She started to say something to the chief of police, but Janice spoke up.

  ‘‘There were her activities in the employ of the mayor and his friends, and we don’t know what her role was in the Peeks murder. She may have helped cover it up,’’ said Janice. ‘‘Or plan it.’’

  ‘‘I just worked for the crime lab,’’ said Rikki. ‘‘You can look at the logs to see the crime scenes I was on. And as for Peeks, I didn’t find out about his murder until after it was done. Sure the killer told me about it, but he threatened me. These are mean guys.’’

  ‘‘You weren’t too afraid to steal their money,’’ said Janice.

  ‘‘It was over a quarter of a billion dollars. I was overwhelmed by the thought of that much money. But I didn’t hurt anyone and I wasn’t one of the hackers who helped them get rich. They hired me to work in the crime lab because of my degree,’’ said Rikki.

 

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