Just Right, page 7
"I'm going to see if I can find it using this quick fix," she explained, glancing up at Connor.
His fascination with the online world had ebbed, and now he just looked impatient. "We need to get it fast," he urged.
"I'm doing my best," Cami said.
Her program was working, using information available in the public domain and networking it with other online activity. And as she watched, it got them a result.
"It looks like it's a cafe on the waterfront, near the starting point of one of the Milwaukee River cruises. Sam's Cafe, it's called."
"And how do we locate this person?"
"Well, the first step is to go there."
Connor wasted no more time. He turned to the door, and to Cami's relief, said, "Let's head straight to the cafe. I think we’ve gotten what we needed from this scene."
***
Sam's Cafe was a big, popular place, overlooking the Milwaukee River, with about thirty tables inside and another ten or so outside on the boardwalk beyond the entrance.
The staff were dressed in navy blue shirts with white piping, in homage to its waterfront location perhaps, and the walls were filled with local art. At this hour, with lunch under way, almost every table was taken.
“Can you tell where he is?”
“I need some time to pinpoint it,” Cami said cagily. This wasn’t as simple as Connor seemed to think it would be. She hoped that he wouldn’t get mad at her when he found that out.
"Let's go stand at the bar," Connor decided. He wove his way to the bar that lined the right side of the cafe and stood in the corner with his back to the wall, surveying the room.
He'd left the only seat for Cami, and she took it, hitching herself onto it and looking around, taking in the bustle and buzz of this busy cafe.
With so many people here, Cami hoped there was a high likelihood that the hacker who'd written this program would be here, looking to send it out and trap more unwary users in his information-sucking web. But he wasn’t here yet, to her unease.
"Now, how do we find him?" Connor asked.
Cami stared at him, feeling worried. He was still looking very impatient, and she didn't think he was going to like her answer.
"We wait," she said.
Sure enough, his eyebrows shot up. "Wait?" he asked incredulously.
"I've got some software running that will tell us as soon as he connects up here. And he has often connected at lunch time in the past."
"You mean he’s not here? And this is the only way of finding him?”
“Yes.”
“We could be waiting here all week!” he spluttered. “How often does he come in?"
"He’s been here three times in the past week," she said placatingly. She didn't think her tone would work, though, and sure enough, Connor seethed.
"That's less than fifty percent of the time!"
"I'm not sure how else to do it," Cami admitted. "He's not going to come to us, and we don't know where he lives, or how to get hold of him, or even who he is. This is the only way to find him. He was last here two days ago, so hopefully he's due a visit today, and he'll soon be sitting here, trying to send out the malware to more people."
"We give it an hour," Connor decided.
"An hour should do it. He often seems to connect at lunch time. I guess that’s because it's busy, probably so he can target the most people online, and also because it's more difficult for him to be noticed."
Connor checked his watch, then looked around the room. Cami saw him look at his watch again, and she knew he was counting down the time. Most definitely, on the hour, he was going to say they must leave.
Where was this man, this invisible hacker? She was sure that he was going to sign in today. He'd never had more than a two-day gap in the past. She knew that Connor still didn't entirely trust the process she used to get this information. She wanted to earn his trust and that made it all the more urgent that her hunch paid off.
She stared down, willing him to sign in, willing her program to alert her to his whereabouts.
Just as she was on the point of giving up, it happened.
The code lit up. There was activity online, and that meant he was using the secret program.
"He's here," she said, feeling her heart speed up. “I can see his code. I can see it’s linked to a username. Landon Graham. That must be him, and he’s just logged in.”
"Where?"
"That's what we have to look for. He will have just arrived."
"I've been keeping track," Connor said. "There are only two people who've sat down in the last five minutes. Both have been on their own. One was over to the right, an older woman who looks to be waiting for someone. And the other is straight ahead."
He pointed to a studious-looking man in his twenties, who was staring intently at a large laptop.
"It's him," Cami said with a nod. It could be nobody else.
Time to ask some questions and to get answers from this mystery hacker.
Cami rushed over to the hacker, shoulder to shoulder with Connor, feeling her pulse race at the thought of the confrontation ahead. He looked like a normal type of guy. Studious, with spectacles and suspenders over a white, well ironed shirt. He looked preppy and ordinary and nowhere close to the mental image that Cami was sure most people had of what a hacker would be like.
He looked up in surprise as they sat down opposite him. He was clearly in his own little world, oblivious to the people around him. But as his eyes widened, Cami saw that he was quickly realizing who they were and that their arrival spelled trouble.
"FBI," Connor said. “We need to speak to you.”
The man acted instantly, and surprisingly fast.
He shoved the table toward them violently, so that its edge hit Cami in the stomach, and she let out a choking gasp.
And then, having grabbed his laptop with lightning speed, he was out. A chair clattered down as he pushed it aside.
Landon Graham was on the run, fleeing the cafe. He'd gotten the jump on them, he'd seized the element of surprise, and now they were at risk of him getting away.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Connor shoved the table away, so hard that the salt and pepper cellars teetered and wobbled and then clattered down. And the next moment, in a rush, he was out.
Feeling breathless with shock, Cami scrambled to her feet and hurtled out of the cafe after him.
She couldn't believe this. In front of their eyes, Landon Graham had taken flight and was now racing down a side road that seemed to lead to a recycling center. On the blacktopped surface, several large containers of various colors stood. Landon wove his way in between two of them and abruptly disappeared from sight.
Connor swore under his breath as he powered down the hill and into the center, taking the same route their suspect had gone.
"FBI! Stop!" he yelled, but Landon took no notice, and if anything, his headlong flight accelerated. He must know the area, Cami thought. He must have found a side entrance and be speeding out already, because Connor was darting the same way and was now visible in the alley beyond the center.
Connor had pulled ahead of her and that wasn't helpful at all. She was already losing him, seeing the two men race further and further away.
She sped up, trying to accelerate. She could feel her lungs burning, her legs aching, and she forced herself to go faster.
She had no idea what she was doing, she was just blindly following Connor. But she wanted to be there for him. She wanted to support him. She wanted to be there to back him up.
She wanted to be his equal.
But she knew she wasn't. He was a trained FBI agent, and she wasn't trained for this. She hadn't been co-opted onto the FBI for her running ability. She'd been forced to help them because of her coding and hacking prowess.
And yet, she was still running. She was still going to pursue this man with everything she had, and she would help to take him down, if she possibly could. As she saw him turn a corner and disappear, she surged on. She raced down the alley, hurtling over a trash can and skimming a low wall behind the two men, with speed and agility that surprised her.
Now, they were racing down the alleyway, and as she entered it, they exited, turning hard right.
Cami's shoes were feeling like lead weights at the end of her feet. She felt as if she was bursting with the effort.
She wasn't going to give up. Not now. Not when she needed to keep Connor and the fleeing suspect in sight. Not when she could feel it, the close presence of danger, the adrenaline racing through her veins.
She'd left the cafe far behind her. There was nothing now, besides the quick pounding of her own frantic running and the thumping of her heart in her ears. She wasn't going to give up. She was going to run as fast as she could and do everything she could to help them catch this guy.
And then, suddenly, the alleyway opened into a large, open space. It was a parking area, and she could see Connor and Landon racing between the rows of cars.
More running! How had Connor done this? How did he do this every day? Nothing had prepared her for this. She wasn't a runner. She loved to walk. But she'd been hired for her smarts, not her fitness. Just as well, because fitness had failed her totally now. She wasn't able to run another step. All the resolve in the world was not going to change basic physiology and the fact that she was past her own limits.
What else could she do. Feeling defeated, Cami stopped, leaning against the fence and gasping for air.
Was there any other way she could get to him? She had some basic information on him. Could she get more? Could she find anything else from this underhanded hacker, this creator of malware, who'd fled when the FBI had arrived?
He had his phone and laptop with him. He'd logged into the cafe when he gotten there. She'd had programs running then, to pick him up, and they might still be running now. She might be able to see his access logs. Maybe there would be more information on them, or something that could help her.
She was so exhausted and starved of air that her hands were shaking as she accessed the information.
It was partially downloaded, not fully. She didn't have everything she needed. What did she have?
Aha. Here was something. She had an online app payment. He'd booked his wifi immediately on arrival. And from that, Cami realized, she could see his home address.
Gasping for breath, she checked it out on her maps app. Her mind was racing with possibilities. Chief among them was whether Landon had been trying to lose the FBI so that he could bolt for home and lock himself away.
"Okay. It's not too far. He could have gone there. Or be taking a roundabout route," she concluded.
Interestingly, it was a ten-minute walk from the cafe. He lived in an apartment block just three streets down. He hadn’t gone straight there. But that had been because he’d fled in a panic and was hoping to lose Connor in this twisting, turning route he’d taken. If she’d been him, she’d have headed home.
She’d now completely lost both Landon and Connor. So, she had a choice. It was go back to the cafe, or head to his house.
Going back to the café was pointless because he wouldn’t be there. There was no way he would have headed back there again.
Cami checked the maps once more, fixing the route to his place into her mind. And then at a fast walk, because she didn't trust her legs not to buckle under her if she tried to run again, she set off for the apartments. They were only a block away from where she was now, a surprisingly short distance.
The apartment buildings were set back from the road, an enclave of two- and three-story buildings that formed a mini estate. She walked up to it, seeing the main entrance ahead. He was on the ground floor of apartment three.
There didn't seem to be any security in place at the main gate, and she guessed each apartment had its own bell or buzzer. She felt her throat tighten.
What if he was there? What if he was in his house right now, packing his bags and readying to run? She’d have to face him alone if Connor had lost him.
What if he was nowhere around, and she'd made a huge mistake? That was an even worse eventuality.
But for now, she should send Connor the coordinates. He might be running, but if he wasn’t, he might need them. Quickly, Cami messaged them to him with the words, “Landon’s address.”
She took a deep breath. She felt a little calmer now, and she felt ready to walk into the face of danger.
Apartment three was set one back from the road. She followed the paved path around to it and found the door for his unit.
It was locked up tight. The blinds were drawn, and she couldn't hear anything from inside.
Cami hesitated. Should she wait here? Or should she go back to the main road and keep a lookout for Connor, either arriving or messaging her back.
But, at that moment, there was a thump of footsteps and her head jerked up.
Landon, looking frantic and exhausted, with his laptop bag bouncing on his back, sprinted along the walkway. He had his key in his hand, ready to unlock the door. When he saw Cami, he stopped dead, an expression of shock on his face.
He turned and began sprinting the other way.
"No! Wait!"
Feeling appalled that this chase was starting all over again and that Connor was nowhere to be seen, Cami forced her aching legs to move and set off in pursuit.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Cami raced after Landon, feeling shocked that this was happening all over again. Shocked and worried, because now it was up to her to chase him down. At least she could see that the zigzag route, which must have succeeded in losing Connor, had also taken its toll on him. His limbs were flailing. He was puffing for breath, stumbling over the curbside as he reached the pedestrian path.
And there, to her extreme relief, she saw Connor racing in his direction. Sending the coordinates had been the right thing to do. The cavalry had arrived, and now there was nowhere for Landon to go.
Again, he hesitated and turned, but that only meant he was facing Cami, and the next moment, Connor grabbed his arm from behind.
“Enough, now,” he said, puffing out the words to the exhausted suspect. “Enough now. You’re coming in for questioning. I’m going to call a car to fetch you now. And don’t try anything else.”
To make sure he didn’t, Connor handcuffed his hands behind him before making the call. Just a couple of minutes later, a police car pulled up.
“We’ll take him in, and give you a ride back to your car,” the officer at the wheel said.
Cami had never been so relieved to collapse on the comfortable fabric of the car’s passenger seat. Her legs were aching, and she spent the short ride to Connor’s car trying to get her breath back and her thoughts in order to prepare for the questioning ahead. Luckily, Landon seemed to be just as sapped from the run. He spent the journey in silence and didn’t struggle or complain at all.
They changed cars when they reached the place where Connor had parked and drove behind the other cops to the local police department. Once at the local police department, they unloaded Landon and escorted him in. Connor took him straight to the front desk.
“We have a suspect to question. Is there an interview room available?”
Cami was getting used to the look and feel of these rooms, which the police officer showed them to as soon as Landon had been officially signed in and his details taken. She was used to the bright lighting, the featureless walls, and the observation window, which she knew was made of one-way glass.
They all sat down. Landon was out of handcuffs. He was fidgeting, looking deeply uneasy, with his shoulders hunched. He wasn’t making eye contact with either her or Connor, Cami saw.
“You know why we came to speak to you?” Connor asked.
Landon shook his head.
“It was because we tracked malware back to your IP address. You’ve been sending it out, gathering people’s information. Correct?”
Landon swallowed hard. Finally, in a hoarse voice, he started to talk. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean. You seem to think I'm some kind of a criminal? I’m not.”
“Malware on its own is serious enough. But you’ve been embedding it in quizzes, and we have three recent murder victims who did those quizzes. Was this how you tracked them?” Connor asked harshly.
"Look, I don't know what you're talking about." He was breathing almost as hard as he had done when running, Cami saw.
"We've been following your online activities for a while, and we've seen what you've been doing," Connor insisted.
"This is some kind of mistake, right? It isn't me. I don't do that kind of stuff."
Connor leaned forward over the table, his face hard. "Don't be a fool, Landon. My colleague here is an IT expert. She can get the information off your computer, probably faster than you can blink. So, you might as well admit to it before she goes looking."
Now, Landon's gaze swung to Cami, and he stared at her, looking appalled.
"No, no, no," he said, appearing to panic. "I don't know what you think I'm doing, but you got the wrong guy. You got the wrong guy."
"Let me see your computer then," she challenged him. “It’s been signed in with the rest of your possessions. We can sign it out again and take a look inside.”
Cami saw Landon's eyes widen in horror. He clearly believed her.
"Don't you dare," he said. Cami was shocked by his vehemence.
“You won’t have a choice. As a suspect, we’re now entitled to investigate related evidence,” Connor explained.
"I never killed anyone!" Landon's voice was now high and stressed. He looked as frantic as if he'd suddenly landed in a nightmare.
"You'll need to prove that in a court of law if you don't agree to speak to us and give us answers," Connor threatened.
"Please, I haven't done anything wrong—well, not more than just an innocent piece of software. I'm not a murderer." Landon now sounded as if he was begging to be believed.
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