An Unladylike Murder, page 21
part #1 of Jessica Sloan Mystery Series
“Don’t you think that since we are about to have a database that not only contains everyone and all of their information but can also think, that we’re racing into a society where we have an even more powerful government surveillance than Big Brother had?”
“Given the scumbag criminals I’ve run across and what they are capable of doing, I don’t think we have any choice.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I chose to be a cop even though I knew it would be hard on having friendships and relationships. When I went through the Police Academy, I became convinced I’d made the right choice. Once I was out on the beat, I came face to face with unsavory people and their violence. Then even though I made a good arrest, wrote long reports and gave testimony in court, the bad guy would walk or get a slap on the hand. I realized then that what I was doing was putting a band-aid on much bigger issues. It was then that I realized I could either become crusty and have my hopeful view of helping society die, or I could get involved in technology and hopefully become part of a real solution.”
Cutter clapped his hands. “They need to video tape you as a police recruiter so they can attract more millennials.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Suit yourself.”
Chapter 56
Sonia Rodriguez lived closer to downtown Gilroy.
Thanks to the Maps program on Jessica’s phone, they found her house without a problem.
Sitting in the car, they peered at the house and yard.
Cutter said, “It looks like Sonia has the same gardening service as her sister.”
The only thing that was still alive in the front yard was a tomato plant near the front door stoop.
Cutter saw Sonia peering from behind a sheet hanging in her front window. “I’ll bet that Juanita called her and that she’s expecting us. Let’s go.”
Cutter motioned Sloan to stay behind him as he stepped up onto the broken cement step.
With her hand ready to pull her weapon, Sloan was alert and ready.
He rapped on the door through a flimsy homemade screen door.
Sonia opened the door and greeted them as if they were selling religion. “Why can’t you let a grieving mother ache for her dead daughter in peace?”
“We drove a long way to talk with you, Sonia. May we come inside?”
Sonia raised her eyebrows as if they were Girl Scouts selling poisoned cookies. “Do you have a warrant?”
“Do we need one? Perhaps we could ask ICE agents to bring it down to us. Would you prefer that?”
Her eyebrows narrowed.
Sonia grunted a response and moved aside to let Sloan and Cutter enter. “Does this mean I need a lawyer?”
“No, it does not, but you have every right to call one. We only have a few more questions for you. Now to confirm, your daughter died from Atrial fibrillation, right.”
Sonia crossed her arms. “Yes.”
Sonia shops at the same Goodwill shop as her sister.
Sloan noticed a large wooden cross hanging over a table that held a single plate and glass of water.
“Once again, where were you last Monday night?”
She closed her eyes as if she was remembering what she was supposed to say, then opened them. “I already told you. I was at my sister’s house with her husband. They don’t live far from here.”
As if she doesn’t know that we’ve already talked to Juanita and Hector.
“Do you have a husband, Sonia?”
“I did. He worked himself to death a few years ago leaving me a widow. Now, with Renata dead, I’m all alone.” She made a sign of the cross.
“Do you have any other relatives here in California, besides your sister?”
“Most of my family is in Mexico.”
“Maybe you misunderstood my question. Do you have any other relatives living nearby you, or here in California?”
“I don’t know. I don’t keep track.”
“How about Ben and Carl Lopez?”
She gave her head a slow shake. “No. No, Ben or Carl.”
“How about Benedicto and Carloz Lopez?”
Sonia rocked back and forth. “I think I might have two second cousins with those names. But I haven’t seen them since Mexico.”
“Have you seen or communicated with them in the last few months?”
“No.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Jessica glanced at her partner who nodded for her to proceed. “Listen carefully, Sonia. I need to tell you that we are conducting a murder investigation. If you are lying to me, you will be prosecuted for obstruction of justice. Now let me ask you once again, have you seen or talked to Benedicto or Carloz Lopez in the last few months.”
“I’m afraid that my daughter’s death has depressed me and my doctor has me on medications that leave me in a continual fog these days. I’m sorry but I don’t know. I can’t remember.”
Sloan realized she must have been talking to a lawyer.
Who else would tell her to answer that way?
“Before we leave, I would like to take your fingerprints and a swab of your DNA.”
“Do you have a warrant to do that?”
She’s definitely spoken to a lawyer.
“I can have ICE agents deliver a warrant, within an hour. Do you understand?”
“Si.”
“So here are your options; give me your prints and DNA here and now, or you can come with us to San Francisco where you’ll sit in an interrogation room for an hour or two before you give it to us. Which would you prefer? All I want to do is to eliminate you as a suspect.”
“Arrgh, let’s get it over with.”
Fifteen minutes later, they left.
Once they were in the Taurus, Cutter said, “Why did you want her fingerprints?”
“To see if they found them on the stall. Why else?”
Jessica used the palm of her right hand to hit the steering wheel. “She’s lying her ass off.”
“Now you’re thinking like a real detective. Knowing something and proving it are the difference between having a suspect and a conviction.”
“So, how do we find her two cousins, Cutter?”
“We just kicked the hornet’s nest. Now we wait and see what happens.”
Chapter 57
After arriving back in San Francisco, they found Garcia and Lee working the phones in the murder room.
Before they could even sit, Garcia said, “Did you hear how the protesters and social media are going nuts. It’s as if it’s shark week and they’re smelling blood in the water.”
“Why?”
“Don’t know. Someone certainly seems to be whipping them up though.”
Lee jumped into the conversation. “The politicians are in a frenzy over it. I heard one of them in Brown’s office demanding immediate arrests.”
“What did they say?”
“They want us to arrest someone for Jill’s murder, so the fear ends. They said, and I quote, ‘it’ll give your detectives time and will restart the tourists returning.’ Then they told her that billions, perhaps trillions of dollars were at risk.”
Sloan looked at Cutter. “We wouldn’t just arrest someone, or would we?”
Cutter replied, “Not unless it becomes a direct order. If that happens we’ll have no choice.”
Sloan was frustrated. “So much for the more efficient police force of the future.”
Neither Cutter, Garcia or Lee said anything.
When we’re given a command, we execute.
Cutter spoke. “So while we were visiting Sonia Rodriguez, what did you discover, Garcia?”
“First of all I should tell you we visited with Stan Bishop and his CCTV cameras. We looked at the ones near the Orpheum Theater, near the time when the intermission ended. We came up empty.”
Sloan said, “It was a long shot anyway.”
“Now for some good news. According to the DMV Ben Lopez drives a six-year-old silver Honda Accord. Carl doesn’t own a registered vehicle.”
“What about handguns?”
“Lee found out that they both own registered Glock 42s.”
“Those are the smallest Glock they make. They probably use them since they’re easy to hide anywhere on the body. They’re perfect for concealed carry.”
Garcia passed Cutter a piece of paper. “Here’s a list of their bank accounts and credit cards. We put out an alert on the cards. If they use one to purchase anything, we’ll know about it immediately. That’s it so far. ”
“Thanks guys.”
Cutter turned to Sloan. “Can the system tell you if they have any other relatives in the States?”
“I don’t know. I’ll give it a try. The system is already monitoring all of their phones, computers, and bank accounts. Give me Garcia’s list and I’ll get it to monitor their credit cards.”
Sloan sat at her desktop computer for fifteen minutes before she looked up. “I have iPoirot looking at airlines, cruises, buses and trains to see if they travel using their names or a known alias. Do you think there’s any chance these bozos could have already slipped back into Mexico?”
“I don’t…” Cutter’s iPhone pinged. He opened it up and hit the screen with his finger then did it again. “Now that’s strange.”
“What’s strange?”
“I just got an email from Lieutenant Brown. Why would she email me when she could just walk in here?”
“Let me see your phone.”
Sloan looked at the email. “You might be getting spear phished. If you look at the sender, it says Lieutenant Brown, but see below that it says LS3421@aol.net”
“That’s not her email address is it?”
“Nope.”
“So it’s a phony?”
“It’s clickbait where it seems your boss has sent you an email and it says something like, ‘here’s a new suspect,’ or ‘here’s more information regarding our last discussion’. When you click on the link, it triggers the automatic installation of malware that takes over your phone. Whoever sends it can then track you, look into your communications, perhaps even listen in on our conversations.”
“Then I’ll delete it.”
“Just turn it off by pushing the button on the top right and holding it down. That’s it. I’ll have my friend in the Forensics Unit scan your phone and check it for malware. Since your phone has special security software that allows it into iPoirot we need to do this immediately.
“That would be great. But why would anyone target one of us?”
Jessica lowered her voice. “These attacks are not generally random. It tells me that someone’s trying to get into our new system… or someone might be targeting us because we’re getting too close to finding Jill’s killer.”
Chapter 58
“Logan, it’s Jessica Sloan. I’m wondering if you can help me. I need a huge favor.”
“Hey Jessica, what do you need?”
Jessica explained what had happened to Cutter’s iPhone.
“Can it wait until tomorrow?”
“Uh, if there’s any chance you could do it today, I’ll buy you a dinner. Cutter and I are making progress on the case and we need it. Besides, I think the hacker might be trying to access iPoirot.”
“Where are you?”
“In the Murder Room.”
“Where’s that?”
“Same floor but two doors down on the right past the Homicide Squad Room.”
“No problem then. Give me fifteen minutes and I’ll be there.”
Logan knocked on the closed Murder Room door.
Sloan pulled down the screen to hide the murder board before she let him inside.
Jessica felt awkward now that Logan was there. “Thank you for doing this for us. Who can live without their phone these days?”
“No problem. Can I see the phone?”
Sloan looked at Cutter who handed Logan a lump of silver tin foil.
He unfolded a piece of the foil to see it was indeed a phone. “It was smart of you to turn it off then wrap it up in tinfoil.”
Sloan said, “That was me. I heard that the tinfoil creates a faraday cage around it. How long will it take to fix it so Cutter can use it again?”
“I’ll get it back to you tonight. Will you still be in the office for the next couple of hours?”
“Probably.”
After Logan left, Cutter said, “So that’s Logan. Seems like a real nerd.”
“Not a nerd. A geek.”
“What’s the difference?”
“A nerd has a high IQ, is obsessive and is socially awkward; a geek isn’t socially awkward.”
“I could see that… He likes you by the way.”
Sloan smiled but didn’t reply.
Chapter 59
As Logan left, Garcia and Lee said they were going out for half an hour. “You two want anything?”
“We’re both good thanks.”
As they shut the door, Sloan scanned the room.
Cutter said, “I’m going to go over the evidence we have so far to see if we’re missing anything.”
She saw Cutter was hunkered down reading something on his computer screen.
He’s doing a crossword puzzle!
Now’s my chance.
Hidden in her closet at home she had a scrapbook with the newspaper reports of her father’s death. He was a bank manager and was on the job when three masked men robbed his bank. As the robbers left with their haul, the supposed leader turned and shot her father for no apparent reason, three times.
Witnesses claimed the entire robbery lasted less than three minutes.
If they were that efficient, why did they waste precious seconds shooting him.
If they’d been caught, the charges would have gone from robbing a bank to murder.
Two shots to the torso and one to the head.
The shooter knew what he was doing.
The last time she’d asked the detective in charge of the case what the status was, he’d told her that the trio had robbed four other East Bay banks before they’d seemingly moved on to another state, were incarcerated on other charges, or had retired.
Criminals never retire!
After a follow up article, the news cycle had moved on leaving Jessica with no further information.
iPoirot is my chance to find out if there is more information in the system.
Jessica made sure Cutter was engaged and not paying any attention to her. She pulled her chair closer to her desk and logged into iPoirot.
One last glance to ensure she wasn’t being watched, she typed in her father’s name and pressed enter.
She sat back and waited.
Nothing!
She tried entering it, surname first again, then tried with surname last.
Still Nothing! It’s an old file. I’ll try again in a year or two.
She logged out.
Garcia and Lee walked back into the room.
Jessica went to grab some coffee. Five minutes later, she re-entered the murder room.
Jessica tripped over her own feet and dropped her ceramic coffee cup onto the tile floor sending her coffee and the cup in every direction. “Oh, shoot.”
Garcia and Lee laughed.
Cutter bent down to help her pick up pieces of the cup then grunted as he tried to stand.
Jessica noticed John’s pained expression. “Sore knees?”
“Fell on them while chasing a suspect. The doctor gave me a Cortisone shot in both knees about six weeks ago but he also told me I’ll need new ones one day.”
When Garcia stopped laughing he said, “You two certainly make a great team.”
Sloan was flustered. “Why do you say that?”
Cutter brought his hand up to cover his eyes. “Please, don’t.”
Garcia said, “It happened a few years ago. While Cutter was getting ready for his shift, he accidentally tasered his own Lieutenant in the locker room.”
Cutter held up his hands in the air. “Hold on now. It was a locker room accident. I’d worked out and showered. I was placing my taser into its holster when I accidentally slipped on the wet floor causing the damn thing to go off. As I fell, my finger pressed down on the trigger for five seconds.”
“But you’re leaving out the best part, John. Tell Jessica how the Lieutenant was naked and standing at the urinal when you tasered him”
Chapter 60
An hour later, Logan knocked on the murder room door.
Once again, Sloan pulled down the screen that hid the murder board, then opened the door to let him inside.
Logan held up Cutter’s phone. “It’s fixed.”
Sloan smiled. “I have to say, you’re fast.”
“I did my best.” Logan put his hands in his pockets.
Cutter spoke up. “I owe you big time for getting it done. Is there a delivery charge?”
Everyone smiled.
“Seriously, Logan. I really appreciate it. As Jessica may have told ya, I hate technology. These days, I look at my email inbox the same way I do my landline phone. It’s not mine anymore. Mostly all I get are telemarketers and robot scammers.”
Jessica was surprised. “Why do you even have a landline, Cutter?”
“What if someone needs me to fax something to them?”
“Like who?”
“A doctor.”
“Even doctors no longer use fax machines, John. Everything is internet based nowadays.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really and you’ll save money.”
“Okay then. I’ll look into it.”
Logan rolled his eyes at Jessica.
Jessica said, “I know you cleaned up Cutter’s phone, but were you able to track where the phishing attack came from.”
“It took me this long just to clean it up so he could use it again. If you want me to try and track who sent it, I’ll try.”
Jessica walked him to the elevator. “I really appreciate what you did to help us. As soon as we solve this case I’m buying you dinner.”
“If you need anything else just let me know.”
Jessica smiled. “Thank you so much.”
