An Unladylike Murder, page 24
part #1 of Jessica Sloan Mystery Series
“It all happened so fast. As you know, the lighting in the garage isn’t great. He wasn’t black. Maybe white, maybe Mexican. All I know is that he wore a hoodie.”
“Hmm. Anything unusual about him?”
“Come to think of it he was strong as hell. Looked kind of stocky but that could have been the hoodie.”
“Stocky, eh? Do ya think it could have been one of our body guards?”
“Perhaps. Oh, and I told the doctor in the emergency ward how I had grabbed the attacker’s ear then jabbed my thumbs into his right eye. So he took scrapings from my fingernails and sent them to our Forensics lab.”
If it’s a cop, I should know soon.
“Good. Shall we go grab a coffee?”
“Sure.”
They found a quiet corner table with two chairs in the snack machine area.
Sloan went first. “I haven’t checked with the garage. Is there a video camera in there?”
“There is, but I was just told that someone used a jammer to temporarily disable it the other night.”
Jessica swallowed hard. “Do you think there’s any chance it was a cop that attacked me?”
Cutter raised his eyebrows. “Sweet Jesus, I hope not. Why would a fellow cop want to hurt you?”
Jessica took her time in replying. “My sister thought I might be viewed as a threat since I’m being held out as the iPoirot expert.”
Cutter grimaced. “Let me think about that. I know most of the guys pretty well and I can’t believe that any of them would be that concerned about you. Besides, what has iPoirot done to cause them to worry?”
Cutter looked directly into Jessica’s eyes. “Tell me the truth, how are you feeling today?”
“I already told you, I’m fine.”
“I’ve met a lot of cops and detectives who do this job for the salary, benefits, and the early retirement age. A bad event like you experienced often kills what’s left of their desire to serve the public or see justice done.”
“What are you saying John?”
“I’m just having a confidential chat with my partner. If you aren’t a hundred percent, my life could be in danger if you can’t back me up. If ya want to take an extra day or two off to recover, I’m good with it.”
“Really, Cutter. I’m fine. I just wished I’d had a chance to turn on my body camera.”
“Good. Then let me ask you a few questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why do you think you were attacked? Was it the case? Is the killer trying to get us to back off? Do you think the assailant is the same person who posted the video of us being blown up?”
Jessica decided not to mention the possibility it was another detective again. “I’ve been thinking about it all morning and I don’t buy that it was a random attack. Since there is already a video of us getting blown up, my guess is that it’s because we might be getting close. And I agree with you that it might have been one of the Lopez brothers. And if it was, then it means that they haven’t left the Bay area.”
“My thoughts exactly. Except, I would add that Coyne might be behind it all.”
Sloan tilted her head as if the words were having trouble entering her brain. “I can’t see Coyne attacking me.”
“Let’s go upstairs and brainstorm.”
Chapter 70
Sloan watched Garcia and Lee’s reactions as she entered the Murder Room.
Garcia slouched back into his chair. “How are you doing, Sloan?”
“Thanks for asking, Garcia. I’m a little tender where I got punched, but I’m good to go.” Jessica lifted her head to display the bruise on her jaw.
Lee said, “I hope the other guy looks worse than you do.”
“Probably not. He caught me by surprise.”
Cutter said, “Enough chit chat, with you taking a day off, we’re behind. Let’s review the facts as we know them and add in iPoirot’s connections and the attacks on Sloan and on my phone.”
Cutter wrote on the magnetic whiteboard as he talked. “Once the system discovered the connection between the bodyguards and Sonia Rodriguez, we knew we needed to have second interviews with the actor/date, Ben and Carl Lopez, Sonia Rodrìguez, her sister Juanita, plus David Coyne.”
Sloan said, “Then things started going screwy. You got the phishing email on your iPhone. Next, the video of you and I being blown up appeared on YouTube. And then I was assaulted in the secure Police parking garage.”
Cutter said, “My guess is that the video was made from stock footage that anyone could have cobbled together and uploaded.”
Garcia spoke up. “Would I be wrong to guess that sending out a phishing email takes some technical knowledge?”
“It does. I’ll ask Logan if he’s been able to discover any more about it. I have a question that is driving me nuts.”
“Well spit it out.”
“Why is the killer attacking us? Why aren’t they killing off witnesses or destroying evidence to evade arrest? Why aren’t they killing more tech CEOs? I simply don’t get it.”
Garcia said, “Maybe there aren’t any witnesses. As for evidence, there isn’t much and I doubt they would try to break into Homicide to destroy the syringe.”
Cutter said, “I agree with Garcia. Now after I was notified that you’d been attacked, I asked security to review all the videotapes and to inspect all the locks on all the garage door exits. This morning I was told that the lock inspection did reveal that the bottom back door had been picked. As I told you earlier the tape wasn’t working so they don’t have your assailant entering or exiting through that door.”
“So it could have been anybody?”
“I think the blocky frame belongs to one of the Lopez brothers.”
“So, we need to find out if the brothers have any connections to someone with technical skills.”
“Where does that leave us with Coyne?”
“I don’t like or trust him but we have nothing linking him to the brothers circle.”
“Then we should keep digging.”
Chapter 71
Jessica’s phone buzzed.
Logan’s calling
“Hi, Logan.”
“I dug around and found some interesting information for you about the phishing email that infected Cutter’s phone.”
“Please give it to me.”
“First of all, it was different than anything else I’ve seen before. It wasn’t designed to perform a ransomware attack or an attempt to steal John’s credit card information.”
“Then what was the point?”
“I think it was designed to allow whoever sent it to access iPoirot by piggybacking on John’s access code. I suspect it was to get a foothold then become part of a larger attack.”
“To what purpose?”
“My guess is they wanted to know where we are with the case. I discovered that the code itself is readily available on the dark web. All someone had to do was buy it with bit coin then download the code onto their computer. Then they just typed in Cutter’s email address and voila the email was sent to his phone.”
“And they could have gotten his email from his business card… Is there any way of finding out who sent it?”
“I’m afraid not. Whoever it was, knew how to cover their tracks.”
Jessica relayed the information from Logan to John.
An hour later, she received a message.
IPOIROT ALERT: DNA from Jessica Sloan fingernails identified as a Carloz Lopez.
Thank God, it wasn’t one of my mates in blue.
“It looks like Forensics has come through on my fingernail scrapings.”
Jessica went into the system and clicked on Carl’s name. “It was Carloz Lopez.”
“Don’t worry, Sloan, we’ll find him and make him pay.”
“I’ll make sure of it. Also it looks like iPoirot has found another cousin of Carl’s and Ben’s.”
“Who is it and where does he live?”
Two more clicks and Sloan knew. “Juan González is his name and he lives here in the Bay area. And this is interesting. He’s a software programmer.”
“What do you think the odds are that he’s the one who hacked my phone?”
“The odds are good enough that we should be able to get a warrant. Then we can talk to him so we can find out.”
Chapter 72
Three hours later, they were in San Jose, action central of Silicon Valley.
The last sixty seconds were the worst part of the drive as Sloan had to endure Cutter butchering a Dionne Warwick song.
That’s from like over fifty years ago.
Cutter and Sloan were in south San Jose looking at a standard beige two-story apartment building.
“Juan González is single so his apartment should be empty. We have a warrant to search it, any vehicles he may own and seize any computer related hardware. Are you ready, Sloan?”
“Ready.”
“Then let’s go.”
The apartment building had a standard entry system where guests had to be buzzed in.
Cutter pressed every apartment’s number. “I’m guessing that most people who live here are at work. It’s standard in buildings like this for a delivery service to press all the buttons and anyone that’s home lets the delivery service in so they can drop the delivery in the lobby and leave.”
Sure enough, without asking who it was, someone did buzz them in.
Cutter and Sloan shared a grin while Cutter held the door open for Sloan. “We’re looking for apartment number one fourteen.”
Jessica spotted an apartment number sign. “This way.”
Sixty feet of hallway later, they found the apartment.
Cutter placed his ear against the door.
He said, “I think I hear someone moaning in distress.” He knocked on the door and waited ten seconds. “There’s the moaning again.”
Jessica went along with her partner’s fabrication.
They both drew their weapons.
Cutter kicked in the door, then entered first.
The kitchen was on the left. Sloan entered, while Cutter kept walking forward.
Cutter heard Sloan say, “Clear.”
He entered the bedroom. The bed was just thrown together. He pushed clothes around in the closet to make sure no one was hiding. “Clear.”
Next, Cutter entered the tiny bathroom. He checked behind the plastic curtain, under the sink and inside a hamper basket. “Clear.”
Cutter found Sloan standing at the dining table. “Guess what I found in the bedroom closet?”
“I give up, what?”
Cutter lifted a gym bag onto the table. “It’s a go bag. Every criminal keeps one packed, just in case they have to bug out in a hurry.”
“And look at the table.”
It was covered in empty fast food containers except for a single laptop computer.
“It must be Juan’s.”
As Cutter had already put on gloves, he bagged the laptop. “Poor people eat so much fast food you'd think their time was valuable.”
“But you eat fast food, John.”
“My time is different, it’s too valuable to try and have proper sit down meals.” Cutter gave the sitting room a quick once over and changed the subject. “I was kinda hoping we’d find the Lopez cousins hanging out in here.”
“That would have been too easy.”
“Let’s look around. I want to see if Juan has a black wig, ladies scarf, wide brimmed hat or light changing sunglasses.”
“Or anything that might tell us where Ben and Carl are.”
“Right, let’s look.”
Three minutes later Cutter found something. “I just found a stack of Juan’s business cards. Now we can go visit our little hacker at his office.”
Chapter 73
San Jose is the tenth largest city in the United States and is known as the epicenter of Silicon Valley.
The Valley accounts for one third of all venture capital investment in the United States.
The tourists that come from around the world to see it are usually disappointed. Instead of a Disneyland World of Tomorrow, it’s thousands of one-story and low-rise buildings house various startups and existing tech companies behind bland facades.
The fabricated names on the buildings rarely tell you that the next big thing might be being worked on inside its walls.
Juan’s employer was in a one-story building near his apartment.
They were pleasantly surprised to find that the company was working on a Saturday.
Sloan said, “It’s Silicon Valley and time is money. If a product becomes late to market the entire company can close its doors.”
They walked the parking lot and found Juan’s vehicle.
“We have a search warrant, pop his trunk.”
Inside was a large piece of cardboard. “Cutter, you’d better come see this.”
John looked in and couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
He reached in and retrieved a human sized piece of cardboard. He stood it up so he faced it.
Jessica had to look twice. She could see that the body had a bullet-riddled face on it.
It’s Cutter.
The photo was blurry.
It took her several seconds to realize that it had been blown up from the picture of both of them that had been in the newspaper. Sloan’s face had been cut off before it had been put in a photocopier and enlarged.
On the face was scrawled, Cutter.
O.M.G.
“Hold this for me.”
Clutching it with her left hand, Jessica watched as John searched the rest of the trunk.
“Look what I just found.”
“What?”
“A jammer. I can’t tell if it was used to disable the parking garage cameras but it very well could have.”
Jessica felt a lump in her stomach.
Cutter went back to searching the trunk. “Hmm.” Wrapped in a white cloth towel was an old Luger. He held it for Sloan to see. “This is why a detective should always carry a gun, taser, and cuffs.”
He glanced at the cardboard again. “We should also wear a vest whenever possible.”
“Should we call for backup?”
“No, I think the two of us can handle this.”
Chapter 74
They found a receptionist behind a small desk with a large computer screen.
All the walls were made of glass.
Instead of wood doors, all the offices had glass sliders that looked like they were made for home patios.
Jessica smiled to herself.
This is one reason I don’t want to work for a tech company.
Sloan saw heads turning to see who had intruded.
“I’m Detective Cutter and this is Detective Sloan.” They showed their badges. “We’re here to talk to a Juan González about a case we’re working on.”
“One moment please.”
Sloan listened as the receptionist turned her back to them.
In an office adjoining reception, a sour faced man picked up his phone.
The receptionist spoke softly.
As soon as they disconnected, the man Jessica figured was the CEO, punched in another number.
The receptionist said, “Please have a seat and wait.”
“We’ll stand.”
A woman appeared two minutes later. “I’m with Human Resources how may I help you.”
As Cutter responded, Jessica noticed how the Human Resource lady was staring at her shiner.
“We’re detectives and we need to immediately talk to one of your employees, Juan González.”
“I’m afraid Juan is working right now. Unless you have a warrant, perhaps you can come back when he finishes for the day.”
Sloan gasped and pointed to the floor. “Oh my God. I just saw a giant rat. I’m afraid that I need to call the Health Department to inspect your building right now.”
Sloan pulled out her phone and paused. “An inspection will take about a week. In the meantime, they’ll have you close down the entire building and evacuate all the staff. No one should have to work in rat-infested premises. During that time I’m sure Immigration Enforcement would like to go through all of your company records.”
“One moment please.” Miss Human Resources left.
Jessica watched as she visited the CEO.
After some waving of arms, Miss Human Resources returned five minutes later.
“I’ve discussed the matter with our CEO. He suggests you use one of our meeting rooms to interview Juan González. You can take as long as you like.”
Jessica smiled at her. “Thank you for your co-operation.”
“Let me show you into the room and I’ll bring Juan to you.”
“That would be nice. Please don’t ruin the surprise by telling him who we are.”
As the HR woman left, she asked if they’d like some water or coffee.
“We’re fine thank you. We just need to talk to Juan.”
Chapter 75
Sloan watched as a short, thin man with dark hair walked beside the lady from Human Resources. Other employees stopped working to gawk as they walked by.
She obviously didn’t tell him that the police were here.
Jessica watched as Juan squinted as he entered the fishbowl.
He’s trying to figure out who’s come to see him at his place of work.
The Human Resource lady used her arm to guide Juan into the room then left as he entered.
Cutter moved to block the door in the event Juan decided to bolt.
As Sloan started the introductions, she watched Juan’s eyes start to dart, searching for an escape route.
Sloan pulled out a chair. “Please sit here.”
Cutter was blocking the only escape route.
Juan tried to play dumb for the first five minutes.
“I don’t know of any Ben or Carl Lopez.”
Cutter said, “How about Sonia Rodrìguez?”
“I don’t know her either. Just because I’m Mexican doesn’t mean I know every Hispanic in California…Can I go now?”
