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  Callie winced. She was afraid of that.

  “We told you that the one thing we didn’t like about it was the fact that we didn’t control the security side of it, where the data is encrypted on one end and decrypted on the other, so that the data was safe during transmission,” Sierra continued. She paused when she saw the look of confusion on Callie’s face.

  Michael raised his finger to point at his computer and took a deep breath.

  “Don’t even think about, Michael. You’ll make her head explode,” Sierra said pointing at him.

  He frowned and leaned against his desk, crossing his arms as he did, but he deferred to Sierra and remained silent.

  Sierra turned back to Callie. “You don’t really need to understand that part. The important thing is simple. You don’t want your private information to get in the wrong hands. We can all agree on that, right?”

  Callie nodded.

  “With a printed letter, you would put it in an envelope before you send it in the mail, right? The envelope hides the contents. Encryption is the same way. We take the message before it is sent, it’s wrapped in a mathematical envelope to protect, or encrypt, it. The envelope is taken off on the other end, meaning it’s decrypted, so the computer can read the message.”

  Callie thought for a moment. “Okay, my head is still intact. Keep going.”

  “The data is secure because we, as a technological community, have agreed to use an envelope that’s relatively secure. We use it in banking, sales transactions, and absolutely anytime we want to secure the data as it moves from point A to point B.”

  “Okay.” Callie didn’t sound quite as convinced this time, but a quick check told her that her head was still intact.

  “Bear with me, we’re getting to the end,” Sierra said as she turned back to her computer. She pulled up some code on her screen.

  Callie didn’t bother to try reading it.

  “Did you see the car in your regular parking spot?” Sierra asked.

  Finally, an easy question. “I did, yes,” Callie said. “Did one of you guys get a new car?”

  “No, we borrowed it for a test of our code,” Michael said. “We flunked.”

  Callie felt her eyebrows raise. Their code never flunked.

  “Well, we don’t think it was technically our code that flunked,” Sierra pointed out.

  Michael nodded his agreement, but he still didn’t look happy.

  Sierra pointed at her code. “You remember that our goal was to read and write data from the computer system in the car parked outside of this office?”

  Another easy question. Callie nodded.

  “You remember that the data needs to be sent outside of the car and that it will be placed inside an electronic envelope to protect it while it transmits?”

  A slightly tougher question, but she thought she was still following.

  “The envelope would be taken off when the data gets to wherever it needs to be?” Callie asked.

  “Exactly,” Sierra agreed. “That encryption technique, the electronic envelope that we’re using, is industry standard. It’s used everywhere to secure data. We didn’t write that.”

  “Okay,” Callie said slowly. She was wondering where they were going with this.

  “Remember that I said we failed the test?” Michael asked.

  Callie nodded with narrowed eyes. She figured the punch line was coming soon.

  “We can read and write from the computer system on the car out there. Our code works. It’s the encryption part that caused it to fail,” Michael said. The exasperation was clear in his voice.

  Sierra shot him a look. “You lost her again.”

  Callie nodded her head. “He did.”

  “Our code worked, we can read and write to the computer system in the car. The data was correctly encrypted inside the car before it was sent. It transmitted to our test system inside this building the way it was supposed to.” Sierra pointed to a computer on the other side of her desk. “That computer used the right key to open the electronic envelope that way it should have. Theoretically, everything should have worked. This computer should now have access to the data we sent from the car to here.”

  Callie narrowed her eyes again. “But you said the system failed?”

  Sierra and Michael nodded.

  “Specifically, it failed when the test computer on Sierra’s desk tried to decrypt the code on this end,” Michael said.

  “Why?”

  “That’s why we called you here. We think someone wrote a code to piggyback on top of the decryption software,” Sierra said.

  “And it didn’t work,” Michael added.

  Callie could hear the disgust in his voice. She brought her hand up and wiped it across her lips as she tried to understand what they were telling her.

  “Why would someone do that?” Callie asked.

  “Remember that the encryption code is used all over the world to transmit all kinds of sensitive data?” Sierra waited for Callie’s nod. “Imagine what would happen if you could get access to the data right after it’s been decrypted.”

  Callie’s eyes widened as the implications sank in.

  Sierra sighed and leaned against her desk. She looked over at Michael.

  “I think she’s starting to get it,” Sierra told him.

  “You took baby steps to get there,” Michael said. “And you watered it all down a lot.”

  Callie ignored them. “What happened when your test failed?”

  “The car refused to run,” Sierra said simply. “Essentially, it knew there was something wrong with the secure data transmission because it wasn’t successful. The car assumed it was being hacked.”

  “The system shut down to protect itself,” Michael added. “It’s currently a very large paper weight.”

  Callie glanced at the code on Sierra’s computer.

  “You think someone wrote a program and figured out a way to piggyback it on top of the decryption code that everyone is already using?” Callie asked.

  Sierra nodded.

  “Could you guys do that?” Callie asked.

  Sierra and Michael shared a look of surprise.

  Callie waved her hand. “No, I’m not saying you did. I’m trying to figure out who could. Could anyone do that?”

  Michael shook his head. “Off the top of my head, I can think of maybe… a handful?” He looked at Sierra for confirmation.

  “At most,” Sierra said. “We’re not talking your first semester programming assignment.”

  “Is there any way you can figure out who did?” Callie asked.

  Sierra and Michael answered over top of each other.

  “Yes,” Michael said.

  “No,” Sierra said.

  Callie looked between them. “Yes or no, which is it?”

  Sierra sighed. “Yes, technically, but no. We’d be violating our contract if we tried to take the decryption code apart.”

  “And they would know,” Michael agreed. “They monitor our access. That was part of what I didn’t like about the contract.”

  Callie thought about it for a moment. “If you could take the code apart, how would you know? I mean, programmers don’t sign their name in the code, do they?”

  Sierra and Michael laughed.

  “In a way, we do, even if we don’t,” Michael said.

  “What he means is, all programmers have a signature, of sorts. I can tell Michael’s code right away,” Sierra said.

  “And I can tell hers.” Michael stared at Sierra a little longer than he needed to.

  Sierra pretended not to notice.

  “And our code is recognizable to others at our level across our field,” Sierra said. “In fact, some of us even have monikers to hide our real identity and we embed it in the code.”

  “Why don’t you just ask the company if you can take the code apart?” Callie asked.

  Sierra wrapped her arms around herself. “What if they’re in on it?”

  Chapter Nineteen


  The anticipation was killing her. Callie rubbed her hands together as she waited for the vendor to finish making her lunch. When he finally turned to hand her the large paper container stuffed with genuine Tex-Mex food, she was so happy she forgot for a moment to hand it to Greyson.

  “Oh, here’s yours,” she said as she passed it over before reaching back to the vendor to get her own.

  She left hers on the counter and grabbed the container of sour cream the vendor kept on the counter for customers. When she turned back to add a large dollop to his food, she noticed he was staring at her.

  “What?” She dropped a large portion of the sour cream onto his food nearly emptying the container in the process. “Okay, so it made a lot more sense when Sierra and Michael explained it.”

  Greyson made a sound of disbelief as he speared his fork into his food.

  He pointed with his chin. “There’s a picnic table over there.”

  Callie followed him over and lifted her legs over the bench one at a time to sit next to him.

  “Were you able to follow any of my version of it?” she asked before taking a large bite of her food.

  “Some of it.” He wiped his mouth as he finished chewing. “The question is, what do they want us to do about it?”

  Callie noticed the pronoun but had a mouthful of food and couldn’t correct him at first. It gave her a moment to consider his question.

  “I guess they’re hoping the company they contracted with isn’t involved somehow,” she said slowly. “They definitely wouldn’t want to do business with anyone who was.”

  “We’re tied up here for a couple more days,” he pointed out before taking another mouthful.

  “Were you able to learn anything while I was gone?” she asked.

  He looked over at her. “Here.” He handed her more napkins.

  “Thanks. This is so good.” She wiped her chin and took another bite.

  He nodded agreement. “I’ll show you what we have when we get back to the office.”

  “You think you’ve got something?” she asked hopefully.

  “Yes, and I’m hoping we’re going to get more as soon as we get back.” He took a swig of his water. “Maybe you can also work on the food allergy angle. Speaking of which, how did the restaurant reviewer case come out?”

  Callie explained to him that Ginny had spoken with the editor of the newspaper and was back in business.

  “Good for her,” he said.

  “The trick now is to figure out how Sheree got the dog food that contained something she knew would make her sick.”

  “The police are looking at that also.” Greyson gathered up his lunch debris and stood to throw it away in the nearby trash can. When he returned to the table, Callie was gathering hers. He took it from her and threw it away while Callie disentangled herself from the picnic bench.

  “I can’t see it being an accident,” Callie said. “She wouldn’t have had the food if she knew it could kill her. She kept it in the carrier with the dog and fed it to him by hand all the time. That’s not something you would do with something that might potentially be lethal.”

  “There is that,” he agreed as they walked the short distance back to their office. Zach and Lenora were in the office.

  “Everyone else is out doing surveillance,” Lenora explained.

  Callie took a seat with a good view of the monitors on the wall.

  “So, what did you get?” she asked.

  Zach pulled up a split-screen image of two of the buyer reps.

  “We have Lucia Herrera on the left,” Lenora said. “I can tell you that she represents someone known in the commodities and futures market.”

  Callie studied the image.

  “On the right, we have Marcus Jurgen, if that’s his name,” Lenora said.

  Callie turned to look at her.

  “From what I can find, he didn’t exist until about six months ago. There’s some chatter that he may have had a complete facial reconstruction. I’ve also come across some info that indicates he may not have fingerprints.”

  Callie raised her brows at Greyson then turned back to the monitors.

  “In addition to that, we’ve also learned some more about Sheree Tenley-Mulhern,” Lenora said.

  Zach pulled up a picture of her. Callie was reminded of how attractive the woman had been. No wonder Philip had been drawn to her.

  “Turns out, that wasn’t her name,” Lenora said. “It was actually Mary.”

  “I guess it’s not uncommon for a woman to choose other names. Some go by nicknames,” Callie pointed out.

  Lenora made a noise to indicate that wasn’t the case.

  “Her fingerprints are a match for someone else altogether. Mary Donovan also had a criminal record,” Lenora added.

  “That’s another good reason for a girl to change her name,” Callie said in a low voice. She saw Greyson’s lips twitch.

  “And, I think we may have a clue about her severe allergic reaction,” Lenora said as Zach pulled up a video. “We found it because Callie asked us to review the video. She wanted to know how often Sheree had interacted with the six buyer reps you’ve been tracking.

  “That was from the day of the party.” Callie leaned back in her chair waiting to see what happened.

  They all watched in silence as the video ran. Sheree reached into her carrier and pulled out a dog treat. She brought it to her mouth and mimicked eating it. It drove the miniature dog crazy with excitement. Sheree laughed. After bringing the food to her mouth several more times, she finally gave it to the dog.

  “I guess that explains that,” Greyson said as he turned toward the others. “You were right. She wouldn’t have done that if she knew the dog food contained something she was allergic to.”

  “I’m guessing it’s not the first time she’s done that,” Callie agreed. “The dog seemed to understand the game.”

  “No doubt others have seen her do it.” Greyson nodded to Lenora. “Good job.”

  “Did you find any interaction between Sheree and the six buyer reps?” Callie asked.

  Lenora nodded. “On the day of her death, yes. She had conversations with all of them. In one case, it was with three of them at once. The other three were separate instances. In all of the cases I’m referring to, it’s without anyone else around.”

  She pulled up a video. “And then there’s this one. It looks like she’s with most of them at the same time. This video is difficult to see because they’re in the dark hallway almost off camera.”

  They watched as something that looked like an altercation took place. Although Sheree was the only person they could see clearly in the video, it was obvious that she was conversing with more than one person. The others remained in the shadows of the hallway outside of video range.

  “Someone isn’t happy about something,” Zach said.

  “Yeah, I wonder what?” Greyson rubbed the back of his neck.

  “I’ll keep looking for more video of anyone who had contact with Sheree,” Lenora said.

  “Do you have anything else new on the buyer reps we’ve been following?” Greyson asked.

  Zach switched to another video. This time, it was a live feed. It was focused again on one of the buyer reps, Lucia Herrera. She was talking to one of the other buyer reps, Lee Cabal.

  Callie saw more of the buyer reps join Lucia Herrera on screen. Over the space of a few moments, all six of them were standing together.

  “Looks like they planned this meeting,” Callie said.

  Greyson turned and smiled. “This time, we’re ready for it. Zach?”

  Suddenly, Callie heard audio. She looked at Greyson in surprise.

  “I didn’t think we had audio feed on any of the cameras?” she said.

  “We didn’t,” he agreed. “We added it to some of them where we noticed they tended to congregate, hoping we’d get lucky. The thing is, we also posted that fact directly under the cameras. If Zach zoomed in enough, you could read the sign from here.”
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br />   “What are you going to do now?” Lucia asked the group.

  Marcus shifted his feet and crossed his arms, but waited for the others to respond first.

  “What I want to know is, which one of you killed her?” Andre asked as he looked at each of them.

  Serena sneered at him. “Why would we kill her? She was the one running the whole operation.”

  “Yeah,” Leon agreed. “Without her, there may not be an operation. My clients aren’t going to be happy about that.”

  “Mine either,” Lucia agreed. “They’re expecting me to make the bids we agreed on.”

  “We don’t even know for sure if the item in question is already in one of the cars,” Lee pointed out.

  “What are you going to do?” Marcus asked.

  “I don’t see that we have a choice.” Serena looked around the group. “Right?”

  “We have to go along with the new person in charge,” Lucia agreed. “At least, that’s what I’m planning to do. If I’m lucky, the rest of you will bow out and go home.”

  There were noises of amusement around the group. Marcus was the only hold out. His posture and facial expression gave no clues to what he was thinking.

  “Have any of you figured out what car we’re going to be bidding on yet?” Serena asked.

  The words that came next were jumbled together as several spoke over each other. The consensus appeared to be that they had no clue.

  “Maybe the husband knows something?” Andre suggested.

  Marcus made a noise of disgust. “He’s clueless. He didn’t even know his wife was involved in any of this.”

  Lucia waved her hands impatiently. “Well, I’m not going to stand around here any longer. The auction begins tomorrow. Hopefully, the new person in charge will be smart enough to let us know in time to start the bidding.”

  “It might not happen until the second day of the auction,” Lee cautioned.

  There were more disgruntled comments as the group disbanded and walked out of video range.

  Callie turned to Greyson.

  “Well, that was informative,” she said as she steepled her hands together. “We’d have to check the legality of recording them to see if it could be used it in court should it ever come to that.”