Girl Jacked (25 page)

“I might and I might not.”

I might wish I had.

“Either way, we know someone who has access to the center has killed at least three people: Charlie, Tiffany and…” he hesitated. “We know that Michelle didn’t apply for a transfer because the transfer went through on December 21
st
at 1:00 am.”

“What?”

“I didn’t tell you? I called Western Tech. They’re a sister college so you just have to apply for the classes and you can do that online. Someone just filled in December 20
th
on Michelle’s form. I called and found out the time stamp on the application was December 21
st
at 1:03 am.”

“Michelle was already… at the reservoir. That was at 12:30 am. Someone else submitted it. But…” Replacement looked away.

“But what?”

Her mouth opened and she looked up to the ceiling as she thought of what he had just said. “If it was electronic, then they’ll be able to tell the IP too. It will say what computer it came from… Move!”

Replacement shoved Jack out of the chair as she handed him back his phone.

As she logged in, Jack moved over to the window and began pressing buttons on the phone.

“I kept thinking I was hearing dogs barking all night,” he muttered to himself.

“What are you saying?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“If you can just sign up for classes at Western Tech, then WRE and their system are linked. I didn’t even think about it. I’m a dork! I should be able to get into their system too.”

Jack watched in amazement as Replacement’s slender fingers sped across the keyboard. They were a blur. Every couple of seconds she would huff or shake the mouse as she waited for a screen to catch up with her commands.

“Got the IP!” She hopped up and down in the chair.

“Will that tell you the computer that they used?”

Her fist smacked the desk. “No! It’s the forward facing IP of the Psyche Center.”

“Can you translate that geek speak back into English?”

“Every computer has an IP address but if you connect in a building all of those addresses can get funneled together for security and then go out as one IP. That’s what they do at the Psychology Center. This IP is the address that covers the whole building.”

“But you’re sure it came from there?”

“100%.”

“Now we’re 100% sure it is someone who has access to the building and the computers there.”

“But we don’t know who. Do you have any ideas?”

“Yeah. I’m going to go back out there tomorrow and talk to Dr. Franklin. He’s like Dr. Meth. He also knew two of the victims. There is also Hahn.”

“Hahn?”

“Well, he’s in charge of the Center. The person in charge either knows everything or nothing.” Jack sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “It could also be a student or a janitor. I need to find this Lennie kid but right now Franklin is the best fit. He also knows how to cook meth.”

“I couldn’t get meth anywhere. It must be tough to find.”

Jack tried to hide his smirk. He faked a cough.

“Can you give me more time?” She pouted and made a begging face. “Before you go tell Davenport?”

“No. We have a lot. We have enough for them to get a warrant.”

“Jack, do you remember that guy at the funeral that talked about Michelle tracking him down when he stole her bike? Michelle was like that. She didn’t give up. Michelle found that video of that poor guy. I bet she found it in the psychology center.”

Jack paced back and forth. “She was overhauling the computer systems so she would have had access to everything.”

“If Michelle found that video, she would have kept digging. There is no way to log into the Center from the outside. She would have had to go there.”

“That’s why Michelle was there so late?” Jack stared at the floor.

“She was looking for more information. I’m trying to get into the computers there right now.” Replacement’s hands clenched into fists.

“How are you going to get in? Don’t you have access already?”

“No. The lab computers are completely separate from the college system. I used… a student’s account that has limited access so I wrote a Trojan.”

“A what?”

“A Trojan. I named a file ‘SuperHotPornBabes’. The antivirus program will flag it and move it to a holding folder. Most computer administrators are horny computer geeks and when they see that title, they’ll want to see what it is. Once they run it, it will run under their permission. Get it? It will run with administrator rights and it will create another admin account for me.”

“I got about half of that. You wrote a program that will give us access?”

“Yeah.”

“Did it work?”

“Not yet. I only put in on today so I’m hoping I get a hit by tomorrow but I have to go there to login.”

“No way. Could you talk me through getting into the system?”

Replacement shook her head. “I can’t get you to use your phone… No. If you let me, I can be in and–”

“No. Then that is off the table. I have the next two days off. I’m going out to the campus in the morning by myself. Do you need the car?”

Replacement turned back to the computer. She whispered, “No.”

That morning, his phone woke Jack up. Bark, Bark, Bark.

Stupid ringtone.

“Hello?”

“Jack? Undersheriff Morrison. Can you meet me down at the morgue?”

Jack straightened up. “Yes, sir. How soon?”

“How soon can you get here? Its 8:00 now, let’s say 8:30?”

“Yes, sir.”

Damn.

Jack wouldn’t have time for a shower. He shaved and brushed his teeth. He was going to head out to the college later so he dressed in black slacks, a gray sweater, and black shoes. Jack looked in the mirror and his brown eyes were almost charcoal.

He tossed his toothbrush into the sink and rushed into the living room. He scanned the area for his coat and grabbed it from the door.

Replacement was looking out the window and jumped when he walked into the room. “Are you going out?”

“Yes. I just got a call to go and meet the Undersheriff at the morgue.”

“Undertaker?”

“No. The guy who is next in line to Collins is called the Undersheriff.”

“Yeah, um... I was going to run a couple of errands.”

“Sorry, kid but I need the car. I can drive you when I get back.”

“It’s not far. I’ll just walk, okay?”

Replacement bit her lip but didn’t say anything.

Jack eyed her as he ran out the door. He hurried to the Impala. As he pulled out, he looked up to see Replacement was still standing at the window. He sped down the street and pulled onto the main road as a silver car took a right down his street.

The black tiled room felt like a crypt. He hated it worse than the hospital.

Jack stood next to Robert Morrison. He was a tall, African American man in his late-fifties. Morrison wore the tan uniform of the sheriff’s department without the hat. His curly black hair was short and graying at the temples.

A petite woman dressed in a white hospital coat, stood behind a stretcher with a corpse laid out on it.

“That’s him.”

“You sure,” Morrison asked.

Jack nodded. He looked down at Bennie the Goon’s corpse. His face was heavily bruised, especially around the jaw where Jack broke it, but he was sure it was Bennie.

Morrison nodded and the woman pulled the sheet back over the corpse.

“Did he have anything on him, Mei?” Morrison addressed her.

“Just these.” She adjusted her rectangular blue and pink glasses and moved over to a metallic cart.

Jack looked down at the items; a crushed package of cigarettes, a fast food receipt, three quarters and a scrap of paper smeared with black ink.

“Looks like he had to bum a light.” Morrison pointed out. “No lighter.”

Jack leaned down so he could read what was on the scrap of paper.

“It looks like an address,” Mei offered as she smiled sweetly at Jack.

“It is.” He smiled back. “It’s mine.”

Morrison’s eyes narrowed. “You never saw him before that night?”

“No. I noticed him when I came out of my apartment and he started following me.”

“Thanks, Mei.” Morrison turned to go.

The two men walked out of the cold room into a slightly warmer hallway. Morrison took out a pack of gum and handled Jack a piece.

“You had just gotten clipped by the drunk driver, right?” Morrison pondered out loud.

Jack nodded.

“And you hurt your leg. You still got a little limp, how’s it feeling?”

The observation took Jack aback. “It’s much better, sir.”

“You can save the sir stuff for Collins. Call me Bob.”

Jack gave him a short nod of respect.

“Anyway, is it
possible
that maybe the guy thought you were an easy mark?”

Jack bristled at the comment and straightened up.

Bob looked at him and chuckled. “Then again, maybe not.”

“They have no cause of death yet?” Jack looked back into the room.

“Preliminarily it’s an OD.”

“Mei said they found him out behind a motel but she didn’t say what motel.”

Bob stuck two more pieces of gum in his mouth. “Imperial Motor Lodge.”

“Are you sure?”

“There’s only one Imperial.”

But now we have two bodies found there.

“Okay. Thanks you for letting me know, sir.”

Morrison’s phone rang. “Morrison.” He listened for a second before continuing. “Listen, I will be over as soon as I can.” He hung up. “Fatal car accident on the highway, two semi tractors.”

Jack nodded his head.

“Jack?”

“Yes”

“We have to have a conversation.”

“Yes, sir?”

“I’ve been doing this too long to think that two close calls in short order don’t warrant closer attention. Do you think they are related?”

Jack scratched his neck and looked down the hallway before admitting; “Yes, sir I do.”

“If you have any ideas, now’s the time to speak up.”

Jack eyed him.

“I don’t know you that well, Stratton but all I can say is… trust your gut. If you think I’m the type of guy that’s going to jam you up or throw you under the bus, shut your mouth. If you think that you can trust me, tell me what you got and we’ll take it from there.” Morrison turned his hands out.

“Sheriff Collins is by the book. I don’t want to get jammed up but someone has to know, now.”

“I’m not Collins.”

Jack started bringing Morrison up to speed. He laid everything out. Morrison cracked his gum occasionally but remained silent.

“Okay, you have this video?”

“Yes, sir. The guys in the IT lab have it. They also have the password. I don’t know if they looked at it yet.” Jack clenched and relaxed his hands.

“If the guys at the lab haven’t seen the video yet
then
neither have you
. Chain of custody is already gone with the phone but it is explainable given the circumstances. Davenport is back tomorrow? I’ll call the lab and the forensic people and we’ll all sit down first thing in the morning.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you have any idea who at the college it could be?”

“Nothing definite.”

“Okay… we’ll go over it all then.”

Jack shook his hand and Morrison’s phone rang again. “Yes, I am on my way.” He nodded back to Jack then he headed out the door.

Jack turned to go. 

“Officer Stratton?” Mei came running around the corner after him.

“Yes?”

“Oh, I am glad I caught you.” She smiled up at him and adjusted her glasses. “We found a baggie with some money hidden in his left shoe and a small piece of torn stock paper.”

Jack looked down at the evidence bag. The piece of paper was about two inches by one inch. It was off-white paper and one edge was jagged where it had been ripped. The only thing on it was the printed letters “lin.”

Not much to go on.

“Thanks.” Jack nodded. “Can you make sure that gets over to Undersheriff Morrison’s office first thing in the morning?”

“Of course.” She grinned.

“Well, goodbye.”

She just nodded her head and watched him leave.

Jack eased back on the gas as the Impala swung into the turn. The veins stood out on his neck and he had a strangle hold on the steering wheel. Bennie the goon had been his best lead.
Best living lead.
He could have led Jack to whoever hired him to watch his apartment. Now he was dead.

No money to follow. They would have paid him in cash. And what would he have gotten? For fifty bucks, he would have watched my place all day and night.

Jack was still bothered. It felt like something was about to break. He had felt that way before.

Weird.

He was apprehensive, like time was slipping away.

Think, Jack, think… a crushed package of cigarettes… typical. Fast food receipt… could be nothing but maybe he met someone there. The money… nothing unusual about that.
  The scrap of paper… stock paper… card stock… why would a junkie have
—

“Business card!”

Jack watched the Impala’s speedometer rise as he headed towards the college. The three letters clicked into place.

His hand pushed a Johnny Cash CD into the player. ‘God’s gonna cut you down’ blared over the speakers as he flew out to the Psychology Center. The ride was fifteen minutes. He went through ‘Walk the Line’, ‘It Ain’t Me Babe’, ‘Busted’. ‘Ring of Fire’ was just finishing as he pulled into the parking lot.

Jack combed his fingers through his hair as he walked into the center and smiled at the blonde girl behind the counter.

She leaned forward and looked Jack up and down. “How can I help you?”

Jack grinned. “I’m here to see Dr. Franklin.

“Is he expecting you? He is in class right now.”

“I just had a quick question. Is he in the new classroom upstairs?” He was guessing. “Could you show me?” He leaned in close and smiled.

“I can’t leave the desk.” She shrugged and leaned closer.

“That was room….”

“210.”

“I’ll only be a second. Be right back.”

 
“You have to sign in… And you can’t go unescorted!” she called out.

“It’s our secret.” He winked and hurried up the stairs but the girl still reached for a phone.

Jack took the stairs two at a time without looking back. Reaching the top, he turned right and started looking for the classroom. He scanned the room roster next to the doors. ‘Psychology Classroom 210’. There was a rear door further down the hallway that he headed too. He tried the handle then slipped into the room.

It was smaller than Jack expected. It would hold about fifty students but thirty or so were there now. Dr. Franklin stood behind a large wooden desk. In his early fifties, he was tall with sandy brown hair that was on the long side but pulled back. Tweed jacket, jeans, and round glasses finished off the professor look.

Franklin was reading out a list of different topics; “Astrocytes, cluster, dopamine …” He was going down a list of possible topics for assignments.

“The parts of the ‘pleasure pathway’,” Franklin leaned up and smiled at a young girl in the front row. “Once we are done, come up and pick up the list of possible topics. Your assignment, will be a pro and con, not a right or wrong, nor a this or that. Short. Four pages.”

Jack looked down as the student in front of him raised his hand.

“We can pick anything on the list?”

Franklin looked at the ceiling and sighed mockingly. “That is why I am providing the list.” The girl in the front giggled. “I want you to pick a subject and give a view on that subject and then select an opposing or differing view. For example; if you selected dopamine, you could write about its function in the ‘pleasure pathway’ versus the view of its role with motivational or motor function. Or if I said nucleus accumbens you could say…” He pointed to a young man in the front row who shifted in his seat.

“Um… right lobe?” he stuttered.

“Right lobe? And…?” Franklin inquired.

The student cleared his throat and settled back in his seat. He cast a glance at the girl seated next to him and she smiled. Jack leaned onto the desk.

This should be good.

The young man started to speak. “I have been thinking about the connection between the nucleus accumbens and the right lobe and the theory that there is a connection between the two as far as spirituality…” He hesitated as Franklin walked around the podium and approached him. “Some theorize, and I concur, that… according to…”

The young man stopped speaking as Franklin came to a stop directly in front of his desk.

“You concur? Mr. …?”

“Ross.”

“Mr. Ross concurs!” Franklin held his hands out to the class and nervous laughter flitted around the room. “And must I assume that you are taking ‘The Effects of Trauma on the Brain’ this semester?”

Ross gulped and nodded.

Franklin exhaled and began to walk the length of the room. “For those not so privileged to be taking Dr. Hahn’s class, please enlighten us with a brief preview of your synopsis.”

The girl sitting next to Ross reached out and squeezed his arm.

He straightened up, puffed out his chest, and addressed the class; “We have been discussing how the nucleus accumbens produces pleasure and how it works in the reward pathway. In this process, the neurotransmitter dopamine is released and I think that there may be a link between that and the front right lobe–”

“EUREKA!” Franklin shouted so loudly that everyone jumped in their seats and turned to look at him. “Mr. Ross has done it! He has accomplished what countless before him have strived for! He has discovered…” He mockingly and dramatically raised his hands above his head. “The ‘God Spot!’”