Cafe Underground Presents
PHACKER
Book 3 -- Chapter 10
The Detective Andi Wicksham Series, by RL Bell
Copyright © 1997 RL BELL
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Andi Wicksham's INVESTIGATORY SERVICES
Chapter 10
"Francois left a message." Lena announced as Andi pushed through the office door.
Andi collapsed into her chair. "When do we meet?"
"I told him you'll bring sandwiches. Meet him behind the Vietnamese grocery."
Andi looked blankly across at her, not understanding.
Lena stared back, blinked, then explained. "You know where his office is?"
Andi nodded, "Generally." she tentatively offered.
"There's a grocery on the Division side. Say you're looking for Norris, go to the back, through the curtain and into a light well, then to the top of the stairs."
"Norris?" asked Andi incredulously.
"As in Chuck." smirked Lena, "Or Kathleen."
"Why not?" Andi waved a hand.
"And Trafino called again, she's impatient." She caught Andi's eyes. "I told her you were out and up to your eyebrows in her project."
"Do we have anything else on Eugene's intruders? Ramirez is having a cow."
Lena glanced at her watch. "You don't have time to fuss with it. You got to run." She reached for the phone. "I'll call in the order to Bower’s, turkey and avocado on whole grain for you? He'll want a reuben, buy him and Sonny Doctor Peppers. She wants vegie with extra mozzarella." Lena made a brushing gesture, shooing Andi out the door.
Andi groaned and retreated down the stairs. It was going to be one of those days.
Traffic on Division was unusually thick--parking a problem. She drove past the grocery, found a place and walked back with her white paper bag of sandwiches.
"Van Tran, Ltd." the hand painted sign said. It looked like any number of the myriad half-importer, half-mom and pop groceries that stoked the economic engine of immigrant Portland.
Inside, a heady mixture of smells held sway--dried shrimp and fish, noodles, cloth, and herbs. Cans and boxes from the Pacific rim lined crowded shelves and corrugated boxes of ginger, garlic and yams waited beside the door--a bulletin board was crowded with notes in Vietnamese, blocky Korean, Chinese symbols, and what seemed to be Arabic script.
The teenage girl behind the counter studied chemistry. She barely glanced up as Andi entered and nodded vaguely when Andi mumbled she was looking for Norris. Andi took it as acceptance and strode to the back, ducked through the curtain and into the light well.
The space had a welcoming, homey feel for being as cramped as it was. The smell of laundry strung from each landing mixed with cabbage and ginger and competed with the wailing of an infant and the sound of a sewing machine and somebody chopping vegetables.
Andi picked her way up the stairs. Sandals and slippers waited beside doorways, there was the smell of rice and the lilt of children’s nursery rhymes. Francois burst through the door at the top before she got there, but she'd come up slowly to savor the atmosphere.
Inside, he unlocked the first door on the left, a combination mechanical room and janitor's closet--mop sink and shelves of supplies on one side, furnace on the other. Locking up behind him, he crossed to the far side and rolled a mop wringer and bucket from a pegboard studded with tools and brooms. Given a little pull, the pegboard swung from the wall to reveal a doorway. Andi stepped into a narrow hall with a wall-hung ladder leading up into the attic.
Francois carefully closed the pegboard and used a piece of coat hanger wire to pull the mop bucket back. "Fun, huh?" he grinned as he waved her up the ladder.
"Wouldn't be if I had to do it much." They were in a different attic, this one was filled with dusty old trunks and crates. Francois ducked behind a pile of boxes stacked to the sloping roof. Behind, a section between rafters had been cut away giving access to the attic beyond. Andi tried to figure the geometry--somewhere in the past someone had over-lapped the roofs of different buildings. Crossing the floor with a little, Francois dropped through the hatch into his office.
By the time Andi climbed down he’d pulled three tall glasses from the freezer and set up a folding chair. Sonny swung away from her computer terminal and gave a cheerful "Hi."
Andi opened her sack, pulled out the Drs. Pepper and laid the paper-wrapped sandwiches on the cluttered table. "Reuben?" she handed Francois his. Sonny reached for her vegi.
Francois pulled the pickle spear from his package, shut his eyes and savored with almost erotic rapture.
Andi took a bite of her turkey and avocado and smiled as he flipped the radio on. After chewing, swallowing and taking a sip from her frosted glass, she managed to croak, "So what's new?"
Francois wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and said, "I just found their new location and broke their new passwords."
"Eugene's intruders?"
"His mainframes had to churn for days. They used to use a handful of ciphers they used for different accounts, now they're doing a three layered encryption--three different programs, but all the accounts using the same system, so now that we’re through it's easier than it used to be."
"How much stuff you have?" asked Andi hesitantly.
"New? Thirty, forty gigs maybe more. The flood gate are opening."
Andi gave him a disgusted look. "What does that mean in pages."
Francois glanced over and licked some leaking mustard from the side of his sandwich. "A lot, millions maybe."
Andi groaned and shut her eyes.
"It's not that bad." Francois said, slurping Dr. Pepper. "I cracked their filing system so we can pick and choose now."
Andi raised a hopeful eyebrow.
"But I need more storage." he confided before taking another bite. "And by the way, don’t say anything sensitive on your phone from now on out."
"Why?" Andi asked in surprise.
"The Federal computer cop that busted me is involved...flew in two days ago. He doesn't play by the rules." Francois' cheek twitched.
Andi silently pondered how he’d learn such a thing. Sonny's sandwich had paused halfway to her open mouth. The moment stretched almost forever. Francois shrugged and nibbled a bit of pastrami that leaked out.
"You got more e-mail?"
Francois nodded, chewing.
"How many pages?" Andi asked carefully.
Francois chewed. "Couple hundred." he slurped. Sonny looked on silently, chewing and turning her head from one to another.
Andi made a decision. "We'll give them that, but we'll swamp em. As much stuff as you can get on disks." Andi smiled and took a bite of sandwich.
"Better than that, I'll have the mainframes deliver it wholesale."
"Won't that be dangerous?" Andi ask, suddenly worried.
"It won't come from here, it'll come from the University of Washington and Nike and Sigma" he snickered. "You want to give them information? We can give them a couple hundred gigs."
Andi brightened. It would serve Max right. Let him dig out from under the mountain of pages he wanted. She held up a finger of admonition. "But give me copies of the good stuff so Ramirez can have it when Max says ‘uncle.’"
Francois held his frosted glass aloft, Sonny followed. Andi lifted and they touched rims. It would be a fitting gift--exactly what he asked for. Meanwhile, she'd have a day to pour over the latest e-mail before passing it to Ramirez.
Back at her office she phoned Trafino and gladly settled for leaving a message. In the game of telephone tag it was a minor point in her favor. She phoned Ramirez to tell him she'd run into Frank who suggested downloading the material directly. "It will mean Max can have everything, just like he wants."
To Ramirez's professional credit, he was suspicious. Andi claimed she'd argued hard to get him to do it.
"How much?"
"A whole bunch. I don't know a bit from a bite, but I'm know there's a hell of a lot."
Ramirez guardedly allowed that he would pass the suggestion. Andi concluded with an offer for lunch, glad they were on the phone--the grin on her face would have given her away.
"Next week, with Lena." Then he hung up.
Lena swung around, ruffled her hair and said. "So, Sherlock, what's up?"
Andi smiled and filled her in.
It took only fifteen minutes for Trafino to call back. "Mrs. Trafino." she greeted.
"I've been trying to reach you all morning concerning our earlier topic." Trafino said obscurely.
Andi racked her brains in an attempt to catch up. "Eugene?" she risked.
"The banks." Trafino left the statement hang meaningfully.
"Oh yeah. International finance."
"Exactly. Our accountant came back with a rather large discrepancy." Trafino sounded understandably distraught.
"I'm sorry." offered Andi.
"I think we can cover it well enough. Gene didn't do a bad job of covering loose ends. We shouldn't have to announce it to the world." She sounded satisfied with that consolation.
"At least his disappearance makes some sense now."
"It does?" said Trafino in surprise.
"He flew back east twice in the last couple of months, once the Thursday he disappeared. If he ran off with Berg & Trafino's money..."
Trafino interrupted. "I don't think you understand, the discrepancy is in our favor. There's something over two hundred fifty thousand more than there should be. Deposits noted as payments on an account we don't have."
Andi asked her to repeat that last.
"There's more money than we should have, a lot more." said Trafino emphatically. "Do you think it could have been Gene?"
Andi was thrown for a loss. "I have no idea." It didn't fit any scenario she'd imagined. "Are you sure? If someone got into your accounts they could have jimmied them so it just appears that way."
"The accountant is checking." assured Trafino. "He'll get back to me tomorrow. I figured you should know."
Andi flailed silently. "Eugene had a round trip ticket returning him here that Sunday after he disappeared. Somebody used it." There was a significant moment while the phone hung dead. Andi wondered vaguely if they'd been disconnected.
"I hadn’t considered the possibility." Trafino said slowly. "Where would he be?" she asked.
"We don't know for sure that it was him using the ticket, just that somebody with a passable ID traveled."
Trafino replied sardonically "Somebody with his airline ticket who looked like him and had the same name?"
"Right." Andi laughed. "But it's my job to be suspicious."
"So? Where do we go from here?"
"I'll review what we have on your hackers. I think that's still our best connection."
"I suppose so." There was a slight pause. "I'd appreciate it if you don't tell anyone about the discrepancy." It wasn't a request.
"Oh, you said there was something wrong with what was in the briefcase?"
"I don't want to talk about it." Trafino said, slamming the door on the issue.
Andi let that echo into silence. "Thanks for bringing me up to date."
"It's mutual." stated Trafino flatly. The phone went dead. Andi felt strangely disassociated as she set the receiver down. Socially and sartorially inept Eugene Trafino who could wizard computers and phone systems at levels few professionals understood, suddenly traveled on unexplained junkets, had a briefcase of stolen material his aunt had paid for, was friends with a man found murdered in Seattle--and out of the blue Eugene deposited an unsolicited couple hundred and fifty grand in his aunt’s account. Andi logged the phone call, musing--trying to fathom what made no sense at all.
Ramirez phoned back a half-hour later with the phone number of a police department computer link. Andi copied the number and read it back to him.
"Max decided that since it was my idea, he would delegate the details of setting this up. Thanks a lot for the extra work."
"It puts power and prestige in your hands.”
"It puts me in line for a headache if things go wrong."
Andi said, "What can go wrong? It's your system, I'm sure your geeks will be setting up an ambush."
"Don't sell me down the river, Wicksham."
"It's out of my hands, Ramirez. It's between the illusive Frank and your in-house geeks. All I know for sure is that there’s a lot of stuff in what Max asked for. Do you know what gig’s are?"
"That gives a warm feeling of reassurance." Ramirez replied sarcastically. "Gigs are music dates, frog sticks and some way to judge hard drives. Are you trying to tell me something?”
“There are lots of them worth of information.”
Ramirez snorted. “Max wants me to ask point-blank if we were going to get everything?"
Andi suppressed a giggle. "On my word, on my grandmother's grave, to the best of my knowledge you are going to get everything I've ever heard about from any person or computer related to this case."
"Wicksham." Ramirez suddenly said in alarm. "Is this another trick? Withholding something vital, like maybe your decoded versions? Max is expecting full cooperation."
Andi pinched herself to keep from laughing. "Hey, I told Frank to give Max everything."
"How come I have a dismal feeling about this?"
"I don't know." answered Andi simply. "Maybe there's a planetary conjunction disrupting your cosmic energy."
"Hmphhh." he snorted. "When shall we expect this full compliance from your imaginary friend?"
"Beats me." Andi stalled. "When I run into Frank I'll pass on your number. I think he's a night person."
"What?"
Andi rolled her eyes. "Sleeps days. I don't control him." Max would have to keep his phone tracers on indefinite overtime. "Is there anything else you want?"
“No. Say hi to Lena.”
"Sure." Andi hung up. She hoped Francois wouldn't send a virus, things were bad enough already. She turned and caught Lena's eye. "I need to talk to our friend."
Lena looked at her watch. "It's almost five. If I go, will you be here when I get back?"
Andi nodded. "Yeah, of course." She could feel her heart within her chest. "You free for dinner?" JC was still in the picture somewhere. She didn't want to just assume.
"I thought you had band practice tonight." Lena screwed her mouth between a scowl and smile.
Andi shrugged. "I lied, we jam on weekends Want to get together?"
Lena pinched her lips and nodded eagerly.
"I'll be here."
Lena rose with a smile and headed for the door. "Need anything from the store?" she asked.
Andi waved her on. The sooner this was over the better. She looked out the window. The traffic and people looked the same as ever. God, she hoped he wouldn't hack the cops.
She and Lena stopped by the Cafe Underground to get fresh pasta, some of Shawn's hazelnut pesto and a container of soup. They giggled and teased and rushed up the stairs at a gallop. At the top of the stairs they kissed. It was nearly nine before they started dinner.
At ten forty-five, as they retired to the living room after eating, Ramirez called. "It's not funny, Wicksham." he yelled. "Here I am, enjoying a quiet evening at mi casa and I get an irate call from Max. You'll never guess what happened."
"Max got everything he asked for?" Andi asked innocently.
"Your frigging friend filled every available niche in our system with data until the thing shut down." he replied with unsuppressed ire.
"You mean you didn't get everything?"
Lena leaned close to listen and they exchanged a high-five.
"Max's federal colleagues say that if there's any duplication of material they'll file a computer crime charge for crashing a public safety computer. It's a big league felony. Your friend's ass’ll be in a sling."
"Gee, I don't know what to say, Ramirez. I told you from the beginning it was an overwhelming amount of material."
"Don't play smart-ass, Wicksham. That's not the part that's got Max fried."
"No?" Andi asked. "What is it?"
"Don't pretend to be innocent. The feds traced the connection back to try and catch the guy."
"And...come on, Ramirez, don't keep me in suspense. Tell me what happened."
"The call was routed through Max's office."
Andi sniggered.
"But it was forwarded from a domestic phone number."
Lena, her head touching Andi's, had to hold onto the table to keep from falling.
"So, did Max trace the call on from there?" Andi had a hard time getting the question out.
"We were doing that, but were slow." Ramirez broke into a chuckle.
"Well I hope they had a warrant to do line-tapping." Andi chortled.
At that, Ramirez broke out laughing. "No, they didn't. Without even telling us, the feds pulled an immediate warrant and sent federal marshals. They rousted Max’s wife and daughter...had them in handcuffs, before they said anything. Oh, Wicksham, there's going to be hell to pay for this."
"Max’s house? Oh my God..." She stopped laughing. "Really, Ramirez, Max’s got to know all that stuff’s out of my hands. You'll have to tell him he has to expect a few civil liberties might be stepped on in a murder investigation."
Ramirez didn’t answer.
"I had nothing to do with it."
"Who on this side of the fence is going to believe that? Even I find it teetering the edge of credible. You've had a vendetta against Max."
"Oh, that."
"Right." A long painful silence followed.
"Well Ramirez, thanks for the call." offered Andi politely. "We still on for Saturday dinner?"
"Oh..." Andi could hear him asking Tanya in the background and heard her answer "Certainly...if she brings Lena."
"Yeah, we're on." Ramirez returned. "I figured you'd appreciate being told of the snafu. I'm sure we'll talk again tomorrow. Good luck and keep your head down."
"Sure." Andi hung up and looked across at Lena.
Lena shook her head slowly from side to side. "We better get to the office." she said suddenly, her eyes flashing. "We don't want a shred of anything incriminating and we'll need everything backed up in case they cart the computers. She grabbed a sweater an headed for the door.
"Wait for me." Andi paused to turn off the stove. "I'm coming."
"We can stop by my place afterward to get clothes." Lena called back over her shoulder.
Andi hurried to catch up, grinning from ear to ear. Lena expected to spend the night.
Friday morning, they were at the office at five to eight, ready each moment for the knock signaling burly, men with boxes and a warrant. Andi didn't call Ramirez and he didn't call her. The minutes scraped like unfilled death row hours. She read through the files trying to keep on-track; if Eugene flew back from the east coast, then where was he? He hadn't tried to get to his office computer, didn't contact his aunt, didn’t make his neighbors aware of him. Andi made a note to ask Trafino when the deposits were made.
The morning passed without much work getting done. With the sword over their heads, neither wanted to make the bank deposit; neither wanted to be absent when Max's minions came, they debated lunch. "Think they’re waiting ‘til we leave?"
"Who knows. Let's go." Andi rose. "Can’t let Max ruin everything." Lena looked out the window. A police car cruised Hawthorne toward downtown, but the driver didn't even look their way.
A fax waited when they returned.
As requested: I sent what material I could--unfortunately there was inadequate capacity on the porcine end. Recipient ineptly connected to their main frame, not tape storage...stupid mistake. Will try again soon.
--Frank--
"Frank thinks they’re intercepting calls...this is for Max." Lena slipped in a folder.
Andi pulled out her list of Eugene's friends and dialed Berg & Trafino. "Eileen. This is Andi. I wanted to talk about Eugene."
"What do you want?"
"Names of friends." Andi stated bluntly. "And where would he go if he wanted to get away."
“Over the weekend I decided he must be dead."
“Based on?”
“Just feeling...”
“There's some indication he went out of town and came back that Sunday. If he came back and needed to hide, where would he go?"
"Here in town? I don't know."
"Where out of town?" Andi pressed. “Did he mention other cities?”
"Seattle, San Francisco, Denver maybe, he’s an urban being."
"Who else might know?" Andi looked up to the ceiling as if willing Eileen a vision.
"Have you talked with Jasmine?"
"Jasmine who?" countered Andi impatiently.
"Jasmine..." Eileen's voice trailed off after the name as she flipped through an address book. "...Ganesh. Used to work here--overweight, dressed frumpy and clunky, poor personal grooming like Eugene. Great graphic artist, but she didn't fit in." Eileen sighed. "I've got an old phone number and address, but I didn't really know her." Her voice conveyed mild destain.
This was from a woman with pink hair who sported tattoos and fake leopard skin? Andi said "Ok, shoot."
Eileen recited the number and address, "She left B&T a couple of weeks before Gene disappeared, but she was only here a month or so. I think they did lunch or coffee."
"Do you know who Grassroots Family Values and Avedic-Frank are?"
"Avedic-Frank are competition out of Seattle. Why?"
"How about Grassroots Family Values?"
"With a name like that I'd guess culture fascists."
"Any idea why anybody their would have phoned either of them Wednesday morning?"
"Noooo." Eileen sounded concerned.
"How about Mrs. Trafino?" Andi asked.
"I'm sure neither of them are in our phone listings. Avedic-Frank would be the last one's she'd call--she stole two writers and a key client from them a couple months back."
"Could one of those writers have phoned to say Hi?"
"Why not?"
Andi looked down at her notes. "Uhh, could you keep my questions about those calls between us?" Andi asked quietly.
"Sure." Eileen said a bit doubtfully.
"Thanks." responded Andi gratefully. "Did I ask if you knew a guy named Jerry in Eugene's building?"
"No, I never heard of him."
"What can you tell me about Ramsey Karenia?"
"A computer geek with Gene--big time. They hung out, he'd come by as we got off work."
"But you said Eugene worked irregular hours." Andi questioned.
"Yeah, but the rest of us don't."
"So he might have hung out with Eugene at the office?"
"Sure, is that significant?"
"I don't know. Seen him anywhere else?"
Eileen paused. "I once saw him and Mrs. Trafino in a coffee shop. I assumed they were talking about Gene."
“Did you Ramsey was killed up in Seattle?”
“No...” It was a hushed whisper.
"Sorry to have to tell you." said Andi. "I'm clutching at straws."
"Incoming call...I gotta go." Without a breath more warning, Eileen cut off the connection.
Andi logged the call and tried Jasmine Ganesh.
"Yeah." the young female voice at the other end snapped.
"Jasmine Ganesh? My name is Andi Wicksham, I'm calling about Eugene Trafino."
"So what?" was the defiant response.
"Is this Jasmine? I've been hired by Eugene's family to look into his disappearance. He hasn't been seen for more than a week."
"Yeah?"
"You're Jasmine?" Andi asked politely.
"Yeah, Jasmine."
"When did you last see Eugene?"
"A week or two ago, we ate Moroccan."
"Can you tell me what you talked about? Did he mention taking a trip?"
"He was going to Texas and New York." Jasmine answered. "Is he in trouble?"
"Not legal trouble, but he crossed some people who might have it in for him. Do you know what he did when he traveled?"
"Business." Jasmine said it as if it explained everything.
"Did he talk about his work or projects he had?"
"He was excited about something. He did computers."
Andi bit her lip in frustration. "Anything more specific?"
"No."
"Did he ever say anything about a trucking firm in Salt Lake City?" It was a long shot.
"A trucking firm?" she laughed. "You didn't know him, did you?"
Andi answered with another question. "How about a friend named Ramsey Karenia?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the line. Finally Jasmine muttered quietly "I don't want to talk any more." The phone suddenly went dead.
Andi punched the redial button and listened to unanswered ringing on the other end.
The end of the day came without Max busting their door, but JC called and Lena promised to see him before he went to a gig. Trafino didn't call again. Andi resolved to sleep late the next morning and not think about her case until noon. She'd a shopping run and laundry to do, afterwards she deserved a meal and movie--at least an El Loco Burrito and a trip to Video Madness.
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Copyright © 1997 RL BELL.
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