Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2) (24 page)

“Sorry, Higuera. I
can’t buy it.” Catrina leaned forward on her knees, lowering her face to Ted’s
level. “That’s not Alison Clarke. I’ve seen some pretty weird cases in my time.
Kids killing, little old ladies killing over Social Security money, mom’s
killing their kids to be free to be with their boyfriends, but I always felt
something hinky in those cases. I got a gut feel about the perps. I don’t get
any bad vibes from Alison.”

Ted took a deep
breath and swallowed. “What kind of vibes do you get from Alison?” He waited
for Catrina’s reaction. She sat still, looking at the floor. “What did you do
with her, Cat? Did you sleep with her?”

“That’s none of
your business.” Catrina jumped up from Ted’s desk.

He slid his chair
back, afraid she was going to strike him.

Jesus.
She
really did. She was going to sell Ted out for a piece of ass. He had to get
out. To call Justin.

“Just a fuckin’
minute, Cat. You nearly took my head off when I didn’t tell you about Gina. Now
you’re holding out on me. You’ve got one hell of a secret you’re not sharing.”

Catrina sat and
stared at Ted for a minute. “You’re right. You deserve the truth. We shared an
intimate moment. She did come on to me, but I don’t swing that way. I don’t
sleep with women.”

“But, the rumors .
. .” Ted looked into Catrina’s eyes.

“Are just rumors.
She wanted to, but I held back. It was enough for me to get a true feel for Alison.
She didn’t do this.” Catrina settled back onto Ted’s desk.

“What about
Donna’s husband?” Cat stared off into space. “Could he have gotten to Metcalf?”

“Not a chance,”
Ted said. “Not in the Millennium Systems Tower. You’ve seen the security. A fly
couldn’t get in there without a pass.”

“Okay, so Metcalf
was being blackmailed. We have the DVD of someone asking him for more money.
It’s pretty obvious that they were talking about taking care of Donna. Maybe
the killer was afraid that Metcalf would get cold feet. Turn him in.”

Ted turned this
line of thinking over for a minute. “So we’re looking for someone who is
ruthless and ambitious. Someone who recently came into half a million dollars.”

Cat perked up.
“You’ve got to hack back into Millennium Systems. Into their HR system.”

“Jesus, Cat. They
must have over eighty-thousand employees. Where would we start?”

“This has to be a
man. No woman is going to torture another woman like that. Who aspires to the
CEO role? Who can Metcalf bribe to do his dirty work?”

“There must be
hundreds, thousands of men working for MS, loyal to Metcalf, who would sell
their mothers for a promotion.”

“Okay, we know it
had to be a big man, someone with the strength to do the job. Let’s eliminate
anyone under, say five-ten.”

“Hey, that’s not
fair. I could a restrained Metcalf and lifted him into his chair.”

Cat smiled at him,
her first smile of the day. “Yeah, but I don’t think that the average techie is
in the shape you’re in.”

“We still have
Schmidt.” Ted took a yellow pad from his desk drawer and started making notes.
“He’s been making regular deposits in an offshore bank of just the amount
Metcalf was paying the perp.”

“I’m not buying.
Schmidt is getting ready to bail. He's betting against Delphi.”

“Shit. We got
nothin’.”

Amid the notes on
Ted’s pad, he wrote
Call Justin.

Ted lay back in
his bed, in that wonderful dreamlike state. Oscar lay on his chest, purring,
occasionally rubbing his head against Ted’s nose. Gina lay in the crook of his
arm.

Slowly, little by
little, the world crept back into his consciousness.
Oh yeah.
He had
something to tell Gina. He had to tell her about Cat.
How would she take it?

“It looks like
we’ve got your boss.” He would slide into it gently.

“Umm.”

“Embezzling. He’s
moving half a million dollars a month offshore. He set up a phony consulting
company, then billed it to the Delphi project.”

“I processed all
of those invoices.” Gina sat up in the bed and pulled the sheets up around her
chest. “They smelled fishy, but Mr. Schmidt said that they were legit. He was
the boss. What was I supposed to do?

Why do women
always do that?
Ted wondered. They get naked and sleep with you, Gina was
totally uninhibited, then when it’s over, they cover themselves up, like
they’re ashamed of their bodies.

“Did it ever occur
to you to go to the police?”

“Are you nuts? Do
you know what happens to whistleblowers? I’d never work again. I have two kids
to raise, a house payment.”

“You know, you
don’t look too good in this.” He waited for her reaction. “I tried to tell Cat
it wasn’t your fault.”

“You what! You
said you’d keep my name out of this. You told your boss that I made the
transactions?”

“It wasn’t me. We
have this forensic accountant. She got in and dug around. She found all of the transactions
and stuff. She fingered you. I had to convince Cat that you wouldn’t do it. I
told her you were the one who put me onto Schmidt.”

Gina got out of
bed and started to put on her clothes. “Great. Now your felon boss knows about
your felon girlfriend. Higuera, you need to watch out who you hang around
with.”

“Gina, don’t be
that way.” Ted tossed Oscar aside, got up and went around the bed to Gina.
“We’ll get Schmidt. We’ve got tons of evidence. We’ll find a way to nail him
without involving you.”

“I’m the one who
made all the false entries.” Gina shook her massive breasts into her bra, her trembling
hands fumbling with the hook. “I’m going to look guilty to the police.”

“The police will
never see this.” Ted grabbed her hands, looked into her eyes. “It won’t end up
in court. Alison will take care of this herself. She doesn’t want the
stockholders to know Schmidt embezzled six million dollars on her watch.”

“Who told you
that? Cat.” Gina pulled away and managed to hook her bra. “The same Cat that’s
set you up for five years in prison?”

“She’s got an in
with Alison. Alison will listen to her.”

“Ted, you're just
being naïve. When the shit hits the fan, it’s every man for himself.”

“No, I trust Cat.
She says the evidence all points to Schmidt.”

“How did she get
all of this evidence?”

Ted looked at the
floor. “You don’t want to know.”

“It wasn’t legal
was it?” By now Gina was fully dressed and standing on the staircase. “That’s
what you’re going to jail for.”

“She’ll keep you
out of this. She promised me.”

“Ted, open your
eyes. She doesn’t care about you. She doesn’t care about me. She’s only looking
out for herself. She’d sell us out in a heartbeat if it kept her out of jail.”

“It’s not like
that. Cat isn’t like that. She has honor. Integrity. She wouldn’t do that.”

Tears ran down
Gina’s cheeks. “Open your eyes. You’re looking at five years hard time. Do you
think she’s willing to do five years for you? Would she do five years for me?
She doesn’t even know me. You’ve got to take Justin’s offer. He has a lot of
pull. Maybe he can make things right with the DA for me.”

“I . . . I can’t
do it. Cat saved my life. I can’t sell her out.”

“Ted, you have to
choose. You have to make a decision. By doing nothing, you’re making a
decision. You’re deciding to go to jail. You’re deciding that I’m going to
jail. That my kids are going to grow up without a mom.” Gina stormed out of
Ted’s apartment.

He sat on the edge
of the bed, smarting, long after he heard the slamming of the door.

He knew what he
had to do. There, on the bed stand, was Justin’s business card. He just had to
pick it up.

****

Catrina rolled
over, stretched and blinked her eyes. She loved the cuddly feeling of her down
comforter and the down mattress pad on her king-sized bed.

Sunlight peeked in
through the crack in the heavy curtains. She smelled the enticing aroma of
coffee wafting in from the kitchen.

What a night. As
she gathered herself together, she noticed the sex toys strewn around the bed
and floor. Her leather bustier hung from a floor lamp. They hadn’t even cleaned
up after themselves.

She found her
nightgown on the floor and wiggled into it, then grabbed her terry cloth
bathrobe from the closet.

After a quick stop
in the bathroom, she made her way out to the kitchen of her nearly century-old
Victorian.

The oak cabinets
and center island looked somehow different this morning. Even the stainless
steel fronted appliances had a different gleam. Maybe that was because standing
in front of the stove, stark naked, Tom Bremen scrambled eggs in a copper
frying pan.

“I made myself at
home,” Tom said. “I hope you don’t mind.”

Catrina admired
his hard body. He didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. His legs were taught with
rippling muscles as he moved, his butt firm and high. Nothing on his body dared
sag. Catrina looked down at her own heavy chest.
I should be so lucky.

“Smells good,” was
all that Catrina was able to say.

“I have orange
juice, toast and bacon. The eggs will be ready in a moment.”

Catrina took the
offered coffee cup. She took hers black.

“Won’t you make a
great wife someday?” Catrina said. “I’m surprised you stayed here all night.”

Tom poured the
eggs out onto two plates. “I thought it would be nice to wake up together.”

Catrina took a
bite of the eggs. “Nice. Maybe we should head back to bed after breakfast.”
This break from the real world was too much to ask for.

“Sorry. I’ve got
to go into the station. Cap’n wants me to wrap up the Harrison case today. I’ve
been thinking about the Metcalf case.” Tom took a sip of his coffee. “I like
Alison Clarke for Metcalf’s murder. She’s the only one who benefits.”

****

He set up the
meeting for the next morning. He called Catrina and told her he had a dentist
appointment. He was such a bad liar.

Ted stood in the
morning mist, waiting for the MT66. The bus stop was only a couple blocks from
his apartment. He felt like a convicted murderer, waiting for the hang man.

At least on
death row, you get a priest. And a last meal.
His stomach was churning so
badly he hadn’t been able to eat that morning.

“Hey, hero!” The
bus driver held out his hand, palm up for Ted to slap. “Long time no see.”

“Hey right back
atcha, Garry.” Ted slapped Garry’s had with little gusto.

The bus ride to Pioneer Square took a life time. Ted sat and stared out into space.
So this was how it
all ended?
All he wanted to do was help people. He wanted to make a
difference in the world.
Well, I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

“Your stop, hero,”
the bus driver announced over the PA system. “Second and Yesler.”

Ted flashed his
bus pass and stepped down onto the curb. He stood for a minute and looked
towards YTS headquarters. Could he really do it? He was selling Cat out.

He was so immersed
in thought that he paid no attention to the dark Chevy Malibu with a crumpled
front fender that followed the bus. As the crowd on the corner dispersed, the
doors of the Chevy popped open and two men, dressed in dark suits got out.

Ted felt a hand on
his arm, spinning him around.

“Get in the car.”

He was staring
down the bore of an ugly semi-automatic pistol. It looked just like Cat’s.

“Huh?” He couldn’t
take it in. “What do you want?”

“Get in the car,
dumbass.” The taller man shoved Ted towards the car.

Ted was so stunned
that he complied.

The shorter man
put his hand on Ted’s head and shoved it down. The short man got in behind Ted
and slammed the door. The barrel of the pistol never left Ted’s chest.

“Who are you guys,
what do you want?”

“Shut up.” The short
man slapped Ted across the face with the barrel of his gun. “You’ll see when we
get there. Now turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

For the second
time in his life, Ted was handcuffed. Then the short man pulled a black hood
over his head.

Ted heard the
noises of Tuesday morning traffic around him; busses and cars starting and
stopping, the occasional horn. They passed by the sound of a jack hammer.
Must
be a construction site.

The car stopped
and started. Then, the ride smoothed out. The traffic noise lessened.
We
must be on the freeway.
The car made a sweeping turn to the right and
slowed down. Again with the starting and stopping.
Wonder where we got off?
Finally
the car made a hard right turn and stopped.

“This is where we
get out,” one of the
pistoleros
said.

Ted heard the
doors opening, felt hands grabbing his biceps, pulling him out of the car. He
felt a man on each side of him, guiding him along. He heard a distinct hum in
the air.
High voltage power lines?

They went up
several steps, then through a door. He heard their footsteps echoing in a large
chamber. Chemical smells assaulted his nose. They walked quite a ways, then
stopped. That rattling sound, the tinkling of metal on metal, someone was fumbling
with a key chain. He heard a door open. They walked through the door. The echo
went away. They must be in a smaller room.

Ted was shoved
down into a chair. He felt someone grab his legs and tie them to the legs of
the chair. His arms were pulled over the chair back and the handcuffs secured
to the chair. He couldn’t move.

“Well, well, well.
Mister Higuera.” A new voice, it sounded like gravel being dumped down a chute.
“We finally meet.”

Ted heard a click,
then felt a sharp blade running up his chest. The bastard was cutting away his
shirt.

“We’re going to
have a little chat, you and me,” the rumbling voice said.

His shirt and
jacket were stripped away.

“I hope you don’t
mind the cold. It’s so expensive to heat this place.”

He felt the knife
working its way up his legs. His jeans were cut away.

“I find that
putting the subject in an uncomfortable position always helps me convince them
to see things my way. It worked well for us at Abu Ghraib, didn’t it gentlemen?”

Ted heard a murmur
of agreement. There had to be at least three men here.

The knife worked
again. Ted’s boxers were cut away.

“I think it’s time
for you to ponder on the error of your ways for a while. We’ll be back. You can
spend the next couple of hours thinking about all the things you’re going to
want to tell me.”

Ted heard feet
shuffle and the door close. He sat strapped to the chair. His shoulders ached
from having his hands cuffed over the back of the chair.

After the initial
shock of being stripped, he was freezing. It couldn’t have been more than
forty-five or fifty degrees in there. How long could he last? He knew that
hyperthermia would kick in.

That would
severely affect his judgment. That’s what the bastards wanted. They wanted to
confuse and disorient him. They wanted him uncomfortable. He didn’t know what
they wanted from him, but they were willing to break all the rules to get it.

Who were these
guys anyway? Were these the same sons-a-bitches who shot at Cat and him? Were
they trying to scare them off of the case? Which case? Was this about
Millennium Systems?

Oh shit!
Donna’s
murder flashed through his mind.
She was tortured.
She was found
floating in the bay, naked. She had been shocked. Was that what was waiting for
him?

He suddenly had
the urge to pee.

****

Catrina waited for
Alison underneath the Hammering Man sculpture at the SAM, the Seattle Art
Museum, on First Avenue. She looked impatiently at her gold Maurice Lacroix
watch. The minutes passed so slowly.

The cool air
worked its way under Catrina’s short skirt and chilled her thighs. She was
grateful for her knee-high boots. Why had she dressed up for Alison again?

“Hi, Cat. Sorry
I’m late.” Alison grabbed Catrina in a hug and lightly kissed on her cheek.
“Let’s go inside.”

Catrina allowed
herself to be led into the two-story lobby. Hanging from the ceiling was a
collection of fanciful cars. A pink Volkswagen Beetle with a pig’s snout for a
hood and a curly tail dangled from the ceiling. A light blue and cream 1957
Chevy convertible had sprouted Pegasus wings and flew over the foyer. A tiny
Fiat with a giant skate key on the back swooped down from above.

Alison showed her
membership card as they passed through the entryway. “I thought this would be a
good place to meet.” Alison removed her tan camel hair coat revealing a dark
blue business suit underneath. “I saw how you admired the Degas in my office.
They have a special exhibit on the French Impressionist here this season.”

“This is great.”
Catrina looked over the program. “Manet, Matisse, Renoir. These are all the
heavy hitters.”

“Monet and Degas
are my favorites,” Alison said as they strolled into the gallery.

Catrina felt a
little ill at ease. She was glad that Alison had selected a public place for
their meeting. After their last get-together at Alison’s office, Catrina wasn’t
sure she should be alone with her again.