Hacker For Hire (Ted Higuera Series Book 2) (25 page)

It was funny,
Catrina wasn’t attracted to women. She certainly admired female beauty and she
had no problem with lesbians. Some of her best friends and clients were
lesbians. She had just never felt that pull.

But, Alison was
different. She admired Alison for her accomplishments and liked her for her
personality, but she felt dangerously attracted to her. She remembered the
feeling of electricity that consumed her body when Alison touched her thigh.

Hold on girl,
don’t even go there.

“I think I owe you
an apology.” Alison stopped in front of Manet’s painting of Berthe Morisot. “My
instincts are usually better than that. I usually don’t misread people”

“You don’t owe me
anything, Alison.” Catrina took a deep breath. “Maybe I was sending the wrong
signals.”

“Doesn’t she look
divine, just laying back there?” Alison motioned toward the Manet. “She’s so
relaxed.”

Catrina wasn’t a
big art fan, but she did appreciate the Impressionists.

“I’m sorry I misread
you,” Alison said. “But I have a lot of respect for what you do for women.
You’ve already done a lot for me, helped me. Now I can help you.”

“Help me? How?”

“I’ve been
thinking about your problem.” Alison moved on to the next painting. “I think I can
give justice a little nudge.”

“Nudge? You mean with
the district attorney?”

“Yes. I have a lot
of pull with the DA. I’ve known him for years. Let me have a talk with him. He
goes for Von’s martinis.”

****

“Rise and shine, Mister
Higuera. Time for our little chat.”

Ted must have
dozed, despite the cold. He tried to bring himself back to the real world. How
long had he been here?

Every muscle in
his body ached. He had never been so cold in his life. “W-w-w-what d-d-d-o
y-a-a-a w-w-w-ant?” He shook and his teeth chattered so badly he could barely
speak.

“It’s very simple,
Mister Higuera. You have been hacking into my network. Poking around in places
you shouldn’t have been poking. Now you’re going to tell me what you found so
interesting and why?”

Hacking? This was
about hacking? “Th-th-that’s ins-s-s-ane. Th-th-this is ab-b-bout h-h-hacking?”

“You have been a
very bad boy.” The gravelly voice seemed detached from reality. “Now I am going
to have to punish you.”

A gloved hand
grabbed Ted’s penis. He tried to squirm free. The restraints held him.

“You call this
little thing a pecker?” There was a harsh laugh. “They should call
you
‘little dick.’”

“Yeah, well you
sit in a meat locker for a couple of hours and we’ll see how big your dong is,
asshole.”

“Agaaah!”
Something cold and hard bit into Ted’s penis.

“I expect you and
your friends know about Mrs. Harrison. A shame really. We never really intended
to hurt her. We just wanted to persuade her to cooperate with us.”

Ted felt fear
creep up his spine. His breath came faster. He heard his heart beating in his
ear drums.

“We didn’t know
she had a weak heart. It was really quite a surprise to us. It must have been a
surprise for her, too, don’t you think? You don’t have a weak heart too, do you
Mister Higuera?”

“Agaaah!” Ted felt
something hard and sharp bite into his testicles. He thought he was going to
pass out.

“Stay with me Mister
Higuera. This is just the beginning. Are you starting to feel like talking with
me?”

“Go to hell.” Ted
could hardly grasp a breath.

“Good. You know, Mister
Higuera, I am such a lucky man. It’s not often a man gets to make a living
doing what he truly loves. If I did this on my own, I’d be considered a
criminal, a pervert. But instead, I get paid a lot of money for it. I’m so
fortunate.”

An electrical
charge surged through Ted’s body. He screamed. He jerked and lost control of
his bladder. The warm urine felt good on his freezing feet.

“Now then, time
for the first question.” Gravelly voice moved a few steps away from Ted, his
voice dropped to a whisper. “What were you doing in my network? Why did you
choose to hack in from my home?”

“Freeman? You’re
Richard Freeman.”

“I’ll ask the
questions.”

Another shock ran
though Ted’s system.

“You just answer
them.”

There was a pause.
Ted gasped to get his breath back. Despite the cold, sweat drenched his face. The
pain in his testicles wouldn’t subside. He squirmed in the chair. He couldn’t
think.

“What were you
doing in my network, Mister Higuera?”

“Playing Dungeons
and Dragons.”

The electricity
shot through Ted’s body again.

“I can do this all
day, Mister Higuera. Can you? Would you like to talk to me now?”

Think. Try to
think.
Ted tried to force the pain from his mind. If only it would stop
hurting, for just a minute.
What can I tell this asshole?

“What do you want
to know?”

“That’s better.”

There was no shock
this time.

“Let’s start with
how you broke in.”

“Cracker,” Ted
gasped.

“Cracker?”

“Yeah, Cracker. A
program we wrote at YTS. It’ll crack any password.”

“Interesting.
Where did you go? What did you find in my network?”

“Embezzlement. We
. . . were . . . looking for fraud.”

The electricity
shot through Ted’s system. He arched his back against the chair and cried out.

“Come, come, Mister
Higuera. You don’t really expect me to believe that, do you? You went through
all of this trouble to catch a thief?”

“Schmidt. He’s
making fraudulent billings. He’s draining money out of the company. Aghh!”

The electricity
shot through Ted again. He thought his
cajones
would burst open.

“Let’s get
something straight, Mister Higuera.” A note of anger crept into Freeman’s
voice. “I am not a patient man. I know when someone is hiding something from
me. You are hiding something now. I know you were in Metcalf’s files. I also
know that Metcalf was stupid enough to keep incriminating evidence. What did
you find and who did you share it with?”

Another jolt hit
Ted’s genitals. The world went black.

“Ted’s gone
missing.” Catrina plopped down onto Jonathan Jefferson’s desk. “He called in
this morning, said he had a dentist appointment, then we haven’t heard from him
all day.”

Jeff looked up
from his computer screen. “What was he up to?”

“At first I was
worried that he was talking to Petrocelli, that the DA took him out of
circulation.” Catrina stopped and sighed a deep breath. “But Ted wouldn’t do
that. He wouldn’t turn on us.”

“Are you sure? We
really don’t know him that well. He hasn’t been here long enough to be vested
in us.”

The doubt in Jeff’s
voice made Catrina pause and think.

No.
I
have good instincts
. “Ted’s good people. He hasn’t flipped.”

“If you say so.”
Jeff dropped the file folder on his desk. “So where is he?”

Catrina crossed
her arms over her blue denim work shirt. “I haven’t heard from him since early
this morning. He hasn’t answered my calls, my emails or my text messages. He
just dropped off the face of the earth.”

“Has he run?” Jeff
raised an eyebrow. “Has he gone to ground?”

“I don’t think so.
Jenn has the hacking case handled. He knew that she’s filed a motion to get the
charges dismissed.”

“If she can find a
judge who agrees with her.” Jeff turned to his computer. “Let’s see if his cell
phone is on. He has a GPS unit in the phone. If it has power, we should be able
to track him.”

Catrina watched
Jeff type away at his keyboard with the grace of a virtuoso. He understood this
technology crap much better than she did. It seemed like all young people did. When
he asked her to invest in databases, web sites and programs, she just trusted
him.

Now it paid off.

“Got him. His cell
phone is on Harbor Island. The warehouse district, Southwest Hanford and
Sixteenth Avenue southwest, under the Spokane Street Bridge.”

“What the hell
would Higuera be doing in an old warehouse?” Catrina leaned in over Jeff’s
shoulder. “Can you get a visual?”

Jeff typed the
location into Google Earth. The streets intersected to form a triangle.
Warehouses filled the view. A long, ugly concrete bridge crossed almost
directly over the shot. Old trucks and an aging Winnebago sat in the parking
lot. “This is not a nice neighborhood. It’s the kind of place you go to meet
someone on the quiet.”

“Who would he be
meeting?” Cat stepped back. “You don’t think he’s going off on his own without
telling us, do you?”

“Yeah, like to the
DA.”

“Get your stuff.”
Catrina started towards the door. “I’ll get the car. No matter what’s he’s
doing there, we better find him.”

****

“He’s out cold,
Cap.” The tall member of the Mutt and Jeff team pulled Ted’s head back and felt
for his pulse. “You want me to wake him?”

“No, let’s leave
him for a while.” Richard Freeman looked at the divers watch on his wrist. “I
have an appointment downtown in an hour. You guys keep an eye on him. I’ll be
back by five.”

Freeman turned and
walked through the door of the decaying office into a giant, abandoned
warehouse building. Streaks of weak November sunlight peaked in through grimy
windows high in the walls. God knows what had been stored here, but an acrid
chemical smell oozed from every pore of the building. It had to date back to
early in the last century. This place was a Super Fund site if ever there was
one.

The triangular-shaped
parking lot held a black Dodge Charger, a Chevy Malibu and an array of
abandoned cars and pickups as well as an old Winnebago. High voltage power
lines hummed overhead. Freeman heard the steady roar of traffic on the Spokane Street Bridge above him.

What a depressing
place. Gray skies over gray ground. Everything was covered in asphalt or
concrete. Not a tree, not a plant in sight. Utilitarian concrete buildings and
rows and rows of shipping containers filled his vista.

What to do with
Higuera? He couldn’t let him walk out of here. How much did he know? What had
he shared with that bitch he worked for? How deep did this cover up have to go?

After what
happened with that Harrison woman, after Metcalf, he was in too deep. He had to
protect himself. There was only one way to do that.

Freeman lit a
cigarette and unlocked the door of his Charger. The stress of the last few
weeks had forced him back into his old habit. He thought he had kicked tobacco
after he was invited to resign his commission in the Corps.
Once a Marine,
always a Marine
, he thought.
Once a smoker, always a smoker.

He took a few
puffs and dropped the butt on the pavement. Then he thought better of it,
picked it up and put it out in his ashtray.
Can’t be too careful.
He
watched all the CSI shows on TV. Mrs. Freeman’s little boy was not going to
leave any incriminating DNA evidence behind.

Fortunately it
rained last night. There was more rain in the forecast for today. Any evidence
of his car having been in this lot would be washed away.

He started the car
and pulled onto Hanover Street. He could trust Sergeant Daniels and Private Dombroski
to keep an eye on Taco Boy for a while. They were good men. He was always
looking for a few good men.

****

The tall gunman
unwrapped a stick of Juicy Fruit and popped it in his mouth. He crumpled the
wrapper and shoved it in his pocket. “How long are we gonna hafta wait?”

The short member
of the Mutt and Jeff team pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket. “As long
as it takes. The Cap’n said he’d be back by five.”

Mutt leaned back
in a straight-backed chair and opened a copy of the
Seattle
Times.
The Seahawks were gearing up for a game with the Cardinals.

“You’re not
worried about this?” Jeff asked, waving his semi-automatic pistol at Ted. “I
mean, that Harrison woman. Now this. Don’t you think the Cap’n’s goin’ a little
too far?”

Mutt put down the
sports page. “I don’t think we’ve got much choice. What can we do? Go to the
police? ‘We helped kill a nice detective lady, now we’ve got another one we’re
torturing. But please, sir, it’s not our fault.’”

Jeff didn’t
respond, he just chewed harder on his gum and holstered his pistol.

“I’m not going to
jail for this.” Mutt lit up his cigarette. He exhaled a cloud of smoke and
stared at his partner. “The Cap’n knows what he’s doing. We’ve been through
some tight spots with him and he’s always done right by us. I got a wife and
kids to think about. I’m not going to do them any good in prison.”

“What’s that?”
Jeff’s hand went to the handle of the Smith & Wesson nine mil on his belt.
“Did you hear that?”

“What?” Mutt
jumped up from his chair.

“I thought I heard
something, a scraping noise.” Jeff pulled his pistol free, clicked off the
safety and silently moved towards the door.

Mutt unholstered
his piece and dropped into a shooter’s crouch, covering Jeff.

Jeff reached for
the door knob. He gently, quietly turned it. He took a deep breath, looked at
his partner. Mutt nodded. Jeff started to pull the door open.

“Police!” The door
flew open in Jeff’s face. The impact sent him rolling across the floor. His semi-automatic
clattering after him.

Mutt was stunned
for just an instant. It took him half a second to make the decision to drop the
hammer on the two people charging through the door. It was too late.

****

Catrina parked the
burgundy Explorer three blocks from the warehouse. She stopped and took a deep,
clearing breath, pulled on her bulletproof vest, then she and Jeff moved
silently towards their goal. After working with Jeff for more than three years,
she knew every move he made, every thought he thought. There was no need to use
words.

The warehouse was
huge, more than a city block long. Roughly triangular in shape to fit the piece
of land, the front end was rounded off. Parked carelessly amid the abandoned
vehicles was a new Chevy Malibu with body damage.

She felt her skin
tingle. That was the car. Whoever was inside would be well-armed.

What to do? Did
she dare go in there with just Jeff and two Glocks? She already knew they had
at least one Mac 10. She didn’t have firepower, but she had surprise. With a
slight nod of the head, she surveyed the warehouse.

The building
looked like it had been unused for years. The windows were either broken out or
covered over with decades of industrial grime. Trash and leaves swirled around
the parking lot with the wind.

Catrina and Jeff
slid up to the building like waifs of smoke. The windows were too high in the
wall to see into. A substantial looking door was the only access on front side.

They circled the
building, moving without a sound. Loading docks lined the north end of the
building. As they walked around the building, she kept a constant eye out at
the roofline, power poles and light poles. No visible security cameras.

That didn’t mean
there weren’t any hidden cameras. They were so small nowadays, you could hide
them most anywhere, but on a building this old, that had been out of service
this long, she didn’t think anyone would spend the money on that much security.
Unless they really had something to hide.

A steel door,
bolted from the inside was the only opening in the south side.
Damn
. The
front door would have to be it. There was no other way in.

Returning to the
front door, Jeff tried it while Cat held her nine millimeter Glock at the
ready.

“Locked” Jeff
mouthed.

Catrina nodded,
holstered her gun and pulled a set of lock picks from the pocket on her vest.
The lock was child’s play. It was designed to keep honest people out.

She returned the
picks to her pocket and retrieved her pistol. She checked the safety, then
nodded to Jeff. He silently twisted the knob. She drew a deep breath. .

Would there be a
welcoming committee? These guys had at least one assault rifle. Her fingertips
tingled. Thankfully, the handle on her Glock was designed to accommodate wet
palms. She felt rivulets of sweat trickling down her back.

At PoSPD, they
never would have entered a building like this without at least a bulletproof
shield, maybe a SWAT team.
Oh God. You better be worth this, Higuera.

Jeff tested the
door. It opened silently.

The inside of the
warehouse was a vast empty space. Through the semi-gloom, Catrina saw a door in
the opposite wall. She motioned to Jeff and they moved silently across the open
space. There was no cover here. They were exposed. Her heart thumped wildly in
her chest. It took all of her control not to open fire on every creak in the
building, every trick of light.

After several
silent steps they stopped to listen. The only sound was the traffic on the
bridge overhead. They moved forward.

Jeff reached the
door first. He slid to one side, holding his pistol cradled in his bent arms,
breathing hard. Catrina took the other side of the door. They looked into each
other’s eyes. Time froze.

She had been here
before. Life or death waited behind the door. She listened. Voices. Someone was
in there. She pointed to her chest, then the floor. To Jeff and the ceiling. He
nodded.

The world closed
in on her. Everything else in her life disappeared. She forgot about the lousy
ex-husband, her troubled son, that thing that Tom had just told her, Alison’s
soft caresses. It didn’t matter why she was here. No Alison, no Donna, no Ted.
The only thing in her world was the sight on the barrel of her pistol.

She gave a slight
nod. Jeff took his left hand off of his pistol and reached for the door knob.

It turned before
he could reach it. The door stared to crack open.

Jeff threw this
weight against the door. Catrina heard a surprised cry from the other side.

Her training
kicked in. “Police!” She hit the floor and rolled through the door, coming up
with her gun leveled.

The tall man
staggered back, his pistol flew from his hand. The short one stood in a
shooter’s crouch.

Time went into
slow motion. She saw the man’s mouth move but didn’t hear his words. She saw
the flash of fire from the pistol’s muzzle. Sometime, hours later, she felt the
concussion of a bullet pass by her head. She didn’t have time to think. Her gun
exploded three times. The short man was lifted from his feet.

In her peripheral
vision, she saw the tall man dive to the floor and come up with a pistol.
Jeff’s Colt barked three times. She saw the tall man jerk, then go still. Jeff
moved rapidly forward and kicked the gun away from his hand.

She was
transfixed. Pools of blood formed under the two men. No, that was two bodies.
She floated across the floor. Had she done this? A living, breathing human
being lay inert at her feet, a lump of meat.

Her stomach
revolted. She threw up. She wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve and
heaved again. Her stomach wouldn’t settle down.

Everything moved
in slow motion. The world was black and white. Jeff, always the professional,
kneeled at each of the bodies and felt for a pulse. He shook his head.

Catrina just
stood, shaking, her feet rooted to the ground. She had never dropped the hammer
before.

“The kid looks
like he’s in bad shape.”

Jeff’s words
brought her back to the real world.

She saw Ted,
naked, tied to a chair. He was semi-conscious. He looked weirdly pale beneath
his dark skin. No, he was almost blue. She took a step over to him, ripped the
black bag off of his head.

“Ted, Ted, are you
all right?”

His eyes moved. He
looked up without recognizing her.

“Are you an
angel?”