The Crocodile Nest (5 page)

Beth looked surprised, and even a little annoyed, when Luke arrived at her door shortly after nine on Thursday morning. He’d come in with Alice and wandered the streets for a while to avoid being too early. ‘I didn’t call you!’

‘Sorry, Beth, but I need to check my emails.’

‘All right,’ she said reluctantly. ‘You’d better come in.’

He walked into the lounge, expecting to get straight onto the computer. But someone else was using it. A girl! One about his age, dressed entirely in black, probably to match her dark hair and contrast with her pale complexion. Her tight clothes revealed a body that some boys would find interesting.

But Luke was not interested. He was annoyed to the point of feeling angry. Who was this person, and what was she doing here?

Beth provided the answer. ‘This is my granddaughter, Lora.

Lora, this is Luke, the boy I was telling you about. The one who’s teaching me to use the computer.’

Lora looked up and said ‘Hi!’ Her eyes ranged up and down his body before returning to the computer screen, which she seemed to find more interesting.

Luke mumbled a ‘Hi’ and then stood there, not knowing what to do next. After a minute he asked, ‘Are you going to be long?’

‘Depends how long it takes these songs to download.’ She pointed to the MP3 player plugged into the computer. ‘Sometimes it takes ages.’

Beth saw his discomfort. ‘Why don’t you sit alongside Lora and watch? You might be able to help each other.’

Luke almost snorted at the thought that this girl might be able help him. Nevertheless, he pulled a chair over and sat nearby. The screen showed a list of songs by some female artist who Luke hadn’t heard of. He watched it for a while as one by one the downloads were completed.

‘What
is
this program?’ he asked, puzzled.

‘It’s P2P,’ she replied without looking up.

‘You’ve got peer-to-peer networking running on this?’

‘Yeah.’

‘How?’

She turned and looked at him. ‘By turning off the firewall, of course.’

Luke’s anger returned. ‘That means anyone can access the computer.’

She shrugged. ‘I use it all the time at home. Doesn’t do anything wrong.’ She turned back to the screen. ‘Anyway, I’ve
finished now. You can turn the firewall back on if you want.’

After closing the program, she stood and walked off without another word.

Luke was seething. He’d gone to a lot of trouble to make the computer safe for Beth, and now this girl had come along and wrecked it. Not only that, she had also installed a program that could have come from anywhere, and was probably loaded with viruses. What right had she to do that? This was his computer, not hers.

Slowly, with the help of some deep breathing, he calmed down enough to remember why he was there. It wasn’t to be upset by some girl, but to discover whether his father wanted to know him or not.

Hamish’s message was at his webmail address.

Hi, Luke

Sorry about taking so long to reply. I had to get my head around a few things first. For a couple of days I felt like I’d been taken back to when Alice first told me she was pregnant. I just wanted to run away again. Then I figured it was time to face up to my responsibilities. And, believe me, there are still some involved here. I get the impression that Alice doesn’t know that you’ve found me. Well, you’d better tell her quick, because if she finds out and you haven’t told her then there’ll be hell to pay.

Luke nodded his head at that bit. Yes, Alice would go crazy if she heard about it from somebody else.

There’s probably going to be trouble anyway, because I should’ve been paying maintenance all these years. The point is I don’t have much money. I could help out a bit, but there is no way I could pay back everything I owe for the past twelve years. You need to know that this situation could get awkward quite quickly.

OK, having said the hard bits, here are the answers to your questions.

I live at a place called Cape Tribulation, 140 kilometres north of Cairns in Tropical Queensland. It’s right on the edge of the Daintree National Park. There’s a lot of rain at times, but the rest of the year it’s a beaut place.

I work as a chef at a tourist lodge called The Crocodile Nest.

No, there is no family. I don’t even date regularly!

And no, I have never been back to NZ, and don’t intend to.

To be honest, I’m not too proud of some of the things I did back there. The only memories I want are of pig hunting up the 309. Those times were magic.

I’d like to continue to have contact with you, but you’d better sort things out with Alice first. Until then, I’ve attached a program that will show you what it’s like around where I live. They’re all taken near Cape Trib.

Cheers

Ham

It was only then that Luke noticed an attachment named
CapeTribView.exe. Luke clicked the link, and straight away a window popped up a warning that the attachment was an executable file and should be treated with caution:
Click here if you want to continue.

Luke clicked. For what seemed like ages, nothing happened on the screen, but the hard-drive rattled away furiously as if a program was being installed. Then suddenly an image viewer opened to show a set of thumbnail pictures. He clicked on the first one, and a photo of a huge crocodile appeared. It was attacking a pig.

‘Yeah! Yeah!’ he yelled.

‘What have you found?’ asked Beth, stepping out of the kitchen.

‘A crocodile eating a pig.’

‘Ew, yuk!’ said Lora.

By then, Beth was peering at the screen. ‘Where’d you get that from?’

‘Hamish sent it.’

‘Your father? Have you found him?’

Luke nodded.

Lora arrived at the computer. ‘Oh, that’s gruesome,’ she said. ‘Did your father take that?’

‘Yeah, I think so.’ Luke replied.

‘Wow! He must’ve got real close. That’d be scary.’

‘What are the other photos?’ asked Beth.

Luke clicked on the next thumbnail, and a photo of a tropical beach appeared.

‘That looks lovely. I wouldn’t mind going there. Where is it?’

He told her about Cape Tribulation and Hamish’s job at the tourist resort.

‘Near Cairns,’ said Beth. ‘That’s one place I’ve always wanted to go—it keeps cropping up in Australian novels.’

Before Luke could comment, Lora interrupted. ‘What’s that photo?’

Luke clicked on it, and a huge, black bird appeared on the screen. It had a blue neck with a red bib. But the most striking features were its mean-looking eyes staring down a vicious beak. The thing looked like it was about to attack the camera.

‘That’s a cassowary!’ said Beth, excitedly. ‘I’d love to see one of those.’ She sat down on the chair alongside Luke. ‘Go through the photos one by one. I want to see more of this place.’

They were all good photos. Some were of the wildlife, but most were scenes of tourist places with backdrops of lush rainforest. Beth became increasingly interested as the viewing progressed.

When they were finished, she sat staring at the screen. ‘You know,’ she said after a while, ‘I need to visit places like that. Have a look to see what they do for tourists—I bet I could learn a lot from them.’

‘I’d go with you,’ said Lora.

Beth put her arm around her granddaughter’s waist. ‘Yes, you could, too. That would make it even better.’

Luke remained silent, but he was thinking plenty.

After the others had left, he read the email again, and had another look at the photos. It sure did look like a great place to visit. Maybe if he did things right…

‘Luke,’ called out Beth, ‘do you want a hot scone?’

‘Yes, please.’ He moved away from the computer and joined the others in the kitchen for morning tea.

After that, he went out and dug the garden for a couple of hours. In the afternoon Beth wanted to take a trip across to Cook’s Beach, so he never got back to the computer to set the firewall back on or check the system for viruses. The computer remained just as he’d left it: switched on and exposed to the whole of the world.

That night, Luke told Alice about Hamish.

He left it until after dinner, when he hoped she might be more receptive to the news. It didn’t make any difference: she was stunned. Perhaps if he’d told her that he’d been looking, it might have lessened the impact. As it was, she kept filling her mouth with chewing gum and chomping on it wildly.

When he finished, she sat silently for a time, before saying, ‘So he’s still alive. Sometimes I thought he might be dead. Had an accident while pig hunting.’ More chewing. ‘There were times when I hoped he had.’

Luke remained silent.

She covered her head with her hands. ‘Oh, Luke, what are we going to do?’

This time he spoke. ‘I want to be friends with him.’

Alice nodded slowly. ‘Yes, I suppose you do,’ she mumbled between her hands. ‘But I don’t think I want to be. I put him
out of my life, and that’s the way it should stay.’

‘What about the money?’

She took her hands away and shook her head violently. ‘I don’t want his money!’ she cried. ‘I’ve got by without it up to now, and I’ll get by in the future.’

‘Can I tell him that?’

The hands went back to the head. After a while, she said, ‘I need to think about this. Let’s talk about it in the morning. I’m having trouble coping with it now.’

And that’s the way it was left.

In the morning she seemed happier than Luke had expected. He told her so.

‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘It’s strange. I thought I’d wake up angry, but I’m not. It’s like I’ve been released from a responsibility. Probably because you now know as much as I do about him.’

‘Can I keep emailing him?’

‘Yes. He
is
your father and you have a right to know him.’ A long pause. ‘Don’t start expecting too much from him, though. Sooner or later he’ll let you down just as he did with me.’

Luke didn’t think so. He felt sure Hamish had changed. Hamish had said so, hadn’t he?

Beth had invited Luke to come back Friday morning, so when he knocked on the door he expected a friendlier welcome than the day before. He didn’t get it. As soon as Beth opened the door, he knew something was wrong. Her lips were tightly closed and stayed that way as she pointed for him to go into the lounge and
sit down. Lora was sitting on the front edge of the sofa, looking as uptight as her grandmother.

Luke looked from one to the other. ‘What’s the matter?’

Neither seemed to want to answer. They just stared at him, accusingly.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘You know what’s wrong,’ said Lora.

‘No, I don’t!’

‘You stole Gran’s money.’

‘What?’ he shouted.

‘You stole my money,’ Beth said, quietly.

‘How? From your purse?’

‘No. From my account.’

Luke stood up, throwing his head from side to side. ‘No way! I’ve never been into your account. Not without you there. No way!’

Lora leaned forward, sticking her chin out. ‘But you know her password, don’t you?’

‘Yes, but I’ve never used it.’

The chin came out further. ‘You’re lying. I can tell.’

Luke turned to Beth. ‘What do
you
think?’

‘Apart from me, you’re the only one who knows the password. And you said no one could access the account without it.’

After thinking for a moment, he went over to the computer. ‘Show me.’

Beth looked at Lora, who shrugged acceptance. Soon all three of them were seated around the computer.

‘Go into your account,’ said Luke, struggling to keep the anger out of his voice.

Beth did so.

‘Right, show me the withdrawal.’

Two clicks later, the screen was showing the entries for her current account.

‘There!’ she said, moving the cursor to a withdrawal of twenty thousand dollars. ‘That’s not one of mine. I didn’t do anything when I went online yesterday.’

Luke stared at it for a while before stabbing his finger at the screen. ‘Look at that!’ he demanded. ‘That’s where the money’s gone. It’s gone to another bank account—I don’t even have a bank account!’

Beth was beginning to have doubts. ‘Then whose is it?’

‘He could be lying about that, too,’ said Lora.

‘Ring the bank!’ said Luke. ‘They’ll tell you whose it is.’

‘But how can somebody take my money without the password?’ cried Beth.

Luke thought for a while. ‘You said you logged on yesterday?’

‘Yes. When we got back, there was an email saying I needed to check my balance.’

Luke closed his eyes and sighed. Alongside him, Lora took a sharp intake of breath.

Beth looked from one to the other. ‘What is it? What have I done wrong?’

‘Show me the email,’ said Luke as gently as he could.

Soon the email was displayed on the screen. It looked very professional with the bank’s logo and letterhead.

Dear Mrs Anderson,

As part of an internal auditing process, we require you to log on to the bank and check the balance of your account numbered:

93-4661-1802347-000

Click here to log on to this account.

If there are any problems with the balance, please contact us using the 0800 number listed at the top of this page.

Yours faithfully,

George Brightwell

Accounts Manager

Luke clicked on the link. Immediately, the web browser opened to a blank page. It took almost a minute before a
Page not found
message appeared.

‘That’s not what it did last night,’ said Beth. ‘It went to where I normally log on to my account.’

Luke shook his head slowly. ‘No. It was a page made to look like the bank’s site.’

‘But when I entered my number and password it took me to my account.’

‘Was it slow?’

‘Yes, but sometimes it is.’

‘After the thieves stole your access number and password,
they automatically logged you on to the real site.’

‘But what about TXTbak?’ asked Lora. ‘Gran should’ve got a security code sent to her phone.’

Luke switched back to the bank site and accessed the contact details. ‘Is that your phone number?’

‘The landline is,’ replied Beth, ‘but I’m not sure if that’s my mobile number.’

Lora whipped out a phone and furiously pushed buttons. ‘No! It’s not Gran’s.’

‘So they could take more of my money!’ cried Beth. ‘They can take money whenever they want.’

Luke nodded. ‘We need to ring the bank.’

It took most of the day to sort things out, and by then they all knew a lot more about Internet banking scams.

Beth had been the target of a phishing attack: the email was the hook, and the spoof web page was the line that reeled her in. The thing that worried the bank was that there were features to the attack that they’d not come across before. The fact that the thief had managed to change the mobile phone number used for TXTbak security was particularly alarming. The bank was moving quickly to ensure that it couldn’t happen again.

Of more concern to Luke was that the attack had been aimed directly at Beth. The account number in the email was the correct one. This was no ordinary phishing attack where an email was spammed to millions of people. This was spear-phishing, where the email was created just for Beth. His first
thought was that it might have something to do with the sale of the cardigan. But Brian at the bank thought differently. He suggested that a trojan virus had got installed on the computer. This would then search for banking details and send them to the thief. Brian suggested running a virus-checker over the computer.

That’s when Luke began to get angry: the virus-checker had been turned off.

He turned to Lora, who was lying on the sofa listening to music. ‘Did you turn off the virus-checker?’

‘Had to,’ she answered without looking at him. ‘The P2P program wouldn’t install unless I did.’

‘So you turned off the firewall
and
the virus-checker?’

Now she looked up. ‘Yeah! What’s your problem?’

‘My problem, and
yours,
is that a trojan virus came in with that P2P program. That’s how the scammers got Beth’s details.’

Lora got up from the sofa. ‘Prove it!’ she demanded.

‘I will!’ replied Luke, just as aggressively. Now it was time to get his own back—he hoped.

The virus-checker seemed to take forever. File after file was searched without any hint of a virus. Luke could sense Lora beginning to gloat beside him. Then it found one: a trojan by the name of Ratspyz.

‘There!’ he shouted, stabbing the screen. ‘There’s your proof!’

‘That doesn’t prove it came in with the P2P.’

‘How else could it have got there? The firewall and virus-checkers have been on all the rest of the time. The only program installed since you turned them off is your P2P.’

That silenced her. She sat there stiffly, as Luke went about removing the virus and restoring all the security settings. Even when he removed the P2P program, she said nothing. Luke realized she might never be able to say sorry, but he was happy enough to accept her silence as an admission of guilt. From now on, maybe she’d think twice before she accused him again.