Page 42 of Rekindled
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As they sped down the highway towards Seattle, Molly wondered what they were going to find out from her tech guy. Would he be able to prove it was all fake? For Spencer’s sake, she hoped that was the case.
“Were you able to find out anything around the office?” Molly probed, hoping Spencer was able to figure out a couple of suspects.
He shook his head, his grip on the steering wheel visibly tightening. “No, there really isn’t anyone that I can think of that would do this. I’ve never had a problem with anyone.”
“Could it be a client?”
“I guess that’s possible. There’s been a few that were unhappy and ended up doing more time in jail than they would have liked. It’s possible after they got out, they wanted to get revenge. I just don’t think any of them have the technical know-how to do it.”
“They could have hired someone,” Molly pointed out. “There’s all sorts of hackers on the dark web. I did an exposé on the subject, and it’s scary the type of trouble a well-versed hacker can cause with just the click of a few buttons.”
“I guess that’s possible. Hopefully your tech guy can help us figure out if that’s the case.”
“I’m surprised you were able to take time off to go with me. You didn’t have to, by the way. I could have done this on my own.”
“I took a personal day. I have a bunch saved up and never use them. I didn’t have any court hearings, so it was a safe day to do it.” He glanced over at her and smiled. “Besides, we agreed to do this together, remember?”
Molly nodded. “I know. I just don’t want to cause you more problems by taking you away from your job.”
“You’re not, so don’t worry about that. I’ve got it handled. We have a junior defender, Bob Perkins, who can cover anything while I’m gone.” Spencer slapped the side of the steering wheel as he added, “You might know him. We all went to high school together. He was on the football team with me.”
Molly racked her brains, but couldn’t recall him from her youth. She shook her head as she said, “Sorry, he doesn’t sound familiar. You have got to remember, the only football player I was familiar with was you. I didn’t exactly hang out with the same people as you.”
“I forget that sometimes, but it makes sense you wouldn’t know who he is. We weren’t even that close. He was the second-string quarterback and always a little envious of me.”
“Well, he had good reason to be. You’re handsome, talented, and apparently smarter than you let on when you had me tutoring you back in high school.”
Spencer chuckled. “I was lazy in school. Everything came easy for me, so when work got hard, I didn’t want to put in the effort. Since I was the star quarterback, no one wanted to press me—that is until you came along. You helped me overcome that by pushing me to do my own work. I hated it at the time, but looking back, it was exactly what I needed.”
“It seems the change in attitude stuck with you too, since you managed to get your law degree,” Molly noted.
They continued the drive, listening to music, talking about their favorite movies, and church. The time passed quickly, and they arrived at the address programmed in the GPS before Molly knew it.
Molly climbed out of the car and came around to stand in front of a shabby, small house with peeling paint, a brown lawn, and a rusted chain-link fence.
“This is where your tech guy lives?” Spencer asked skeptically. “It looks like a location for a horror movie.”
Molly shrugged. “Hank doesn’t care much about anything that isn’t computer or internet related. It’s why he’s so good at what he does. He’s hyper-focused on it.”
They walked up the sidewalk that was covered in dirt, with weeds growing in the cracks. As they climbed the steps of the rickety porch, Molly worried Spencer was going to turn around and bolt right back to his car.
She glanced out of the corner of her eye, and was relieved to see he was standing firmly beside her. Before he could change his mind, Molly pushed the button to ring the doorbell. Nothing happened. It must have broken since the last time she was there, so Molly knocked on the door instead. When there was no response, she knocked a little harder.
Getting frustrated, and a little embarrassed about Hank’s behavior, she pulled out her phone from her purse and texted him that they were there. A few moments later, the door swung open to reveal a shaggy, blond-haired man with glasses. He was wearing a dirty white t-shirt and sweatpants.
“Sorry I didn’t hear you knock. I had my headphones on while I was working.” He stepped back and gestured for them to enter. “Come on in.”
As they entered the house, the inside was no better than what was on the outside. There was a stack of paper plates, pizza boxes, and plastic cups all over the place. There was a thick layer of dust that coated almost everything, besides the large U-shaped desk that was in the main living room. It had four computer screens on it, each of them with different information changing and flashing across them.
Hank pulled up a couple of rolling office chairs, next to the one already there. He pushed off the books and magazines that were on them. “Go ahead and take a seat.”
Both Spencer and Molly did as he suggested. He took the seat directly in front of the screens. He turned to Molly and asked, “You got the USB drive?”
She nodded, and handed it to him. He inserted it into his computer tower, clicked away on a few buttons, and started reading the screen, which had converted from what Molly had seen originally to a black and green screen full of what appeared to her as random numbers and letters.
Hank made a couple of grunts under his breath. After a few minutes, he pointed to a line of numbers on the screen. “You see that? That’s some of the thickest security layers I’ve ever seen. Whoever put this together definitely didn’t want to be found.”
