She cocked her head to the right, giving him a questioning look. "Really? Why?"
He shrugged. "I've gotten jaded. I've seen too many people cut too many corners lately. But you remind me that sometimes the fight for truth and justice is shockingly pure and clear-cut."
"Sometimes. But this case isn't at all clear-cut. It seems like any one of the people we've spoken to in the last few days could have been involved in my brother's death, and I can't help thinking I missed something big six years ago. I thought I had overturned every stone I could see or that the police had. But there was a clue we missed, a clue Sabrina obviously found."
As she spoke, her hand crept to the necklace Landon had bought for her birthday. It was ironic that he'd thought of her as his North Star, because in many ways, his presence had guided her, too. She'd had to be strong for him. She'd had to set an example. He'd kept her grounded. They'd both been home for each other.
Her finger suddenly caught on one edge of the star, and she was surprised by a sharp unevenness. She ran her finger back and forth, feeling like something was off.
"What's wrong?" Matt asked.
"I'm not sure. There's something sharp." She reached behind her neck and unhooked the latch, then held the star pendant up in front of her, seeing the sharp edge on the back side of the thick star. "It looks like a latch," she murmured, running her fingers over the area in question. She pushed on the pointed edge, and it opened the back side of the star. "Oh, my God!"
"What is it?" Matt asked.
She pulled out a tiny silver square. "This was inside. I don't know what it is."
"I do. It's a drive."
"For a computer? But it's so small. And why would it be inside the necklace?"
Matt's eyes blazed with excitement. "Because Landon wanted to put it somewhere safe, and where would be safer than in the necklace he was giving his sister?"
She stared at the tiny drive in shock, a mix of fear and excitement running through her. They might be about to find out why her brother had died and maybe who had killed him.
ChapterFifteen
"May I have it?" Matt asked.
She handed him the drive. "Can you open it?"
"I can. Let's go into my office."
She tossed down her napkin and followed, her stomach churning with a mix of anticipation and dread.
Matt sat down at his desk and powered on his laptop. She stood behind him as he handled the tiny silver square with surprising gentleness, easing the microdrive into a card reader attached to an adapter.
The screen blinked once. Then a message came across the monitor:Drive Locked. Encrypted Volume.
"This is a good sign," Matt said. "If it's encrypted, it means there's something valuable on it."
"But how are we going to open it?"
His fingers flew across the keyboard. Several windows opened, with black and white code scrolling across the screen, and then another message:Enter Password.
He paused, glancing back at her. "Any ideas?"
"He wouldn't have picked something easy. It could be a string of code. I have no idea. He was the computer whiz, not me." She felt a wave of helpless frustration. "I don't know what to tell you. He was always on me to change my passwords, to use a password-locking app, to be more careful."
"But you weren't always careful, were you?"
"No. I try to be better, but I'm sure most of my passwords could be guessed by someone who knew what they were doing."
Matt gave her an assessing look.
"What are you thinking?" she asked.
"That Landon would have figured you'd be the one to find this, to have to open it. He'd want you to be able to figure it out."
