“This is just a little report that I typed up for you. It needs to stay here in the file, but this will give you an idea.” He slides the folder closer to me and points at the first paragraph as he reads aloud. “After going through the financial records of Blue Marine Incorporated, I discovered some irregularities, not only in the accounting used but in the numbers reported, particularly with respect to the charges being assessed by certain service providers. For example, recycling of waste oil, a service that must be utilized by Blue Marine by law, is costing 79% more than the industry average.” He pauses to take a breath. “Similarly, janitorial services for the stores are running 159% higher than the average. However, during a site visit, I saw no evidence of any janitorial service being used that’s worth the premium being paid. On the contrary, I found a store in need of these services.”
I interrupt his recitation. “So, you suspect that someone is creating dummy companies and taking money for themselves, skimming off the top?”
“That’s my theory. That’s the one I’m running with, anyway, until I get more information.”
I nod, encouraging him to continue.
“I have access to the server remotely, using Mr. Jorgensen’s username and password; however, I don’t know if that’s enough.”
I shrug. “It might not be.”
“What do you mean?”
“They could be using the local drive of a single computer that isn’t networked in or viewable via the server. I wouldn’t know without getting onto or into the actual computers themselves.”
“We could get you into the computers if you need that kind of access,” Lucky says.
I nod. “Are you thinking of dropping a virus in there and making a clone over here, or actually going on-site?”
Lucky’s eyes open a little wider. “You could do that? Do the virus thing?”
I shrug. “Sure. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to engineer, but it’s doable. You probably saw something like it in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
Thibault speaks up. “I didn’t think that was real. People can really do that?” He smiles as he looks at his coworkers. “That girl Lisbeth was badass.”
I turn my attention to the whole table, trying not to take credit for Lisbeth’s badassedness. She was way meaner than I could ever be. I liken myself more to Mr. Spock than anyone else. Passive and logical with pointy ears, pale skin, and a deadly cool hairdo.
“Sure,” I say. “I could do that, and a lot worse. Believe me.” I pause, worried that I’ve just painted myself as a computer psycho. “Not that I would, of course.”
Toni speaks up, apparently unfazed. “Where can you get a virus? Do we have to buy it, like a program or something?”
I shrug. “Well, I could write a program fresh for you, or I could talk to some friends. One of them will probably already have one. It wouldn’t cost anything.” I don’t want to elaborate and tell them that some people actually write horrible viruses for the joy of terrorizing people. That’s not what we’re doing here, and with Mr. Jorgensen’s permission it’s not illegal to clone a system.
“We’ll talk about the logistics later,” Ozzie says. “For right now let’s just get an overview of what the problem is and how we think Jenny can help us.”
Lucky nods and then looks at his paper again. “If we were to go on-site, I believe you’d find all the computers networked together. We could access data from any of the computers from a location at the company via the server.”
“You might actually need to get on the individual computers physically first, though, before you can know for sure whether their local drives are clean,” I say. Now I know why May asked me to come on board. Lucky is clearly not the guy for this part of the job.
Ozzie responds. “Do you have a recommendation as to how we should proceed?”
My heart goes a little faster, knowing that everybody is watching me and judging me by my response. Even so, I kind of get how May is excited about being on this team. It feels good to have people counting on me, people who are really dedicated and hardworking.
I take a deep breath and give him my response. “Well, if I were to have the perfect situation in front of me, and if we had all the time in the world to figure things out, I would say going on-site maybe after hours and getting into their computers would be the best way to go. As long as I have their passwords, and I don’t need to try to crack into anything, we could get in there pretty quickly and take a look around.” I pause, imagining myself in the dead of night searching through a stranger’s files. I’m definitely going to need to build some sort of algorithm to search and compile data quicker than I could do on my own, but I could do that part at home after the systems are cloned. “How many employees are we talking about? Because that might change my answer.”
Lucky answers without looking at his file. “There are eight employees in the main office, and another twenty to thirty employees at various stores.”
I chew my lip as I think that through. “Hmmm . . . that could take a while working on-site. It might be better if we made clones of the individual computers, so I could work out of sight during the day. If we have to go in after hours, it’s going to be very difficult for me.” I cringe at that truth. “I’m sorry, but I have three kids, so my time isn’t exactly all my own, if you know what I mean.”
Thibault holds his hands up. “Hey, we’re here to work with you, however it’s good for you. If it’s easier for you to make clones and work from home or work at the warehouse during the day, we’ll do it that way. We want to accommodate you as much as possible.”
Thibault has no idea that he’s just put a crack in my heart. It’s one of those happy cracks that appears when you realize that all your life you’ve been working for the wrong people and you really should have looked harder to find a job like this one in the first place.
I clear my throat so I can talk without that lump that just appeared messing me up. “I appreciate that. And trust me, my kids appreciate it. I think it would be better if I could work from home. I could come to the warehouse if you need me to, but any time I spend on the road is time I could be on the computer. This could get really tricky.” I look at Ozzie, willing him not to be offended at my next statement. “Do you know how many hours you were expecting me to work?” It’s going to take me at least ten hours to do this thing they’ve just described, but probably a lot more than that, and all I’ve been offered is five hundred bucks. It could easily turn out to be a less-than-minimum-wage situation, which I’d love to avoid, but I don’t want to come right out and say that in front of all these people.
Luckily, Ozzie picks up on my meaning right away. “The fee we offered you was just for a consultation from you, to do what you’re doing right now. You’ve already earned it. If you actually decide to do the work, we’ll just pay you your hourly rate, whatever it is.”
“Okay.” My face is burning red again. Should I admit the truth? That I don’t have any idea what my hourly rate is? When I look around at the people at the table and then hear my son giggling in the other room, I make my decision very quickly; the truth is always the best way to go, regardless of where you end up.
“I’ve actually never freelanced before, so I don’t exactly have an hourly rate.”
“You know what you’re doing though, don’t you?” This question comes from Toni, and there’s a hint of a challenge to it. But this is her house, and I’m in no position to come back with attitude of my own, so I answer with as much humility as I can muster.
I nod. “Yes, I’m fully qualified as both a computer engineer and software engineer. But if you’d like to see my diplomas and some samples of my work, I’d be happy to provide them.”
Ozzie sounds a little perturbed as he shoots Toni a hard look. “You don’t need to do that. You’ve already been fully vetted by Thibault.”
Fully vetted? What’s that mean? I decide to hold my tongue on that for now.
It’s possible there’s a little spark of
rebellion in Toni’s eye, but then she looks away, and I can’t see how she feels about the situation anymore. She just got put in her place, so she can’t be very happy. May once described her as a little prickly, and now I know why. She’s like a little Bahia hairy dwarf porcupine sitting over there, ready to challenge anybody about anything, stick a few well-placed quills in their faces.
I don’t know if she means for this to be the result, but it makes me want to work even harder, so I can prove her wrong. So I can show her that I know what I’m doing. The stuff they want me to do is tough and more than a little time consuming, but I can do it. I haven’t met a computer problem I can’t tackle and wrestle to the ground. The world is lucky I use my powers for good and not evil. I could so be Lex Luthor if I wanted to be.
Thibault speaks up. “How about you just charge what you think is fair, maybe the industry average or whatever, and we’ll take it from there?”
“Okay, I can do that.” My heart is racing. If I do a really good job for them this time, maybe they’ll call me again when they need computer or software expertise. I have to be extra fair with my pricing and work as hard as possible to get this done right. If I could have a freelance career working out of my home, it would be a dream come true. Miles has health insurance that covers the kids, so I’ll never have to worry about them being sick again. I could hear “I have a tummy ache,” and instead of falling into a panic, I could just smile and say, “Go lie on the couch,” and not worry about having to call a boss who’s going to threaten to fire me over it.
Thibault stands up. “Boss, we’ve got that other project we’re working on with the chief of police, and I need May for that meeting.” He shoots me an apologetic look.
“Right.” Ozzie turns his attention to me. “I’m going to leave you in Lucky’s capable hands. Feel free to let your son run around. There’s nothing in here that could hurt him. You might want to keep him out of the other room, though.”
I smile. “Yeah. Those knives are very tempting.”
Ozzie, Thibault, and Toni stand. Ozzie walks over to the doorway and leans into the hallway that leads to the place were Sammy and May are. “May! Time to go!”
“Coming!” Felix starts to bark, as if he’s answering Ozzie’s call too. It makes me smile to think that May has her own little family here.
May appears, holding Sammy’s hand. “Should I stay here?” she asks her boyfriend and boss.
“No. I told Jenny that Sammy can run around as much as he wants. Bring the dogs out here, and they can keep him busy for a little while. I don’t think it’s going to take much longer for her to finish up with Lucky.”
“Okey-dokey.” May bends down and looks Sammy in the eye. “I need you to do me a favor, Sammers. Can you look after Felix and Sahara for me? I have to go do something.”
Sammy nods. “Yeth. I can do that.”
“And can you promise me something else?”
“Maybe,” he says with caution. “What ith it?”
“Can you promise me that you won’t go in the other room where the dangerous swords are?”
“Becauthe you don’t want me to cut anything off, like fingerth?”
Somebody snorts off to the side. I think it might have been Toni.
“Yes. Because I don’t want you to cut anything off.”
“Okay.” He nods enthusiastically, “I promithe I won’t cut Keep it on one line or break aaany-thing off.”
He’s being so dedicated with his assurances, my hackles go up. The little devil is thinking he’s created some kind of loophole. I go back over his answer to her question, but May is faster than I am.
“Nice try,” she says, “but what we need you to promise is that you won’t even go in that room.”
He gives her his very earnest look. “But I could go in there and not touch anything. Jutht look.”
May shakes her head “Nope. You can’t even go in. You want to know why?”
“Yeth. I alwayth want to know why.”
She smiles. “I know. Because you have a great mind, Sammy. The reason why you can’t go in there is because the man who owns all those swords is a real ninja. And real ninjas don’t let anyone touch their weapons.”
Sammy’s eyes are very wide, and I’m almost afraid of what’s going to come out of his or May’s mouth next.
Sammy’s voice is almost a whisper. “Why not? Do they kill them?”
May shakes her head. “No. But it brings them very bad luck, and next time they try to fight, they get injured. You don’t want to injure a real ninja, do you?”
Sammy shakes his head. “No. But I do want to touch hith thordth.”
She rubs his head affectionately. “I know you do. Maybe one day he’ll let you touch one, but not today.” She stands up and turns him toward the dogs who have just entered the room. They trot over to a large dog bed and curl up together. “Go play with the doggies. They’re bored.”
Sammy runs off to lie down in the bed with the dogs, and May looks over at me. “We good?”
My son is lying in a dog bed when he should be at daycare, and I’m working in a warehouse where I was formerly kept prisoner in a panic room. I’m perfect. I smile back at her. “Yep. All set.”
“Call me later,” she says, holding her hand up to her ear with two fingers extended, mimicking our future call.
“Oh, I will. Don’t worry.” I wink so she knows I’m not mad at her. But we do have a lot to talk about. And at some point, I’m going to have to try and slip into the conversation a question about why Dev wasn’t at the meeting today. I’m just hoping it’s not because he’s regretting flirting with me and heard I was going to be here.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After everyone’s gone, it’s just Lucky and me in the room together. He has a pen out and a blank piece of paper, and he’s staring at me attentively.
“Do you know when you might be available to do a night visit to the job site?” he asks.
“I don’t know. I guess it would depend on what you think we’re going to be doing, and how long you think it’ll take. Since it’s at night, it’s possible May could watch my kids for me, but it depends on her schedule.”
“Okay. So, we need to talk to May.”
“I could text her, if you want.”
“That’s a good idea. Why don’t you go ahead and do that?”
Taking my phone from my purse, I quickly tap out a message to my sister, asking her when she might be free for a sleepover so that I can get down to business here with the Bourbon Street Boys.
“What’s next?”
“I was thinking we could get over there to the administrative offices around eight p.m. and work until about four in the morning. Mr. Jorgensen tells me that the last person is usually out the door by six-thirty in the evening, and they come in around eight o’clock in the morning. I’m guessing it’ll take us a few hours to go over all the computers, but just in case, we’ll have more time than that before we can expect anyone to show up and spoil our fun. Does that sound right to you?”
I nod. “Yes, it sounds about right, but I wouldn’t want to commit to anything until I actually got in there and started working. It’s really difficult to say how long it’ll take without having more details about the people who work there. Because we don’t know the background of any of the employees and how sophisticated they might be with their computer use, we won’t know for sure how deep the problem goes until we have our hands on their drives.”
He nods. “Yeah, you’re right.” He pauses for a moment and smiles at me. “Did I mention how happy I am to have you working on this case with me?”
My heart warms at the sentiment. “Maybe? Yes? No?” I chuckle. “Everyone has made me feel very welcome.”
“I think you’re really going to like working here, despite your first impressions. I promise it’s not normally like it was on Friday.”
I try to focus on the positive and not the incident in the panic room. That was just a wrong place, wrong time kind of
thing. Except for the part where I spent quality time with Dev. Wrong place, right time? “Well, my sister May loves it, so it must be a nice place.”
“I realize that right now you only plan to be here temporarily, but if you decide at any point that you might like a more permanent gig, you should let me know. There’ve already been several cases we’ve worked on where we had to bring in outside talent, and we’ve had to turn down several more jobs because we just weren’t sure we could bring in somebody qualified enough to help. From what your sister and Thibault both tell me, you can pretty much handle anything we’ve been approached about so far.”
I’m flattered but also a little worried. “How does Thibault know anything about what I do?”
Lucky leans back in his chair a little bit. “He’s in charge of background checks. Whenever we think about working with someone from outside the team, he does a thorough check. Law enforcement allows us to use their databases.”
I get a little nervous over that. Does that mean he did a credit check on me too? I don’t have the best credit in the world, which is kind of embarrassing. Bouncing child support checks never helps with that situation. “I guess I passed . . .”
“Yes, you passed. And it doesn’t hurt that you had a very glowing recommendation from your sister. You’re her hero, you know. And we respect the hell out of her, so what she thinks matters to us.”
“You sure know how to make a girl blush, Lucky.” I know I sound goofy saying that, but I can’t think of how else to describe what I’m feeling. It’s been a long time since somebody slathered my family and me with compliments like this. It’s seriously flattering to be told on the day you’re laid off from one job that you’re respected so much by a new coworker, especially when it’s someone on a team of people who are consulting for the New Orleans Police Department. But it doesn’t change a lot of very important things for me.
“It’s just the truth,” he assures me.
“I did just get laid off from my job, but I’m not sure I’m up to the task of being a Bourbon Street Boy person.”