“I’m going to use that table you put up for me and hook up my office, but I’m not logging in until I have the dishes in the china cabinet and the rest of my clothes hung up. After that, it’s back to business for me, too. I’ll always have my phone with me, but if I’m doing any live video or Zoom meeting, it will be on Mute. I’ll hear it vibrating and get back to you the moment I am able.”
“Same goes for me,” he said. “If I’m on stakeout, sometimes my phone is muted so I don’t give myself away. Other times it might be when we’re in interrogation. We’ll figure it out.” He downed the last of his coffee, and got up, leaned over to leave a kiss on her cheek. “Gotta go, love. Oh… Shoot… I need to write down the security code for the house in case you need to run errands. It can be set manually, or set with a remote and disarmed the same way. There’s an extra remote in the sideboard.”
“I’ll figure it out,” she said. “I’m all about tech.”
Moments later he was gone, and she began cleaning up the kitchen, suddenly anxious to put a little bit of herself into this home. She picked up a clean dish towel and headed for the box with her mother’s china and began taking the pieces out one by one, wiping and stacking them on the table, and when the box was empty, she opened the cabinet doors and began filling the shelves with every piece from home. RoyalDoulton Fine Ivory China in the Mandalay pattern. She could almost hear her mother’s voice again, cautioning her when she was young.
Be careful of my Royal Doulton, Nora.
“I’m being careful, Mama,” Nora said, and she was, even as she set the last piece in place and closed the doors. Then she stepped back, eyeing how they looked against the cherry wood and glass doors.
Satisfied with her effort, she took the empty box to the garage, then headed for her office. She was itching for a project. It was time to set up shop.
* * *
Hours later, she had checked in with her boss to let him know she had everything up and running at her new location and was ready for the next assignment. It turned out to be a job on recovering wiped data at a lab facility, caused by a disgruntled worker. The man had been identified and arrested, and Nora’s job was trying to recover it from the mainframe, but it wasn’t until she found transfer portals leading to a rogue IP address at the thief’s home address, that turned the tide.
“Gotcha,” she crowed, then picked up the phone and called the home office, identified herself and her ID code, and was put through to the boss.
“Miss Borden, you have news?”
“Yes sir. I found a transfer portal attached to a rogue IP address that is at the same physical address as the man who was arrested. At first, I thought it was just him trying to hide an original location and wondered if the man who was arrested wasn’t the thief at all, and that we could be looking at foreign interference. But upon further digging, I believe it was the man under arrest, and I don’t think the data was destroyed;it was transferred, and made it appear as if it had been wiped on the lab mainframe. Tell the authorities to go back to his residence. Search his home from top to bottom. Look for a hidden room, either in the wall or in a basement you don’t know about, or an attic that appears to have no access point. There is a whole other functioning system somewhere on that property or that IP address would not exist.”
“Interesting catch, and if this pans out, good work! I’ll let you know if they locate it, and you can see to the transfer of data back to their mainframe. In the meantime, I’ll put you on hold and not give you another case to work until we finalize this.”
“Understood,” Nora said. The call ended. Satisfied with her day’s work, she logged out and went to look for something to snack on.
While she was prowling through the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, she found a packet of frozen ground beef, a package of taco shells, a packet of taco seasoning, and everything else to make tacos. It wasn’t fancy, but it was something she did know how to make. She set the frozen meat in the sink to thaw, then got herself a snack and a cold drink and sat down at the bar and sent Asher a text.
Successful day. Off until tomorrow. I found stuff to make tacos. Are you game enough to trust me?
A minute later she got a reply.
Yum and yes. Running down a lead. I’ll let you know when I’m on the way home.
Pleased with herself, she took her snack to the living room and turned on the TV, found the channel for MSNBC, and sat down to catch up on what was happening in the world.
* * *
Ash sent a text to his dad, telling him Nora was in the house and laughed at the “told you so” response.
Dylan got a text from Asher midmorning. All it said was, “Nora’s in the house.” He sent a “finally” response, and couldn’t wait to tell Angie there was going to be another woman in the family. She’d already endured several years of holidays in Crossroads and been the only female on the premises. This was going to rock her world.
And when Gunner got the same message, he was both happy and relieved. His response was, “about damn time.” He hit Send, then he got out of his car and headed inside the motel to get a look at the body that had just been found.
Forensics was already there gathering evidence. The coroner glanced up.
“Ah, Kingston, just in time.”
Gunner grimaced a bit at the stench and made sure he wasn’t standing in anything vital. “In time for what?” he said.
“In time to see what’s left of the dude before he’s finished melting.”
“Melting? How?”
“The body has been frozen. I haven’t a clue as to how long he’s been dead, or who he is. The tips off his fingers have been removed, and the tongue cut out of his mouth. Ten bucks he snitched on someone who wasn’t nice.”
Gunner frowned then and moved to the foot of the corpse for a better look. “Oh hell, well, there goes the DA’s case against the Banner gang. Now we know where the missing witness went. I need to call this in,” he said, and walked out.
