Morris rolled his eyes and huffed. What was with this guy and the eye-rolling and sighing? He was at least forty-five. Not fifteen.
Ivy shook her head and refocused—not on Morris but on Gil. “You should have someone investigate the accident that knocked out our power. I don’t think it was an accident. I don’t know whatthe endgame is, but for whatever reason, they, whoever they are, wanted me out of the office and at home.”
Gil took a moment to consider her theory. “You think someone intentionally hit that pole to knock out your power? How could they have known you wouldn’t wait for it to be restored?”
“That would have been a risk, but a small one. It was late Friday afternoon, and we were already planning to be out of the office all weekend. We’re having the building and offices painted. They start in the morning. I made sure everyone knew to back up everything by noon today. The plan was to shut down all our systems at the close of business. The painting was supposed to be done by Sunday afternoon, and we were assured we could return to work on Monday.”
“I’m not sure how that translates into someone intentionally knocking out the power,” Morris said, undoubtedly trying to regain control of his interrogation. “Sounds like bad luck. Not a criminal act.”
“I might agree with you had I not been tortured for an hour by people who claimed they wanted nothing other than to get access to my computer at work.” Ivy had dropped all pretense of civility. She was looking at Morris like he was an imbecile. “A computer that had, an hour earlier, shut down abruptly without me being able to close sensitive financial and personnel documents that were open on my desktop.”
“But why would they want that?” Morris asked.
“I assumed that was where you came in, Detective Morris. I’ll be very curious to hear what you discover.”
Ivy was about to boil over. She had been easygoing and sweet as a kid, but that didn’t mean she was passive. Not by a long shot. Gil had always managed to stay on her good side, but there were a few girls who had teased her mercilessly. Usually about her clothes.Sometimes about what she packed for lunch. One day, she’d had enough and exploded.
Gil couldn’t remember the specifics. What he did remember was that when it was over and she came back to his house, Ivy burst into tears of remorse. Those girls had deserved everything she’d said to them and then some, but she still felt guilty about it.
“Dr. Collins, who exactly do you think is in charge right now?” Morris poured fuel on the fire. The idiot.
Gil jumped in before Ivy could decimate him. “Morris. Dr. Collins is right, and you know it. She’s also had a horrific day, and she’s not the villain here. How about you take a breath and let her get back to her story so we can all go home, huh?”
Morris glared at Ivy but didn’t say anything else.
“Ivy, what time did you go home?” Gil asked the question in hopes that she would talk to him, not Morris, and that would help her maintain her composure and give Morris time to cool off.
“Once we realized it was going to be a while, I told everyone to pack up. We left a little bit before three. I’d planned to go back tonight and check all the computers and systems, maybe run backups again if needed. We have tight cybersecurity on our computer network, and I’m a stickler for backups. It wouldn’t have been the end of the world if we didn’t run them tonight, but I knew I would feel better if we did.”
“When you say your cybersecurity is tight, how tight are we talking?” Morris asked the question, but it was hard to tell if he was being a jerk or was genuinely curious.
“It’s not a secret that a lack of cybersecurity is a pet peeve of mine. I’ve fired people over failing to uphold our computer requirements. What we do isn’t classified, but we have developed some technology that has triggered the interest of the Defense Department. It’s crucial that our network is secured.”
“I wish every company took their cybersecurity seriously.” Gil wasn’t trying to butter her up. He meant every word. Cyber threats were no joke, and companies the size of Hedera were frequent targets. “I hate to speculate, but given that your attackers wanted access to your computer system, I’d guess they’ve tried to hack you before and failed.”
“That could be. I realize there’s no proof at the moment, but it makes sense to me that the same people behind the power outage were behind the attack at my home. It’s conjecture, but it’s reasonable to think they expected me to give them the information and then they could return to our office and have full access to our system.”
If there was any way he could spare her this conversation, he would. But he couldn’t. “Can you walk us through what happened after you got home?”
5
IVY SAT STRAIGHTER in her seat and kept her gaze pinned to a spot on the wall. “I got home around three, changed, and warmed up some leftovers. I still had the bowl in my hand, and when I turned around, they were there.”
She wanted to push the memory away. She didn’t want to relive it. Not now. Not ever.
“Ivy?” Gil’s gentle voice was soothing after Detective Morris’s brusqueness. “Do you have any idea how they got inside?”
“No. I have a security system, and I thought it was a good one.”
“Are you sure you set it? It’s not uncommon for people to forget.” Morris, again with a statement that could be gentle and kind coming from anyone else, but coming from him? It set her nerves on edge.
“Yes. I’m certain.”
Morris didn’t hide his doubt.
“My system is time-stamped. It won’t be too difficult to determine when I set it and when it was breached.”
Morris made a note.
