Page 10 of Knife For Hire

It’s Sumac’s time to withdraw, for a frown to find home on his face. “Too many responsibilities in my home life to pick up any extras here.” He claps a hand on my shoulder. “Get back into it. Keep me posted with any updates, and I’ll go ahead and talk to the Captain and Lieutenant about the lead.”

My lips twitch. “Only you would go over the Sergeant’s head.”

“Perks of being his brother-in-law.” He rolls back over to his cubicle and computer. “Keep me posted with any updates? I can’t believe this green blood is back. Scary shit.”

I don’t allow myself to react to his words, forcing a numb through my body as guilt expands in my chest.

Moving until my torso covers most of the screen, I open my computer back up and return to the task at hand, giving it my full attention.

Good, I still have access to the hitman’s computer to deep dive.

I had probably already done more than I should. Setting up the website on the dark web, adding a VPN and security measures. Creating an email. Taking payment.

At first I wasn’t sure if the person wanted that type of website, but then they asked for .carrot and I knew.

And technically, everything I did after was by the rule book. The money was sent via crypto to the station’s account used for situations just like this. I put my own trojan horse inside the website I set up, so I would have access to anyone who went to it. The email I provided, I also had duplicated into my system, so I would maintain access even if the password was changed.

The only part of this that’s not quite by the book…

In the corner of my screen, I have a status bar showing the person is currently off of their computer and has been for some time now.

Time to investigate.

Flipping off the page I used to chat with the hitman who hired me, I found they were working on a graphic design for their logo.

Who the fuck advertises being a knife for hire?

And it’s terrible.

I can’t help myself from making a few changes and tweaks. After that, I search the rest of the hard drive…but I don’t find anything.

I guess if they at least knew to cover their camera, they wouldn’t leave anything for me to find. That makes more sense why they wouldn’t have a VPN on this computer and why they would let me have access to it.

I add a few more security precautions to their system, just in case. While taking down this hitman could be good…taking down their countless clients? The leads those could bring?

Even better.

With that downloading in the background, I decide to investigate a bit more and go to the most obvious place…the photo folder.