CHAPTER ELEVEN
Sloane had known that Perk was going to be at some kid’s house tonight, but she hadn’t thought his investigation would come to fruition so quickly.
Director Baskins hadn’t given any details over the phone, other than he’d heard from Perk. The boss had called for an immediate emergency meeting at the FBI offices to go over not only what Perk had found as boots on the ground, but what Sarge and Smalley had simultaneously dug up.
It meant cancelling her date with Melissa, but her friend would understand. This wasn’t the first time work had interfered with their getting together, nor would it be the last. Sloane made the call quickly, and other than a little pout-posturing, Melissa let her off the hook.
It was a good thing, too. Sloane had a lot on her mind.
Working with two others on the team who were assigned to this case, Sloane had, previous to leaving the office earlier, connected some dots between the theft victims, and had given that intelligence to Baskins. Hopefully their findings would tie into the rest of the evidence Baskins had collected, and what Perk would reveal.
She yanked off her towel after showering, slipping quickly into jeans and a pullover sweater before grabbing her badge and weapon, to dash out the door.
Getting into her vehicle, her eyes flicked to the clock. The drive was normally twenty minutes. This time of night, she’d make it in fourteen.
When Sloane eventually walked into the conference room just after eleven PM, she noted Baskins, Smalley, Tertia, Perk, Del, and Sarge already in attendance, along with the two agents who’d been digging with her today.
Sloane’s eyes immediately fixed on Perk, and a flutter of…something reverberated in her chest. It was a disturbing, breathless kind of feeling, and she didn’t know whether she liked it or not. It was almost like a low voltage, electric charge, and it was all Perk’s fault. How dare he look more gorgeous every time she saw him?
His blue eyes—equally as mind-blowing as the rest of the Perk-package—twinkled up at her as if he knew what she was thinking. She could tell he was sending all kinds of covert vibes, letting her know that the next time they met there’d be no audience, and they could explore what was happening between them.
Dammit. Concentrating on the meeting tonight was going to be difficult.
“Close the door behind you, Sloane,” Baskins directed brusquely for privacy.
There were other teams in the building still hard at work. The Bureau never slept.
Sloane did as she was asked, then slipped quietly into a seat next to Agent Tertia.
“ Your boy did good,” Tertia whispered to Sloane. “We should have this case wrapped up in no time.”
Clearly, Tertia had decided that there was something going on between Sloane and Perk, hence the “your boy” designation.
“Not mine.” Sloane pinched Tertia’s thigh playfully to shut the other woman up, and when Tertia snorted, Sloane rolled her eyes, ignored it, then sat back waiting for Baskins to start talking.
If the boss had noticed the exchange, he didn’t let on.
“I’ve been briefed by all of you and have your full reports. So now I’m going to ask each faction to lay out—for the rest of those here—exactly what you’ve found,” Baskins stated. “Perkins, why don’t you start.”
Perk didn’t hesitate, consummately professional. “Tonight, I went to the home of one of the kids I met at school. Without much difficulty, I got the name of the teenager they believe is behind the thefts and the disappearance of Ms. Jefferson. The suspected perp is Jeremy Nelsin, and he lives at…” Perk rattled off the address.
“Jeremy Nelsin,” Baskins repeated, looking down at his notes. “He’s indicated in your findings as well, Agent Vessers?”
“Yes sir,” Sloane answered. “His is one of the names that kept popping up as someone recently connected to each of the theft victims,” Sloane confirmed.
Damn , what a great team they had here. Only a day had passed and they were already closing in on solving this case.
Baskins continued reading. “Nelsin is a computer nerd and not very popular, but he’s been making incongruous inroads with a few A-listers at school lately. Word is, he has those new friends mostly because he’s developed an addictive computer game/contest which he’s sharing with the rest of the student body, via what he’s told them is an app they can only access thru him.”
“Don’t tell me,” Sarge piped up. “He’s ‘sharing’,” Sarge emphasized the word with air quotes, “but he’s most likely imbedding malware into his freebie which infects the recipients’ phones, and or computers.”
“That’s what we believe. But Sarge, we need you to make certain,” Baskins supplied. “The timeline of the thefts works with the app he released weeks ago, which is called…” He squinted down at his papers again. “…Poppin’ Fresh Pets. Its appeal is that once you’ve downloaded it, you can then upload pictures of your pets to the site, and everyone votes each day on which ones are the cutest. The winner gets some worthless, virtual prize, and their name on the site’s champ-board.”
“And for those hollow kudos, Nelsin gains access to the contents of everyone’s devices with whatever Trojan Horse he’s hidden, earning easy pickings from a lot of idiots who don’t disguise their passwords.” Sarge shook his head in disgust. “Hence, his backdoor into grabbing their money.”
“We’ll know soon enough.” Perk had his burner phone out, and was tapping at it. “I downloaded the program, Sarge, and I’m sending it to you now.”
Sarge’s laptop, which he was never without, pinged, and the man immediately tuned everyone out, his fingers flying over his keyboard almost faster than Sloane could see them move.
Baskins nodded his approval. “While he’s at that, Smalley, why don’t you tell us about your progress with the money trail.”
Smalley appeared dour, but that was nothing unusual.
“We’ve been able to trace the stolen funds to an offshore account with the name of some bogus LLC listed as principal, but the money disappears almost as soon as it hits the account, being converted quickly into crypto currency before it goes off our radar. Sarge and I have yet to break into the codes that are keeping the crypto-trail secure, but we embedded some AI bots this afternoon, so hopefully our little Trojan Horses will be able to trace the next big transaction when it happens.”
“Unfortunately,” Baskins spoke up, “just after the girl went missing, whoever is behind this—and I don’t think Jeremy is the mastermind—must have temporarily shut down their operations. No more funds have been purloined since the disappearance. The perps must have figured things were getting a little hot, and they’re laying low for a while.”
Sarge paused and looked up. “I have something.”
Everyone went on alert.
“The malware is here all right. It’s simple, but effective,” Sarge informed them.
“But since they’ve stopped stealing for the time being, it’s also moot for now,” Smalley said, almost smiling as he had one eye on Sarge’s ever-layering computer pages.
“Go ahead. Tell them,” Sarge urged. It was clear that despite Sarge’s initial reluctance to work with Smalley, the two had bonded over shared nerd-dom.
Smalley nodded. “Thanks to Sarge, we now have another way into their money trail. While we were all talking, my partner here not only broke open Nelsin’s program coding, he hacked into Jeremy’s bank account. Cross-referencing the timing and amounts of the thefts with deposits into his account, it’s obvious that each one perfectly aligns with the stolen money. And get this. Every influx of funds into his pocket is exactly twenty-percent of the total amount taken with each heist.”
“Good work,” Baskins praised, then addressed Sarge again. “Which means whoever is pulling his strings, is getting a clean eighty-percent. It’s time to look into everyone the boy is close to. Teachers, parents…”
The pair who Sloane worked with, agreed to jump on that.
Baskins continued. “In the meantime, Sarge, will you be able to backtrack from those deposits to the king-pin?”
“Give me some time,” Sarge muttered, but instantly went back to work. “This could be tough, since the point of origin is encrypted.”
Sloane huffed. “Uh, we might be able to afford an extra day or two, hell, even a week to solve the bigger picture of the money,” she reminded them. “But Kaelyn Jefferson’s disappearance is a different story. Time is ticking on her safety, and we have to locate her as soon as possible.” She turned to Perk. “Did your new buddies have anything to say regarding her whereabouts?”
“The kids I hung with were full of suppositions,” Perk replied with a shrug. “They believe Nelsin lured her away and has her stashed somewhere.”
“We’re hoping that ‘somewhere’ is in his house,” Del put in. “And with that in mind, we’ve got a van already enroute to park just down the street from where he lives. They’ll monitor all incoming and outgoing calls made from his house, and catalog everyone who comes and goes. We’re also putting a drone in the air to surveille the property. If Ms. Jefferson is in the garage or any outbuilding, our toy is equipped with heat-signature detection, and will find her. If she’s in the main residence, once we know how many people are supposed to be in there, we can hopefully use that to determine if Kaelyn is being hidden in the kid’s room, or in the basement.”
Sloane was pumped. They were close to finding the girl. She could feel it. The leads were all good, and pointed in the same direction. Nelsin was going down. But not before they used him to find out who was pulling his strings.
Baskins sat back in his chair. “In order to remain expeditious, I need every agent to stay on this, and examine every angle. As soon as we have definitive intel, we’ll plan our next move. I’ve already been in contact with a federal judge, and he’s issued a warrant for probable cause, authorizing both our audio device surveillance and our pending breach of the residence if it becomes necessary. I suggest getting a little shuteye in the lounge area if possible. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.” He turned his attention to Perk. “You, however, need to head back to your home base and get a good night’s sleep. You’ll still be going to school tomorrow like it’s a regular day, then I’m hoping to circumvent all the red tape by having you get invited to Nelsin’s house.”
“So I’ll have to kiss the kid’s ass?” Perk questioned, chuckling.
“That’s right,” Baskins answered. “Just because we’ve uncovered the computer geek behind the operation, doesn’t mean we have all the answers. We need you onsite. We don’t yet know if Kaelyn is actually there, and we don’t, as yet, know who Jeremy is working with. You’ll be our person with boots on the ground.”
Sloane could see the excitement that swept quickly across Perk’s face before he wiped it away. She felt his exhilaration. It was always an agent’s dream to be the main-man for a bust.
Perk stood up, wishing them all good night and good luck before disappearing.
Sloane knew why Perk was pumped, beyond his obvious glee at being on site for a take-down. Because her brain had gone through the same, mental gymnastics. If Perk finished this and got sprung; no longer working undercover, they wouldn’t have to continue hiding their budding…friendship.
Sloane sighed. If it didn’t happen, so be it. The job always came first.
While Sarge and Smalley continued savaging their respective computers, the rest of the men chose to hang around and chat. Sloane and Tertia, whose first name was Elody, headed for the lounge. Not to rest, but for some much-needed coffee to stay awake.
“So…” Elody began, pouring herself a cup of the dark liquid. “You and Perk?” A dimple appeared on her cheek before she hid it while taking a sip of the life-giving beverage.
“What makes you say that?” Sloane deflected, but knew it was useless. Tertia, having shared a house and a living room with Perk, must have known she’d called him while he was off the clock. “We’ve, uh, obviously been keeping in touch because we’re working the same case, but other than that…” She trailed off.
“Come on, Sloane. The way you two interact? Especially when you don’t think anyone is watching?” Elody continued impishly. “Perk can barely keep his eyes off you, and you fidget in your chair every time he speaks.”
Busted.
Sloane made a snap decision. Since Melissa couldn’t yet be her go-to buddy for anything Perk, it wouldn’t hurt to get Elody’s take on things.
“Okay. Fine. We, uh, met on that Jakes’ op a couple months ago, and have been kind of dancing around each other ever since. Last Sunday I went to his teammate Billboard’s wedding, and we…hung out. After that, we decided to meet up for a friendly lunch to see if anything interesting developed, but that was before all this stuff at Waterston High came to light. So our hookup got taken off the table since we knew he needed to go in undercover.”
“I’m sensing a ‘but’,” Elody ventured.
“But…” Sloane gave a long exhale, “…as well as exchanging intel on the phone last night, we decided that it wouldn’t hurt the case if we met up somewhere remote.” She cleared her throat. “As in far away and off the grid. It turns out Perk’s parents have a cabin in New Hampshire that fits the bill, and we’re headed there on Saturday.”
Elody squeezed Sloane’s arm. “I’m so pleased you’re going for it, Sloane. You deserve to be happy,” said the woman who, as far as Sloane knew, never dated.
“It might amount to nothing,” Sloane grunted as she filled her cup with straight, black coffee and took a big sip.
“But it might turn into something,” Elody countered. “And I’m just proud of you for taking a chance. I’ve seen evidence of how you’ve kept the interested men here at bay; not getting close to any of them over the past few years. Not that I know your motives…”
Clearly, Elody was fishing. But Sloane wasn’t going to hedge. She was tired of always keeping herself closed off to colleagues, so she gave over a little of her apprehensions.
“I’ve…been burnt badly in the past, so I haven’t been ready to start anything new, especially with a fellow agent where things might go sour and I’d have to continue working with them.”
“Understood,” Elody replied wisely. “But Perk?”
“He’s not exactly someone we’ll have jobs with directly as a rule, and I find him…intriguing.”
“And damned cute,” Elody added with a grin.
“Yeah. That, too,” Sloane agreed, matching her smile.
“Have you kissed him yet?”
Sloane felt a blush work up her neck, and wasn’t that silly. Elody had asked about a simple kiss, not a naked free-for-all.
“Umm, not yet. I was kind of hoping to initiate that on Saturday.”
Elody laughed. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about in that regard. The man has—”
“Agent Vessers, Agent Tertia,” Baskins voice barked from the doorway of the conference room just down the hall. “To me, stat. We’ve had a break in the case.”
The two women looked at each other before hotfooting it toward the room where everyone else was still convened.
“What’s up?” Sloane asked, getting a glance at a plethora of excited faces as both she and Elody took seats.
“We have confirmation that Kaelyn Jefferson is in the Nelsin home.”
‘Your drone?” Elody asked Del.
“Uh, uh,” Del responded. “Jeremy must have gotten spooked at something that happened at school today, because he made a call. It was untraceable. To a burner phone. But we got it recorded. Nelsin told whoever was on the other end of the line that he felt things were getting hot at school; he wasn’t sure if he could keep the girl at the house any longer. He asked the person he’d contacted if they could take Kaelyn away.” His face grew deadly serious. “The person on the other end, using a voice changing app, was not cooperative. They told the boy that Kaelyn was Jeremy’s mess to clean up, and that he needed to ‘take care of the problem’ himself.”
Baskins scowled. “Jeremy confirmed that he’d do what needed to be done. Tonight.”
The boss didn’t bother to hide his desire to get everyone’s ideas on how to take this on. “What we need is a plan that gets the girl out of danger without blowing our investigation.”
Everyone in the room understood, and the air filled with adrenaline as Baskins threw down the gauntlet.