Chapter 13
COLE
My fingers move automatically, tracing the origin of the ransom demand in my email. It takes me less than a minute to conclude the sender has completely hidden their tracks. Their address is spoofed; the message says it comes from my own account. The delivery data has been falsified as well.
This email is the work of a serious hacker.
The entire time I’m pulling information, my brain screams a protest. I protect my clients’ privacy. There is no way anyone could have hacked into Lone Wolf to learn their names.
Ten million dollars in Bitcoin. Deposited to the account below by noon on Sunday…
Sunday. The day I owe Barry Lynch an answer about Kate.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
I don’t believe in coincidence. It’s time for Kate and me to have a little conversation about hacking.
I have backdoors into every cell phone service provider in the country.
It takes me less than five minutes to get her contact information.
She doesn’t answer, of course, not when she has no way of recognizing my number.
“Cole Wolf here,” I say in my message. “Call me so we can talk about your father’s offer. ”
Three hours later, she hasn’t called back.
There is no way in hell Kate Lynch hasn’t looked at her phone in three hours. I text her, leaving the same message. I leave it again, in another hour. And a third time, an hour after that.
Then I have to get creative.
Official documents first—Kaitlín Minola Lynch is twenty-six years old.
She was born in Baltimore County. She was issued her first passport before her third birthday, and she’s traveled back and forth to Ireland more than a dozen times.
The early trips were in the company of Fionnula Lynch, whom I quickly confirm is Kate’s grandmother.
Kate got her college degree at Trinity College in Dublin. She comes by her accent honestly.
That’s the easy part. The hard part is finding her on social media.
She isn’t on any of the mainstream services, not under her name or any reasonable variation.
No one has tagged her in posts or videos.
She isn’t active in Trinity College alumni forums. She doesn’t sit on the boards of any registered corporations, doesn’t own real estate, and if she’s ever been arrested, she managed to have the records expunged.
For all practical purposes, Kate Lynch doesn’t exist online.
I’m up against a wall. Kate still hasn’t responded to my phone call or to any of my texts. She’s leaving me no choice.
It takes me less than five minutes to find a back door into Barry Lynch’s computer system.
That proves he does need my services, badly enough to hand over the millions he’s promised.
Now that I’m inside, I can do anything I want—cancel his bill pay, drain his bank accounts, file fraudulent tax records with government agencies around the world…
But I’m not trying to destroy the man today. I’m just trying to talk to his daughter.
Scrolling through his bank records, I look for expenses I can make work for me. There. A monthly payment to Three Oaks Eldercare, a nursing home just outside of Baltimore. The funds are earmarked for the ongoing care of Fionnula Lynch, Kate’s grandmother and traveling companion.
I’m not sure what I’m looking for when I break into Three Oaks’ resident-care records.
Maybe I’ll mark all payments as overdue, then send Kate the threat of her grandmother being turned out onto the street.
Maybe I’ll mock up a drug regimen that will turn Fionnula into a zombie and menace Kate with that.
In the end, though, there’s a much simpler approach. Visitors are neatly recorded on every resident’s care chart.
And Kate Lynch visits her grandmother every Friday afternoon at four.