Chapter 4
The ice in Savannah’s veins dissolved when the man in the ski mask yanked the door closed behind him. Hez crouched by the
inert forms of the dogs, and she and Simon rushed to join him. Her tongue was too dry to speak, and she was afraid to touch
the dogs and find them as cold as the shudders coursing down her spine.
Simon threw himself down beside Hez and Cody. “Cody!” He touched the dog’s cowlick. “He’s still warm and breathing. He’s going
to be okay, isn’t he, Uncle Hez?”
“I hope so, buddy. We’d better not move them. Can I use your phone, babe? I saw Blake and Paradise at the game. I’ll ask them
to come right away.” Paradise was the vet in Nova Cambridge.
Savannah dug her phone out of her purse and gave it to him with a shaky hand. Marley’s back legs twitched, and she touched
his ears. “I’m here, Marley.” She was barely aware of Hez’s terse voice asking Blake for help. Were both dogs going to die?
Marley had been her solace through so much. How could someone mistreat their dogs like this?
Simon was crying hysterically, and she moved to embrace him.
He buried his face against her, and his chest heaved with his sobs.
His tears soaked her neck and blouse, and she pressed her lips against his hair, which smelled of Hez’s sage soap and little boy sweat.
She shot up a prayer for God to spare them another loss. Simon needed Cody right now.
“They’ll be here in five minutes. Both dogs are starting to move. I suspect the guy gave them something to knock them out.”
He handed back her phone and touched her hair. “You okay? Can you call the police while I see if there’s anything missing?”
Savannah smoothed Simon’s damp hair and nodded. His touch calmed her erratic heartbeat. “What was he doing here, Hez? Do you
think he was just a burglar?”
“He wanted my phone.” Hez’s voice was grim. “I’ll see if anything else is missing.”
She dialed 911 as Hez’s footsteps went down the hall to his office. The operator said they’d have someone there as soon as
possible. She wanted Savannah to stay on the line, so she put the phone on speaker and set it on the counter.
Simon’s sobs finally subsided, and the boy pulled away to crouch beside his beloved dog again. Her gaze fell on the butcher
knife lying on the floor beside Marley. She must have put it there when she knelt beside her dog. She’d been about to kill
a man or die trying—and he’d been about to try to kill her. She shivered. What would have happened if Hez hadn’t jumped in
front of her?
His expression was hard when he returned to the kitchen. “My laptop is gone too. I’ll bet it was in his backpack.” He tossed
a nod toward the living room.
Simon seemed calm, so she rose and followed Hez so they could talk privately. He took her hand and led her to the bathroom, where he pointed to the trash. “Look there. An empty hamburger package. The burglar must have fed it to the dogs.”
She gasped and bent to examine the package. “Poison?”
“I hope he just drugged them with a sedative, but Paradise will probably be able to tell.”
A thousand what-ifs rolled through her mind. “The second Simon heard you call out Cody’s name like that, he bolted past me
up the steps. I told him to stop, but he didn’t listen and went charging in. The burglar could have shot him. You too.”
“And you.” Hez took her in his arms and held her tight. “I can’t lose you.”
They embraced for a long moment. The trauma of the last few minutes played in her head like a video she couldn’t turn off.
And she noticed something odd. “Why didn’t he shoot you? As soon as you got in front of me, he swore and backed away.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out what he was after, and I think it’s the key to the dead man’s switch. Killing me would flip
the switch, so he couldn’t do it.”
Savannah relaxed against him. “You came up with the right way to stay alive.”
The dead man’s switch had kept Hez alive ever since he beat a shady financial firm named Hornbrook Finance. Hornbrook had
nearly destroyed TGU, but Hez discovered that they’d been cheating their clients, some of whom were very dangerous people.
Hez and a computer whiz named Bruno Rubinelli had set up a mass email to all those defrauded clients and threatened to send
it out unless Hornbrook repaired TGU’s finances and repaid everyone it had cheated. Hornbrook had caved.
To make sure they didn’t try to seek revenge, Bruno had set up what he called a “dead man’s switch”—a mechanism that would only be triggered if either Hez or Bruno died.
Bruno’s switch was a computer program that would automatically send out the mass email to Hornbrook’s victims if either he or Hez failed to prove they were alive every twenty-four hours.
If those emails were sent, Hornbrook Finance would implode and its founder, James Hornbrook, would be lucky to live a week.
So unless James Hornbrook and his company found a way to disable the switch, they had no choice but to let Hez and Bruno live.
“Aunt Savannah!”
Savannah wheeled around at Simon’s urgent call, and she ran to the kitchen. Both dogs were standing on wobbly feet with their
tails wagging feebly. “Marley.” She fell to her knees and buried her face in her dog’s fur.
“Hey, Cody,” Hez said in a gentle voice. He sank to the floor to pet the little mutt.
A sharp rap sounded on the door and Blake entered with Paradise behind him. Her mane of light brown hair had exploded around
her shoulders from the humidity, and she smiled when her amber eyes glanced from Savannah to the dogs. “They’re awake. I’ll
examine them, but I think they’ll be okay. The intruder must have used a sedative.”
Savannah and Hez moved out of the way, but Simon refused to budge from Cody’s side while Paradise checked them out. They’d
all survived this incident, but they had to get James Hornbrook behind bars before he attacked Hez again.
A siren wailed outside, so Savannah ended her call with the 911 operator.
“I’d better call Bruno and warn him,” Hez said. “If they’re taking my electronics, I’m sure he’s targeted as well.”
“Good idea.” She pulled up Bruno’s number, dialed, and switched to speaker mode.
The call went straight to voicemail.
Detective Augusta Richards looked up from her notebook, her brown eyes sharp with interest. “Can Hornbrook turn off this dead
man’s switch now?”
“I don’t think so.” Hez wished he could give a more definitive answer. “I think the whole thing is encrypted. I punch in a
randomly generated code every day and then call a number, and a robotic voice says a nonsense phrase, which I repeat. If the
thief can hack into my phone and computer, he’ll have the website and number, but I don’t think that’s enough to turn off
the switch. At least not right away. Bruno would know more, of course. He set it up.”
“The San Francisco police have already sent a unit to check on him.” Augusta clicked her pen and closed her notebook. “Until
they find him, there’s not much more for us to do.” She turned to Savannah’s best friend, Nora Craft, a forensic tech at the
Pelican Harbor Police Department. “Let me know when you’re done processing the scene.”
Nora’s brown curls bobbed as she nodded.
She had come straight from the game and still wore her red-and-white TGU sweatshirt.
“It’ll just be a few minutes. The burglar didn’t leave much evidence beyond that hamburger package.
There are some scratches around the lock that might indicate it was picked.
I took pictures, and I’m just about done dusting for prints. ”
Nora’s arrival with Augusta had been a relief. Savannah had hugged her friend before turning her attention back to a groggy
Marley while Nora worked. Hez also felt better with Nora and Augusta in his condo. The PHPD had an unknown traitor in their
ranks, but Hez knew—and trusted—Augusta and Nora. He’d been comfortable turning his back on them while he said goodbye to
Blake and Paradise as Augusta interviewed Savannah.
Savannah’s phone buzzed, drawing a growl from Cody, who disliked objects that suddenly came to life. Savannah grabbed her
phone. “It’s Bruno!” She took the call and put it on speaker. “Bruno! Are you okay?”
“Yeah, though I had an unexpected visitor about half an hour ago.” Bruno spoke casually, as though this was a common occurrence
for him. Maybe it was. “The guy got past my security system, which was impressive. He grabbed my phone and one of my laptops
and then ran. How about you guys? Hez’s phone is dead. Did they get to him?”
“They did.” Hez walked over to her phone. “They got my phone and laptop at about the same time they hit you. How long will
it take them to reach the key to the dead man’s switch?”
“So they have phones and computers from both of us. Hmm . . .” Hez hovered over the phone as Bruno hummed tunelessly. “Depending
on how good they are, it’ll take between forty-eight hours and forever.”
Forty-eight hours? Hez’s stomach muscles clenched. “How will we catch these guys in forty-eight hours?”
Augusta leaned forward. “We’ll call the FBI’s Cyber Division, and we’ll do what we can to keep you safe while they investigate.”
Bruno gave a sharp laugh. “Cyber usually calls me for this kind of case. Don’t worry about it. We should be fine—at least
for a while.”
Hez relaxed a fraction. “Why is that?”
“Because I switched the files as soon as the guy left. They’re not gonna find the key when they finally get in.”
The tension in Hez’s gut eased. “What will they find?”
“A Rick Astley video.”
The room was silent for a second, then Savannah burst into laughter. “You—you Rickrolled Hornbrook?”
Hez guffawed at the thought of James Hornbrook falling for a juvenile old internet prank, and even Augusta chuckled. Then
the implication of Bruno’s words hit Hez. “Let me make sure I have this right: It’ll take at least forty-eight hours for Hornbrook
and company to hack through your security, but you can switch the files and move the key almost instantly. So we can stay
a step ahead of them indefinitely.”
“Bingo! And they can’t kill us because they need us to check in every twenty-four hours.”
Hez tugged his lower lip. “What about that email database? What happens if they find that?”
Bruno scoffed. “There are multiple encrypted mirror copies on the dark web—which any decent hacker will know.”
Hez wished he shared Bruno’s confidence. “That’s great, man. It sounds like the techno side of this is tied up with a bow,
but there are other ways to get to people.”
“I’m not a meat-space expert,” Bruno admitted. “I deal with virtual stuff.”
Savannah turned toward Hez. “Did James Hornbrook strike you as the kind of guy who’ll just give up after this?”
Hez remembered the hatred in Hornbrook’s glacial blue eyes when he realized Hez had beaten him. “No. No, he didn’t. I hate
to say it, but I’m pretty sure this was just his first move.”
She fingered the beads on her bracelet. “What do you think he’ll do?”
“I don’t know. I’m going to start carrying my gun. I can’t let anything happen to you or Simon.”
“I have bear spray somewhere. I’ll find it and stick it in my purse.”
“Good plan,” Augusta said. “And I’ll have a car drive by as often as possible.”
An occasional police car cruising the neighborhood wouldn’t be enough to protect his family. Hez went to get his gun from
the safe in his bedroom.