Chapter Four
When they arrived at Michael’s, Declan took the stairs two at a time. Charlie was right behind him. Declan tried the doorknob to Michael’s waiting room, but it was locked. He knocked on the door and it was quickly opened.
“Come on in. I haven’t touched anything,” Michael said.
“Anything?” Declan asked.
“Well, maybe a few things. That was before I realised there’d been a break-in.”
“Break-in?” Charlie asked.
“This is Charlie,” Declan said. “Charlie—Michael.”
The two shook hands.
“I wish we could have met under better circumstances,” Michael said.
Declan scanned the waiting room. “Michael, tell me exactly what you noticed and what you did.”
Michael positioned herself at the door and looked into the waiting room. “I arrived about nine-thirty this morning. When I came in, everything looked normal—at least nothing jumped out at me. I turned off the security system at the control panel over there by the door.”
“So, it was active?” Declan clarified.
“Yeah. I always turn it on before I leave. Sometimes, if I’m working late at night, I turn it on when I’m here. It just makes me feel safer.”
Declan examined it. The casing was plastic and aged to a dirty light brown. It looked like it was covered in grime from years of being exposed to cigarette smoking, a habit which he knew Michael had never partaken in. “I assume it was here when you moved in?”
“Yeah. I figured I’d eventually upgrade it to something from this century,” she said with a forced smile.
Declan furrowed his eyebrows. “Now, this is going to sound insulting, but you did change the alarm code and door keys when you moved in, didn’t you?”
“I did, and yes, it would have come across as insulting if it had come from anyone but you.”
“After turning off the alarm this morning, what did you do?” Declan asked.
Michael closed her eyes.
“I walked from the front door to my office door. That’s when I noticed a piece of paper on the floor. And that’s why I called you. Declan, it was a page from your client file.”
Charlie finally spoke. “Can you remember exactly how the paper was positioned when you found it?”
“Ah…I think so.”
Charlie picked up a thin real estate brochure that was sitting on the coffee table and handed it to her.
“Can you show us?” Charlie asked.
Declan wasn’t sure where he was going with this.
“Okay. Ah…” she said, bending down and placing it at a slight angle in front of the office door. She looked at it for a second. “No. Not quite.” She tucked one corner under the door. “There. It was like that.”
“Are you sure?” Charlie asked.
“Pretty sure,” she said, then looked over to Declan.
“I think what Charlie’s figured out is that the page slipped under the door from your office, as opposed to being dropped in the waiting room. And odds are…Charlie, do you want to tell us what you’re thinking?”
“If you keep your client files in your office—”
“Which I do,” she said.
Charlie continued. “Then the page from Declan’s file—which I can only imagine is sizeable—”
“Smartass,” Declan said with a grin.
“—came from inside your office as well. And since the corner of the page was still under the door, it would seem reasonable that the person looking at the file had dropped it inside your office, and the pages spread across the room. The one that slipped under the door went unseen which also would imply that the person who broke in did not leave by the front door, or they would have seen it and picked it up.”
“My very own Sherlock Holmes,” Declan said and patted him on the back. Charlie unsuccessfully tried to suppress a grin.
“Well, I’m pretty sure that the front door is not how they got in anyway. Follow me,” she said.
Michael opened the door to the inner office. Declan immediately saw the missing pane of window glass.
“Before you ask, no I don’t have glass breakage sensors on the security system, just a contact sensor. It was also on my to-do list. The window did have an alarm sensor on it but, for some reason it didn’t go off.”
“Those things are fairly easy to bypass,” Charlie said as he pulled out nitrile gloves from a small black satchel he’d brought with him from the car.
Declan turned to Charlie. “Can I have one?”
Charlie pulled another pair out of the satchel and passed it to him.
“That boy comes prepared,” Michael said, nodding toward Charlie as they entered the inner office.
“Where is the file that this page came from?” Charlie asked.
She walked to the wall behind her desk. “In this filing cabinet. It’s always kept locked, and I checked—it was still locked when I came in this morning.”
“Those kinds of old locks aren’t difficult to pick,” Declan said.
“I probably shouldn’t have opened it, but I did,” she continued. “Your file is still there, though I’m sure someone has looked at it. I push a file folder down in the drawer when I replace it. Yours was riding a bit higher than it should have been.”
Declan examined the file drawer. “Has anything else been touched?”
“I’m sure whoever was in here tried to access my computer. I always put my mouse back on the top of the CPU when I’m done, but this morning when I came in, it was on the desk.”
Declan nodded. “Charlie, if you look at the computer, can you see what’s been accessed?”
“Yeah. To save time, Michael, would you log in, please? Here,” he said, pulling out another pair of gloves.
“How many of those do you carry?” Michael asked.
Charlie raised his left eyebrow. “You can never be too prepared.”
Michael logged in, then gave her chair up to Charlie. “And remember, these are confidential files, so only look at what you have to. As it is, I’m breaking a lot of rules.”
Charlie smiled. “I promise, this is just a quick skim. Did you work on your files last night remotely?”
Michael shook her head. “Nope.”
“That’s good. I can look through your computer log by time-codes, so it will only show me activity between last night and today when you didn’t have any appointments.”
He pulled out his key ring and flipped to a USB stick which he inserted into the computer. Charlie quietly typed away doing what Declan knew Charlie did best.
As Charlie worked, Declan turned to Michael. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to involve the police in this. And there doesn’t appear to be any real damage that would need reporting to your insurance company other than the window.”
“Thank God,” Michael said. “You know how many of my clients are cops. I wouldn’t want to jeopardise that by letting them know their records aren’t as secure as I’d hoped.”
“Done,” Charlie said, pulling out his USB key. “There is only one session logged, which happened close to three in the morning. And only one computer folder has been accessed—Declan’s. It looks like they made a copy of his files.”
“I am so sorry,” she said to Declan. “I’ll report this to my governing body. I should have had higher security on…well, everything.”
Declan paused. “You don’t need to do that. If I’m the only one affected, I’ll handle this on my own. I don’t want to get you in trouble. And I definitely don’t want to have to start with another therapist. It took me long enough to get used to you.”
Michael hugged him. “Thank you.”
“I think it might be a good idea to check for fingerprints,” Charlie suggested. “If the person left them anywhere, it would probably be on the mouse.”
“Go for it,” Declan said.
Charlie reached into his satchel and pulled out a clear plastic zip-top bag containing a round plastic jar with a screw top lid, and a soft bristle brush.
He deftly dipped the brush into the fine-black-powdered contents of the jar, then lightly brushed the surface of the mouse, covering the top, sides and buttons.
“Nothing,” he said. He removed a facial tissue from the box on Michael’s desk, and lay the mouse upside down on it and proceeded to dust the bottom.
“Hm. Clean.”
He spun the desk chair around. “One more likely possibility.”
He moved over to the filing cabinet and performed the same procedure on the cabinet lock and the surface of the cabinet surrounding it.
He looked up at Declan. “They’ve been wiped clean of fingerprints,” Charlie said. “I don’t think there’s any point in dusting the rest of the office. This person obviously knew what they were doing.”
Charlie continued. “I know your sessions are confidential, but if you can think of any of your clients who might have shown a particular interest in Declan when you were talking to them…well, if there’s a way you can let us know about that…
give us a call. I mean, there is a bit of bad blood between Declan and some of the police from the past. It might have been one of your clients from the force. ”
Michael nodded. “I’ll give it some thought, but no one springs to mind at the moment.”
Declan smiled. Charlie was really growing into a fine private investigator.
“There’s not much more we can do right now.
In the meantime, upgrade the security system.
Get glass breakage and motion detectors.
Move the old files that don’t have to be accessed regularly to an off-site secure facility and, Charlie, can you email Michael specs on a new, more secure computer? ”
“Will do,” Charlie replied.
“Good,” Declan said, taking a deep breath. “We’ll keep each other in the loop if anything develops. Okay?”
Michael impulsively hugged each of them. “Okay. And thanks.”
Declan and Charlie made their way back to the car and sat in silence before Charlie fired up the engine. Charlie looked at Declan. “Should we be a little more concerned than we’re pretending to be?”
Declan frowned. “Probably.”
“So…any idea who’d be interested enough in you that they’d break into your shrink’s office and check out your records?”
Declan thought for a moment. “How long a list do you want?”