“One clue at a time.”
“Do they ever get away with it?”
“Unfortunately, yes. We’ve got over twenty cold cases dating back fifty years. Some never get solved.”
“Bummer,” he replied.
Lyle hung around for another thirty, then told her he had to get to class.
“What are you studying?”
“I’m getting a Master’s in journalism. Would it be okay if I followed up to see how you’re progressing with your cases?”
“I’m sorry,” Emerson replied. “I’ve got a full plate. I hope my answers helped with your story.”
“No problem. Thanks for your time and good luck.” Lyle headed out and Emerson turned back to the crime scene photos.
The first victim, Gloria Stanton, had worked at an Arlington dive bar for six months. She’d waited tables and served drinks behind the bar. Emerson had talked to management and questioned some of the regulars. Everyone knew Gloria, but no one knew much about her. Like April, Gloria lived alone. Emerson couldn’t find any of Gloria’s family. Neighbors in the apartment building said Gloria kept to herself.
The unsub—unknown subject—must have known that about both women and used that information to befriend them and gain easy entry into their apartment.Did he dress them post-mortem or convince them to put on a wedding gown? Maybe he forced them to at gunpoint. What kind of sick game is this killer playing?
After jotting down several notes, she returned to her desk and pulled up email.Yes! I got it.She texted Stryker. “Mr. Truman, it’s Detective Easton. I’ve got that warrant. When can I speak to your GM?”
* * *
Stryker’s executive team sat around the conference table finishing up their Friday meeting at Truman CyberSecurity, the premiere cybersecurity company in the region. Their goal? Stop hackers from breaking into their clients’ software systems and holding those companies ransom, or stealing their secrets and selling them to foreign governments or enemies of the state.
Stryker had once been a black hat hacker, but turned to white hat hacking after getting caught by the FBI. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to make his services available when the Bureau needed to catch a major cybercriminal. In the past decade, he’d helped out a handful of times. The majority of his time was spent protecting government and civilian organizations from the very hacker he used to be.
“Brooks, you’re up,” Stryker said to his VP of Sales and Client Retention.
He and Brooks Johnson had been close friends since college. On a bet, they’d grown their hair long. These days, Brooks’ black dreads trailed down his back. Years later, their playful rivalry was still going strong, though Stryker had declared Brooks the winner a long time ago.
Not only had Brooks helped Stryker grow the company into the powerhouse that it was, he also managed recon in Stryker’s vigilante team.
“This week, my team closed eight new accounts and renewed annual contracts with sixty-four clients,” Brooks said.
“Nice work,” Stryker replied. “How many did we lose?”
“None,” Brooks replied.
“Even better.”
Next, Stryker addressed Danielle Fox, his Manager of Data Breach, Government. “Whatcha got, Danielle?”
In addition to being one of the best hackers he’d ever met, she’d been with him since she’d graduated college—first, as a hacker, then climbing through the ranks to earn a seat in his inner circle.
“My teams found eighteen ways to breach the FBI, eleven for NSA, and sixteen for State,” Danielle replied. “We passed that info along to the agencies, so they can make the fixes.”
“Good job.” His phone buzzed with an incoming text, but he ignored it. One by one, he asked each exec if they had anything more to discuss.
“Only TGIF, baby,” Danielle added, and everyone laughed.
“Before I forget—” Stryker pulled out his phone and glanced at the text from Emerson before pulling up a QR code. “I’ve got the charity event tix.”
Everyone, but Danielle, scanned the code.
“Can’t make it?” Stryker asked her.