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“No. When I talked to Russo at the house, he said they didn’t know what was missing, if anything.”
“Yeah. Sand had a work laptop, which he kept at his office. His home laptop was all personal stuff, including financial data and personal emails. All three laptops were Apple MacBook Pros. That’s the expensive version,” Virgil said. “If they were what the killer was after, he wouldn’t have known which one belonged to who, so he apparently took all of them. Same with the phones. Cooper says the boys weren’t allowed to be on their phones after seven o’clock. They had to put them in a basket on the breakfast bar and Alex Sand did the same thing. You know, to make a point with the kids.”
“So the reason for the killing is probably in the computers or phones?”
“Possiblyin the computers,” Virgil said. “Most likely, one computer—Sand’s. For which there was no backup. The boys’ phones and computers were backed up to the iCloud. You know what the iCloud is?”
“Of course, I’m not a complete fuck-wit,” Lucas said.
Virgil: “Fuck-wit. I think that’s basically a British expression.”
“Thank you, novel-boy.”
“Anyway, the FBI got the backup data from the boys’ phones and computers from Apple, and found nothing interesting,” Virgil said. “From the phones, they got call logs, not the content, and the logs both showed identifiable phone calls to their friends and the older boy had calls to the Apple store and his friends, all routine stuff. He made appointments with the Apple expert bar, or whatever they call it.”
“Why wasn’t Sand backed up?” Lucas asked.
“Security. Cooper said Sand was security conscious, enough that he didn’t want anything in the iCloud. Apple apparently allows us, ‘us’ meaning law enforcement, to look at backups, like the FBI didwith the kids’ stuff. Sometimes, apparently, the definition of law enforcement gets stretched. He kept private stuff in his computer, backed up to a thumb drive, and some of it printed on paper. Cooper says he kept the thumb drive plugged into his home computer most of the time—a slipup—and that’s gone with the computer.”
“Maybe the feds will come up with something.”
Virgil: “Mmmm.”
Lucas: “Yeah.”
A moment later, Lucas said, “Wait—if the computer is password protected, the killer can’t get at it, whatever it was. Cooper would probably—”
“You’re so naive,” Virgil interrupted. “One of your kids could bypass the password in about four minutes; and maybe the killer needed to destroy whatever it was, not get at it.”
Lucas: “Why would you think that?”
“Because if he was desperate to destroy it, he already knew what it was,” Virgil said. “He just didn’t want anyone else to have the information.”
“Good point. Got to be critical, whatever it is,” Lucas said.
“Maybe. But maybe he took the laptops because he could get five hundred bucks each, on the street.”
“Nope.”
—
The discussion wasoccasionally cryptic, if overheard by an outsider:
Lucas: “Suppressor?”
“Probably not necessary. Raining, thick doors. It was cool, almost cold, so the neighbors would be shut up, too.”
“He was familiar with the house?”
Virgil: “He was familiar with rich people’s doors.”
“Still loud...”
“Old couple who were out for a walk with their dog thought they might have heard the shots. They thought it was somebody remodeling with a nail gun.”
Lucas: “Why does that sound like bullshit?”
“Actually, it sounds so much like bullshit, it probably isn’t bullshit.”
