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“I may get back to you on that spy program,” I said. I could see Jill giving me a narrow-eyed look, and I could tell she’d figured out who I thought had been on my computer. It wasn’t as if there were a lot of suspects. She knew how few people were allowed into my house. “Is there a way to find out the Internet history without going through all of this?” I gestured at the mass of equipment.
He leaned against the worktable and crossed his arms. “Uh-huh. It’s not tough to do if they haven’t cleared the cache. What kind of computer do you have?”
I hesitated. “You’re going to laugh at me if I say ‘a black one’ aren’t you.”
Jill snickered but Brad managed to keep a straight face. “Not at all. I’ll merely post it all over the Internet.”
“Oh, well, that’s all right then,” I said with a roll of my eyes.
He grinned. “Okay, well is it a PC or a Mac?”
“PC. And I bought it about a year ago.”
He turned and rummaged for paper and pen, then peppered me with a few more questions as he scribbled quickly. “Here,” he said, passing the paper to me. “Instructions that even a non-geek should be able to follow.”
“I owe you one,” I said, deeply pleased. I tucked the instructions into my notebook and then lifted the laptop case. “Now I’m going to push your good will even farther. How long would it take you to examine this one?”
“Dunno. Let’s see what we’re up against.” He took the case from me and slid the laptop from it, then flipped it over. A tiny screwdriver appeared in his hand, and a few seconds later he’d removed what I assumed was the hard drive. He pivoted to the table against the wall and hooked the drive into a gadget connected to one of the computers, then clicked a few buttons on the screen with the mouse. A gray box appeared on the screen with rapidly scrolling numbers. I waited patiently while he peered at the screen.
After less than a minute he straightened. “This won’t take long at all.”
“Great!” I said.“So you could finish it today perhaps?”
He shook his head. “I’m done now.”
I looked at him blankly.
“It’s been wiped,” he said. “That drive is as clean as a whistle.”
Chapter 22
After leaving the crime lab I headed to the main branch of Lake Pearl Bank, pausing only to zip through the drive-thru at Taco Hut in a carefully orchestrated effort to undo every bit of last night’s unintended purge. I scarfed down two burritos while I drove, musing on the various revelations. Brad had gone on to explain that it was ridiculously easy to wipe a drive with the right kind of software, and that such programs were easily obtained online, with no special expertise needed.
So, if Adam Taylor and Vic Kerry were murdered for the same reason—whatever that was—why wasn’t Kerry’s computer wiped as well? Maybe the murderer didn’t expect it to be pegged as a homicide. Or, since Vic Kerry was actually killed several days ago, perhaps the murderer hadn’t yet realized that Adam needed to be killed too. Or perhaps their murders really were for completely different reasons. I grimaced. I had an ugly feeling I was going to be up late tonight looking at financial information. Woo boy.
As promised, the bank had copies of all Roger’s financial information ready for me. The woman at the service desk smiled cheerily as she passed it over, chirping a “Have a nice day!” at me as I took the thick envelope from her. I thanked her in an equally chirpy tone and began to leave, then paused, looking past the woman at a sign on the wall behind her.
We’re getting a new look! New name, new benefits, same wonderful service! Lake Pearl Bank will soon be Southern Regional National Bank of Louisiana!
“The bank is being bought out?” I asked her.
Her smile increased in radiance. “That’s right! It’s a terrific opportunity for our customers! SRNBL has branches all over, and we’ll now be able to provide even more quality service for this community!”
I was slightly intimidated at how Very! Happy! She! Was! About! It!
I thanked her again and left. Ben Moran has to be pleased about that, I thought as I continued to the station. That would increase his status considerably.
Crawford’s office door was open when I arrived, so I stuck my head in. He gave me a questioning look, then I realized that there was someone in the chair in front of the desk.
“Whoops. Sorry, Sarge, I’ll get up with you in a bit,” I said, then blinked as Detective Marco Knight turned to give me a smile.
“Oh, hey, how’s it going?” I said. Then frowned. “What are you doing here?”
Knight chuckled. “Nice to see you, too.”
Yeah, that had been real friendly. “Sorry. You took me by surprise. You’re a long way from New Orleans.” I paused. “So, what are you doing here?”
Crawford sighed and shook his head. “This is why she’s not our public relations officer.”
