Chapter Forty-seven
Jane drove straight to Acme Security.
“You again,” Agnes said as Jane came through the door.
“Me again,” Jane agreed. “The last time I was here, I asked to speak to your technician, Justin Vreeland. Did you give him my message?”
“I did indeed. Did he call you?” There was no hesitation when she said it. Despite Jane’s skepticism, she had done her bit in the message chain and that was it. Which meant Justin hadn’t told Agnes that Jane had visited his home, because surely his wife had told him. Which seemed odd. But perhaps he didn’t come to the office that often, loading up his van infrequently and taking it straight to the job site from home. Maybe his relationship with Agnes, his boss, was transactional, one of phone calls and texts, orders given and received. Maybe they weren’t friends in any sense. Jane didn’t puzzle about it long; she had come on a more pressing issue.
“When we spoke about someone hacking or breaking into the security system at Megan Larsen’s house, you told me it would be easy if that person had the app and the codes. But what about the system logs? Could someone from the outside access them?”
“Absolutely not.” Agnes sniffed. “And I never told you it would be ‘easy’ to hack into one of our security systems. I told you that some humans are careless with their codes.”
“You’re right.” Jane smiled. “I apologize. Have the police told you that the logs for Megan Larsen’s system show no one entering or exiting her house on the night she disappeared?”
Agnes’s mouth opened. Then she thought better of whatever she’d been going to say and snapped it shut. Jane felt a twinge of worry. Head down, determined to follow her own path, she’d clearly overstepped.
“They’re wrong,” Agnes declared. “While someone with bad intent, with the app and the codes, could manipulate things in a home using the security system, no one—absolutely no one—can get inside it.”
“You seem certain.”
“I am. The vendors we deal with test their systems thoroughly, and we test every system independently after we install it.”
“Is that something your employees do?” The office held no desks or equipment for computer types. Was this part of what Justin did at home at night, the work his wife had complained about?
“No. We can’t have our own people do the testing. That would invalidate it. We contract with an outside firm to certify the work.”
Jane’s heart beat a little faster. “What is the name of that firm?”
That slowed Agnes down. “Why do you want to know? I told you, the police have been here. I’ve given them everything I can. Besides, didn’t I hear on the radio on the drive into work today there had been an arrest?”
Jane’s phone buzzed inside her pocketbook. She left it where it was. “There has been an arrest. The police are busy with that. I’m tidying up a few things for my own interest. Did the police ask about your outside testing firm?”
“No.”
“So it’s not of interest to them. Only me. Will you tell me?”
Jane’s phone buzzed again, and Agnes’s phone rang too. She picked it up. “Hold please.” She looked at Jane. “Will you go away if I tell you?”
“Happily.”
“Lockdown Cybersecurity Limited.”
Howard Borg’s firm.