Pam kept telling herself to keep it together as she watched the winter storm drive the ocean to a fury. Huge waves brimming with white caps. She was grateful for Jake’s suggestion that she spend a few days at his townhouse in Gloucester instead of returning to her condo after the arrest. Located on the North Shore, about 45 miles from Boston, Gloucester was America’s oldest seaport and still an active center for commercial fishing. A whole different world from downtown Boston.

The glass slider leading to Jake’s deck offered a full view of the ocean, and Pam normally loved to sit here and imagine what it was like to go off on a fishing boat in the nineteenth century. Hunting Moby Dick, with DeSilva moonlighting as Captain Ahab. But not today. The horror of the arrest was too fresh in her mind. And the possibility of even worse to come.

Jake came out of the kitchen, balancing two mugs of coffee and a plate of muffins. “How about something for breakfast? You need to eat.”

She took a cup of coffee. “I know, thanks. I just can’t get the picture of those cops hauling me away out of my mind.”

“I can imagine. The whole process is designed to be intimidating.”

“Well, it works,” Pam said. “But okay, let’s try to move forward. We still want to figure out what the real drug is, right?”

“Yes, I think that’s a good next step. What do you need to do it?”

“Given the analysis I got from the chemist in Michigan, I can probably figure out what it is from the Langmere library database. But I no longer have access to it. They shut down my password when they kicked me out.”

“Is there anyone who would let you use their password?”

Pam shook her head. “I doubt it. I don’t think any of my former colleagues will even talk to me at this point. Especially after the arrest put me back in the news.”

“Well, we’ll just have to figure out another way to borrow someone’s password then. Does everyone at the Langmere have access with their regular email passwords?”

“No, you have to be registered with the library to get access to the database. Then you can login with your regular password.”

“So who do you know that’s a registered user?”

“I’m not sure. My lab was obviously, but I really don’t know who else was using the library. Mary O’Connor I suppose, while she was repeating my experiments. And I guess she’d have access in her new job as Associate Director for Research too.”

“Okay, we’ll use her password then.” Jake grinned. “There’s a certain poetic justice in that.”

Pam looked at him with raised eyebrows. “Oh? And how are we going to do that?”

“Hacking into computers is another little trick I learned when I was with the Bureau. I just need to install a keylogger. It’ll give us a record of all her keystrokes, so when she logs in to her email, we’ll see what her password is.”

“I don’t suppose that’s legal, is it?”

“Well, maybe not exactly. But it doesn’t matter, as long as we get what you need.”

Pam watched the storm brewing over the ocean. What difference did one more offense make? “Okay, I guess. How do you install this keylogger thing?”

“It’s a USB device. I just have to plug it into the back of her computer. It’ll only take a minute and she’ll never know.”

“And how are you going to do that? Another visit to the Langmere?”

“No, they’ve probably beefed up security after our last trip. I think I’ll make this a house call.”