“I’m telling you … the guy wants something,” I declared to Lena as we sat at her kitchen table. The Babe was lying on the floor in the living room, keeping an eye on Timmy, who sat in his play center. The Babe took his babysitting duties very seriously. The gentle dog would put his face right in front of the baby’s and start licking him. Timmy would giggle. The more Timmy laughed, the more the dog licked. They both were in heaven.
“What guy are you talking about?” asked Lena. Dr. T had been right. Lena was losing it. What a mess! Her corkscrew curls were pulled straight back into a very unbecoming mini ponytail. She wore one of Terrel’s faded blue scrub tops, milk stains and I’m not sure what else ground into the cotton. She had on a pair of cut-off jean shorts that had seen better days and had completed the ensemble with flip-flops held together with duct tape.
“You know, cut-offs went out of style when you were in high school.”
Lena ignored me. “What guy?”
I toyed with lying, but I decided on the truth.
“The swimmer who helped me a few weeks ago. Burk. Do you remember him? He’s been turning up everywhere. He doesn’t live far from Earl.”
Lena smirked at me. “Are you crushing on him or something?”
“I wouldn’t call it that.”
“Lusting after him?”
“Well, I was. But now I’m creeped out.”
“Are you over Jon?”
“No. But he’s over me. He broke up with me in a coffee shop at Crissy Field.”
“He broke up with you?” She stared at me a second, contemplating. “You know this is your fault. You just can’t commit.”
My eyes filled with silent tears. “I haven’t cried in years. Now someone mentions Jon’s name and I fall apart.”
I grabbed a napkin from the kitchen table and held it over my face for a few seconds. The look on my sister’s face told me she wasn’t all that sympathetic.
“It’s not that easy, Lena. Everyone in the world has told me how wonderful he is. ‘He treats you like a goddess, Trisha. You found a keeper, Trisha.’ Blah, blah, blah.”
Timmy fussed from the other room. Lena stood up and peeked around the corner. Then she said,
“We … all of us … want to see you happy. Maybe we went a little overboard about Jon. Not that he doesn’t deserve it, but I could see how you’d feel pressured. You like this other guy?”
“A few days ago, he was all I could think about. But it’s getting strange. The more I see of him, the more freaked out I am.”
I tossed the napkin into the trash and followed Lena into the living room where she picked up Little T, sat down on the couch and started nursing him.
“Meaning?”
“It’s like he knows where I’m going to be and then shows up.”
“He’s stalking you?” Lena asked, her voice doubtful.
“Could be. It’s not so crazy.” At Lena’s incredulous expression, I continued. “You know that house? The one on the video?”
Lena nodded.
“He went there last night. Late.”
“And how do you know that? Sounds like you’re stalking him. Maybe he lives there. Maybe that’s why you keep running into him. You use that road going and coming from work. You walk—”
“Run,” I corrected.
“Run? Seriously. You?”
“Yes, me. I have started to run. Well, jog.”
“Okay. You jog down by the reservoir with The Babe. It doesn’t sound that odd that you’d run into him.”
“He knew about you and little Tim.”
“Of course, he did. He met all three of us at the swim, remember? Maybe not. You were in the middle of a full-fledged meltdown.”
“Ok, fine. Anyway, my hookup expectations kinda disappeared. It just creeps me out, turning up everywhere I go. But, if I play along with him, he might invite me into that house.”
Lena stared at me like I’d grown another head. “If he’s such a weirdo, why would you want to go anywhere with him, much less his house?”
I told her about my most recent conversation with Tyler.
“He and Earl were doing some surveillance on that house. ‘Playing at being spies,’ is the way he put it. He wants me to get in there and see if I can find some numbers. I said no.”
“What kind of numbers?”
“I don’t know. Something to do with ransomware.”
“Wait a minute. Tyler is involved with a ransomware scheme?”
“Something like that.”
“This could be serious, Trisha. Way beyond your scope. You’ll need a crash course on what ransomware can do, at the very least. It does more than capture someone’s credit card. Do a search; ‘ransomware, Atlanta, Georgia,’ or maybe ‘ransomware Baltimore, Md.’ Ransomware shut these cities down. With a few keystrokes, they’d locked the files for everything from payroll to personal information on cops and city officials. Do a little research,” she insisted. “You’ll see. I’m going to take a nap.”
Lena stood up, laid a now-sleeping Little T on his blanket on the floor, and walked toward her bedroom. Then she stopped and turned. “And Tyler wants you to what? Climb into a window to find these ‘numbers?’ You’re not going to, are you?”
“Well, I won’t break in. But if Burk invites me in…”
Lena shook her head then disappeared behind her bedroom door. Timmy lay cuddled up next to The Babe. Both snored delicately. I pulled out my tablet from my backpack and typed in ransomware. In less than a second, I had close to twenty-five million results.
“I wonder if there is a ‘Ransomware for Dummies?’” I mumbled to the snoring pair.
I scanned the pages of results and settled on an online encyclopedia that explained in the simplest terms, what I needed to know. Ransomware was an especially malignant form of malware that infected a computer or a network and locked it down, often encrypting all the files. Money proved to be the magic key to unlock the frozen files. Private money. Money that changed hands on the dark web, using bitcoin.
I kept scanning. A well-known cybersecurity firm reported that the use of ransomware had jumped 118% since the previous year and had cost victims billions of dollars. The malware crept into a computer when a naïve user like me clicked on a link or an email that they shouldn’t have. I immediately thought of the new credit card in my wallet. Someone had hacked into my information. I had accidentally invited him or her in by clicking on something that infected my computer.
Most ransomware attacks came from outside of the United States, places like Russia, India and the Middle East. But this was close to home. Somehow, Burk, Tyler, and Earl had a finger in this pie. I was determined to figure out how and why.
I needed to update the eCards on my tablet. I brought up Tyler’s card and filled in the information from my conversations with him, the first near Ocean Beach and the second at the ballpark. I added bullet points for “ransomware” and “numbers.” Then there was Earl’s crazy friend who might be less crazy than I first thought. Although I hadn’t met him, he deserved his own card. This man knew Earl, had offered him a job spying on someone (or something), and now wanted to warn him about … what? The spying? Something else? All that went on the card.
I had an almost-empty eCard for Jan.
Works at the sports radio station. Connects with Tyler. Has purple hair.
Not much there. Jason Chang, the bad beer maker, involved with the mini-chip and its source, the fictitious Shadowcorp, needed a card, too.
Burk Dennison deserved more than a card. He deserved his own page. He acted as if he was interested in me. He knew where I went and who I met. He knew where I worked. Stalker? Counterspy? Future boyfriend?
His friend, the other cyclist, needed a card, too. But I didn’t know much about him, except that he and Burk were buddies and worked in the same house.
The house. Although I usually kept the cards for people, the house warranted a card. Traffic came in and out late at night. Burk lived there. Earl spied on it with his drone. Tyler believed that something illegal was going on inside. Crypto had questions about the servers and networking technology in the garage.
Maybe a card for Shadowcorp. I wished I knew the real name.
I didn’t want to, but I had to type out an eCard for Earl. Such disloyalty toward a man who had been nothing but generous to me. In spite of my hesitance, I knew it was important. Everything revolved around him. A retired computer genius. “A legend,” Crypto had gushed. Tyler, the sports nerd, knew as much as I did when it came to the underpinnings of a computer. But he’d discovered he’d gotten his grandfather in a cybersecurity scheme that could get them both hurt, and Tyler wanted to keep him safe. Did Earl need protection? Did Tyler? They’d been pseudo-spies for at least six months, and everything was fine. Then something changed. What was it?
I started another category: Contacts. In this file, I added a page for the basset-hound computer guru, Crypto, who’d helped me access the footage on the mini memory card. He might be a good source of background information.
Burk called just as I hit the power button to turn off the tablet.
“Hey,” I said, trying to feel enthusiastic.
“How’s the sister and the baby? What’s his name?”
“I thought I told you.” I never did, but I wondered what he would say.
“No, never did.”
That made me feel better, but Timmy would remain nameless.
“What are you up to today?” I asked, ignoring his question.
“I’d like to see you.”
“Well, you do see me … a lot. You keep running into me. I’m starting to wonder if that’s all by design.”
That stopped Burk. Then he laughed. It sounded a little forced.
“I’m between homes right now, so I’m staying with a friend who lives close by. You know how life can get. I’m trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.”
“Yeah, I’ve been there. In fact, I think I’m still there. What do you do, normally?”
“Ride bikes.”
“For a living?”
He laughed again, this time a little more genuinely. “No, just for fun. Wanna grab a cup of coffee … maybe a sandwich?”
“Okay. Sure.” I noticed he hadn’t answered my question. One more thing for the Burk card.
“That’s what I wanted to hear. How about you shoot me a text when you get back from San Rafael and we’ll go from there.”
“I’ll do that.”
We both hung up and I sat there staring at the phone. Had I mentioned that my sister lived in San Rafael? I couldn’t remember, but I didn’t think so. A shiver passed through me and my heart thudded. About an hour later, Lena strolled back into the living room. She looked almost human. The short nap had helped.
“You an expert on ransomware yet?” she asked.
“What did you say?” I asked, still thinking about my phone call.
“Ransomware? Remember?” She carefully picked up the napping baby and returned him to his crib.
“I’m going to meet Burk for coffee.”
Lena pushed her curly hair back from her face. “That was the idea, right?”
I nodded.
“Well, why do you look so … I don’t know … puzzled?”
“You can track phones, right?”
“With my eyes shut. Why?”
“Can you set it up so you can track my phone when I’m with Burk?”
“Trisha, if you’re that worried about this guy, don’t go.”
“I’m going. But if I drop off the face of the earth, I want you to be able to find me.”
“I don’t like this.”
“He’s connected with that house, Earl and Tyler, and Tyler’s friend and his skunky beer. If he has anything to do with ransomware, I need to find that out, too.”
“Skunky what?”
“Means the beer tastes bad.”
“You’re making me nervous. Don’t go back to his house alone. Promise me that.”
“We’re just going for coffee.”
“Most people don’t ask their sister to track their phones while they’re on a date. This doesn’t feel like a good idea. Why don’t you start with something less ambitious?”
“Like what?”
“Try talking to Earl.”
I paused.
“I have something better in mind.”