Carver entered. He nodded to the two men and completely ignored Chavez, whom he considered a worthless diversity hire. There was no place for Carver to sit but that was all right. Being the only one standing would give him a command presence.
“Wesley Carver, meet Agents Bantam and Richmond from the FBI’s Phoenix office. I was just about to call down to the bunker for you.”
Carver shook hands with the men and repeated his name politely each time.
“Wesley wears a number of hats around here,” McGinnis said. “He’s our chief technology officer and the one who designed most of this place. He’s also our chief threat officer. What I like to call our-”
“Do we have a problem?” Carver cut in.
“We may,” McGinnis said. “The agents have been telling me that we’re hosting a website here that is of interest to them and they’ve got a warrant that allows them to see all documentation and records pertaining to its setup and operation.”
“Terrorism?”
“They say they can’t tell us.”
“Should I go get Danny?”
“No, they don’t want to talk to anybody in design and hosting just yet.”
Carver put his hands into the pockets of his white lab coat because he knew it gave him the posture of a deep-thinking man. He then addressed the agents.
“Danny O’Connor is our chief of design and hosting,” he said. “He should be brought in on this. You’re not thinking he’s a terrorist or something, are you?”
He smiled at the absurdity of what he had just suggested. Agent Bantam, the larger of the two agents, responded.
“No, we’re not thinking that at all. We’re on a fishing expedition here, and the fewer people brought into it, the better. Especially from the hosting side of your business.”
Carver nodded and his eyes flicked momentarily in the direction of Chavez. But the agents didn’t pick up on it. She remained in the meeting.
“What is the website?” Carver asked.
“Trunk murder dot com,” McGinnis answered. “I just checked and it’s part of a larger bundle. An account out of Seattle.”
Carver nodded and kept a calm demeanor. He had a plan for this. He was better than them because he always had a plan.
He pointed to the screen on McGinnis’s desk.
“Can we take a look at it or would that comp-”
“We would prefer not to at this point,” Bantam said. “We think it could tip off the target. It is not a developed site. There’s nothing to see. But it’s a capture site, we believe.”
“And we don’t want to be captured,” Carver said.
“Exactly.”
“May I see the warrant?”
“Sure.”
The document had been returned to Bantam while Carver was coming up from the bunker. The agent took it out again and handed it to Carver, who unfolded it and scanned it, hoping he was not giving anything away with his face. He checked himself to make sure he wasn’t humming.
The search warrant was notable for what information it did not contain rather than for what it did. The bureau had a very cooperative federal judge in their corner, that seemed for sure. In very general terms the warrant described an investigation of an unknown subject using the Internet and crossing state lines to conduct a criminal conspiracy involving data theft and fraud. The word
Carver knew the bureau would be unhappily surprised by what they got. He nodded as he scanned it.
“Well, we can get you all of this,” he said. “What is the account in Seattle?”
“See Jane Run,” Chavez said.
Carver turned to look at her, as if noticing her for the first time. She picked up on his vibe.
“Mr. McGinnis just asked me to check it,” she explained. “That’s the name of the company.”
Well, he thought, at least she was good for something besides giving tours of the plant while the boss was away. He turned to the agents, making sure his back was to her and physically cutting her out of the discussion.
“Okay, we’ll get this done,” he said.
“How long are we talking about?” Bantam asked.
“Why don’t you go to our wonderful cafeteria and get yourselves a cup of coffee. I’ll be back with you before it’s cool enough to drink.”
McGinnis chuckled.
“He means that we don’t have a cafeteria. We have machines that overheat the coffee.”
“Well,” Bantam said, “we appreciate the offer but we need to witness the execution of the warrant.”
Carver nodded.
“Then stick with me and we’ll go get the information you need. But there is still going to be an issue.”
“What issue?” Bantam asked.
“You want all information pertaining to this website but you don’t want to involve D and H. That’s not going to work. I can vouch for Danny O’Connor. He’s not a terrorist. I think we need to bring him in if we want to be thorough and get you everything you need.”
Bantam nodded and took the suggestion under advisement.
“Let’s move one step at a time. We’ll bring Mr. O’Connor in when we need to.”
Carver was silent as he acted like he was expecting more, then he nodded.
“Suit yourself, Agent Bantam.”
“Thank you.”
“Should we head down to the bunker, then?”
“Absolutely.”
The two agents stood up, as did Chavez.
“Good luck, gentlemen,” McGinnis offered. “I hope you catch the bad guys. We’re willing to help in any way we can.”
“Thank you, sir,” Agent Richmond said.
As they left administration, Carver noticed that Chavez was tagging along behind the agents. Carver was holding the door but when it was her turn to go through, he cut her off.
“We’ll take it from here, thank you,” he said.
He stepped through the doorway in front of her and pulled the door closed behind him.
EIGHT: Home Sweet Home
On Saturday morning I was in my room at the Kyoto reading Larry Bernard’s front-page story about the release of Alonzo Winslow from juvenile custody when one of the detectives from Hollywood Division called me. Her name was Bynum. She told me my house had been cleared as a crime scene and returned to my custody.
“I can just go back?”
“That’s right. You can go home now.”
“Does that mean the investigation is complete? I mean, pending the arrest of the guy, of course.”
“No, we still have a few loose ends we’re trying to figure out.”
“Loose ends?”
“I can’t discuss the case with you.”
