Diane flipped through the photographs, pulling out the ones from the library and laying them faceup, side by side on the table, looking closely at each one.
‘‘Well, hell,’’ said Frank.
‘‘What?’’ said Diane, looking up.
‘‘Look at this,’’ he said.
Diane rose, went over to the table, and peered into the computer case. Under the black light, in neat block letters were the words
‘‘What the—?’’ began Diane. ‘‘What does that mean?’’
‘‘It means this is going to be harder to decipher than I thought.’’
The door opened and Izzy walked in with his note book under his arm.
‘‘Hi, Diane, Frank. I can tell you right here and now that there is no list in that library. Not even a grocery list.’’
‘‘It’s probably in the machine, then,’’ said Diane.
‘‘Mind if I have a drink?’’ said Izzy.
‘‘Sure,’’ said Diane. ‘‘In the little fridge.’’
‘‘Can I get anyone else one?’’ he asked. ‘‘The others will be here shortly. They’re checking things into your evidence locker.’’
‘‘You can bring me a green tea,’’ said Diane.
Izzy got a Coke and gave Diane a bottle of green tea.
‘‘Those any good?’’ he asked. He sat down on one of the couches, still clutching his notebook.
‘‘I like them,’’ said Diane.
She looked up at him. She had been wondering about Izzy. It had even crossed her mind briefly that he might be hanging around to find the list himself, in case it led to a lot of money. She wondered why he didn’t go back to his job at the police station. It wasn’t because he was guarding her, obviously.
‘‘Izzy, don’t get me wrong—you are doing a great job—but just why are you here? Did the chief of po lice send you?’’
Izzy and Frank briefly exchanged glances as Frank sat down next to the computer.
‘‘Well, it’s like this. Evie’s got her antidrug thing going and it’s helping her through losing Daniel. She’s making a difference, and that means something. Me, I work at a desk job. I’m just marking time. And my retirement ain’t for many years yet. The stuff you do here catches people—like the people responsible for killing Daniel. I need to do something that makes a difference. And you guys laugh. I ain’t laughed in a long time. I was thinking that since Jin is now mostly in the DNA lab, and I don’t think you’re going to keep li’l Gollum on after this is over, maybe you could ask the chief to assign me here. They have lots of guys approaching retirement who can work the desk.’’
Diane was shocked. She had no idea that was what was on Izzy’s mind. When she didn’t say anything, he continued.
‘‘I’ll never make detective in the department. I’ve known that for years. But I have a lot to offer as an investigator here. I have a lot of experience and I can learn the forensics.’’
‘‘We don’t do investigations; we collect crime scene evidence,’’ said Diane.
Izzy smiled. ‘‘The hell you don’t. The biggest com plaint the detectives in the squad have with you is you tend sometimes to take over an investigation,’’ he said.
Diane’s jaw dropped. She hardly knew what to say. She looked over at Frank, but he was busy studying his shoes. She looked back at Izzy.
‘‘Is that true?’’ she asked.
‘‘Yeah. This time we asked you to, but we don’t always do that,’’ he said, laughing.
Diane stared at him a moment, thinking about the proposition. There would be an advantage to having one of the old boys on her crew. And Izzy was doing a good job. Of course he wasn’t doing any collection of fingerprints or blood spatters, any trace evidence. But he had come up with good ideas.
She looked at Frank again. Apparently he’d found out all he could about his shoes because he looked at her and smiled.
‘‘I’m not against the idea,’’ she said. ‘‘Let me think about it. There would be a lot of benefits to both of us. I can see that.’’
‘‘That’s great,’’ Izzy said, grinning. ‘‘Thanks.’’
‘‘I didn’t say yes,’’ she said.
‘‘But you didn’t say no. Now, it’s clear to me that no means no, but you didn’t say that.’’
‘‘I said maybe,’’ she said. ‘‘I said I’ll think about it.’’
‘‘That’s closer to a yes than to a no,’’ he said. ‘‘So, Frankie, buddy. Did you find anything on the machine?’’
Frank laughed and showed him the message under the black light.
‘‘Well, I’ll be damned. What do you make of that?’’ he asked.
‘‘Looks like the work of another hacker on my list,’’ said Frank. ‘‘I don’t know his real name; we haven’t found
