The woman reached into the small purse that hung over her shoulder and pulled out a square wallet Mark recognized instantly as identification.
“Special Agent Eleanor Rodgers. FBI.”
She flipped open the wallet for him to see.
He studied it and saw that it was legit. “Don’t you guys always come in twos?”
“You’ve been watching too many movies. What’s the situation?”
“The situation is that Denny Haskell, partner and senior programmer, is dead. Murdered. His car was urged off a cliff where it burst into flames. Dominic Santos, another partner and CEO, is missing. The wife hasn’t seen him since the night before last. The only person we know he talked to was his vice-president, Steven Ford. He called Santos here at his office yesterday morning to tell him about Haskell. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since. I’ve got an APB out on him but so far no luck.”
“You think he did it?”
Mark shrugged his shoulders. “I sure would like to talk to him about it. What’s the FBI’s interest in this?”
“The company is about to be awarded a prominent government contract to supply encryption software for the electronic data transmission of medical claims.”
“Huh?”
“Washington was going to give Santos tax dollars. A lot of them.”
“Checking up on the investment, then,” Hernandez decided.
“Denny Haskell was Encrypton’s head programmer. The government needs to know what’s going to happen next. I’ve been sent to monitor the investigation and report back to my superiors. I’m not here to interfere.”
“Encrypton,” Mark said. “Isn’t that where the super-hero is from?”
“That’s Krypton.”
“Right. Right.” Like he didn’t know where the super-hero was from. But he figured with the FBI it was always best to play the part of the local yokel. The less credit she gave him, the more obvious she might be regarding her motives. Besides, he knew with the FBI that there was usually more to the story. “You found out about this pretty quick. That identification says D.C.”
She hesitated for just a beat. “Haskell’s death was picked up on the wire yesterday. I was told to come out here immediately and check it out. I wasn’t aware that Mr. Santos was missing until just now.”
“Why you? I mean, why not some S.A. from the L.A. or San Francisco office?”
“I have a particular talent.”
He lifted his brow. “That sounds interesting.”
She smirked and he sensed he gave away his lurid thoughts. But really, a pixie with a particular talent? There was no way he wasn’t going there.
“But you don’t smoke, so sadly you’re no good to me. Also, you’ve got something on your nose,” he told her brushing the right side of his own nose.
She swiped at it, but the tiny red mark remained.
The elevator door dinged and this time a haggard-looking guy, tall, blond, typical California, got off. Hernandez had already spoken to him. The third partner.
“What you’re thinking is ridiculous, Detective. Serena just told me that you actually suspect Dominic.”
“Until I can talk to the man…yep.”
Steven ran his hand through his hair and looked over Mark’s shoulder to the open door. “What’s he doing in there?” he said, indicating the officer standing in Dominic’s office.
“Waiting.”
“For what?”
The elevator dinged again and this time another cop got off and made his way toward Mark.
“You got it?”
“Yes, sir.” The officer handed over a folded piece of paper.
“You got a cigarette?”
“You quit, sir.”
“Everybody is a freakin’ Goody Two-shoes.”
“What’s that?” Steven asked.
“A warrant to search.”
“What do you hope to find? Denny’s car was pushed off a cliff. I doubt you’ll find a murder weapon here.”
“Just a second,” the pixie interrupted. “If Haskell’s car went over a cliff, how can you be sure it’s murder? Maybe it was a hit and run?”
Mark looked at her. His instincts, which he considered to be flawless, were screaming at him.
“So tell me again what you’re looking for,” Steven said.
“I sure would like to get a look at Santos’s computer. I imagine there’s a lot of stuff on it.”
Steven laughed harshly. “You think a warrant is going to help? You’re not going to be able to get past his security.”
“Surely somebody has to know his password.”
“Serena does but only sometimes. If he needs her to access something for him when he’s off-site. But he always changes it right after that.”
Mark cursed. He’d just sent the woman home. He turned to the officer with the warrant. “You know anything about computers?”
“I know they turn off and on,” he answered. “I’m going to check in with the station and see if we got anywhere with the prints we took.”
“The only thing I know about computers is they break when I touch one,” Mark said humorlessly.
“I can help.”
Mark and Steven looked at the agent.
“My special talent, remember? I’m guessing this is Santos’s office?” She strode through the door and sat at the desk. The PC was left on; just the monitor had been turned off. When she pressed a button on its side the log-in and password box came up on the screen.
“So what do you do now? Guess?” Mark asked suspiciously leaning over her to watch her work.
“Guessing isn’t my talent,” she informed him. She hit a series of keys until the password screen was replaced by a blue screen with text covering most of it. She continued to navigate the menus using function keys and typing in commands. Five minutes later, she was once again looking at the password box. This time, she hit the Escape key and suddenly she was in.
The screen background was solid blue with the icons neatly arranged down the right side.
“What do you want to look at?” she asked Mark.
“I can’t believe you got through it,” Steven muttered.
“A flaw in the operating system. We just discovered it recently.” she told him. “You all need to think about moving away from standard password protection. Do you know where Haskell saved his programs? On the network?”
Steven shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know. I never paid much attention to his work. My job is the money.”
“Hey,” Mark stopped her. “I’m running this little show, remember. And I don’t care so much about Haskell’s programs as I do about what Santos was working on.”
She rolled her eyes. “Obviously, the two have to be linked.”
“There’s nothing obvious about it,” he sneered. “I want the last thing Santos might have been working on. Can you do that?”
“Sure.” The pixie computer whiz FBI agent picked up the mouse and started to navigate through a series of windows as quickly as she breathed.
It was almost dizzying. Mark looked away from it and focused his attention on the last partner standing. “Why don’t you tell me again what he said to you on the phone.”
Steven groaned “We’ve been over this already.”
“You’re the one who thinks he couldn’t have done it. One more time won’t hurt anyone.”
