Lee's fingers appeared at the top edge of the picture and tugged gently. Kate let it go and closed her eyes. Even with her arm across her face, she could feel. Lee studying the two images, and she knew just when Lee began to cry. Kate held out her arms, and Lee curled up against her, and while the sun shone and the bread cooled and the dog was finally let inside, the two women mourned the brief life of Jules Cameron.
And yet…
'You're like this terrier my parents used to have,' Lee said. 'He would not let go of a thing once he got his teeth into it.' She was trying to be humorous, but her concern showed, and a bit of irritation, as well.
Kate licked the last of the sticky rolls from her fingers and turned her face to the sun. She had carried a table and chairs down to this, the newly rescued patch of garden, the only place in the winter that caught any sun. Jon had gone out, and the house felt silent and nearly content, as in the aftermath of a storm.
'I feel more like one of those high school biology experiments,' she said ruefully. 'You know, where you have some dead creature that you prod at and it jumps.'
'Do you really have to do this?'
'It's a loose end, and it'll keep twitching until I tidy it up. After all, I did get all those people on the alert on Friday, then just took off.'
'Rosa Hidalgo and some computer nut hardly count as 'all those people.' '
'It seemed like a lot more at the time. Anyway, it'll only be for the afternoon, and then tomorrow or the day after I was thinking about taking off for a couple of days.'
'I think that would be a good idea,' Lee said carefully.
'With you? Please? If you can get free,' she added.
The joy dawning on Lee's face rivaled the morning sun, but all she said was, 'Where?'
'Somewhere on the coast. Just drive?'
'South to Carmel or Big Sur?' Lee suggested.
'Fine.'
'I'll need to buy a bathing suit. My only one has holes in unfortunate places.'
'What fun.'
'If you can guarantee me a private swimming hole, yes.'
'Jon would love to take you shopping for a suit,' Kate said firmly.
Kate stared at the telephone for twenty minutes before she could work up her nerve to call Rosa Hidalgo. The question of legality - no, it was not even a question - the fact that what she planned was both illegal and unethical was actually of little concern when compared to the thought of Jani's anger if she heard that the woman she blamed for her daughter's disappearance had then been inside her apartment. Scenarios of shame and a permanent state of discomfort around Al almost drove her off - almost.
Very fortunately, Rosa was not home, and would not be home until late. Furthermore, her daughter, Angelica, had no hesitation about letting Kate into the apartment.
Albert Onestone, king of the Internet - Richard Schwartz to the rest of the world - took her a while longer, but she eventually got through to him, his real rather than virtual self on the telephone. Had she been conversing through the keyboard, she was certain he would have wriggled out of her grasp, but confronted by a live voice in his ear, he was out of his element and agreed to go with her to tease the secrets from Jules's computer.
Richard lived in a converted garage not far from the university, and when he came to the door, she almost laughed, so like the caricature of the computer nerd was he. Stooped, pale, bespectacled, and blinking at the sunlight, he was far from the overbearing persona that came across on the screen. She introduced herself, shook his damp hand, invited him to get in the car, waited while he logged off and shut down some machines, assured him that the jacket he had on would be heavy enough, helped him find a pen, and made sure he locked the door behind him.
'Richard,' she said when they were in the parking area next to Jules's apartment, 'for your own protection, I'm trying to keep anyone from knowing that you were here.'
'Protection?' he said nervously. 'I don't think —'
'Not that kind of protection - there's nothing dangerous here. It's just to keep you from getting involved. If anyone finds I've been here and broken into the computer, it's my responsibility. I don't want to bring you into it.'
'Would you know how to get through the security blocks by yourself?' he asked dubiously.
'Probably not, but nobody could prove I hadn't stumbled through on my own. Don't worry, I'm great at bluffing. Now, you wait here. I'm going to go up and get the door open, then come back for you. I'll be five or ten minutes.'
'Really?' He sat up, looking interested. 'Do you use picks? I'd like to watch.'
'Nothing so clever, just the key. Wait here.'
Angelica was home, and she came to the door with a phone tucked under her chin.
'Hi!' she said; then she muttered into the phone, 'Hold on just a sec.' Turning back to Kate, she said, 'I've got the key. Do you want me to come up with you?'
'Oh, no, that's okay,' Kate assured her. 'Al told me where he kept his sweaters; it'll only take me a minute.'
'Funny, Mom just sent them a bunch of things.'
'Well, you know how men are,' Kate said vaguely. Angelica laughed and went back to her phone conversation, leaving the door open. Kate trotted up the stairs and let herself in.
It did indeed take her only a minute to locate Al's unpacked boxes, piled to await his return from the aborted Mexican honeymoon. One in the bedroom held warm sweatshirts, so Kate pulled out three or four and some socks, bundled them under her arm, and went back downstairs with the key, carefully leaving the apartment door unlocked.
Angelica was still on the phone. She was sitting on the sofa with her feet on the coffee table, painting her toenails with bright red stars against a white background. Kate held up the key between two fingers. 'Where does it go?' she asked.
'Oh, stick it on the hook next to the kitchen phone,' the girl answered, waving at the door. Kate found the hook and returned the key to what she hoped was the same place that Angelica's mother had left it. When she came back through, the girl looked up from her task.
'Just a sec,' she said again into the receiver, and to Kate: 'Did you find what he wanted?'
'I did, thanks. And look, Angelica, maybe you shouldn't mention this to your mother. Actually, she sent the wrong stuff, not what Al had asked her for. She'd be embarrassed if she knew.'
Angelica giggled conspiratorially, and Kate shut the Hidalgo door behind her when she left.
Richard was reading the driver's manual from the glove compartment.
'Come on,' Kate said, throwing the clothes across the backseat.
'Wait a minute. I don't know if I - What are those?'
'Old sweatshirts. Let's go.'
'Just how illegal is this?'
'Not at all. He's my partner,' which had nothing to do with it, but it seemed to reassure him. He allowed her to take the manual from his hand and pull him out of the car.
'I really don't —' he whined.
'Shhh!'
'I really don't understand,' he said in a whisper. 'You never explained why you need to get into Jules's computer.'
'I told you she disappeared. She was kidnapped.'
'Yes, I know.'
Feeling she had given the feeble explanation so often that it was nearly threadbare, she sighed. 'If Jules disappeared voluntarily, she may have left behind an indication of why - a friend's address, for example, or a phone number. She kept a written diary, but she took it with her. She may also have kept a diary in her computer.'
'It's an invasion of privacy,' he said desperately. 'There are laws against it. I'm sure there are.'
They were on the stairs now, the back ones, which did not run right past the Hidalgo door. 'I thought hackers believed in freedom of information,' she commented.
'Corporate or governmental information, sure, but not private stuff.'
