“That’s where it gets interesting. He liked the dark web.”
West drew in a deep breath, not liking the sound of this. “What was he looking at?”
“Who knows? That’s the beauty of the dark web, at least, if you have the correct software installed, which permanently erases your search history. And he did.”
“So you don’t know?”
“Not really. You see whatever you look at on the regular internet is tracked, because the internet provider and search engine both keep their own records, which you can’t access, but that doesn’t happen on the dark web. You can look at something, delete the records, and poof. It’s gone.” He smiled appreciatively.
“So we have no idea what he looked at?”
“We have some idea. He had his software set up to delete the searches automatically, but not right at once. You can change the setting. I guess some people like to be able to go back and find the same page they had open before. Google doesn’t work so well on the dark web, so you kind of need a way to find stuff.”
“I don’t get this. What are you saying? We know what he looked at? Or we don’t know?” Black asked.
“What I’m saying is he had a delay on when his history got deleted. He didn’t delete his last week’s searches.” The man turned to his second screen, which had a web browser open, on a number of tabs. He clicked the first, and immediately the screen changed to the car hire firm which had provided the car Wheatley was driving.
“What’s that?” Black asked.
“Terms and conditions. He was looking at what he needed to hire the car.”
West and Black both leaned in closer to look. “What else is there?”
The technician showed them the other tabs. “He sourced the documents here. A credit card bill and driver’s license in the name of Hans Hass.”
“Both fake?”
“Uh huh. They were made by someone with the name Blackhorse.”
“Who’s that?”
“No idea. Looks Russian. He doesn’t seem involved though, beyond providing the documents.”
“You find anything about bomb making?” Black asked. “Specifically how to make a pressure cooker bomb?”
“No. But like I said, he deleted all his previous searches on the dark web. He could have searched for it.”
“And the information is there? I mean if he had searched for it. The information was there to find?”
“Oh yeah.” The analyst’s fingers flew on his keyboard, and seconds later a list appeared on the screen.
“What’s that?”
“There’s loads of places you can find how to make a bomb online, anything from a simple pipe bomb to a nuclear device, if you can find the material. But this is a kind of portal that lists them all.”
The man scanned the screen, the words reflecting back off the coating on his glasses.
“Here.” He clicked a link, and the page refreshed with the colorful images and instructions for what looked like a recipe, only the pressure cooker being used was being filled with fertilizer and wires.
“I thought they called it the dark web,” Black muttered. “Looks like a page on making soup.”
“Did he look at this?” West clarified. “Is there any evidence to suggest he looked at this?”
“There’s no evidence he didn’t. But wait, I have more.”
He clicked off the page, and went instead to one of the last tabs on what had been Billy Wheatley’s screen. It showed a Google map, but the contents blurred out.
“OK, first up. This is the Fonchem site in the north of Lornea Island. This he was looking at.”
“Why’s it blurry?”
“Ask Google, or actually ask Fonchem. Military and some commercial sites are obscured. You can apply to Google and make your case. A lot of chemical and pharmaceutical sites do it, to make it harder to see what they’re actually up to, but check this, it’s clever.” He clicked to the next, final tab. It showed a blueprint.
“Every state and county keeps a record office of all buildings, and you can download it. They’re just a lot harder to find. But he found it.”
“So what is that, what we’re looking at?”
“It’s the blueprint of the building that was bombed.”
Chapter Thirty-One
They worked together on the report, West paying particular care to make sure there were no claims which weren’t strongly supported by the evidence. It was broken down into sections.
There was considerable evidence to suggest that Billy Wheatley was responsible for the attack on the Fonchem facility. Rental car records, and data from his computer, showed he faked an ID in order to rent a car, which he then booked onto the Lornea Island ferry on the day prior to the attack. He was then seen leaving the island, on the day after the attack. In total sixteen of his fingerprints were identified on the remaining fragments of the bomb casing, strongly indicating he was at least present when the device was made, if not responsible for its manufacture. The single trail of footprints reportedly seen by the murdered security guard, and their small size, was consistent with the size of Wheatley’s own feet. And Wheatley had an ongoing campaign against Fonchem, something he didn’t even try to hide, which may, in his mind, have provided a motive for the attack.
The autopsy on the security guard had by now confirmed that he was killed by the detonation when the device exploded. It had caused so much destruction that it was impossible to ascertain exactly what had happened. It was possible Wheatley had timed the device to explode when the guard was there, or it might have been an unfortunate accident – none of the other bomb sites had involved any injuries or deaths.
Interviews carried out with all those who had known Wheatley during his brief time at college had all told a similar story. He was quiet and polite, and clearly highly intelligent, but also reserved, and appearing to be more interested in his own private projects than taking part in the typical freshman activities. The details of his private projects had not been shared. He had
