Jake motioned to put on the remaining lights in the room but Sean kicked against it by raising his hand, “That’s just about enough lighting in here until I’m done with my business”.
“What business would entail you breaking into my house and threatening me with a gun to my head?” Jake sounded bolder now.
He needed the control he cherished so much through the years back. For some reason, it had slipped through his grasp from the moment his trophy box had been taken and his privacy had been violated.
“You have a network with a secure line don’t you?” Sean asked.
Jake nodded slowly and reluctantly. “I still don’t understand why you are here”.
“My wife… “, Sean paused and cleared his throat. “My ex-wife stumbled on something and I think it might have been what brought about her death”.
Interested and someway intrigued by the information, Jake felt his previously heightened guard slowly get let down as he leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“And if I say no?” he asked, still trying to build up some control and not give in easily.
Sean got up slowly, flipped back the safety on his gun and pointed it in Jake’s direction, “There are several ways to make your house look like a robbery gone wrong or even more like you committed suicide and nobody will ever find the truth once I’m done”.
Jake called his bluff with a short snort and approached him, seemingly not being terrified by the fact a gun was being pointed at his chest. Coming just about close enough to feel the nozzle pressed against his chest, Jake locked himself in gaze with Sean before knocking the gun off with ease and precision.
“You’re going to hand me that laptop or things are going to get really crazy for you within the next few seconds”, Sean threatened.
Jake weighed his options but something about the man bothered him. He seemed intent on having the laptop by any means necessary but he couldn’t help get his interest piqued by what he needed it for.
“You tell me why I should help you and maybe I will”, Jake stood his ground.
Sean shook his head, sighed in exasperation and replied, “I will be doing your bloody department a favor if what Susan left me in these pictures is what I assume it is”.
Jake took a long stare at the man before nodding and walking away. He soon returned, holding the laptop in his hand and handing it over to Sean who graciously accepted it. Gaining easy access to the unrestricted laptop, Sean took out the phone he had taken from Mark and plugged it into the computer.
“Now what?” Jake asked to be carried along.
Sean looked up at him and smiled. “Are you familiar with the ancient concepts of hiding information in images?”
Silent and obviously being the first time he would hear of it, Jake folded his arms across his chest. “Let’s say I do, what does this have to do with my computer and why you are here?”
Sean shot him a disappointed look. “You don’t know jack shit about what I’m talking about do you?”
Impatient and seemingly enraged, Jake waved his arms in the air and walked over to the couch. “Let’s say I don’t know, but what does this have to do with your wife’s death?”
Sean turned his attention to the computer, toggling it through and putting the decrypting process into place. The pictures began to unfold, almost as though she had hidden hundreds of pictures inside one and resulting in millions of images being processed by the computer.
“When we worked undercover missions in dangerous territories, we came up with this technique of having messages hidden in images we might take from random places or of random events”, he began explaining.
Jake listened to him with his eyes barely looking elsewhere.
“To any novice such as yourself, it appears as nothing out of the ordinary and as completely normal, but when you know what you’re looking for and how to process it, it can become a gold mine of information”, he added.
Jake asked immediately, “So you hope to find some information related to why your wife was killed by sourcing through thousands of pictures she put together?”
Sean nodded his head, snapped his fingers and winked at Jake before heading over to the kitchen.
“What do you have?” he asked nonchalantly while Jake took a look at his computer and the process going on in it.
The program had only processed about two percent of the entire thing, meaning it would take some time before anything could be gotten in the slightest.
“You guys are really weird”, Jake noted before getting to his feet.
Sean rummaged through his fridge and kitchen cabinets but seemed disappointed by all he could find and what he could not.
“What kind of guy are you?” Sean asked in a befuddled tone. “No food, no booze and you barely even have anything noteworthy of owning an apartment in this kitchen!”
Jake had never thought of it since he never received visitors.
“You never get many people to come over do you?” Sean asked with a raised and judgmental brow.
Feeling somewhat ashamed, Jake fumbled his words, “Yeah I…of course I have people... I mean, they show up sometime and leave and… “.
Snorting derisively and walking away to the couch where they both sat for a few minutes in silence, Jake continued to stare out his window and Sean noticed it but kept the observation to himself.
“We might as well just go out and have some fun while this baby gets through”, Sean offered.
Shaking his head and replying, Jake coughed softly, “No… I don’t want to go anywhere tonight… I’m kind of tired you know and I’ll be fine if you could just finish up and leave”.
“Well, that will be your loss because I’m taking that sweet ride outside”, Sean held out the keys to the impala and smiled.
Almost as though he had been kicked through the teeth, Jake winced and shot to his feet. “There is
