Page 21 of Cold Silence
“You’re right. I need to stop trusting so easily. To put your additional security measures into place and be sure I hide my login when I sign into my computer.” Her face flaming from the embarrassment of her failure, she stood. “But right now we need to focus on finding this thief, not chastising me.”
“Sorry,” he said, making solid eye contact. “Don’t be embarrassed. I find more lax security than you have in many places I investigate.”
“That’s something, I guess,” she said, but didn’t really believe it.
Expecting another scolding for something they’d done wrong, she led the way to the small server room at the back of the office space. She didn’t come here often, leaving the hardware to her manager, and didn’t know the details of how everything was connected, but she could figure it out as she assumed Nick would do.
She swiped her card and held the door for him. Air in the room kept chilly for the equipment rushed out and cooled her flushed face.
“Nice setup.” Nick brushed past her to head straight for a computer terminal and plopped onto the chair.
Travis stopped next to her. “Stop blaming yourself. You didn’t install the security.”
“But I should’ve asked for more details. Not trusted as much.”
He brushed his hand against hers. “You can’t know every detail, and now that you have recommendations, I know you’ll make sure they’re implemented.”
“I will.” Budget was tight. Really tight, and without additional funding, upgrading would be a challenge, but she would find a way to do it. Unfortunately, that could mean Hector would be out of luck on his raise.
Help me to do both. Hector deserves more money, and we have to make the security changes. But then You know that.
She hoped God heard her. But did He? She wasn’t sure. Not with the challenges she’d faced on the job to bring this software and hardware to production. But why would God not want the American military to be well-trained and reduce loss of life? No reason she could think of, but then she wasn’t all-knowing like He was.
“I’m in,” Nick said, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
She should be as excited as he sounded, but she dreaded the news he would bring to her. Would he tell her someone she counted on, trusted, and saw every day was a traitor?
“You can go now,” he said, not looking up. “I’ll let you know if I need anything else.”
As much as she wanted to learn the thief’s identity, she was glad to go. “This door will lock when it closes. If you leave you won’t be able to get back in.”
“Then be sure you pay attention to your phone in case I need you,” he said without losing a beat.
Travis opened the door for her.
In the hallway next to him, she stepped back to wait for the door to latch.
“Intense and focused guy,” Travis said. “I wouldn’t take anything he says personally.”
“Hard not to, but he seems like he knows what he’s doing,” she said, trying to focus on the positive. “Let’s check in with Sierra again to see if she needs anything.”
They found her still in the conference room at the computer terminal. She was lifting a wide strip of tape from the keyboard. She pressed it onto a card, grabbed a pen and began writing on the back of it.
She looked up. “Hey. I’m finding a lot of prints, but that’s not surprising on a computer used by all of your staff.”
Travis frowned. “Likely one of the reasons our thief decided to use it.”
Sierra nodded. “I realize this operation is on a need-to-know basis, but if you want me to match names to the ones I lifted, we’ll need to get prints from your staff.”
Finally, something Claire could help with. “To work here, you have to be fingerprinted to pass a background check, and we have them on file for each employee.”
“Oh, good. Get me a copy of all of them.” Sierra filed the card in a small box. “We’ll have to manually compare the prints we lift to them, and that will take longer than our usual searches of criminal databases. But since your employees won’t have records searching those databases won’t likely help. We’ll do it anyway. Never know, we might discover we’re looking at an outside suspect.”
“What about my prints?” Travis asked. “I haven’t touched the computer, but I have touched equipment in the building.”
“Your prints are in Army databases, but we can’t always access military records on a timely basis. It would be easier if you let me print you right now.”
“Of course.”
