Crouching Buzzard, Leaping Loon(60)

“You don’t know that for sure. What if he was only using the CD burners?”

    I thought back. He could be right. I didn’t actually know for sure that his pornography was stored on Mutant Wizards hardware. I’d only assumed it.

“Good point,” I said. “It’s going to take someone a lot more tech-sawy than I am to figure that out.”

“And even if he is using the Mutant Wizards servers,” Michael went on, “you want to make sure he’s not doing it legitimately before you cause a stink.”

“Michael, Mutant Wizards is not in the pornography business,” I protested.

“Not exactly, but how do you know what business deals Rob and the rest of them might have made to keep the company afloat during the first few months?”

    That floored me.

“You think they might be running a porn site to make money?” I demanded.

“No, but what if they sublet part of their hardware, or even just space in the computer lab, to someone who is running a porn site? It’s not actually illegal, you know - and I hear it’s highly profitable.”

    I considered this. Mutant Wizards had gone through a few lean months in the early days. That was one reason I had become a major stockholder - I’d come up with the money to get Rob through one cash flow crisis. What if he’d had another financial pinch and didn’t want to hit up the family again? What if he’d made a deal with the devil, so to speak?

“It might be legal, but it isn’t respectable,” I said. “And it would be a major PR disaster if it were true and the press found it out.”

“Exactly.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I hadn’t thought of that possibility. I’ll have to get a little more information before I decide what to do about Roger.”

“Any idea how you’re going to get the information?”

“I have a couple of possibilities,” I said. “Luis, for example. He’s got the skills, and now that I know his secret, I can probably motivate him to use them.”

“Of course, there is the fact that he’s a suspect,” Michael pointed out.

“Everyone I know who could possibly figure this out is a suspect,” I said. “I’ll ask someone else to look into the same thing, and compare what they come up with.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know; I’ll have to think about it when I’m more awake. Maybe I can figure out someone else that I have a hold over, like Luis. Or someone Ted hasn’t yet tried to blackmail.”

    Or maybe Jack, who would probably do it just because I was the one asking. Not that I was going to mention that to Michael.

“I need to spend more time with the printout first,” I said. “If you ask me, it all comes down to the printout. It adds up - the blackmail note to Rob, the file on Luis, his having the address of Roger’s site. He was trying to blackmail everyone on the list. So the murderer is almost certainly someone on this list.”

“Yes, but since no one on the list is identified by his or her real name, I’m not sure that gets you anywhere,” Michael said.

“Yes, but I’ve already identified a couple of them. Luis as the Hacker, for example.”

“You’re really sure about that?” Michael asked.

“Let me get the file and look at the photo,” I said, shuffling through the papers scattered across the sofa. “Yes, it’s Luis - and my God, I should have noticed this before! The Robin Hood Hacker’s name is Mike Crews - that’s C-R-E-W-S.”

“So?”

“Luis’s last name is Cruz - C-R-U-Z. Different spelling, but pronounced about the same.”

“I get it.”

“And I bet Dr. Lorelei is the Valkyrie. She’s perfect for it.”

“Of course, that only leaves - what? - nine more names on the list?”

“Spoilsport,” I said.

“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, read the list, from the top; let’s see if any of the other code names suggest anything.”

“Okay. The Emperor. The Space Cadet.”

“A lot of people call Rob a space cadet,” Michael suggested.

“Yes, but he’s not the only candidate at Mutant Wizards. Maybe not even the most logical.”

“Sad, but true.”

“And the way everyone at Mutant Wizards feels about Rob, they’re just as apt to call him the Emperor.”

“Yes, but would Ted call him that?” Michael asked.

“Good point. Anyway. The Hacker - are we agreed that he’s Luis?”

“Right,” Michael said.

“The Voyeur - that’s Roger, because of the porn sites.”