I cut him off. “A what?”
“SDR,” he said again. “Software-defined radio. It lets you intercept and monitor transmissions from shit like Daycon’s systems.”
“How easy is it to get ahold of?” I asked.
He shrugged. “You got an eBay account?”
God, I love it when I’m right.
“So, if they had video surveillance inside the home?” I asked, leading him with my tone.
He laughed and winked a light brown eye at me. “If they’ve got inside surveillance, then pray they’ve got hot chicks and those cameras turned toward the showers, dude.”
By the end of the day, I was more certain than ever that a hacker was responsible for, or at least involved in, the robberies. All of the video footage that Reese was able to pull had clear footage of the safes. So, whoever it was knew the contents of each safe that was hit. I was also willing to bet that whoever Justin Sider was had watched the mayor use his handy-dandy password notebook to access his accounts.
Before I could leave for the day, there was one more order of business I had to tend to. I picked up the phone in my office and dialed our IT department.
“Ramon?” I asked through the intercom.
“Yeah?”
“Can you do me a favor?”
There was a beat of silence. “Sure, Nate. What’s up?”
“Can you find a way to buy, download, stream, or whatever all the episodes for last few months of The Walking Dead?” I asked.
“Um…” There was more silence on his end of the phone. “Sure, I guess.”
“Great.” I stood up at my desk. “Make sure it gets sent over to the jail. They are expecting it. Tell them it’s for inmate Dennis Morgan, from me.”
“Uh, OK.”
“Thanks, Ramon,” I said. “Have a good weekend.”
“You too, Detective.”
I pressed a few buttons to forward my calls to voicemail, then shut down my computer. It was time to head home for the weekend… Home to my girlfriend.
TEN
PERHAPS I SHOULD’VE felt the disruption in the atmosphere when I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex, but I didn’t sense how off the universe was until I opened my front door and was hit in the face by the scent of pine cleaner and lemon dusting crap. I almost backed quietly out and ran for the hills without a word, but Shannon appeared from the kitchen as soon as I walked in.
She clapped her hands together with glee. “You’re home!”
Things were sparkling. I didn’t like it. This wasn’t home. This was a trap. A domestic trap. I shoved my keys into my pocket and looked around suspiciously like toxic gases might start flooding from the vents. “What did you do?”
“I just straightened up a bit,” she said as she sashayed toward me.
I unzipped my coat. “I… um… it looks—”
She cut me off by grabbing the lapel of my jacket. “Leave the coat on,” she said. “We’ve got to get going.”
“Get going where?” I asked.
“Your parents’.”
“Excuse me?”
She giggled and leaned into me. “We’re having dinner at your parents’ house tonight instead of tomorrow.”
Surely, I misheard her. Or misunderstood. Or suffered a stroke between my truck and the front door. “What?”
“Remember? Your mother and I set it up a few days ago. She’s cooking and I promised to bring dessert.”
Shit. I had completely forgotten all about it. Warning bells were chiming in my brain. Red flags were waving before my eyes. “Shannon, don’t you think it’s a little soon to be meeting my parents?”
She draped her arms around my neck. Her perfume was intoxicating.
Keep your head, Nate. This is how she sucks you in every damn time.
“Do you think it’s too soon?” She moved so close that her breasts brushed against my chest.
My eyes closed involuntarily. I felt my head shaking ‘no’ despite the screams of the dying bachelor inside me.
I’ve never been afraid of commitment; I’ve just never had time for it. And something about this chick made me feel like I wasn’t behind the wheel of this love boat, and I didn’t like that one bit. In fact, I was pretty sure I was playing scalawag to Shannon at the helm and my mother as first mate.
Her lips trailed soft kisses down the side of my neck.
I had to remind myself to breathe.
“How long does it take to get to their house?”
“Huh?”
She pulled back. “Nathan.”
I opened my eyes and realized my head had dropped back toward the ceiling and my mouth was hanging open. I blinked. “Sorry, what?”