Never Tell (Detective D.D. Warren #10) - Lisa Gardner Page 0,110

the other hand, I gave a different task. He’s basically … wandering around. Seeing if he can get anyone else to approach with directions.”

I don’t understand right away; then it comes to me. “This is the first time I. N. Verness has been logged on in six years,” I say slowly. “You’re waiting to see if someone who used to do business with him, or hang out in a chat room with him, recognizes the name and initiates contact.”

“Precisely. To the best of our knowledge, Ness kept his online identity secret, even from his fellow surfers. Meaning they don’t know Verness was Jacob Ness or that Jacob is dead. They’re simply seeing a visit from a long-lost guest.”

“Won’t the six-year gap scare them off? I mean, why now?”

“Fortunately, given that a lot of the activity on the dark web is illegal, it’s easy to imply Verness spent the last few years in prison. Just got out. Not a new or interesting story, given the company. And of course, as someone who’s been incarcerated, he’s trying to get his bearings again.”

I can’t help myself. I move around the table and peer over Keith’s shoulder. Up close, I can smell the scent of Keith’s shampoo, see the ends of his hair still damp from his morning shower. I also sense the tension through his shoulders. My own stomach has tightened, as if readying for a blow.

I turn my attention to the screen. I’m not sure what I expected, but this appears so … banal.

“There hundreds, if not thousands of portals within the dark web,” Keith says now, his fingers still moving as he scrolls down a screen too fast for my eyes to follow all the content. “One of the most famous, the Silk Road, was run by the Dread Pirate Roberts.”

“Princess Bride,” I murmur.

“Jacob Ness wasn’t the only felon who prided himself on being clever.”

“This page,” I say, “it looks so boring.” White background, menu items running down the side, with innocuous-sounding labels. Small photos of goods I have to squint to see, paired with brief descriptions. Frankly, it reminds me of scrolling through any old e-commerce site.

Keith has already moved on to another page, is scrolling rapidly. I don’t know how he can take in data that fast. But then, my skill sets have always been more hands-on. And while I had passing knowledge of things like the dark web, I’d never tried to visit or analyze it myself. I didn’t have the computer expertise. Plus, I genuinely worried the stark reality of such a platform would completely overwhelm me. I had enough sleepless nights patrolling Boston. An entire virtual world of predators … Even I knew I couldn’t take it.

“Post–Silk Road, these sites had to learn to be more careful. Many now appear exactly like a normal retail page.”

“Obviously.”

“There are backdoor portals that get you to the real page. Even then, sales items often appear under clever labels—hardware for guns, or you may have a prescription meds site that at first blush is completely legit, except if you click on the photo of aspirin, the jpeg file is much larger than it should be.”

“Data is hidden in the photo. There’s a term for that …” I search my mind.

“Steganography. Not all dark websites bother. But marketplaces dealing with child porn, human trafficking—”

“Jacob’s kind of places,” I fill in.

Keith looks at me. “They have the highest security features in place. They have to. They’re hated even by other criminals who’d turn on them in a hot second. Which, of course, makes our job of retracing Jacob’s virtual footprints that much more challenging. It’s not just that he was walking around in bad neighborhoods, so to speak; he was touring the most sordid, dangerous back alleys possible, where everyone is suspicious and taking extra precautions.”“

I’m confused. “Given all that, how would Jacob even learn of such marketplaces? Know that clicking on this photo actually gets him that pornographic image? Is there like a web version of street smarts?”

“Welcome to forums—or chat rooms as some people call them. Ness had to belong to at least one to learn all the things he learned. Unfortunately, given the paranoia of the members of the more twisted forums, learning who, what, when, where, how, and why is that much more difficult.”

“So what are you doing?”

“The dark web is a competitive marketplace, right? Illegal or not, the goal is still to make money. Hence customer reviews, rating systems, everything.”

“Okay.”

“I’m hoping one of Jacob’s past business associates