Conceal, Protect - By Carol Ericson Page 0,54
my computer, do you?”
“Did you notice anything different about your computer after she used it? Additional files?”
“No, but then, I don’t know what half the files on my computer do, anyway. I wouldn’t notice anything different.” She snapped her fingers. “Except...”
J.D. had to grind his teeth to keep his head from exploding. This had to be it. Abby put the plans on Noelle’s computer. But why hadn’t Zendaris’s men stolen the computer? The D.C. police had removed all of Abby’s computers on Prospero’s orders, but nobody had thought to check Noelle’s.
Where was Noelle’s computer right now? He’d rescued it from his truck after the crash, so she had to have it here somewhere.
“Except what, Noelle?”
She’d twisted her fingers into knots, her puzzled gaze boring into the road outside the window.
“Sh-she did some stuff on my computer for security purposes, she said at the time.”
“What kind of stuff?”
“She added some passwords and security measures to some of my folders. She warned me that any good hacker could get into my computer and compromise my data, even steal my identity.”
J.D. snorted. “That’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Here.” Noelle tapped on the window. “The sheriff’s substation is in this direction.”
J.D. took the turn, but this conversation interested him much more than what Sheriff Greavy could tell them about Pierpont’s death.
“So, she had you add some passwords to your folders. Is that all?”
“Yeah, but she could’ve been doing anything on my computer.”
“Which is where?”
“Huh?”
“Where is your computer? I haven’t seen it yet since I pulled it from the wreckage.”
“It’s either at the house or in the truck. I can’t remember if I took it out of the truck.”
“I’m wondering why Zendaris didn’t go for your laptop the first time he broke into your place in D.C.”
“It wasn’t there. I take it with me to work, and that’s when they broke in.”
“And when they broke into the ranch house?”
“I had it with me in the truck.”
“So as far as Zendaris’s men know, you don’t have a computer, or since it wasn’t staring them in the face when they broke into first your apartment and then your house, it didn’t occur to them to look for one.” Just like it hadn’t occurred to him.
He parked the car in front of the substation, and Noelle unsnapped her seat belt. “This is all supposition. Why would Abby put those plans on my computer? Anything could’ve happened to them from there. My computer could’ve crashed and she would’ve lost everything.”
“But she made sure that wasn’t going to happen. Those security measures she put into play on your laptop must’ve covered the file she put on your hard drive. That woman knew her way around a motherboard. We could’ve used her on Prospero. Too bad she was crazy.”
Noelle’s lips tightened as she got out of the car. She slammed the door behind her.
J.D. jumped in his seat as the car rocked with the force of the slam. Whoa! Did he just hit a nerve? Did Noelle believe he thought she was crazy for that OCD stuff?
He’d have to set her straight on that. If the only thing she manifested after all she’d been through the past few years was a little obsessive-compulsive behavior, he’d nominate her for the superhero hall of fame.
But first they needed to check that computer.
The cramped sheriff’s substation on the mountain buzzed with activity—it was not every day a billionaire entrepreneur skied off the side of a mountain. Even a few members of the press hung on the fringes, ready for a statement or a piece of information that could spice up their stories.
If they only knew.
Zendaris would find out soon enough that his guys had committed an even bigger screwup than snatching the wrong man. The man they’d snatched happened to have a public profile, and his death would generate some publicity. Zendaris hated publicity.
J.D. draped an arm around Noelle’s shoulders and guided her toward the sheriff’s closed office door. J.D. tapped on the glass.
An officer peeked through the crack in the door. His scowl dissolved when his gaze fell on Noelle. “Ms. Dupree, Sheriff Greavy is expecting you.”
J.D. squeezed into the room beside Noelle just in case there was some question as to whether or not the sheriff was expecting him, too.
Sheriff Greavy looked up from his computer screen and tipped his glasses to the end of his nose. “Jarvis, try to clear the room out there. Have a seat, you two.”
When Jarvis had shut the door behind him, Greavy hunched over his