Finding The Lost Mystic Islan - Liberty Parker Page 0,43
I’m open to any and all suggestions that will move this investigation further along. “What’s your idea?” I ask.
“Well, Glorianna and Dooly are apparently mates. We thought that perhaps we could have a mating party for them and it might draw the rogues out. What do you think?”
I mentally go through everything that’s been happening—Echo’s escape, the shadow creature at my house, the computer issue, and the letter I received. I know it’s all bound together but I’m missing a piece or two from the overall puzzle. “I’m a bit hesitant to do that with all the unknown shit happening,” I admit.
“But you’re forgetting something, Trigger. We’re shifters and we have our own abilities. We’re not without friends who can help as well.”
When she puts it like that, I realize that she makes a valid point. “Dooly is okay with this?” I question since it would be a party for him and his mate. Something I need to give him hell about since he never said a word.
“He was the one who said I had to call you,” she says, giggling.
Gaia picks that moment to pop her head into my office. “Got tech support here, Sheriff. Seems everyone’s systems did the same thing, so he’s physically here to see if he can figure out what the heck happened.”
“Vaughn, I need to go. Got a meeting,” I tell her.
“Stay safe, Trigger. I have this feeling I can’t describe that tells me shit’s going to hit the proverbial fan.”
“Y’all stay safe as well. I don’t know how long I’ll be tonight so don’t hold dinner for me.”
“You just come home to us. Dinner will be waiting to be warmed up,” she states.
“Ah, my feisty mate is on the phone now.”
“You’ll be seeing feisty later, mister,” she teases before hanging up the phone.
“Never seen anything like this,” Elbert, the tech support guy, mutters. “Every single system was tampered with to some extent. Thankfully, we have great firewalls in place so hopefully, no sensitive information was breached.” I suspect that not only were there files that were accessed, but the computer issue has something to do with Echo’s escape.
I’m not particularly tech savvy so I ask, “Are you able to see when this issue cropped up? And if so, can we possibly go to the files from then? I don’t know what it’s called so if I’m not making sense, please let me know.”
“You mean like the last backup of the whole system?” Elbert inquires.
Deciding I need to trust him somewhat, I state, “I suspect this wasn’t an accident. If someone was able to get into the system and do something like this, they could have possibly tampered with case files. If this backup you’re talking about means we have the files from before the system corruption, then yes, that’s what I mean.”
He mumbles something as his fingers fly over the keyboard. I sit on the couch since he’s at my destroyed desk and watch him work. “Alright, we’re in luck,” he exclaims. “The last system backup was at midnight and the fuckery to it wasn’t done until two. I can recover the system from midnight but first, I’m running a check to see if I can tell which files may have been accessed if any.”
At this point, I’m mentally composing a letter to his boss commending Elbert on his performance and strongly urging a pay increase. “Appreciate it, man. If any files were accessed, are you able to get me a hard copy of the changes so I can compare them?”
“You got it, Sheriff,” he replies, fingers rapidly typing away.
It takes him another thirty minutes to work his magic. As he leaves, he promises to get me the information I asked for because he was able to determine that several files were accessed and changes were made. Once he leaves, I sit down and click the link to access the security feeds in the cell area. After watching it three different times, I call out, “Gaia! Can you come in here please?”
“You rang, Sheriff?” she asks as she opens my office door.
“Come and watch this and tell me what you see,” I instruct, hitting play on the video once she has come inside and shut my door. I see fierce concentration come across her face as she leans closer to the computer screen.
“I need to watch it again,” she mumbles, almost to herself. She maneuvers the mouse and starts the feed again. On the third time, she stops midway and says, “Look, that