Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,59
as Kathleen’s buddy list appeared. He scrolled down a long list of screen names and then back up again. Not one of them used any form of the name Peter.
“Maybe she talked to him on AOL,” Carl suggested.
Perry was already on it, although he said nothing. While signing onto AOL, which also had the password saved, he went through Yahoo! Messenger again, hitting the preferences and changing her settings so that the actual screen names were displayed instead of each person’s name. Still, there was nothing. It was the same with AOL. Not one screen name came close to Peter.
“Maybe she used another screen name,” Perry mused out loud.
“They’ll be able to tell down at the station. Ready for me to pull out the hard drive?” Carl reached into the briefcase and slid a screwdriver out of the side pocket.
No, Perry wasn’t ready. He wanted to tear into the computer himself and not turn it over to Rad, who in turn would probably ship it out to Kansas City’s larger police department or, worse yet, the FBI field office. Since this wasn’t officially his case, he would have to sift through red tape just to learn what they found.
“One more minute.” He clicked the drop-down box on AOL to view the other screen names. Then flipping open his notebook, he jotted down the names. “How many brothers and sisters does she have?”
“Just a younger brother.”
Perry guessed the screen names on AOL all belonged to family members. More than likely, the account holder was Eileen or her husband and they would authorize any new screen names. Since there were only four names, Perry doubted Kathleen used AOL for a lot of chatting.
He looked through the programs on the computer, pulled up IE, and then typed in: MySpace. This time the password wasn’t saved. Doing the same with Facebook, he ran into the same snag. And there was no way to tell what other names she might have on Yahoo! Messenger. Frustrated, he stood and let Carl do his thing. “There’s a connection here. I know there is.”
He thought about how Dani showed Kylie the way people chatted using Web sites.
“Your hunches are usually right.” Carl stepped around him and then unscrewed the back of the tower.
Perry wished Rad felt the same way. He was a damn good cop, one of the best on their force. And it wasn’t bragging rights that allowed him to say that. The facts spoke for themselves. In his years on duty, he’d brought in more criminals, solved more cases, than any other man, or woman, in his department. Yet for some reason, Rad wouldn’t assign the case to him. That in itself bugged the crap out of him, too.
Dani and Kylie’s conversation kept popping into his head as well. There were other ways to talk online. He wanted to be the one figuring this out and not some IT geek.
When they arrived back at the station, Perry headed straight for Rad’s office, keeping the hard drive in his possession. Rad looked tired when he glanced up from paperwork and gestured for Perry to enter.
“I got something to show you,” Perry said, closing the door to the Chief’s office. He swore Rad’s expression turned wary as he leaned back and watched Perry approach. “Remember those Web sites I showed you last week?”
“Yeah.” Rad leaned forward on his desk, resting his elbows over paperwork, and plopped his chin in his hands. “What about them?”
“Take a look at this.” Perry opened his file and pulled out the printed page and then slid a picture of Kathleen Long out next to it.
“Son of a bitch,” Rad hissed.
“Yup. A match.”
Rad let out a loud sigh and leaned back, keeping his focus glued to the two pictures and not saying anything for a minute.
“Did you get her hard drive?”
“Yeah, it’s right here.” He pulled out the ziplock bag and held up the black hard drive. “Where are you sending it?”
Rad focused on him with intense gray eyes that today looked more tired than usual. Reaching across his desk, he took the hard drive from Perry. “I’m sending it over to the FBI field office.”
Perry blew out his frustration. “Rad, give me this case. You know I can work alongside the FBI. We’ve done it before.”
“Yup, we have.” Rad set the hard drive on the side of his desk. “I thought you wanted the Peter case.”
“It’s the same case.”
Rad raised one eyebrow. “You’ve got proof that Kathleen Long was pursued by Peter?”