The Havenport Files: Book One

Day 4

It is hard to part ways from my car, leaving it in front of Alexandrina's house; the security of having it in case anything goes wrong, especially after yesterday, leaves me feeling stripped of a good chunk of my defenses.

I take it bittersweetly, but, regardless of my feelings, I do my best not to let it transpire; something I notice is a complete dissimilarity to the person striding beside me, loudly clicking her boots against the rocky ground.

Silently, Alexandrina and I walk up the road I came; her eyes locked on the path ahead with no intention to change her focus to anywhere else, unaware or unbothered by my study of how she's acting.

Her shoulders stiffen with each step she takes; at one point I think she might be uncomfortable regarding how strange it must feel to be working with me, but, on a second look, a detail comes to light; the irises of her eyes burn with annoyance.

That is the only thing clear about her; even if she tries to play it off, this hacker managed to get under her skin.

The feeling of wanting to ask more about it leaves me once I remember why I'm here—not to give my opinion; no, I'm here to solve this.

Timely, as the resolutions down on my system, we reach the entrance of the Old Lantern; a big wooden wall stares us down, and a beaten door welcomes us half open, allowing the smell of food inside to flow out, attacking my hungry stomach.

To play with the name, instead of light bulbs, they hang electric lanterns on top of the entrance, and, at this moment of the day, they stay there only for decoration purposes, turned off.

The opportunity to analyze more is gone once Alexandrina pushes the creaking door open and holds it for me; I just can't be sure if she's being polite or wanting to hurry me. In the end, not wanting to be impolite, I nod gratefully with my head and get inside.

"We just need to find him; do you have any idea what table he took or if it is on the first or second floor? This place isn't exactly small, and that makes things more complicated." My question leaves me as I look back and see her closing the squealing door behind us.

Upon turning my face to get a look around, my mind eats a punch; an uncomfortable itch surges on the back of my neck.

Imagine a place booming with people, then multiply by three, and you'll get approximately what I'm seeing. It takes me back to the first crime scene; most of the city appears to have come around. Just my luck.

Sometimes it becomes easy to forget how establishments around tend to become full on weekends, awfully more so when the job takes the opportunity to do so for long periods.

"Your friend wasn't a lot discrete, but knowing exactly where he is asking a little too much, don't you think?" Fairly, she points it out, taking the lead and walking past the boots, purposely leaving a space beside her for me to fill. "You surely will have an easier time recognizing him once we start walking around, so keep your eyes peeled if you can."

This time I don't provide an answer, mostly spending brain power to look at easily one hundred faces and trying to find the one we are looking for.

About one minute goes by of looking around carefully—left and right, up and down—and when I start to think of going to check the second floor, a uniformed person makes me stop and blink to see if I'm seeing correctly.

"Found him; the table at the very back. There, near the restroom." I point in Lee's direction, right past a corridor of people walking in and out; it drags Alexandrina out of her search, bringing some relaxation to her expression, even if not for long. "Strange that he is in uniform on his day off; I expected a more casual look."

"We have no time to lose now that we found him; come on. You can ask him why about his clothing choice after we sit with him." Rushing me, the woman hurries her way between tables in an awkward dance. Copying her motion, I try not to stay far behind.

Expectedly, we wind up with some difficulty, inevitably bumping into people as their focus stays unchanged on the conversations they are having while walking; Alexandrina doesn't even turn to apologize when that happens; in her hurry, she leaves that job for me.

Because of the small commotion created, Officer Lee ends up shifting his gaze toward us in hopes of understanding what is happening. His action of pulling a notebook out of the backpack that lies on a chair beside him slows down as he moves to fix the glasses on his face, squinting his eyes to see better.

"Detective Rivers?" The man asks, and the moment he can get a good look at my face, seeing that it is indeed me, he expeditiously gets up to his feet and promptly extends his hand for a handshake. "I-I didn't expect to see you around here today; how are you doing? Is everything okay?"

"Hey, Lee. Well, things could be better, that's for sure. Actually, that is why we are here." Taking his hand into mind, I make sure to give it a gentle handshake and peek at his table, almost inviting myself. "Would you mind us sitting with you? I'll come clean and say it. We would like to ask a favor if that isn't a problem."

"We? I mean, it isn't a problem; please take a chair; but, who is the 'we' you're talking about?" He asks, confused; his brows don't have time enough to raise prior to his eyes catching sight of Alexandrina. "Oh, it is you, Miss Journalist! I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name from last time."

The woman waves his apologetic nod away with a shake of her head, extending her hand to the man before he gets the possibility to do it first. "You can call me Alex. I'm sorry for coming here without notifying you beforehand; now, if you don't mind, I'll take a chair."

Differently from when I talked to her in her house, there is something that becomes relatively easy to notice. She altered her way of speaking to address him. Her voice takes a lower pitch, considerably more serious and executive-like, losing most of her own characteristics; is this something she does frequently?

Now that I'm thinking, she spoke to me in this same way back when we exchanged numbers—different from some minutes ago when I was at her house. Does that mean she is slowly talking to me more relaxed than with others? That is something strange to think about.

In the midst of her circling the round table to pull a chair for her to sit on, I shoo away my thoughts and prepare to do the same, only to be interrupted by the man's hand falling on my shoulder. As soon as it gets my attention, he retrieves it to the side of his body and puts a thankful smile on his face.

"I'm sorry, I just wanted to thank you once again for the help you gave me back on the crime scene; the other officers sort of ignored me—not that I'm complaining—I'm just reinforcing the reason why I'm grateful and all. Your advice helped me a lot, detective."

"Hey, it's fine. Most officers in the station believe we need to fall to be a better cop; I just so happen to believe a helping hand can speed up the process."

Nodding twice, the man focuses on each word that escapes my lips, like he is trying to learn, leaving me to feel like a kindergarten teacher; in the end, his expression turns deadpan—very dedicated.

"That is very nice of you." Smiling, he points to the last remaining chair. "Please, don't let me keep you on your feet, detective; you can take that seat."

Sitting down on the chair, I adjust my posture to start talking.

"Lee, the thing is, Alex here got her computer hacked by someone within the city, and I would be very grateful if you could help us out. We need to get her access back; nothing major. I know that may be a little much to ask on your free day, but I wouldn't bother you if it wasn't important. Believe me."

Shaking her head, Alexandrina lets out a click of her tongue. "I don't just want my access back. I want to know who did this so I can have a chat with them. I can't risk this happening again and messing up my work; I need to make sure this ought to be a separate incident that won't happen again in the future."

"Uhm, okay; I can help with that, I think. With some luck, it may not even take that long to resolve. For starters, I need you two to keep in mind that finding the person's location may be out of my reach for me now. I would need my main computer to even try something like that." He says, dragging a sigh from Alex as he opens the notebook atop the table. "How about you start by telling me what happened exactly? I need all the information you can lend about the situation so I can formulate a plan of action here."

"There isn't much to say; believe it or not, the person who hacked Alex, by what she knows, doesn't seem to have used her account for anything until this moment. Strangely, they just locked her from using the browser on her computer."

"Strange indeed, going through all that headache to simply lock her access to her accounts and not use them? Typically hackers take your information and sell it for cash, or even use the access to your accounts to commit illegal actions that otherwise would fall on them, redirecting to your name. Are you absolutely sure this isn't one person you have beef with, Miss Alex? This doesn't look random."

"I'm sure. The people from this city who hate me are forty-up and wouldn't be able to use a computer if their lives depended on it. I doubt one of the local store owners woke up today and decided to study to become a hacker only to mess with me."

"So it isn't personal, then? All right. I may have a plan to help you out; I'll need to use your email. Do you mind if I use your phone, Miss Alex?" Lee extends his hand to Alexandrina, waiting for the device.

"Sure, knock yourself up. Just don't you get my phone hacked as well if you can manage." She says, handing the phone with little reluctance to her action.

"Rest assured, I won't do anything too complicated. I'll explain in a minute." The split second he gets his fingers on the phone, he begins working on something in his notebook. The clicks and clacks of his keyboard create an atmosphere of its own, a cacophony of switches. "The plan I have is nothing too complicated. If the person has access to your account, it means that they might be monitoring anything that happens to it; after all, they won't risk you messing with their craft and regaining the access they are gatekeeping. So, with that in mind, I'll do this."

The 'this' he comments about stays a mystery to me and Alex for a good minute or so before he manages to finish whatever he is cooking. He lays the phone on the table, and immediately Alex extends her hand to retrieve it, stuffing it in her pocket.

"Well, what did you do? And, did it work?" I ask, in hopes he explains the rest of the story.

"Excuse me, I lost my train of thought. What was I talking about?" He, looking at me with a confused face, blinks until he ends up remembering. "Oh, yeah, the plan. I tried to log in to her account from my computer so an email would be sent to her about the attempt. When they did send their email with a link to solve the problem, the exact moment she received it, I replied with a copy and paste of the message, but with a homemade tracking link I just brewed snuck into it. With some luck, the hacker will hurry to stop the retrieval and will end up clicking the link."

"And what is the result of that little trick of yours?" With her arms crossed, Alex leans closer to his notebook and waits for an answer.

"Will know in a second. While we wait, let's talk about your computer problem." Lee starts going through his backpack until he finds a pen drive, bringing it into view. "Before coming back to Havenport from my father's, I used to work in an IT department; only for a year though. There they taught me to always walk with a quick fix in case the company's computer or servers ever got attacked. Stick this to your machine and run the program on it. That should do the trick and rid it of the hacker's presence."

"Is that so? Well, thanks." Taking the pen drive onto her palm, Alex loses no time storing it safely in her coat's pocket. "I'll give it back to you tomorrow if you want, or I could leave it on with Olivia for her to give it back to you."

"Don't worry about it; I have at least three more of those, so you can keep it if you want." His answer comes while his eyes freeze on the notebook's screen; then, breaking the expectation iceberg, a single beep sound emanates from his machine. His eyes widen before it turns to us. "Wow, it really worked! I got it. The hacker's location. I can't believe they really fell for that."

This time I'm the one leaning from my chair to get a look at it, and like he said, the screen displays a map very recognizable to me.

"Is this thing accurate? Is the location of our hacker on the north side apartments?" Squinting my eyes, I see that yes, from all that I know it seems to be.

"Yes, the same one me and my family live in...wait a second, could it be?" As if struck by a revelation, the man stops to think deeply about something. "Yeah, it fits perfectly. She might be the one who did this."

"Who is this 'she' you're talking about, Lee? Is it someone you know?" Curiously, I tilt my head.

"No, I don't know her; but I saw this woman carrying some tech equipment to her apartment two weeks ago. I didn't catch much, but it looked to be some server parts. The location and that can't be a mere coincidence. As you two are going there anyway, try checking her apartment: fourth floor, apartment four hundred six."

"Okay, that's all then. Come on, Olivia; let us go." Without letting me say anything more, the woman rises from her chair impatiently. "Thanks for the help, Officer. Enjoy the rest of your day off."

Before she can wholly disappear from the restaurant without me, I get to my feet and share my last words with Lee. "Thank you for helping out. If you end up in need of any help, you can knock on my office door. Maybe I won't be able to do much this week, but once this case is closed, I'll owe you a solid."

Poor man, he doesn't even get the chance to say his goodbyes back as I hurriedly follow after Alex, but if I had to guess what he's thinking, it would be something along the lines of, 'What just happened?'