Chapter 5

Doing things ‘by the book’ sucked. It was like starting a bobsled run—hard to stop halfway down the hill, but that was what everyone seemed to want to do.

Alex and Grace were in Sheriff Conly’s office, and the sheriff had invited Deputy Mandy Grayson to join them. She and Alex had become friends when she spied on him at the flea market during the fall.

Alex always marveled at the sheriff’s taste in office furniture. His glass-and-chrome desk was neatly organized, with most of the surface visible. It didn’t fit the persona of the rough-and-tumble professional he portrayed in public.

“What brings you two here today?” Sheriff Conly asked.

Grace shared the tale of the ongoing DDoS attack on the Agri-Tech Fertilizer server. The sheriff called it a cybercrime and was willing to ‘arrest’ the hacker. Yay, team! Then the brakes started to engage.

“Since Chester’s across the county line, I’ll need to coordinate with Sheriff Townsend.”

“Why?” Alex asked.

“Because he’ll have to talk to their judge to get a warrant to search the house.”

Alex still looked confused.

“Remember that pesky thing I keep bringing up? We have to do this legally,” Grace said.

“That means gathering evidence that they committed the crime,” Sheriff Conly added.

“Alexei Mikhailov is not a patient man. And he’s one who’s losing money right now,” Alex reminded them.

“Then let me make some calls,” Sheriff Conly said.

Twenty minutes later, Sheriff Conly looked frustrated.

“Sheriff Townsend knows the address we’re getting the search warrant for. It’s a foster care home for troubled kids who can’t be placed. That means we’re probably dealing with a minor. The judge insists that we bring in Child Services to protect the children. Getting them there will take some time.

“The next wrinkle is that one of his detectives threw a monkey wrench into everything. He revealed that one of the kids is a confidential informant working on a narcotics case. It’s been made clear that if the hacker’s the informant, they won’t be charging him,” Sheriff Conly said.

Alex looked at Grace and saw her displeasure. He assumed it was because the boy was a rat, but then again, it could be because they would let the kid skate. The two of them had promised a Russian ex-mobster they would handle this. Alexei might take exception to having paid them and still suffering the problem.

“This is why I don’t work with the police,” Alex pointed out.

It didn’t help his mood that both Grace and the sheriff found that statement amusing.

After what seemed like forever and a few messages from Alexei—which got progressively more hostile—Sheriff Conly gave the word that the raid was a go.

They’d taken two vehicles. Alex had volunteered to ride in Mandy’s cruiser; she pulled over at a park a block away from the house, next to the sheriff’s truck.

The sound of screeching tires echoed through the stillness. A black car appeared over the rise and sped up the street. It pulled into the park and came to an abrupt stop. Alex saw a balding man inside, wearing a suit and tie. The man flung open the door and wrestled with the seatbelt; once he’d unclipped it, he all but fell out of the driver’s seat onto the asphalt.

Sheriff Conly got out and met Detective LaRay.

A minute behind him was Ms. Crenshaw of Child Services.

Once everyone was there, Sheriff Conly gathered them around to go over the plan. Mandy and Alex would drive around the back to ensure no one slipped out that way. Alex was instructed to stay in the car until the house was deemed safe. He would then enter and verify this was where the DDoS attack was coming from.

Alex did as he was told, staying in the car while Mandy went up the side yard and stationed herself in the back. Alex heard Sheriff Conly pound on the front door and shout, “Open up, police!”

A moment later, Mandy called out, “We have a runner!”

Alex spotted a tall, gangly boy running between the houses, with Mandy slowly losing ground. The kid was fast. When he got out from between the houses, the boy veered toward the police car to run up the street and make good his escape. He looked back and flipped off Mandy just as karma bit him in the butt. Alex flung the door open, and the kid plowed into it, knocking him on his ass.

Mandy pounced on the perp—Alex had heard that term on a detective show—and soon had him in cuffs.

Alex noted that the boy had clipped the doorframe with his forehead and was bleeding profusely.

Grace appeared and took in what’d happened.

“I stayed in the car,” Alex said to defend himself.

She looked at Mandy, who just shrugged as she deposited the bleeding boy in the back seat. While Mandy found the first-aid kit, Grace shared what was happening.

“No one’s answering, and the Child Services lady won’t allow them to force the front door.”

“Would it be okay if I helped?” Alex asked.

Grace once again looked at Mandy, who shrugged again. They both knew if they went back out front, Sheriff Conly would frown upon Alex breaking in.

“Let’s check it out,” Grace decided.

Once they were at the back of the house, Grace nodded toward an upstairs window.

“Maybe you could just climb the drainpipe and go through the open window up there.”

It looked like the downspout was ready to fall apart; there was no way it would support his weight.

“Why don’t I go in through the basement window the rat scurried out of?” Alex asked.

“You can fit?”

Alex gave her an ‘are you kidding?’ look and walked over to the window.

He crawled through and sighed. Sitting out on the boy’s desk was a gallon-sized baggie full of multi-colored pills that Alex guessed were fentanyl. He pulled his phone out and took a photo. He then posted a message on social media using one of his fake accounts, congratulating Detective LaRay for making a massive drug bust.

Informant or not, the rat was going down.

As Alex pushed the door open to leave the room, it let out a loud, steady creak that reminded him of something he would hear in a horror movie.

In the hall, he found two younger children, probably eight or nine years old.

“The police are here,” the little boy said.

Alex deduced that they’d been told to never open the door for cops. He approved.

“It’s okay. Let me deal with them,” Alex said. “Is there anyone else in the house?”

“Lyric is upstairs in her room. She told everyone she wants to be left alone.”

“What about the people who run the home?”

“Miss Shelby went to the store.”

“Who was watching you?” Alex asked.

“Jamie. But when the cops came, he left us here,” the little girl said and began to cry.

He took their hands and led them to the front door. When he opened it, he held out his hands to the social worker to deal with the two now-crying kids.

“Mandy has your rat in custody. I’m assuming the hacker’s on the second floor, and her name is Lyric,” Alex said.

“Any adults?” Sheriff Conly asked.

“A Miss Shelby is at the store.”

Alex noted that Detective LaRay made a beeline to the basement.

“You better follow him. There’s a huge bag of fentanyl sitting on the desk.”

Sheriff Conly didn’t even hesitate. The fentanyl was a much more significant danger to the community than a hacker. Alex also wasn’t happy because the pills were all brightly colored, like candy. It would have been easy for the two young kids he turned over to the Child Services lady to have eaten several by mistake.