Chapter 16

The next few days were hectic because I still had work to do and the kids had school to attend. It was almost as if we had adopted Debbie and we spent a lot of our spare time at the hospital with her mother, too.

I was sitting with Lucy in her hospital room while Debbie, Jimmy, Natty and Suzie were home slogging through their school work. She looked at me with half closed eyes and said, "Jeff, you must think that I'm really self-centered and don't give a damn about my kids."

I hesitated a moment as that had been what I had thought at one time. After that embarrassing pause I truthfully replied, "I did think something like that until I came to some understanding of what happened."

She stared into my eyes as she said, "Still you must think me a fool. I sure feel like one, so I wouldn't blame you if you did."

I assured her that I thought no such thing and she quieted down and just lay there. The next evening in a similar situation she brought up the same thing. It turns out she wanted to tell me her life story. She started slowly saying, "Jeff, you remind me a bit of my husband Frank. He was my high school sweetheart. We married as soon as we graduated. Frank was a good provider. Our original plans were for me to go to college while he worked but he did so well selling insurance that we decided we could have kids right away. First there came Jimmy and then Debbie. We were the perfect family.

"Frank even served his country by joining the National Guard. He became a member of the local unit and trained as a military policeman. At the time we thought it was a good way for him to get some exercise. We used the small amounts he made on his drill weekends to set up a college fund for Jimmy and Debbie." Lucy paused as her mouth was dry. She swallowed nervously and looked into my eyes as if she was searching for something.

I didn't know what to say and so said nothing. Lucy continued, "Frank didn't even get overseas. He wanted to go over to help in the first gulf war but they didn't use many guardsmen in that war. Instead his unit went on a two-week training exercise in New Mexico. I never found out exactly what happened but there was an accident with a firearm at one of the base ranges and Frank was killed. I was devastated. My world seemed to come to an end. If I hadn't of had the kids depending on me I wouldn't have made it. I thought I was rich at first. I mean I got $100,000 from his government life insurance policy. Then we had several other policies, after all Frank had been an insurance agent, and some savings. All together it must have been $250,000. I had never had that kind of money and at first thought I was rich. After I said something to my father, he sat me down and told me that even that amount of money wouldn't last long. He said I needed to look to my future."

"I decided that my father was right and went looking for a job. I found a job at a small bank that held our joint checking and savings accounts. I started as a teller and then became a new account rep. The money I made wasn't enough to live off of but with the kid's social security, we were doing okay. The branch manager where I worked liked me, not romantically or anything but we were friends. He told me that I should take some business and banking courses, said I could move up as the bank loved to promote from within."

"I decided to go further than that and to get my degree. I had all that money and the bank would help some with tuition. It took me six years but I got my business degree. The bank had a small party after my graduation and I was promoted to executive assistant to the bank's senior loan officer. He became my mentor and a year after getting that job I was promoted to loan officer as an assistant vice-president."

"Jeff, I'm good at my job. I was an assistant vice-president for a year and a half and then I was promoted to vice-president and given my own branch. That was about a year ago. I met the bastard that did this to me at a chamber of commerce social function. I thought he was a local businessman and real estate developer. I cultivated him as a business contact at first but after several months I agreed to go out with him. He was a charmer and I had never dated anyone since Frank's death. I mean, it wasn't like I hadn't had offers, it was just that I loved Frank so much and there was never time. Pete seemed to be a solid guy and I had no idea... I mean I thought he liked me as a person." At that point Lucy broke down and I held her hand as she continued to cry.

I found out later from Gil that Pete was cultivating her because she was a bank officer who he believed could help him launder his drug money. Gil said Billy told him that after a few dates Pete realized that Lucy was a tougher nut to crack than he had first thought. Pete's boss in the drug syndicate was Chuck Mason, who was in charge of production and distribution for the gulf coast between New Orleans and Tampa. Chuck had encouraged Pete to cultivate Lucy and when Pete wanted to write her off Chuck decided to try something else instead. Pete had commented in jest, that the only thing that would convince Lucy to help them would be someone holding a gun to her son or daughter's head. Chuck liked the idea and immediately decided on a plan.

Chuck knew Billy, who was a small time dealer to local high school and college kids. He had kept tabs on him after he'd offered to strong-arm some kids who were selling home-grown grass in his territory. Chuck met with Billy and told him to befriend Jimmy, get the boy hooked and use that to get into Lucy's home. Billy did an excellent job and soon was a regular around her house. Lucy, for her part, was glad that Jimmy had made a friend and invited Billy to supper and allowed him to spend the night as Jimmy's guest. Billy gradually began to introduce specific designer drugs into both Jimmy's and Lucy's systems while making those visits. Those drugs were designed to lower Lucy's inhibitions and resistance to the advances that Pete was making.

Jimmy was getting a different mixture that allowed Billy to control him and turn him onto other drugs. The drugs used were designer drugs that were not physically addictive. This was important as they wanted to be able to make Jimmy's drug habits go away as a part of the enticement to ensure Lucy's cooperation. Billy had come up with the idea of getting Debbie high as well and getting Debbie and Jimmy to have sex together. This was primarily another way to blackmail Lucy and to ensure her loyalty. Billy's rape of Debbie and his warning to her of what was to come was his own idea and his undoing.

Pete, during a date with an already drugged Lucy, drove her to his apartment where he further drugged her drink. At that point he had sex with her and videotaped her performing various degrading sexual acts. It was thought that with the two videos Lucy would be firmly under the control of the drug syndicate for as long as they needed her. Once she had helped launder their money, she would be committed and they would also have that as a further lever. It would probably have been an effective plan had Billy been able to hold his own lust in check until the appointed hour.

The police knew all of this from interviews with Billy. Pete, wiser and more experienced, had pretty much clammed up. They had not been able to break the encryption on the laptop computer to get at any files inside. The encryption algorithm was tougher than anything their expert had ever seen. Gil was laying this out to me and we were discussing what those implications might mean to Lucy and Debbie. Gil wanted to put them in protective custody, being afraid that Chuck might do something further with them to cloud the waters. I was adamant that they needed time to heal and that protective custody and all the inherent disruptions would be counterproductive to that effort.

I suspected that the laptop probably carried more information than just the videos and hoped that if the encryption program was broken Chuck would be arrested. The exposure from that arrest would be such that the heat would be off of Lucy and Debbie. I voiced my feelings to Gil, who agreed that if the encryption could be broken there would be little need to keep Lucy and Debbie under police protection. At that point I said, "Gil, I have had someone else working on this from the beginning. He is a data systems expert who has helped me with some pilfering at the store before. I think he's even worked with some of your guys before. From what I know of him, I think he might be able to break that encryption."

Gil looked amused, "Jeff, this encryption is world class. Who could you possibly know locally that could break something like that? The guy you know may be a pretty good hacker, but this stuff is like something the Pentagon or the CIA would use. My next shot is the FBI crime lab people, but they're so backed up it will take us six months to get scheduled with them."

I understood Gil's incredulity so I said, "Gil, I'm not absolutely sure whether this guy I know would even want to expose himself by cracking this encryption, but I do know I have never asked him to do something involving computers that he hasn't been able to do. I'm not entirely sure of his background, but I suspect that he has Army cryptanalysis training. This guy can get into protected systems, get around the protection and get back out without anyone knowing that he's been there. Hell, he's worth a try when your next best option is to wait for six months."

Gil's look turned more serious as he replied, "Well, I've never had you steer me wrong before, even though I would consider this outside your expertise. I'll try the guy, give me his number and I'll arrange for him to come in and give it a shot."

It was my turn to smile. I said, "Gil, it can't work that way. I will ask him. If he agrees then he will contact you. He will do this with your experts present who will document what he does. He will be there in a consultant's capacity and your experts will be credited with breaking the encryption. He will want no publicity and nothing other than a fat check for his consulting fees. If he can't break the encryption there will be no charge. That is the only way he works."

Gil said, "The fee is no problem. I suspect that if we break this encryption there will be enough money and property seized to pay for a room full of experts. I just hope this guy lives up to your expectations."

I looked into Gil's eyes and said, "Me too. A lot is riding on this."