Ali could have added what she already knew—that the earlier intruder had known his way around Betsy’s current alarm system and, more important, he had also known his way around Princess. Rather than overplaying her hand Ali waited, allowing Betsy to draw her own conclusions and hoping she’d make the right choice. Eventually she did.
“Very well, then,” the other woman agreed. “Send him over. I’m sure you people know better than I.”
We do, Ali thought. “All right. I’ll give Joe a call,” she said aloud. “Once I have an ETA on him, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, you’re going to need a cover story.”
“A cover story?” Betsy repeated. “How come? Like in one of those cloak-and-dagger spy movies?”
“Exactly,” Ali said. “Joe will probably show up in a work van with a sign saying he represents some kind of electrical company. If anyone asks about his presence at your place, tell them that you’ve been having trouble with your electrical service, and Joe’s been dispatched to repair it for you. I understand your home has been equipped with Wi-Fi, right?”
“It used to be,” Betsy said. “After Athena left, I discontinued the service. There was no sense in paying for it when I wasn’t using it.”
“What about a computer? Do you have one of those?”
“I have one, but it died months ago. The screen froze up on me one day, and I haven’t bothered to do anything about replacing it.”
“Joe’s surveillance system will require a state-of-the-art computer because you’ll need that to operate as a server. You can tell anyone who asks that Athena insisted on your taking these measures after that last scare. Tell them she wants you to be online so she can stay in touch with you by e-mail and FaceTime.”
“Do I have to?” Betsy asked.
“Yes,” Ali insisted. “It’s absolutely necessary.”
“Do you have any idea how old I am?” Betsy demanded. “Athena has been after me about all that for years, but I have zero interest in learning about all those computer contraptions or using them, either.”
“If you want us to help you,” Ali advised, “you’ll need to change your mind about that and develop some interest in a hurry. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, your life may depend on it.”
That was followed by a long pause. “Very well,” Betsy said, capitulating at last, “now that you put it that way.”
“Good,” Ali replied. “I’ll contact Joe immediately and let him know that he’s not to leave your house without making sure you can log onto and off the computer and that you’re capable of sending and receiving messages. That’s going to be important, by the way. Otherwise, if your bad guy shows up and sees that you’re not using the computer yourself, he’s going to smell a rat and figure out that the computer was installed for some other reason.”
“Okay,” Betsy agreed. “I’ll do my best, but one other thing. How much is all this going to cost? Do I need to sign a contract or something?”
“No,” Ali answered. “Athena is going to handle it.”
“Well, for goodness’ sake, I’m sure with two kids to feed, Chris and Athena are struggling just to make ends meet. No doubt I’m in a better situation to pay the bill than they are.”
“As I said, Mrs. Peterson, the bill is handled, but you’ve just brought up another question. Tell me about your financial situation.”
“I already told you. Call me Betsy, but what do you mean?”
“I mean how are you fixed for retirement funds?”
“I’m not sure why you’re asking, but I’m fine,” Betsy said briskly. “More than fine.”
“How fine is ‘more than fine’?” Ali asked.
“Let’s just say I have plenty of money to last me for my lifetime, probably with some left over. Alton always said that he wasn’t going to cork off without leaving me well provided for. Believe me, he was a man of his word.”
“What happens to the part that’s left over?” Ali asked.
“It goes to Athena, of course,” Betsy replied. “That was written into Alton’s and my wills long before he passed.”
“Your son and daughter-in-law are specifically excluded from being beneficiaries?”
“Absolutely. When Alton and I were watching our money and trying to turn it into a tidy sum, Jimmy and Sandra were acting like money grew on trees and spending like crazy. Mind you, that was after we had paid for Jimmy’s schooling all the way through dental school. Alton always said he’d rot in hell before he gave them another thin dime of his hard-earned cash. That’s what our wills said when he died, and it’s what mine says to this day.”
Yes, Ali thought as she ended the call a few minutes later, as far as she was concerned, there wasn’t a single thing about Betsy Peterson that sounded the least bit dotty.
Ali’s next call was to Stuart. “Okay,” she said. “Tell Joe it’s a go, but you’ll need to warn him. He’s going to need to hang around Bemidji long enough to make sure Betsy Peterson can operate that new computer of hers. From what she just told me on the phone, she’s not exactly computer savvy. That’ll have to change.”
“Should I tell Joe he can expect to earn some combat pay?”
“Yes,” Ali agreed with a laugh. “That sounds about right.”
11
Ali’s intention to leave for Flagstaff soon after breakfast was thwarted by a reminder that popped up on her computer screen the moment she turned it on. She and B. had agreed on an arrangement where she handled all of High Noon’s various public relations inquiries, and this morning she was scheduled to do an interview with a freelancer from the Bay Area who was writing a profile on Lance Tucker, one of High Noon’s most recent employee hires.
Lance was a talented teenaged hacker from Texas who had run afoul of both the law and one of High Noon’s cybersecurity clients. Until a few months ago, he had also been a jailed juvenile offender. Working with a high school teacher who subsequently committed suicide, Lance had developed a groundbreaking program, GHOST, which allowed people to surf the Dark Net undetected. Rumors about GHOST’s capabilities had leaked out into the cyberworld, turning Lance into a desirable target for a flock of good guys and bad guys alike. B. had been one of the good guys. After High Noon succeeded in saving both Lance and his family from a group of murderous thugs, B.’s company had walked away with two valuable prizes—Lance Tucker and his program.
Despite the fact that Lance had lost a leg in the process, his once bleak future was bright again. Although he was officially on High Noon’s payroll, his only duties at the moment consisted of undergoing rehab related to adjusting to his new state-of-the-art prosthetic leg and working full bore on a distance-learning program that would give him a degree in computer science in under three years rather than the usual four. And, because so much of the world’s cybercrime originated in the former Soviet Union, he was also taking a crash course in Russian. In the meantime, his GHOST program was now a proprietary part of High Noon’s arsenal of cybercrime-fighting tools.
This story was clear enough to Ali because she had lived through those harrowing days that had ended in a number of homicides scattered across the wilds of Texas. It was a whole lot less clear to the dim young woman conducting the interview. Much as Ali tried to turn the reporter away from the more inflammatory aspects of the case, she could already tell that the woman would write a piece that wouldn’t be good for Lance Tucker or High Noon Enterprises. Ali found herself wondering if she had been as irritating an interviewer back when she was fresh out of journalism school and starting her career as a television news reporter. One thing she knew for sure was that she had been a much faster typist.