“I should go out, too,” Josie said as her thoughts started stringing together in coherent patterns again. “I might recognize someone.”
“No,” Daniel said.
“It’s too risky,” added Hotwire.
“I don’t intend to let anyone see me.”
“Do you really want Claire left in here alone while we all go outside to recon?”
“Hotwire can stay inside.”
“She’s got a point, Nitro,” Hotwire said. “If she stays out of sight, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find out if she recognizes any of the gaggle outside.”
“I don’t need a baby-sitter,” Claire said, sounding as irritated as Josie by being managed.
Hotwire smiled charmingly. “Even if you weren’t in here, someone would have to stay to make sure none of the reporters gained entry.”
“I can handle that.”
Hotwire’s smile disappeared. “Not if the person gaining entry isn’t really a reporter.”
“He’s right,” Josie said, taking petty satisfaction in throwing the words back at her friend and then feeling instant remorse. “I mean—”
Claire’s eyes filled with understanding humor. “Don’t worry about it. I know what you mean, and you’re both right.” Then she sighed, looking out the window, and bit her lip, her expression turning worried. “I’ve got class in an hour and a half.”
“I’ll take you,” Hotwire offered, “and I won’t let any of that mob get at you on the way to the car.”
Claire nodded, her curly ponytail bouncing and her relief palpable. “Thank you, that would be great.” She turned to Josie. “If you don’t need me to hold the fort, I think I’ll take a shower and get ready for class.”
Josie and Daniel’s recon netted exactly nothing, and no adventurous reporter tried breaking in while they were outside. Which didn’t mean they wouldn’t make the attempt later, Daniel pointed out, taking the opportunity also to comment again that if Josie had a decent security system, there would be nothing to worry about.
She ignored the barb and made the call to the local police, who told her they could come by and get the reporters out of her yard, but there was no way of guaranteeing they would stay out once the officers left again. She got off the phone feeling frustrated, not only by that, but also the realization that Claire still didn’t have a computer for her class work and her first class that day was an on-line lab.
Josie would be missing classes today, but there was nothing she could do about that. She had meant to do something about her roommate’s lack of a computer first thing that morning, but had gotten caught up reading her dad’s journals.
“Darn it.”
Daniel watched as Josie’s hands curled into fists at her sides and her pixie face creased with a fierce frown.
She’d made her phone call while looking out the window at the steadily increasing melee in her front yard. Eventually, the reporters would have to leave—out of boredom or the need to cover another story—but he was pretty sure they’d come back and keep hounding Josie. He didn’t like it.
Maybe they needed to consider changing locations.
“Did the cops refuse to come out?” he asked.
“No. They’ll come, but they said they can’t promise any lasting results.” She sounded resigned, which did not explain her tension. Sitting on the arm of the couch beside him, she ran her fingers through her chin-length brown hair. “Claire doesn’t have a computer, and she needs one. Badly. I meant to take care of it this morning. She hasn’t said anything, but she’s got an on-line lab first thing.”
“I brought two laptops with me,” Hotwire said from his position by the window, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to travel with two computers when Daniel could never remember traveling with even one. “I’ll give her one of them. They’re both fully loaded with killer speed CPUs. They’ve even got GPS devices on them, not that yours did you any good.”
“You mean the one in my car?” Josie asked. “It worked just fine before my car was destroyed by an arsonist’s fire.” The grim set to her mouth left Daniel with no doubt what she felt about losing her little car in the blast.
But Hotwire shook his head. “The one in your laptop.”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t use my laptop for GPS. Even if I hadn’t had a unit in my car, that would have been too inconvenient while driving.”
Hotwire came away from the window, his expression alert. “I meant the GPS unit inside your laptop. The one used to track its location if the computer gets stolen.”
“Her laptop had a GPS?” Daniel asked. Then, “And why do you know about it, but she doesn’t?”
“Hotwire helped me pick out my computer when I started taking classes at PSU.”
“And the one we picked out had a GPS unit.”
Josie twisted her body so she could look squarely at Hotwire. “I can’t believe I didn’t remember that. I’m not even sure I ever knew it, and I should have. It was my computer, for crying out loud.”
“Like you’re going to read the computer manual after you buy.” Even he didn’t do that, and Daniel was a lot less proficient with computers than Hotwire and Josie.
“Yes, but—”
“Are you saying we can track Josie’s computer?” Daniel asked his friend, cutting in on her self-recriminations.
“If the GPS unit hasn’t been destroyed, yes.” Hotwire smiled then, his eyes cold with purpose. “If Josie didn’t realize it was there, I doubt the thieves have either. It’s a relatively new safety feature in mobile computer technology.”
“So, how do we track it?”
“We call the manufacturer and report it as stolen. They do a satellite search which will result in a three-point coordinate location.”
A three-point coordinate was pretty damn precise. “How long will it take?” Daniel asked.
“A few minutes.”
“How accurate?”
“Within ten feet.”
“It sounds too easy.”
“It is.” This from Josie. “The position can be as accurate as we want it to be, but there’s no guarantee the laptop won’t be moved before we can get to it.”
“And if the location isn’t at a known address, like out in the middle of the desert or something,” Hotwire added, “we still have to track it.”
Which was exactly what ended up being the case, although it couldn’t be as easy as being in the middle of the desert and easily accessible by helicopter or plane. According to its GPS, the laptop was currently in an uninhabited area of the Rocky Mountains with no known public or private roads within fifteen miles of its location.
Before they could discuss what to do with that piece of information, Claire came out of her room, dressed and ready for class. Josie brought her up to speed, and then the phone rang. Looking over her shoulder, Daniel read Oregon State Police on the caller identification.
His gut clenched for no discernable reason, and he said, “I think you’d better take that call, sweetheart.”
Josie held the ringing cordless unit in her hand, wishing she could just ignore its impatient summons.
How much should she share of what she knew? She didn’t know why her father and his school had been targeted for destruction, and bringing in the authorities might harm him more than help him. On the other hand, maybe the authorities had information that would help her and the others find her dad’s enemies before they found him.
The phone shrilled again, and she pushed the talk button before lifting it to her ear. “Josie McCall speaking.”
“Ms. McCall, this is Detective Johnson with the State Police Arson and Explosives Division. I’m investigating a fire that occurred two nights ago on property owned by Tyler McCall in the Coastal Range. I would like to ask you a few questions, if I may.”