Meg gazed at the two men on her doorstep. Detective Jack Farley and Detective Ambose Middleton. She felt a feeling of being disconnected from her own body. Yes, she had seen the news. No, she did not know a Jeffery Purcell. And what did any of this have to do with her? Well, yes, she did know a redranger from the Internet. No, she had never met him. Yes, she was supposed to meet him in Denver at the Sheraton on Thursday, but he had not shown up. No, she had heard nothing since then. And the final blow when Jack Farley explained how Jeffery Eldon Purcell had flown out of Brattleboro, Vermont and flown to Denver. He had disembarked at Stapleton and his wife had heard nothing from him since he left Vermont.
“Were you aware that he had a wife and children?”
“Of course not, Mr. Farley! What kind of woman do you take me to be?”
“Well certainly not one that picks men up on the Internet!” He remarked sarcastically and Meg blushed. He was right about that!
“We are going to need to take a good look at your hard drive. Going to have to take it in and that may take some time. Is that a problem?” This Jack Farley was getting on her last nerve.
“Oh it most definitely is a problem. I run my eBay business through the computer. I keep all my records on the computer. I communicate through my computer. I just can’t let you take that!” She crossed her arms across her chest and then quickly remembered that was a defensive gesture. She dropped her hands to her sides and then felt vulnerable. She placed a hand on each hip and glared at Jack Farley. “I have done nothing wrong here! What earthly good would my computer be to you? I told you about our emails.” Jack Farley thought for a moment.
“Alright I can probably do this here and get what I need.” He turned to his partner. “Ambrose, I am going to need about 5 or 6 hours. You want to hang out here or go kill time some where? I could actually use the help if you don‘t mind.” Ambrose nodded his assent. Jack turned to Meg and extended his arm indicating that she should lead the way. She opened the door and stepped inside. The men followed.
Jack was experienced at what he was doing and very quickly had the computer booted and running and was in her email account, but in an area she did not know existed. He scrolled slowly through her correspondence with redranger, pausing now and then and making a notation. Then he turned to her and asked, “Why do you read his emails and then rather then just answer leave them, mark them as new, and then come back and answer them? That seems kind of strange.” He waited.
“ I don’t. I open them, answer them and then they go to old mail. Why would I want to save them as new?”
“You are the only one that uses this computer, right?”
“Yes, my son was here, but he didn’t even come in here.”
“Well either you are doing that or you have a very savvy hacker. Come here.” He pointed to a blip on the screen. “See that? That is open, then keep as new. And here. Another one.” He continued to point them out as she stared in amazement.
“No one is ever in here but me!”
“Oh, he does not have to be in here. He can be miles away. If you did not do this then someone is operating your computer from their computer. No problem at all for someone who knows what he is doing. Probably paid you a visit at some point and left behind what he needed to make this work. Had any company lately besides your son? I am assuming he would not do this?” He looked at Meg and waited for a reaction. He got it as she suddenly remembered the bar of Irish Spring in her shower when she returned from California.
“Yes,” she said very slowly, “Yes, but I do not know who it was.” She then explained to him about that experience, about the bars now on the windows, the doggie door alteration and who had done the work.
“This Fred guy, how well do you know him? Good with electronics? I mean computers and such?”
Meg laughed. “Oh, no! Fred is not good at anything except manual labor. He lives up the hill and is the area handyman. I don’t think he knows that computers even exist. Other than that I can‘t think of anyone who has been here.”
“Neighbors? Any of them ever stop by?”
“No. I only ran into the man up North once in the past I don’t know how many years. He is only up there some time. I think. Guess I really don’t know.”
“Got any fellas hanging around who might be a little jealous? I noticed the only emails that were messed with were the ones from redranger, Jeffery Purcell. So he is not after your money, or your accounts, he just wants to keep tabs on your extracurricular stuff basically. And he knew you planned on meeting Jeffery on Thursday. See anyone you knew in the Sheraton that day?”
Meg stared in disbelief. What was this guy after? But sadly it all made perfect sense. Someone was in her home and now was in her computer and was in her life and in her head. How could she type another word and feel safe? She couldn’t. But who would be doing this? No one paid any attention to her movements. Well not that she knew about anyway.
“No, not a soul.”
“Anybody follow you home? Anybody here when you got here? Anything messed with?”
“No. No. I just cannot think of anyone at all who is even remotely interested in me for any reason.” She dropped her head in her hands and began to cry softly. “Oh, Tommy,” she thought to herself, “What is this all about? God I wish you were here.”
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