A Good Marriage(121)
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess maybe my husband—”
“You should go watch sometime yourself. It’s fun.” Sarah’s voice was brittle now, broken. “If you do, be sure to be on the lookout for my husband. He’s the asshole in the dumb red shoes.”
Lizzie
JULY 15, WEDNESDAY
When Zach came into the small attorney interview room, he looked so goddamn pleased with himself. I clenched my fists and tried to stay calm.
“I told you. I didn’t do it,” he singsonged. No twitchy eye contact. No bouncing leg. He was only the new and improved Zach from those staged photos now.
“You already heard?”
“A guy here was at a court date, and there was talk about somebody else being arrested for Amanda’s murder. A ‘fancy corporate lawyer,’” he went on, with a smile. “I may not have paid attention after that first year of law school, but even I know they can’t charge two people with the same murder. So I’m out, right?”
Maude had gone to the prosecutor’s office herself soon after I left her house, which I agreed would be much better than me delivering the news. Being associated with me would not curry her any favor with Wendy Wallace. I did ask Maude to emphasize that she was sure the figure she’d seen hadn’t been Zach.
I waited until the next day to call Wendy Wallace myself. She’d been far from happy to hear about Kerry Tanner when we finally spoke, but to her credit—and likely at Paul’s cajoling—she did hear me out, and she did seem to be listening. After all, at least she now had a new suspect in hand, and a case still high-profile enough to land her in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
As of that morning, as I headed to Rikers, Kerry was in custody.
“They’re processing your release as we speak,” I said to Zach. “You should be out soon.”
Zach closed his eyes and exhaled sharply. He’d been more worried than his cocky grin let on.
“That’s great news. Great news,” he said. “Thank you.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, why not?”
“You were the one who compromised Brooklyn Country Day’s email list, right?” This was the part of this conversation that mattered to me. The real reason I was there. “Clever, the way you used it to hack into the parents’ computers.”
There was nothing to stop Zach from lying to me now. Nothing but his own arrogance. And Zach’s arrogance was one thing you could always count on. That, and the fact that he would want to be sure I knew: he’d beaten everyone.
“What do you mean?” he asked. But I could see him trying not to smile; a trace of it was there in his eyes.
“The phishing emails,” I said. “You compromised the computers of the Brooklyn Country Day parents, exposed all their dirty laundry. Impressive stuff. But what I don’t get is how that’s going to save your failing company.”
Zach rolled his eyes. “First of all, failing is a huge overstatement. The world of start-ups is always high risk, high reward.” He was quiet then, and with a determined look on his face, like he was trying to stay quiet. But I already knew, if I waited, he wouldn’t be able to contain himself. “Anyway, this new enterprise is going to take off like a shot. People have absolutely no idea how exposed they are, or why. You want to know how I learned? Working in logistics. An industry the average person has probably never even heard of. If they have, they think it’s just about shipping. But we knew everything about hundreds of thousands of people—we knew when they had a baby because they started ordering diapers, when they were going on a long trip because they ordered power converters, when not to buy their home because they’d bought a whole bunch of mold removal products. And here people think they’re just ordering stuff. It’s not just stuff, it’s who they are. As soon as people realize how dangerous this could be, they’ll be falling all over themselves to pay the hundred-dollar yearly subscription for my family cybersecurity app.”
I nodded, to look interested. But not too interested. Anything to keep Zach talking.
He leaned in a little closer to the plexiglass. “I was specifically attracted to Brooklyn Country Day because they are actually somewhat on top of things. You learn from hard targets, not easy ones. Also, I did figure the whole hacking thing might get some press because of the school’s stellar reputation, and maybe that would flow over to my app if I stepped in to help at the right time. But in the end, the Brooklyn Country Day parents helped us solve more of a technical problem. We needed to reverse-engineer some of the software by seeing how actual victims might respond to that kind of intrusion.”
“So you hired people to do the hacking for you?”
“You want to find out how to protect people from hackers, you hire some hackers to show you what they really do.”
“One of those hackers of yours blackmailed a fifteen-year-old girl for live video of her performing sex acts,” I said. “He’s continuing to contact her. Did you know that?”
“It’s hard to find good people.” Zach shrugged. “But I am impressed that you put as much together as you did. I always knew you were special, Lizzie, which is why when I saw you near the farmer’s market, I was curious about what you’d been up to. Obviously, I had no idea I’d soon need a lawyer I didn’t have to pay. Amanda was alive and well then, and I hadn’t thought about you in years—a decade at least. But then there you were, and I could see it right away.” He paused, smiled a little. “Can you see it now?”