Blindside(68)

After the call, I sat down next to Eddie at the computer. He was working on some sort of programming problem they’d given him in the special class at Columbia he and Trent were enrolled in.

He turned to me and said, “I have to say, Dad, that I’ve been looking at a number of the hacker forums I like to read and some of them are talking about you.”

“Me?”

“Not by name. But they make you sound like Bruce Willis. How you stormed into Estonia and took down the biggest, baddest cybercriminal in the world.”

“You mean the biggest, baddest cybercriminal under five feet six inches, named Henry. That’s the best I’ll give that little twerp.”

Eddie laughed out loud.

“Although,” I corrected, “we haven’t quite brought him down yet, just have him on the run.”

“It’s amazing you did everything you did without knowing computers very well. You didn’t have to clone any phones or crack the security on any systems. The things cybercriminals do every day.”

“I just did what I do every day. Simple police work. You know about cloning phones?”

“Only in theory. I’ve never tried it.”

“Relax. This isn’t an interrogation.”

I listened as he explained several complicated high-tech processes. I had to wonder where this kid got his brains.

Finally I said, “Thanks for the insight. It would’ve helped me in Estonia. And I appreciate the compliments, but I did what any good cop would do.”

“Either way, I’ve seen more than one person talk about the American cop who dismantled a major hacker. I guess it was even on the news in Estonia.”

“I don’t think it takes much to get on the local news in Tallinn. It’s just a nice town with nice people. Mostly nice people.”

Eddie turned from the computer and gave me a hug. That was somewhat un-Eddie-like. He was more reserved than most of the kids.

He said, “I’m just glad you’re back. I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

“And from what I’ve read, you were lucky. That guy from Estonia, Henry, sounds like a really bad guy.”

“I don’t want to give him that much credit. I’m just glad to be home and with you guys.”

And that was the God’s honest truth.





CHAPTER 96


THE NEXT DAY I went to my office on the sixth floor of an unmarked building on the Upper West Side. I wasn’t built to sit around my apartment and wait for things to happen. The kids were in school, and Mary Catherine was busy, so I decided to go in and get back to my real life.

I hadn’t gotten official approval to return to my normal job, and I hoped no one would shout at me as I walked through the door. But everyone welcomed me back, even my lieutenant, Harry Grissom. If someone was going to tell me to get lost and take more time off, it was going to be Harry. His first concern was how well the squad operated. I’d trust him with my life, but if he thought I was going to be a detriment in any way, he’d send me home in a heartbeat.

Detective Terri Hernandez was in the building, checking whether any information had developed on the suspect in her homicide, Tight. She surprised me with a hug.

I stepped back and looked at her. “You could pass for a college student.”

“That’s the idea, Slick.”

I laughed and we caught up on what had happened since I left. The long and the short of her investigation was that she had no other leads except for the guy I’d met, Tight. The media had kept up a pretty good pace of coverage for three or four days after the murders. A young nurse and her daughter being killed in their own apartment captured people’s attention for a little longer than most stories. But now interest had ebbed in what was quickly becoming a cold homicide.

Terri looked down. She was one of the most dedicated detectives I’d ever met. She checked in on a victim’s family for months after a homicide, filling them in on progress. She looked at every murder as a personal quest to be solved, and she excelled in public service because she really cared.

I said, “We’ll catch a break. This one won’t haunt you.”

“They all haunt me. Even the ones we’ve solved. They’re murders. I think God wants them to haunt us.”

“That’s a good point. And you’re right. We shouldn’t get callous toward homicides. It’s too easy to start taking shortcuts if we do.”

I checked in with Harry and spent most of the day at my desk. In the midafternoon, my phone buzzed, telling me I had a text. I looked down and saw it was from the mayor’s mobile phone. It said, I’m sending a car. Meet it at Riverside and 132nd Street, just a few blocks from your office. Don’t say anything to anyone. The little fat prick.

I had to smile at his sense of humor.

I started to make my way out and nodded at Harry Grissom as I walked past his office.

I took a leisurely stroll, actually looking in storefronts for a change. I saw a rented Lincoln stretch limo right where the text said it would be. It was a little gaudy and obnoxious, but I didn’t get to ride in the back of a limo very often.

The driver didn’t get out to meet me, so I leaned down and waved to him. He gave me a thumbs-up, and I crawled into the back.

I was not the only passenger.