The Blue Nowhere-SA by Jeffery Deaver Page A

They joined him. "I wanted to come in person. We just found Andy Anderson's body in Milliken Park. It looks like the perp
    - the one in the Gibson woman's killing - got him."
    "Oh," Sanchez choked, her hand going to her mouth. She began to cry. "Not Andy No!" Mott's face grew dark. He muttered something Gillette couldn't hear. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Patricia Nolan had spent the past half hour sitting with Gillette, speculating about what software the killer might've used to invade Lara Gibson's computer. As they'd talked she'd opened her purse, taken out a small bottle and, incongruously, started applying nail polish. Now, the tiny brush drooped in her hand.
    "Oh, my God."
    Stephen Miller closed his eyes momentarily. "What happened?" he asked in a shaky voice. The door pushed open and Frank Bishop and Bob Shelton hurried into the room. "We heard," Shelton said. "We got back here as fast as we could. It's true?" The tableau of shocked faces before them, though, left little doubt. Sanchez asked through the tears, "Have you talked to his wife? Oh, God, and he's got that little girl, Connie. She's only five or six."
    "The commander and a counselor are on their way over to the house right now."
    "What the hell happened?" Miller repeated.
    Captain Bernstein said, "We have a pretty good idea -there was a witness, a woman walking her dog in the park. Seems like Andy'd just collared somebody named Peter Fowler."
    "Right," Shelton said. "He was the dealer we think supplied the perp with some of his weapons." Captain Bernstein continued, "Only it looks like he must've thought that Fowler was the killer. He was blond and wearing a denim jacket. Those denim fibers crime scene found on Lara Gibson must've been stuck to the knife the killer bought from Fowler. Anyway, while Andy was busy cuffing Fowler, a white male came up behind him. He was late twenties, dark hair, navy blue suit and carrying a briefcase. He stabbed Andy in the back. The woman went to call for help and that was all she saw. The killer stabbed Fowler to death too."
    "Why didn't he call for backup?" Mott asked.
    Bernstein frowned. "Well, now, that was odd - we checked his cell phone and the last number he'd dialed was to dispatch. It was a completed three-minute call. But there was no record of central receiving it and none of the dispatchers talked to him. Nobody can figure out how that happened."
    "Easy," the hacker said. "The killer cracked the switch."
    "You're Gillette," the captain said. He didn't need a nod to verify his identity; the tracking anklet was very evident. "What's that mean, 'cracked the switch'?"
    "He hacked into the cell phone company's computer and had all of Andy's outgoing calls sent to his own phone. Probably pretended he was the dispatcher and told him a squad car was on the way. Then he shut down Andy's phone service so he couldn't call anyone else for help." The captain nodded slowly. "He did all that? Jesus, what the hell're we up against?"
    "The best social engineer I've ever heard of," Gillette said.
    "Goddamit!" Shelton shouted at him. "Why don't you just can the fucking computer buzzwords?" Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    Frank Bishop touched his partner's arm, said to the captain, "This'd be my fault, sir."
    "Your fault?" Captain Bernstein asked the thin detective. "What do you mean?" Bishop's slow eyes moved from Gillette to the floor. "Andy was a white-collar cop. He wasn't qualified for a takedown."
    "He was still a trained detective," the captain said.
    "Training's a lot different than what goes down on the street." Bishop looked up. "In my opinion, sir." The woman who'd accompanied Bernstein stirred. The captain glanced at her and then announced, "This is Detective Susan Wilkins from Homicide in Oakland. She'll be taking over the case. She's got a task force of troopers - crime scene and tactical - up and running at headquarters in