equipment and peripherals. This was how he blew off steam. If he needed something physical, he’d go to the gym.
Headphones on, electronica dance music playing, he focused on Neil Koen, and his findings moved the boyfriend up to number one on the list of suspects, knocking Patton out of first place.
He was just typing everything up in a spread sheet for Simon when the boss knocked on the door frame.
“You’re here early. Not going to work today?”
Evan pulled off his headphones and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Nope. I wanted to get something done that wasn’t PSL related. Everyone’s constantly interrupting me to do Operations Manager stuff. I called in sick.” Turning his laptop toward Simon, he pointed to the screen. “Look at this.”
“I don’t see anything,” Simon responded, a frown marring his features.
“Exactly. There’s nothing there. Neil Koen just invented himself six weeks ago. Before that, there’s nothing.” Evan banged his palm on the desk to emphasize his point.
“But he went to high school, college, stuff like that.” Simon pointed to the screen. “He works at this law firm.”
“Yeah, but if you’ll notice, all that was input into a system six weeks ago, post-dated.” He pointed, “This law firm has him in their system as a long-term employee, but if you restore their system to six weeks ago, he wasn’t there. And the DMV records are the same way. I bet if we went back to 1998, he wouldn’t be in high school at Dobie High, either.”
“So he’s created his identity?” Simon crossed his arms. He was an old school cop, most of what Evan did was above his head, but he was smart, and trying to grasp the implications of what Evan had found.
“Pretty thoroughly, too. He knows Paige is a computer genius and would probably do a background check on him at some point.”
“So why didn’t she notice what you did?” Scratching his chin, Simon leaned forward, as if all of the clues were on the monitor just waiting to be put together. If they were, Evan would have found them.
“For some reason, she trusts him. She sees the good in people, makes her blind.” Evan was still on the fence as to whether that was a good attribute or bad.
“Or she’s in on it, somehow…” Simon found a chair and sat down while Evan ignored his comment. It was something he was trying desperately to ignore. He didn’t want her to be in on anything. “What else do you have?”
“There’s a lady there who doesn’t quite fit the profile of someone trying to bring down a multi-million dollar company, but she’s acting awfully suspicious. Last night, she kept trying to get Paige to let her go get her drinks and almost cried when she wouldn’t let her. She used to work for Paige, but Patton lured her away with something, and then she came back to work for her during the toss-up, but she’s got something on Paige, I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Blackmail?” He leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his knees.
Evan nodded. “I think so.”
“So what’s your next step?”
“I’m going to write some code today. Something that’s like a meta-crawler. It’ll be a program to draw parallels and make connections I’m not finding. Using all of the data online, it’ll cross-reference all these names and find connections between things that would take me years to look for manually. Because there’s just so much.” He sighed. “I can focus on these two, but it’ll take some time. Time I’m not sure I have. The Crimson Lady’s still active, and all my attempts to get her out of the mainframe have come up fruitless.”
“I’m glad you’re on my team. Not sure I want you suspecting me of anything and doing all that meta-crawling shit with my background.” Simon stood, running his hands down his chin.
Evan grinned, and as Simon left, keys started clacking.
Two hours later, he was still absorbed in the code when Ryan knocked on his door.
“Hey, man, you
Headphones on, electronica dance music playing, he focused on Neil Koen, and his findings moved the boyfriend up to number one on the list of suspects, knocking Patton out of first place.
He was just typing everything up in a spread sheet for Simon when the boss knocked on the door frame.
“You’re here early. Not going to work today?”
Evan pulled off his headphones and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. “Nope. I wanted to get something done that wasn’t PSL related. Everyone’s constantly interrupting me to do Operations Manager stuff. I called in sick.” Turning his laptop toward Simon, he pointed to the screen. “Look at this.”
“I don’t see anything,” Simon responded, a frown marring his features.
“Exactly. There’s nothing there. Neil Koen just invented himself six weeks ago. Before that, there’s nothing.” Evan banged his palm on the desk to emphasize his point.
“But he went to high school, college, stuff like that.” Simon pointed to the screen. “He works at this law firm.”
“Yeah, but if you’ll notice, all that was input into a system six weeks ago, post-dated.” He pointed, “This law firm has him in their system as a long-term employee, but if you restore their system to six weeks ago, he wasn’t there. And the DMV records are the same way. I bet if we went back to 1998, he wouldn’t be in high school at Dobie High, either.”
“So he’s created his identity?” Simon crossed his arms. He was an old school cop, most of what Evan did was above his head, but he was smart, and trying to grasp the implications of what Evan had found.
“Pretty thoroughly, too. He knows Paige is a computer genius and would probably do a background check on him at some point.”
“So why didn’t she notice what you did?” Scratching his chin, Simon leaned forward, as if all of the clues were on the monitor just waiting to be put together. If they were, Evan would have found them.
“For some reason, she trusts him. She sees the good in people, makes her blind.” Evan was still on the fence as to whether that was a good attribute or bad.
“Or she’s in on it, somehow…” Simon found a chair and sat down while Evan ignored his comment. It was something he was trying desperately to ignore. He didn’t want her to be in on anything. “What else do you have?”
“There’s a lady there who doesn’t quite fit the profile of someone trying to bring down a multi-million dollar company, but she’s acting awfully suspicious. Last night, she kept trying to get Paige to let her go get her drinks and almost cried when she wouldn’t let her. She used to work for Paige, but Patton lured her away with something, and then she came back to work for her during the toss-up, but she’s got something on Paige, I just haven’t figured it out yet.”
“Blackmail?” He leaned forward again, resting his elbows on his knees.
Evan nodded. “I think so.”
“So what’s your next step?”
“I’m going to write some code today. Something that’s like a meta-crawler. It’ll be a program to draw parallels and make connections I’m not finding. Using all of the data online, it’ll cross-reference all these names and find connections between things that would take me years to look for manually. Because there’s just so much.” He sighed. “I can focus on these two, but it’ll take some time. Time I’m not sure I have. The Crimson Lady’s still active, and all my attempts to get her out of the mainframe have come up fruitless.”
“I’m glad you’re on my team. Not sure I want you suspecting me of anything and doing all that meta-crawling shit with my background.” Simon stood, running his hands down his chin.
Evan grinned, and as Simon left, keys started clacking.
Two hours later, he was still absorbed in the code when Ryan knocked on his door.
“Hey, man, you
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