Back Alley Murder (Part 4)

When we got back to the lab, I asked Jewels to take a look at the laptop.1

"There are two things I can think of to do; one, figure out the password or two, call and ask the husband what the password is. Anything else I could do will wipe the memory. Whoever this chic was, she was smart and didn't want people on here with out her knowledge," Jewels informed me after looking at the personal computer.2

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.3

She sighed and turned the screen to me, "See that little white number?"4

I nodded.5

"That's how many tries you have and if you run out of tries, the whole memory is wiped clean. Everything will be lost and all you'll have is a useless shell. 6

"There are usually back doors to programs like this. She has it tapped and bugged. If I tried the back door, the fail safe switches automatically and wipes the thing clean that way.7

"I've only seen this program with government computers. Makes it harder to hack into the system. She has it on a new level though. Our computers run on the same kind of program and when we connect it to another computer, we should get control over it. Well, I tried that with this one and it took over my computer."8

"But that's not possible except from..." I let my words trail off.9

"Mike, get me Hannah Nicholas' maiden name. I think we have a way in if I'm correct in this."10

“Um, okay,” he said with a confused expression. He walked to the back computer. As he did the search, I looked at the laptop in front of me. It was like I was waiting for it to do a trick. Mike soon came back with a piece of paper in hand.11

"Hannah Nicholas was Hannah Summers. The one who designed the security programs on our computers," Mike spout off. "Damn, that means she was a computer tech goddess."12

"That also means this is the master key to all of our computers in St. Louis. Miss Summers was allowed to keep it and, in the event of her death, the computer was to be brought in and the government files transferred off and the unit destroyed," I looked at it and remembered what was supposed to be done. "There is a master password that she sent in and could access everything on this computer."13

I got up and ran out of the lab, with the laptop tucked, ignoring the protests of Jewels and Mike. If I was right, then Dr. Joshua Anderson should have the password. I just hope the boss remembered the password.14

Pulling out my phone, I started dialing and waited for him to answer.15

"This better be good Felps, otherwise I'm gonna fire you, again," a very groggy Dr. Anderson answered.16

"Sorry sir, this is very important. I have the master key to all the computer systems in the St. Louis government."17

This apparently caught his attention, "How did you manage that one Felps?" he asked, sounding more awake.18

"My murder vic is the one who programmed the system and now, I need you to unlock it. Everything from her journal to her phone book is on this and I need it."19

Anderson took a deep breath, "Meet me at my place within the hour."20

"I'm already on my way," I said as I hopped into my car.21


Dr. Anderson was waiting for me on his porch. I got out of my car, laptop under my arm, and ran across his lawn.22

“You know I have a walk way, right?” he said as I came up onto the porch.23

“Yeah, but it was easier to cut across the yard,” I replied, stopping right in front of him.24

“So, where’s the master key?” he asked, opening the door, inviting me in.25

I handed him the laptop and sat down with him at the kitchen counter. He opened it up and started to turn it on.26

“Look, I have the password but, I don’t know if it’ll let me in onto her personal profile,” he said, looking over at me after the cooling fan started.27

“I know, but I gotta try something, otherwise we got nothing.” I sighed.28

When the box showed up, he typed in the master password and the computer came to life. After it loaded the operating system, it started loading the administrator profile. I prayed that it would be the one that Hannah used. After everything finished loading, Dr. Anderson turned the screen to me. There was a picture of Hannah with her husband and niece. I sighed with relief. 29

“Thanks, I never thought I would have gotten in this thing if I hadn’t figured out who the vic really was and what her laptop was either.” I said as I sat to start working.30

“Um, Felps?” Dr. Anderson started, “You need to go back to the lab and do this.”31

“Oh, yeah. But what if it shuts down before I get back to the lab? I don’t have the password to get back in,” I said as I looked up.32

“Well, seeing as this is going to be staying in our custody,” he pulled over a pad and pen, “I guess you can have the password.”33

He handed me the slip and then, told me to leave and get back to work.34

I made it back to the lab in no time. Plugging the laptop in to charge it’s weak battery, I got back to work. 35

First, I went through her address book, made a list of all her male contacts, giving the list to Mike to see if he could find someone with a background. Then, I looked in her personal files for her journal. I finally gave up and did a file search and found it buried in six folders that I would have never clicked on.36

I looked at the most recent entry and went back. The entries were pretty basic, talking about what had happened that day at work. Complaining about work. Talking about what her niece did that was cute or funny. Commenting on what her husband did that angered her or made her smile and think. 37

I started scrolling through, looking for other names that might pop up. I remember one entry where she was talking about her sisters death. I could imagine her typing this, with tears running down her eyes.38

I continued on, going past the entry about her excitement of getting married and the before. I was just about to give up when I came across one entry;39

‘I ran into Jacob again. He still wants to be with me. It took all my strength to leave him the first time. Now he won’t leave me alone. I don’t know what to do about this. Steven says not to worry about it but, I’m still weary about him. I really am afraid that he’s going to hurt me again.’40

I read and reread that entry. Then I went back to all the entries before this one and looked for another mention of this Jacob guy. I found a few off hand mentions in the entries that I skimmed, saying that he was pissed because she was getting married. That he was starting to harass her at work and then, the slight mention of getting an order of protection when he tried to assault her when she was on her way home.41

“Hey Mike,” I hollered across the lab, hoping that he was still in here. 42

I heard the squeak of wheels, “Yeah?”43

“Is there a ‘Jacob’ anywhere on that list I gave you?”44

There’s a quick shuffle through papers, “Um, yeah. Dereks, Jacob. I haven’t checked his name yet but I can.”45

I walked over to his station in the back of the lab, “Oh, he’ll have a background, I just want an address for him.”46