Chapter two – Rear view mirror.
The knock on Zach's door couldn't have come sooner for him; he opened the door knowing peter was on the other side, with vigour. "Welcome Lord Sheffield…." Peter stopped him. "No dungeons and dragons Zach, this is serious." Peter scowled. "Yes, yes of course I'm sorry" as Zach's head lowered.
"No look it's me who's sorry, I will however need the honour and discretion of a level 23'er in this." Peter pulled back as Zach's head rose and smiled returned to his face. "That sir you shall have, now please follow me to the incident room." Zach's room was the entire basement of his mother's three bedroom house and was perfect for privacy both gaming and confidential news stories.
He lead Peter into the room he'd spent the rest of that day prepping. "Jesus Zach, this is perfect – what's the access to here?" asked Peter. "One way in two ways out, I prefer two exits." The boys examined the room like seasoned agents from the FBI on a presidential reconnaissance check.
"Great now let's get on, since your thing on variables I put all my other cases aside and have come up with this." Peter's other cases were the newspapers crossword and obituary spell checking, part of his duty as the Taos tribune's dogsbody.
Peter pinned the layout in yellow headed pins to Zach's cork board, saving the red for live leads. "Now Mr Harris is on the list and so far is the only one to get back to me, there is also the transcript of my telephone chats marked in red. Now there are only three people so far, but I'm damn sure there's more – we need to find a link." Peter's intense focus was new to Zach, but he fed right into it, noting the serious tone he adopted.
"Right then, do you have a common thread or would you like me to design an algorithm freeing us up for road work." Zach owned a comic shop handed down through his family. He qualified from MIT, but his heart wasn't in working for a detergent company designing enzymes for better cleaning. Comics were in his blood.
"Okay erm, yes that would be great but I've no idea what that means, so please remember to talk to me in English." Asserted Peter. "I'll draw a programme which finds similarities with these people while we do the offline thing." Zach found talking to normal people tiring on occasions as his huge brain needed to be kept interested and busy.
"Yes okay, now my boss gave this to me last month about Texas Pete the rags to riches thing, but I know there's more!" Peter organized his file chronologically starting with Pete Armin, the local businessman. He was elusive and interview shy but being the talk of the town after saving a train of 54 people by Pete's perfectly timed arrival punting an abandoned truck on the line, off it.
"Oh yeah I read about him, he's awesome didn't he ruin his Porsche ramming that suv off the track line?" Zach asked. "Yeah he did, but I looked a bit deeper and can't find a thing on him that goes past 20 years ago, the stuff that does is too perfect." Peter said looking at the building board. "Bad boys, nice false id" Zach knew his friend's thinking very well quoting their second favourite film plot.
"Yeah it's too perfect how many Texans do you know shy of limelight especially after such an immense act?" Zach replied – "Okay set, now this is just a basic engine cryption that will give us links on information you have, I'll just need time to feed it all in."
A call came from upstairs – "Zachary, I've some refreshments can I bring them?" "No! I'll get them" Zach's face reddened as in his deliberations for security, he neglected to consider his mother as a breech.
He collected the food and drinks as Peter arranged the board into cross referencing. Zach took up the task of building a computerized file of Peters work.
"Okay done Peter, now what else do we have to go on?" Zach turned to Peter. "Wow, that was fast man, I'm all set here I just want to know" they both were interrupted by the alarm on Zach's lofty pc set up. "Christ that was quick! Let's see what we have." Zach's programme already bore fruit.
Okay well that's interesting mused Zach over the data. "What?!" challenged Peter. "Okay sorry Peter – Both Pete Amid and Marlon Harris are friends on Facebook and they both attend the same counselling group?" Zach fed back proudly.
"Wow impressive, but how'd you get information on the counselling group, is it even legal?" Peter asked. "Not entirely, but my IP address is fed through 32 servers and in no way can it be traced, I have more software here then radio shack and all purchased from different stores." Zach proudly announced to settle Peter.
"Well okay, so what does this mean and can you get Mr Amids background?" Zach replied. "Now that's another ball game altogether, but for now let's circle around what we got; the group is…..hang on – dealing with loss it looks like a support group for people dealing with death?" Zach reported confused.
"Oh wait there's more" Zach tapped in the data to express it for Peter to understand. "So far so good, now there are between 22-30 members in the group, and 6 of them are friends on Facebook!" Zach pulled the information onto the lcd display on the board as the two looked intently at the progress they had made so far. "I think your instincts are right Peter, there does seem to be a pattern." Zach said now fully absorbed.
"Okay lets address the elephant in the room Zach, we do lean toward mystery and conspiracy on a rare occasion, so how'd we keep ourselves from going off the reservation?" Peter asked the difficult question turning to Zach who had a look of confidence in his face, pointing to his epicentre of electronic equipment. "That's how, facts only cold hard facts we just thread them together, I know I'm prone to fantasy Peter, but I'm also a systems engineer with an overpriced education!" Zach hands went from pointing to his computers to the framed degrees on his wall from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The two intrepid investigative warlocks grew in confidence as they fleshed out Peters report. They worked late into the small hours having gotten no further legally agreeing that some old fashioned offline work was needed next. "Well Zach, that was fun and really insightful, lets meet up after work today to progress, can you do that thing?" Peter asked quietly. "I've already programmed the application it'll be live later I'll carry on this end and meet at Millie's same time for updates?" Zach preferred not to mail or call in light of the sensitive nature of their work – such was his diligence.
Zach bid his friend farewell as he returning to his desk.
Peter slid into work 1 hour late from the nights work with Zach, having missed his usual routine of answering calls and coffee ordering, when. "Hell son, you do make a difference here we been waiting for the coffee boy – this paper don't run on inspiration alone." Marlowe had a keen eye that perhaps made him the sports writer, but a distinct lack of tact, which made him a pain in the ass.
"Yes sir I'm right on it" Peter dashed out as quick as he did in, forgetting the list and money. He arrived at Millie's not needing the list as it was burnt into his mind, but the money was another thing. Peter wasn't paid a king's ransom and fell short of the order – since he was at Millie's up to 3 times daily, she gave him a pass and two trays of coffee.
He went back to the news floor with purpose at having not been noticed by anyone beyond Marlowe, while committing an act of kindness – coffee boy.
Archie's outstretched hand curled inward and his index finger motioned him to his office. Perhaps his stealthy arrival was not so stealthy. "So what do you have to say about this?" Archie pointed to the 3 red crosses on the crossword puzzle. "This isn't like you at all, you've been here 6 months and ill set my watch by your spelling, what is it son, drugs?" Peter flinched at the build-up of Archie scolding then flattened by its conclusion. "Drugs sir, no sir" Peter felt relief in this idea as it was a let off for him to tell the truth; Peter lied almost as badly as Bill Clinton did on laundry day.
"I'm pulling your leg son, don't let this slip again, your still on probation, my nephew has to be better so as not to appear favourite." Archie's now overturned hand signalled Peter back to his desk. "Thank you sir" he said departing.
Peter gulped his king-size coffee down in an effort to wake up more for the day's work. No sooner had he sat down that his phone rang. "Hello Taos Tribune news desk how may I…."It's me Peter; we need to meet at that place I have software update, out!" Zach spoke in code, but Peter sensed the stress in his voice and took the software update to mean Millie's café for case update.
Peter tried to focus on the casework and diligently completed the neglected tasks from yesterday to free up time with Zach later. Peter's heart rate began increase as it was time to meet Zach for the software update – it was a mixture of sleep deprivation and coffee injection. He was excitable at the best of times and this was a whole new game.
"Hey Peter, we gotta talk at the park" Zach had Spanish parents, but he looked whiter than a 16th century French duke – powdery white. "Sure alright let me get this order over first then I'll meet you by the boat shed" Peters excitement grew to a level just beyond his comfort as the ability to control his breath became harder.
"Order for tribune" shouted the server as Peter collected rapidly to deliver to his compatriots. "Hey Peter what the heck is wrong" Marlowe said in an uncommon act of kindness. "Oh I'm alright, just need my inhaler" he said as Marlowe took the food order to deliver it on his behalf.
Peter sat down and inhaled deeply to his widget, collecting himself and his file to meet Zach.
He left the building with renewed space in his lungs to accommodate inevitable and new stressors from his meeting with Zach. He saw his ashen faced friend pacing by the boat shed.
Zach was clearly agitated and began to speak as fast as he paced. "Slow down Zach and take a drink" Peter handed his water in an effort to settle him down. Peter knew meeting outside was Zach's way to avoid being listened to and knew it to be his healthy paranoia.
"Thanks for that, look I've worked through the night and I have something I think will blow this whole story wider!" Zach said running his hands over one another repeatedly. "Okay yeah, sounds great what is it?" Peter felt the inhaler effect wearing off as his own heart rate began slowly ascending.
'Your guy Pete, I dug a little further and ran the programme and I have uncovered something huge my friend, we have to meet tonight – do not bring your phone or any other detectable devices, you hear?!" Zach spoke with fear and authority.
"Yes of course, whatever you say Zach, are you alright, I mean your kinda jumpy." Peter enquired carefully. "I'm fine Peter, just tired….I guess a little scared I dunno if I've read too many mystery books or what – you'll see tonight don't forget phones and laptops!" Zach left like a wound up toy waiting to have its breaks removed to unwind in the direction pointed.
Peter watched his friend leave in a hurry, with his arms wrapped around his chest and head tucked into it. He wondered what was worried as he'd never seen Zach look anything other than arrogant and overly happy at having taken his elf armies in surprise magical attacks.
He reached for his inhaler once more for the second time I'm two months, signifying his level of stress. Peter sat to allow it to take affect before heading back to complete his day; he noticed an old red ford pickup truck and the driver adjusting his rear view mirror again. It didn't dawn on him that it was the truck from yesterday.