AN: I cannot tell you how crazy my life has been recently, but let's just say that the last months of school are intense when you have kids, as I'm sure any other parents can attest. Add a kid going through testing for learning disabilities, and deciding to break a bone, and another kid requiring physiotherapy on a weekly basis, and by the time you have any free time, all you want to do is stare blankly at the television. That being said, I have somehow managed to score a long weekend all to myself, and my first order of business is going to be editing the last few Chapters of Molly, and getting them up on FanFiction before the horde returns! Thank you to all of you for sticking with me, and I'm so sorry for the long wait between posts. Please enjoy this first short chapter while I work on the next super long one.
Joe hung up the phone and looked at Kody. They were standing in Joe's office, and Kody looked rattled.
"What's the name?" Joe asked.
"Stanley Mallory. What do you know about him?"
"Molly's met him before," Joe said, "She's never mentioned a specially commissioned painting. But it doesn't surprise me."
"Why?"
"He propositioned her; she told me about him after Pierre was at the house."
"Fuck," Kody said and ran his hand over his face. "I wish I'd know that a long time ago. Tell me everything she told you about him."
Joe relayed the conversation, and Kody swore under his breath. "She fell into his game. This has nothing to do with Lucien or Pierre. This is about Molly."
"You're going to have to fill me in here," Joe said. "I'd never heard of him until Molly mentioned him in the hospital, and Ranger didn't think anything of it."
"That's because Molly's an Artist and anyone who knows anything about art, knows who Stanley Mallory is in the context of his work. He's a genius, and his work is often controversial and thought-provoking. Molly using him as an example of art that's cerebral isn't surprising, and Ranger would know that."
"So why are we worried about Mallory?"
"Because he's still in the same profession as he was before, he's just switched mediums. He likes mind-fucking people, but instead of painting, he does it through physical and psychological torture. He's game for either but prefers the latter. Molly didn't take his bait; he would straight up love that. He probably started digging into Lucien the second Mallory realized she wasn't going to take him up on his offer."
"He would play a long game like this?"
"Absolutely," Kody said.
Ranger arrived at the station and shook hands with Kody, "It's Mallory," Kody said.
"Fuck," Ranger said. "How? Is it me?"
"No," Kody said. "It's her."
"Explain," Ranger said. Kody filled him in, when he was finished, Ranger looked like he wanted to shoot something. "I should have shot off more than his fucking ear the last time I saw him. Did Brasseau say how he was tracking her?"
"He's not. Mallory or Porkin has a Phreak Phone," Kody said.
"Of course he does," Ranger said. "Did Brasseau say anything about an old Sat Phone?"
"No," Kody said, "But it wouldn't surprise me if he had one."
"What is a Freak Phone?" Joe asked.
"Phone Phreaking, with a 'ph,' was a type of hacking that involved using phone lines to do a bunch of shit." Kody said, "Phone Phreakers were notoriously capable of hacking early cellular technology, which is why in a lot of movies people say they don't want to talk over a cell phone because it's not secure. Now the encryptions are much stronger, so it's not a problem anymore. One of the things you have to protect you is an IMEI chip in your phone. What it does, basically, is sends a signal that's unique to your phone, in conjunction with your SIM card. If your phone gets lost or stolen, the cell phone company can blacklist the IMEI number so even if someone puts a new SIM in your phone, it still won't work. It also makes phones more difficult to clone, because your phone is usually registered to your network, which means it will only accept a signal from a phone with a corresponding IMEI and SIM."
"So he was somehow able to clone that IMEI chip?" Joe asked.
"No, he got around it," Kody said. "A Phreak Phone is a first generation GSM phone. See when cell phone companies upgrade their technology, they add it to the cell towers without disabling the old tech. The early, easily hackable tech is still there, and if you have that first gen GSM phone, you can use it as a backdoor to the larger network. You're a ghost that cannot be traced. That only gives you a way in. To get access to a specific phone from that point is like trying to find a specific raindrop after it's landed in the ocean; it's impossible. Impossible unless you have some way of identifying that signal. But if you have the right tech on you, all you need is to be in the vicinity of the phone you want to eavesdrop on while it's in use, and you can isolate the signal you want."
"So when Brasseau destroyed her phone by tossing it into the cup of soda, he stopped Mallory from being able to track Molly through her phone," Joe said.
"Yes," Kody said. "There are a limited number of these phones left out there, and we're trying to round them up to dispose of them properly, but we can't force people to give them up, because it's not illegal to own one."
"Why don't the companies just disable the tech for their own security?" Joe asked.
"Because of the contracts people signed when they got these phones. Some companies have guaranteed coverage for as long as 30 years maybe more. They can't shut them down. And even after the contracts expire, it's unlikely that they will shut down the tech, because it would cost a fortune."
"It's completely untraceable?" Joe said.
"Yep," Kody said. "He's not hacking the phone, he hacking the signal. He can track her, he can listen to phone conversations, intercept text messages, and if he's good, he can activate her cameras, and use her phone as a bug. She'd have no way of knowing. And Ranger's guys would never be able to pick it up. Literally, the only way to stop it from happening is to destroy her phone."
"The day Brasseau robbed her store," Ranger said, "I'd just given her a new secure phone. He came to steal from her, so she'd call me, and he could get the signal."
"Probably, and the kidnapping attempt was probably the same deal," Kody said.
"So, what now? Witsec?" Joe asked. "If this guy is as bad as you say he is, she needs to go into protection."
"It wouldn't work," Kody said. "We'd have to put everyone Molly cares about into Witsec too. Not to be blunt, but even if we could put Midas Maggie and her father into the program, it would have a catastrophic effect on the stock market."
"So what the hell do we do?" Joe asked.
"Everything we're already doing," Ranger said. "Molly is good at sticking with her bodyguards, and Mallory will not get close if he sees a Rangeman uniform. Now that we know it's him pulling strings, I'm willing to bet I know who Pierre Lucas is, as well. His real name is Pierre LaPorte."
Joe sifted through the pages on his desk and handed Ranger the photograph Molly found. "Yep, that's him. We need to talk to Molly. I need to know everything."
"She'll be here any minute," Joe said. "We're having lunch together."
"Call Mary, and tell her she needs to reschedule Molly's afternoon," Ranger said. "This could take a while. I want to watch the video of Brasseau's interrogation."
Finch knocked on Joe's door and stuck his head in, "Have we not made you detective yet?" Joe asked.
"No," Finch said.
"You're taking the next Detective's Exam."
"Yes, sir," Finch said.
"Book it today," Joe said.
"Yes, sir," Finch said.
"What do you want?"
"Big Dog just radioed to say that Molly is about one minute out," Finch said.
Joe stood up, "We have to tell her, but it's going to freak her out. Do you think Perkin is connected to Mallory?"
"We have a sketch of him," Kody said and handed Ranger a drawing.
"He's not ringing a bell," Ranger said. "What's his build like?"
"Sickly thin," Kody said.
"Molly has seen both Mallory and Porkin?" Ranger said.
"Yes," Joe said. "You think he could be the same person?"
"It's possible," Ranger said.
"Stone has spoken to a man who sounds like Stewie from Family Guy, and he says that Porkin has a completely different voice."
"Stewie would be Mallory," Ranger said.
"What does Mallory look like?" Joe asked.
"The last time I saw him, his hair was natural, which means he looks like Carrot Top. It's distinctive though, so when he's lying low, he usually gets a brush cut, and dyes it dark. I would imagine that's the route he's going now since he just broke out of Super Max."
"How?" Joe asked.
"It's unclear. They still don't know. I think it's most likely that Mallory escaped sometime during his prisoner transport, and that someone entered the facility in his place."
"What else did he say about Mallory?"
"That he painted something for her that would exploit her synesthesia."
"Her what?" Ranger said.
"Brasseau says she has synesthesia, and that she feels colors," Joe said.
"I'd confirm that with her, but it's not exactly surprising if it's true."
"Is it a secret?"
"I doubt it," Ranger said.
"Why don't I know about it then? Why didn't you?" Joe asked.
"She probably doesn't even think about it," Ranger said, "Do you think about how you perceive color?"
"No, but the other day we were talking about how she sees more colors than the average bear, and she didn't bring it up then…" Joe stopped. She'd never given it a name, but she did sort of talk about it all of the time. What did she say about her truck? The purple was gentle. She'd told Maggie it was quiet, which was the same way she described grey. She said that the dress her mother bought her, made her stomach burn like she had an ulcer, certain shades of yellow made her tense up. She'd described yellow as heavy. Probably because Lucien kept trying to push it on her as her favorite color. He'd never noticed it until now, but it made a lot of sense.
"Finch," Joe said, "Get Ranger the videos of both Brasseau's and Stone's interrogations. He can watch them in here while I have lunch with Molly. I'll see if I can get more out of her, about Mallory, and Porkin."
Joe walked out of his office just in time for Molly to walk into the Bullpen. In one hand she was holding a container with the leftover turkey meatloaf she'd made the night before, and Joe had requested for lunch because it was almost better cold. In her other hand, she held a thermos. She'd dressed in an outfit Joe had suggested, that included a pair of black, over the knee, boots, and a form-fitting black dress that stopped about an inch above the boots. Over the dress, she was wearing a cropped leather jacket, and she'd straightened her hair.
She looked gorgeous, but she wasn't looking in his direction. She was frozen still, and she was pale. The reason why was Lucien. He was being led back to lockup, and his eyes had locked on to Molly.
He elbowed his escort in the ribs and sprinted to her. "I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you so many times, but I couldn't. I was just trying to keep you safe. I thought you were dead… I thought he'd killed you…" Lucien thrust his hands into her hair and kissed her, passionately. Molly dropped Joe's lunch onto the floor, and for one horrible second, it looked like she was going to kiss Lucien back. Instead, Molly put her hands on Lucien's shoulders for leverage and kneed him hard in the balls. He dropped like a sack of sand, and she looked down on him in disgust.
"Never touch me again," she said.
She bent and picked up Joe's lunch, stepped over a breathless Lucien, and walked to Joe. "Sorry about that," she said, "He surprised me."
"You have Synesthesia?" Joe said.
"Yeah, a little bit."
"You've never said anything before."
"Because I honestly forget I have it most of the time."
"Cool," Joe said.
"Now, say hello to me properly, so that the most recent person to kiss me, wasn't him."
"Happy to oblige," Joe said.
AN: While I made up the name Phreak Phone, Phone Phreaking was a very real thing, but it's died out somewhat. I read about the concerns regarding early GSM phones and the way they can be used as a backdoor into Networks, and thought it was an interesting idea, so I sort of ran with it. My knowledge of hacking, in general, is pretty limited to what I've read in a few articles, so I've taken some creative license with it. If you know better and it's complete BS and impossible, just go with it for the sake of the story. ;)