Greg walked down the ally spotting Flack.
"Hey, what do you have for me today." Flack jumped slightly. Getting be a better look at him, Greg noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He was trying to hide them behind his sunglasses.
"Sorry, Sanders, I didn't hear you coming."
"When was the last time you slept?"
"I'm fine. This way." They headed down the ally toward the car. "Our vic's name is Aaron Dexter. Trash collector making rounds spotted the body and called it in. Looks like a robbery gone south."
"What makes you think robbery?"
"Just a hunch." Hawkes was looking over the body. "Single small-caliber GSW to the chest area." He pointed at the blood-stained shirt. 'Stippling around the entry makes it a close shot. Defensive wounds on the arms. Lividity hasn't set in." Greg looked down at his watch. "Which would make the TOD approximately six hours ago." Flack looked over his notes.
"Which means whoever jacked this guy had to have worked fast. And had a crew to handle the ghetto pit stop." He pointed at the stripped car. "These jockers even took the dash. We had to use the VIN stamp on the frame rail to get an I.D. The vehicle belongs to Olympus Rants." Greg walked toward the car while Flack continued to read off the information.
"According to their main office, Aaron Dexter picked up the car last night around JFK." Looking around the ally, Greg shook his head.
"So he's not local."
"No According to his reservation, he is the CEO. Of GMI Health Network which is a Medicare company out of Philly." Greg pointed up at a camera on the top of the building.
"Let's see was Ally and Adam can pull from that camera."
Alison and Adam looked over the security camera footage that Greg had brought them.
"Stop it there," Mac called out from where he stood. Alison did as she was told. "Zoom in."
"It's Analog boss that the best we can get closer," Adam called out when the picture grew only more blurry the closer they got. Mac rubbed his forehead.
"There is not may we're going to be able to run this through facial recognition." Alison looked over at Mac.
"We got plenty of faces." She fast-forwards the video to the point where about 20 men disassembled the car. "I just don't know if we will be able to get any ideas off of them." Mac picked up his cup of coffee.
"Come get me if you happen to get anything."
"Sure thing, boss." Adam called after him as he left the two of them in the room.
"Well, Adam, let's work some magic." They combed through all the of the people that took things from the car. Alison rubbed her shoulder.
"You know, if you want to go get a cup of coffee, you can," Adam called out to her. She looked at the captures mulling the idea over before nodding.
"Thanks." Grabbing her empty cup, she headed to the coffee room. Stella was yelling at Someone in Greek on her phone. Alison did her best to stay out of her way, poring a cup of coffee. She grimaced slightly. Messer must have gotten to the coffee pot before Greg got in this morning. One benefit of working the same shift as her husband was the guaranteed good cup of coffee. Unfortunately, Messer didn't like his coffee and was determined to get into the lab early enough to make the coffee. Greg joked that Messer would start working the shift before Greg to get his burnt coffee. Stella hung the phone up, running her hands through her curly hair.
"Something bothering you." Stella paled slightly, and she shook her head.
"No, just someone I know wanting to become a cop."
"Is that a problem?"
"No, I just don't want them to make a rash decision."
"I could see if My Dad could talk to them."
"No," Stella called out, causing Alison to flinch, then shook her head. "No, it's fine." Alison opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by Adam bursting through the door.
"Al, I got a clean face." Alison grabbed her cup, waving goodbye to Stella.
"It's the guy that pulled the GPS. I sent the id over to Flack." Alison looked over the report.
"Great job, let's see what else we can find."
Greg sat in his office, looking over the stamen from the man that had stolen the GPS. He had been able to give them the guys that had robbed and killed the vic, but something wasn't right. Alison walked into the office, handing over a file.
"So if our vic was on his way to a hotel, then what was he doing all the way in that ally." Greg flipped through the report.
"A wrong turn."
"More than just one. So Adam and I process the GPS system. Turns out that the address that Aaron put into the GPS was for a luxury hotel in Midtown. But he ended up in the Bronx."
"What the GPS gave him the wrong directions?"
"Yeah, but it wasn't just a computer glitch. Someone spoofed Aaron's GPS and created a false signal. According to the manufacturer, one of the differential ground stations was compromised shortly after renting the car."
"Someone hacked it."
"Hacking something like this isn't as easy as the movies make it look like. This is the best Adam or I have ever seen. They also hit the microprocessors under the hood of Aaron's rental. So Adam ran a diagnostic on the car's computer, and the signal went through the stolen vehicle recovery system. That way, they were able to shut down the engine of the car remotely. So he was trapped, not able to drive away."
"So this hacker purposely lured our victim to the worst neighborhood in New York, crippled his car, and perhaps got what he wished for."
"I hope this was a selected incident." Greg leaned forward in his chair, looking at her.
"Ally, would you really want a person like this wandering out there."
"No, but I don't like the idea of what he can do while we run around looking for them."
Alison walked into the restaurant. She ducked under the police tape, waving at Flack. Greg was right. He didn't look good. He hung the phone up, walking over to her.
"That was the hospital vic is on life support. They say it was anaphylaxis." Alison looked around the room. One of the tables had broken glass around it, marking it as the table where the vic had been.
"Okay, so what's the crime?"
"Accessory to murder." Alison looked up from her camera.
"What?"
"Well, the waitress who called 911 says that the person she spoke to never notified an ambulance."
"What did dispatch say?"
"That the thing. They said they never received the call, but according to the phone records, a 911 call was in fact made from this location."
"Someone hijacked the call."
"Waitress also said that the person she spoke to identified the person by name, without her ever giving that information."
"What did the person sound like?"
"It was male raspy like that of a heavy smoker—lots of breathing between words. Our waitress also swears that she put in the order exactly the way the vic specified without peanut dressing. But the chef who made the salad said that that information was never relayed to his order screen." A rock formed in her stomach as Flack walked her over to the computer took the orders.
"Someone hacked the 911 call. Maybe Someone hacked the order as well."
"Al, is that even possible."
"Someone hacked Aaron Dexter's GPS and sent him into a dangerous neighborhood. Now Someone tampered with Dr. Evan's order, which triggers a life-threatening allergy."
"So you're thinking these two cyberattacks are connected."
"Our suspect's using technology as a murder weapon."
Greg walked into the hospital with Hawkes while talking to Alison on the phone.
"Ally, what can you tell me." They had found the name of the killer Benton. He was a cancer patient that Dr. Evan's treated at a hospital-owned by Dexter. However, a few months ago that sections of research had been shut down due to budget cuts. Right now, the only one left alive that had treated the killer was a nurse Kim.
"I talked to her boss. She left 10 minutes ago."
"Thanks, let me know what else you find." He pressed the button to the elevator.
"Sanders," Hawkes called out, running up to him. "No one's seen her leave the building.
"Elevators not working. Ally, you know what's going on."
Adam called into the speaker. "The access control for the hospital elevators appears to have a cybersecurity violation from the outside."
"It's Benton," Greg said into the phone and to Hawkes. Alison agreed, adding some more information.
"He's got the who system jammed up. And an elevator holding on the 20th floor." Greg lowered the phone looking at Hawkes
"He's got Kim on the 20th floor we're going up."
"You sure you can do that." Hawkes asked as they made their way toward the stairs.
"Don't have a choice. We can't wait." He put his phone to his head as they charged up the stairs. He counted his steps in his head to help fight off the pain.
"Ally, can you guys handle it from your end."
"No, the way he programmed it, the elevator will drop if we disconnect him," Hawkes and Greg charged up the stairs. They had to make it. They were her only shot. Bursting through the door on the 20th floor, the two of them ran over to the elevator door. Calling out for the nurse. There was a small tapping sound coming from the other side of the metal door.
"Hawkes, help me get this open." They shoved the door opened, and Greg ran over to the nurse. She was curled up in a small ball in the corner. "Miss Kim." He called out to her.
"Greg, the doors closing." He turned, seeing the elevator was infarct starting to move down. Grabbing the woman, he handed her to Hawkes as his knee buckled. Hawkes grabbed his arm, pulling him through the opening. He clears it just as the elevator plummeted through the shaft. A set of officers ran other to them, having finally made it up the stairs along with some doctors. Greg waved them off, taking Hawkes's hand helping him to his feet.
"You alright."
"I'll be fine. Let get her looked after." His phone rang. "Sanders."
"Greg," Alison called out. "Adam and I were able to find Benton." He motioned for Hawkes to follow him, and they made it to the stairs. His knee was not thrilled with the idea of making a return trip, but he ignored it, grabbing onto the railing a little more challenging. "I used a Trojan horse, allowing Adam to run a backtrace and get us an I.P. address. From there, we were able to get a street address. He's in Brooklyn."
Alison helps Greg through the back door in her dad's house.
"Hey, your two," Frank called out from where he was reading the newspaper. He started at the sight of them. Getting to his feet had hurried over, grabbing Greg's other arm.
"This is humiliating," Greg said under his breath as the two of them helped him over to a chair at the kitchen table.
"Well, you should have thought about that before you nearly killed yourself," Alison said, walking over to the fridge and grabbing the large ice pack that they kept here. "Dad, I think we're going to crash here tonight. I don't really feel like getting in an elevator after today, and I don't think Greg'll make it up the 5 flights of steps." Greg looked over at that.
"You said you left a file here."
"Would you have agreed if I had told you?" Greg slammed his mouth shut, taking the ice pack from her. Frank handed the two of them coffee.
"So what did you do this time." Greg worked the mussels around his knee.
"Nothing really." Alison snorted.
"This genius I married ran up 20 flights of stairs forced open an elevator carried a woman jumped out of the elevator right before it sliced him in two. If that didn't bag enough, he preceded to go back down the stairs and bring in a killed all without his knee brace or his cane. So now he can't walk." Frank looked at his son-in-law.
"Was the woman alright?" Alison smacked her forehead.
"Yeah, she's a little shaken but should be fine. The killer isn't likely to live to the trial."
"Good." Greg smiled, and Alison swatted him with the newspaper her father had been reading.
"Don't listen to him. You could have died, and then where would I be."
"Starving." Frank hid a laugh behinds a cough at the gasp that escaped Alison's lips.
"You said I was a good cook." She pouted. Greg gently took her hand in his kissing the back of it.
"You are. It's just too easy."
"Well, in that case, I guess I can cook dinner on Sunday." Frank and Greg glanced at each other.
"Sorry, Al, but Linda is no for this week," Frank said with a smile. Alison stood up, kissing Greg.
"Fine, but remember you did this to yourself, so no complaining when you get up tomorrow."
"I love you," Greg called out to her as she went to go get their things.
"I love you too."