Safety Shield

Woodhaven, Queens, NY

Thursday, May 22

Alex leaned back in her chair as her partner and Safety Shield's IT guru, John Pappas, pored over the activity log for the Brooklyn Winter Market store. They were in the conference room at Safety Shield's office. Captain Ross had promised to fax over the search warrant as soon as it was signed.

As always, she was impressed with Bobby's determination to understand the minutiae of technically difficult topics. John Pappas – the same man who'd been at their initial meeting - seemed pleased to answer Bobby's questions.

Alex allowed herself a moment to appreciate Bobby in a more personal way. He was writing in his binder, and the tip of his tongue poked out the side of his mouth as he concentrated. She'd ask him later if he knew he did that.

"Are you sure this..." Bobby asked, jabbing his finger at a page. "...this difference means two phones, or even a phone at all?"

"Not totally sure," John Pappas replied, "but it's my best guess." He ran his fingers though his hair. "This, right here, is why we don't want people using beta as though it's a final release."

Alex asked, "Could someone send smart phone commands to the other Winter Market?"

Both men looked up, mouths agape, and blinked at exactly the same moment. Alex managed not to laugh, though she had to grin.

"Other Winter Market?" John Pappas asked.

"You know, the one in Long Island City," she replied. "I mean, if Ron's trying out this black market app..."

"It's not black m-" Bobby said, and then paused. "Right. Why not experiment at both stores?"

"Exactly," Alex said, winking at her partner.

"He couldn't," John Pappas said, shaking his head. "Only a new installation like the Brooklyn store has the latest software, which includes the portal for smart phone access. Of course, that part of it should never have been rolled out..."

"Yeah, yeah," Alex said. "So you're saying that existing customers don't have that portal?"

"Right – they have the previous release. We do upgrades semiannually."

"That means," Bobby said, "the new Winter Market was your only customer where this could have happened – no one else has the software installed." Bobby pushed away from the table, rose and took a few paces at the white board. Clearly, an idea was percolating in his mind.

Pappas went back to staring at the pages scattered on the table. "Beta's so buggy... And he's using an unknown, off-the-shelf app... We don't have a way to follow this code backward..."

"Not yet, anyway," Alex said, checking the time. How long could it take the captain to get the warrant?

Bobby grabbed a dry marker pen and drew a long horizontal line. "Beta was released on May first," he said as he marked a hash on the line and labeled it.

"'Release' is way too official for what happened here," Pappas replied. "The team snuck it out into production."

Bobby looked over his shoulder at Pappas. "When did Winter Market's system go live?"

"It was the first weekend of the month," he replied. "Saturday night to Sunday."

"May third and fourth," Bobby said as he made another mark. He flipped open his leather binder and checked his notes. "On the seventh, Ron purchased an app online from Open App Mart." He added another mark on the time line. "And the first shutdown was on the morning of the eighth."

Alex pointed at the time line. "What happened between May fourth and seventh? Did Ron talk to somebody here?"

"Umm, yes," Pappas said, tapping his chin. "There were weekly meetings with them, starting in April. Mr. Winter senior, Ron, and John Lasalle. Wednesday mornings, right here."

"Before the shutdowns started?" Bobby asked.

"Mm-hmm," Pappas replied. "It's part of the setup routine – to keep customers in the loop and stay on top of any problems."

"There would have been a meeting..." Alex calculated swiftly. "...on May seventh."

Bobby added the meeting to his time line on the board. "And did you mention that phone access was part of the installation for the new store?"

Pappas crossed his arms. "I missed that meeting. But Alonzo might've said something about it. He likes to let customers know we're on the cutting-edge." He stood abruptly and headed for the door. "I'll find him right now."

Alex said, "We need a list of everyone who was at that meeting." After Pappas was gone, Alex arched her eyebrows at Bobby. "Somebody's losing their job over that mistake," she said.

The door opened, and Bobby's friend Jeanne appeared with a couple of sheets in hand. She held them out toward Bobby. "A fax came for you, Detective."

Lutheran Cemetery

Queens, NY

Thursday, May 22

Robert Winter's burial plot, marked by a small open-sided tent, was a hundred feet off the cemetery's winding drive. A few chairs and floral arrangements were set up underneath the tent, and a green grave cloth covered the pile of dirt. Alex and Bobby found Ron's Lexus in the long line of cars parked along the narrow lane; they stood next to it, watching the graveside ceremony.

Alex felt sorry for the family. It was a shock to lose someone suddenly - even more when there was violence involved. She was still a little shaken about her mother's health scare. What if it were her family standing around a grave? When she saw Frannie and Mrs. Winter cry and embrace each other, a powerful surge of sadness welled up in her chest.

She shuffled a little closer to Bobby, and let her shoulder rest against his side. Alex felt his hand press gently on her back.

"You okay?" he whispered.

Alex shrugged, and leaned a little more firmly into him. They stayed that way throughout the ceremony.

There were three cars in the Mayor's entourage – they departed first. The rest of the large crowd was slow to disperse.

Finally they saw Frannie, Ron and Mark escorting their mother to a limousine. Frannie's two children, Rick and a teenaged girl with long dark hair – she must be Mark's daughter – all climbed into the limo with Mrs. Winter.

Alex was glad that Mrs. Winter and the grandchildren were leaving. She didn't care that Ron would be embarrassed, but she didn't like the idea of causing more pain for his mother. She wished Frannie would get into in that limo, too.

As soon as the limo's door closed, Bobby took a step, but Alex touched his arm. He stopped immediately, and Alex was sure he understood. They stayed where they were until the limo was out of sight.

Mark blinked in surprise when he saw Alex approach; she was relieved when he simply stood aside and watched. It didn't hurt that Bobby stayed between her and Mark. Frannie had turned away and was talking to an older couple.

"Mr. Winter," Alex said quietly to Ron, "we need to talk to you. Now."

Ron blanched and swallowed hard. He whispered a few words to his wife and then followed the detectives as they walked off the road in the direction away from the crowd.

"We have a warrant for your cell phone and for your car's GPS," Alex said, holding up the folded paper.

Ron's hand went to his belt. "My, my phone?"

"And your GPS," Bobby said. He reached out, snatched the phone off Ron's belt clip, and started searching through the apps.

"Am I-" Ron swallowed again, and his eyes darted to his wife, who still stood where they'd left her. "Am I under arrest?"

"No," Alex said. She put the warrant into Ron's hand. "Not yet, but that's only because of your father's friendship with the Mayor."

"There it is," Bobby said, tilting the phone for Alex to see. One of the icons on the screen looked like a combination lock – it was labeled All-Safe. He cleared the display and dropped the phone into the manila envelope that Alex opened.

"We'll be expecting you at One Police Plaza this afternoon," she said, folding the envelope and tucking it under her arm.

"You probably should bring your lawyer," Bobby added. "Can you, uh-" He pointed back toward the road. Frannie, Mark and Sharon were staring at them. "Open your car?"

"C-car? You're taking my car?" Ron asked. Alex heard the jingle of keys as he fumbled in his pocket.

"Just your GPS," Bobby said. "It's in the warrant."

As they returned to their car, Alex said, "Can we wait a minute while I call my mom? I just want to check in with her." She was grateful she didn't need to explain further than that – Bobby would understand.

Bobby had been reaching for the door handle, but he stopped and turned toward her. "Sure. Do you need me to...?"

"No, stay - it's fine," she said, leaning against the car and tilting her head to her side, indicating that Bobby should join her. "She'll probably want to talk to you, too."

MCS, 1PP, NY

Thursday, May 22

Alex pushed the Speaker button on the telephone. "Everybody still on the line?" she asked.

"Yeah, still here," Bobby answered. He and a couple of uniformed officers were at the Brooklyn Winter Market store with John Lasalle.

"We're here, too," came John Pappas' voice. He and Alonzo Matthews were at Safety Shield's office, monitoring the system. Two uniformed officers were with them as well.

"Okay, before we go any further with this experiment," Captain Ross said, looking sternly at Alex as though he'd caught her running headlong into traffic, "how do we know what command to try?"

Alex shrugged. She wasn't even the one holding Ron Winter's iPhone – Zack, one of NYPD's IT experts, had it. He sat beside Ross in the interview room.

John Pappas answered, "Like I said, it doesn't really matter what command you use. We're trying to establish whether the app has been programmed with the store's security code. Any command will do – for starters, look for one that'll show the status or something like that."

"I hear you," Zack said. "Hang on." He touched the screen a few times.

Ross leaned close to watch. "It's loading..." he murmured.

"I've got the All-Safe welcome screen..." Zack said. "Here we go: there's one icon labeled 'Add New Location' and one labeled 'BKLN STR'."

"Brooklyn store," Ross said.

"What happens when you select it?" Pappas asked.

Ross scooted his chair closer until he was practically on top of Zack. "We're in!" the captain called out. Alex had to smile – if Bobby were here he he'd be the one invading Zack's personal space.

"I'm at a menu," Zack said, leaning away from Ross.

Alex called, "Did anything happen out there?"

Nothing had changed so far. Zack chose the Doors and Windows option next, still with no result at the store.

Zack said, "Okay, I'm going to try 'Main Entrance'. He looked at Ross, and at his nod he touched the screen. "Done."

Alex was across from Zack at the table, so she couldn't see what was happening on the iPhone's screen. She found herself staring at the speaker phone as she waited for someone to respond.

After a pause of a couple seconds she heard Bobby say, "There it goes! Look, up there!" There were several other exclamations; she wasn't sure who was speaking.

"What?" Ross called, pulling the telephone close to him. "What happened?"

"Nothing here – this is John Pappas. I don't see any change in status. What's going on at the store?"

"The cameras shut off! This is John Lasalle," he said breathlessly. "I saw the little red light on the camera go out after you said, 'Done'. I was looking directly at it!"

"What about the doors?" Alex asked. "And the safe?"

She heard voices at some distance from the phone calling back to report: the office safe and all the external doors had been unlocked.

"Mr. Lasalle?" Alex pulled the telephone away from the captain and set it in the middle of the table again. She asked, "Can you tell if this is exactly the same as the other shutdowns?"

"Wait, wait!" John Pappas called. "I refreshed my screen here, and now I see the shutdown. This is ridiculous. If the whole system goes off, I should be seeing all sorts of red flags – but there's nothing. Damn! I told you beta's flaky!"

Lasalle finally replied to Alex's question. "Detective Eames, this is John Lasalle. Yes – it's the same as before, as far as I can see. Cameras off, doors unlocked, safe unlocked."

Bobby said, "Check the panel on the wall."

"Okay," Lasalle replied. "Give me a minute..."

There was a pause as they waited for Lasalle to examine the panel. He said, "I had to work down through the menus before I saw that the cameras and the locks are off. It shows the correct status, but it didn't alert us."

Captain Ross asked, "John Pappas, does the code match with the earlier shutdowns?"

"Let me check," he replied. "Hang on..."

Alex asked, "Zack, what do you see on the iPhone?"

"It just opened a screen to enter information," Zack replied. "Look." He handed the phone to Alex. "From here you can't tell that anything happened."

Alex scanned the display. Now it made sense why Ron didn't seem to realize the first shutdown had occurred.

"I got nothing," a voice said on the phone.

"Who's that?" Captain Ross asked. "Who's got nothing?"

"Me, John Pappas. There's nothing in the activity log," he said. "Looking at this, I'd have no way of knowing that anything happened."

"Yeah, uh, that matches the pattern," Bobby said. "The activity log only registers the alarm, not the shutdown itself."

Pappas asked, "Can you guys try another option on the menu?"

Alex started to hand the phone back to Zack, but Ross intercepted it. He peered at the phone and said, "I'm going to try the 'Lock All' command." He paused a moment, and when no one objected he touched the phone's screen.

There was a long moment of silence, and then the reports came back from the store and security office: there was no change in either place. Ross tried a few other commands, all with no result.

"So, the first attempted command causes the shutdown," Bobby said. "It probably doesn't matter which command."

"And anything sent after that won't change the status," John Pappas added. "I don't see any activity log entries, either."

"What sets off the alarm?" Alex asked.

"Captain," Bobby said, "log out of the app. Close it down."

"Okay," Ross said, "is everyone ready? Here it goes."

Alex didn't need to be told the result – she heard the alarm bell clanging at the store almost as soon as the captain's finger touched the phone's screen.

Ross was grim. He pressed the Mute button on the telephone set and said, "Eames, get Ron Winter in here. No more courtesy treatment."

"Yes, sir," she said, and stood up. She reached for her cell to call Bobby, but it rang as she flipped it open. The display showed her partner's name.

Alex strode out of the room as she lifted the phone to her ear. "Hey," she said, "I was just about to call you. The Captain wants Ron here now." She could still hear the store alarm in the background.

"Eames, I need you to check something," Bobby said. "Do you have Ron's phone?"

"No, wait a sec," she said, turning on her heel and going right back into the conference room where Ross was just hanging up the call. She held out her hand. "Hey Zack, I need to see the phone."

Both men looked at her questioningly, but she simply grabbed the phone from Zack and headed to her desk once again.

She sat down and said, "Got it. Do you want to run the app again?"

"No, open the call log," Bobby said. He sounded excited. "Did Zack track the cell tower path for the phone?"

"Not yet," Alex said. "He was going to do that now."

"I think I know what it'll show," Bobby said. "Ron left the Long Island City store at five-thirty Monday, but his GPS didn't show the car moving for about twenty minutes."

When they'd pulled the information from Ron's GPS they'd found no data for the critical period around Robert Winter's death. There was very little data at all – Ron seemed to be in the habit of turning off the GPS unit.

"Right," Alex said, "he shut it off right after he started moving, so we don't know where he was until seven," Alex said, trying to find the right icon for the call log. She had her own phone trapped between her cheek and shoulder. "I think I've got it..."

Captain Ross was watching intently from the interview room doorway; she waved him over to her desk.

Bobby said, "We know Beldsen left his store a little after five-thirty, and came back fifteen minutes later."

"...with Chinese take-out from across the street," Alex said. Her finger froze above the phone's screen. "You think he met Ron there."

She smiled. Even without eye contact, she and Bobby could read each other effortlessly.

"Check Ron's calls for Monday afternoon," he said. "The restaurant's walking distance from both stores."

Alex felt a rush of energy – this could be the piece of information that turned the whole case around.

She flicked her finger to scroll quickly down the call log. "He made a call at five-fifteen to... This number looks familiar." She opened her notebook and paged through it. There! "Bobby, he called Beldsen at his store!"

"Did he ever call Beldsen before that?"

"Umm... yes, I see a couple earlier calls to the same number." Alex said. "I doubt they were talking about the price of organic spinach."

Bobby said, "I'm on my way to Long Island City. Can you..." She heard the car engine start. "Can you come? If the Chinese restaurant has a security camera..."

"I bet I get there first," she said.

After she hung up she handed over the iPhone and filled in the captain on her conversation with Bobby. She was eager to get out and follow up this new possibility.

"Okay, find out what went on with Beldsen," Ross said. "Also, John Pappas just called back. He checked the code for the alarm we caused: it matches the first three and the last – they were all done by Ron Winter's phone. Call Winter and tell him his grace period is over."