Page 93 of Counter Attack

“We talked about video games, and I think we need to check out that video game on the dark web that Ethan Kennedy mentioned last night. Your CSI is familiar with the dark web, so have Dylan search and see how many sites Phame’s name pops up on.”

“Good idea. I meant to check it out this morning, but time got away from me. Let me call him.” When she had her techon the phone, she said, “Nathan’s with me, so I’m putting you on speaker.”

“Good with me,” Dylan said.

“Have you had a chance to search the dark web for information on Phame?”

“I’ve been so busy with these investigations ... but I have taken a stab or two at it. The problem is, with over a billion files, it’s much slower than the regular web. I did look for Phame—you wouldn’t believe how many sites came up when I entered the name in DuckDuckGo.”

“What’s a DuckDuckGo?”

“It’s like Google for the dark web. Regular web too. But it’s going to take time—a lot of time.”

Dylan didn’t sound very optimistic. At the US 27 split where traffic had slowed, Nathan took the north leg. He’d be glad to get off the interstate.

“Well, try anyway.” Alexis tapped her fingers on her leg. “But wait until I get there—I’ve never been on that part of the web, and I want to see what it looks like. Meet me at the jail in about an hour.”

“Good deal,” Dylan said.

Alexis hung up and turned to him. “You said you and Madden talked about a couple of things?”

He nodded. “He’s pretty sure they have Denton’s DNA, and Madden is checking to see if Chattanooga PD ran a DNA profile on him. If not, he’s going to request one, but that will take time we don’t have. However, he knows a guy with a lab in Chattanooga with an enormous DNA database—they search out lost relatives through DNA analysis. It’s a startup company and their fees are a fraction of the big names. The owner might even do it pro bono.”

“In case he doesn’t, how much money are we talking about?”

“I looked them up. Probably a couple hundred dollars.”

“Do it,” Alexis said. “I’ll pay for it myself if I have to.”

Nathan turned off US 27 onto Tennessee 302 that wound around the mountain to Pearl Springs. “I’ve been thinking ... why did Denton put the bomb at the mall? Why not a concert?”

“I don’t know,” Alexis said. “And I’ve thought about it. Maybe he was mad at a particular retailer, or he hated Christians or Jews—it was the start of Passover and the weekend before Easter. Hamilton Place was crowded. The panic that ensued when the bomb was found and the bomb squad got there was bad enough—can you imagine what would have happened if it’d actually gone off?”

“Butwhydid he do it?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, but it was probably his second bomb. The bomb squad commander is pretty sure the bomb that killed a homeless man was Denton’s, but we’ll never know the why since he left nothing behind. Or if he did, we haven’t found it yet.” She stared out the window a few minutes. “If there is a sibling, what are the chances they are both sociopaths?”

“It’s not unheard of.” They both fell silent until they rolled into Pearl Springs a little before four.

“Sure hope the killer didn’t strike while we were gone,” Alexis said softly.

“Me too.” He drove through town to the jail and pulled into the sally port for Alexis to get out. Once she was safely inside, Nathan parked beside Dylan’s vehicle in the parking lot and jogged to the front door.

He nodded at Marge. “Alexis in her office?”

“With Dylan. She’s expecting you, so go on in.”

“Thanks.” Nathan knocked and entered the room without waiting for an invitation. Dylan sat at the desk in front of the laptop. Nathan had never been on the dark web and was interested in what was there, and what the lure was to so many.

“Do you need to use a different laptop to surf the dark web?” Alexis was asking.

“No. I have the Tor browser downloaded on this USB drive,” he said, inserting the drive into a port on the computer. “That way if I need to get out of the browser in a hurry, all I have to do is pull the drive out, and bingo—there’s no sign of me anywhere. It’s not on my computer and a search engine can’t track me.”

“Then it sounds like it could be dangerous,” Nathan said.

“Anything can be dangerous. That’s why it’s important to use a USB drive—there are no controls on the dark web—youcanget hacked, or maybe someone is trying to track you, but if you get out quick enough, that ends the threat.”

“You’re saying if someone tries to track you on the dark web, they can’t?” Nathan knew enough about computers to do his reports and a regular search for information, but he’d never gone beyond that.

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