Page 11 of A Dark and Stormy Night

“I don’t know. When I hack into the texting, I can follow a conversation, but I can’t tell who’s talking.”

“What are the phone numbers?”

“I can’t tell that, either.”

“Can you tell where in the county these people are?”

“No.” She glanced toward the counter.

Two more law enforcement officers had appeared.

Sheriff Foster clicked the pen again.

He hadn’t written anything down.

“Then why do it?” he asked.

“For the insurance money, they said.”

He clicked and held. “I meant — why do you read other people's texts if you don’t know who they are?”

“It’s frequently interesting, an insight into human behavior.” He seemed to expect more, so she added, “And if I can figure out who the texters are, it’s a brainteaser.”

He stared with a fixed gaze.

She added, “Bonus points to me.”

“So you have hacked into a conversation where a couple of siblings —“

“Or a husband and wife, either straight or lesbian. I think that’s more likely. They seemed unnaturally close, and very fond of each other. Me and my siblings aren’t like that, but I know some are. One of them seemed mildly reluctant, but the other was determined.”

With awesome patience, Sheriff Foster started again. “You hacked into a conversation between a couple of people who intend to off an old lady, and you are reporting this as a crime.”

Was he not taking this seriously? “That’s right. As a law enforcement officer, I would think you’d want to apprehend the perpetrators.”

He shut his notebook. “I ought to arrest you as a hacker.”

“But I discovered a crime.”

“You committed a crime! You eavesdropped on a conversation between two unknown people who may or may not be thinking of killing another unknown person. It was a conversation. If I arrested everybody who said they wanted to kill someone, I’d have half of Virtue Falls in here!”

Had he not been paying attention? “But they’re going to poison her!”

He took a breath, then started again, and spoke more slowly. “The crime here is hacking, and you did it. If I turned you into the FBI, do you think you’d still have your superimportant government job? I don’t think so!”

He was right. The government frowned on hackers.

Sheriff Foster continued, “So I’d suggest you get up and go home, and forget this stupid shit about people who are going to kill their mother.” He turned away, muttering, “Dumbest goddamn thing I ever heard.” He looked at the grinning officers hanging over the counter. “Go back to work!”

They scattered.

Sheriff Foster disappeared into the back.

Cornelia seldom felt humiliation. She seldom felt confusion.

She felt both now. She had done the proper thing, socially speaking, by reporting a crime before it happened, and she had been the object of mockery.

She groped for her backpack, walked outside and checked her cell phone. The time was four thirty-six. She looked across the square. Mason pulled up in front of the Oceanview Café, a full minute early.

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