Page 54 of Wired Strong

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Sophie

Sophie’s phonerang as she was waking up from a quick nap in her office. “We’ve had a break in the case,” Raveaux’s accented voice was tight with excitement. “Come and meet us at the Kanekoa residence.” He rattled off the address.

Sophie grimaced. “I’m so sorry! I was supposed to get back to you and Heri about my impressions of the Kanekoa woman yesterday, and what I was able to gather from her. I think she’s hiding something.”

“Her son basically confessed to being the embezzler,” Raveaux said. “What we don’t know is why he did it, and exactly what he’s doing with the money.”

Sophie felt a surge of compassion for Jana Kanekoa. “Don’t do anything with the interview until I get there. I’ve forged a good connection with the mother. It could help us.”

“That’s fine, but I’m still concerned about too many of us being in the room and intimidating them.”

Leede piped up in the background, “I’m sorry, Sophie, you’re on speaker and we’re driving over to the Kanekoa residence right now. I think, if you had a good connection with the mother, that you should come and take the lead. You’re a fresh face after the debacle in the headmaster’s office. You also have the expertise to pry out of the boy how he did what he did from a tech standpoint. You are going to have to fix all of that and close off those holes for the school, anyway.”

Sophie felt a prickle of annoyance. “Fixing their computer leaks was not part of our contract. But Iamconcerned for Jana Kanekoa, and I would like to be present.”

“I guess that leaves me the odd man out,” Raveaux said. “I’ll wait in the car and listen in if you have any surveillance devices handy. If things degenerate, I can support by lending muscle to the situation.”

“I’m always in favor of your lending any sort of muscle that you want to show,” Leede said.

Sophie felt that flare of annoyance again.She was tired of Leede’s heavy-handed flirtation with Raveaux.“I’m on my way,” she said shortly, and ended the call.

Sophie grabbed her backpack of tech tools that doubled as a purse, and headed out. Soon she was in her pearl-colored Lexus SUV, using the GPS to navigate to a small apartment building in a seedier part of Honolulu. Sun-blasted, open stairs on the exterior of the building, a line of washing flapping in the breeze, and a barking dog tied on the scrap of lawn outside, all spoke to the financial state of the family.

Sophie took the battered aluminum stairs to the third floor and knocked on the door.

Jana Kanekoa opened the door. Her mouth fell open almost comically as she met Sophie’s eyes. “It’s you. The computer tech lady.”

“Yes. I’m Sophie Smithson, with Security Solutions, in case you forgot my name,” Sophie said gently. “I’m so sorry this has happened with Conrad. Let me help you through it, and hopefully we won’t have to get law enforcement involved.”

Mrs. Kanekoa held herself stiffly for just a moment, and then she seemed to sag into Sophie’s arms in a surprising hug. “Conrad’s a good boy,” she said wetly. “I can’t believe he did this.”

“What you can do is help him open up to us,” Sophie said. “We will work closely with you to persuade the Kama`aina School Board to handle this privately.”

Sophie heard the clatter of heels on the aluminum stairs, and Heri Leede appeared, bright as a tangerine in an orange suit. “Mrs. Kanekoa. I’m so sorry that we are imposing upon you again, but the headmaster gave approval for Sophie and me to talk with you both, and see if Conrad will tell us the particulars of where the money went, at least. I’m sure it will go a long way in helping the school figure out some appropriate consequences and how they want to handle the matter.”

“You can’t get the money back,” yelled Conrad from inside the apartment. “It’s already gone.”

“Hush your mouth,” Mrs. Kanekoa hollered back. “Disrespectful boy!”

Sophie brushed past the woman to step inside the apartment with Leede behind her.

The shades were down, casting shadow over a living room filled with overstuffed, secondhand furniture; the room was tidy, but cramped. A kitchenette ran along one side of the living area, and two bedrooms opened off a short hallway with a bathroom at the end. The cupboards were scuffed Formica, and a sliding glass door behind the blinds showed a small balcony. A window air conditioner wheezed in the corner, dripping moisture into an old coffee can. “May we sit down, Mrs. Kanekoa?”

She made an impatient gesture toward the couch. “Conrad!” she bellowed. “Get out here.”

Her son emerged from one of the bedrooms and came to sit in the puffy-looking lounger. The boy crossed his arms over his chest and his chin lowered belligerently. His eyes were a dark sparkle under lowered black brows. “Who are you?”

“Hello, Conrad. My name is Sophie Smithson, and I am a computer expert.”

One corner of the boy’s mouth twitched in contempt. He rolled his eyes. “Expert, huh. Really.”

“I brought along my laptop.” Sophie unzipped her bag. “I can log in remotely to your mother’s rig at work, and any of the computers in the student lounge at the school from right here. We can screenshare, and you can show me how you pulled off that skim. I’ve already tracked your pathway, but I wouldn’t mind having you explain it.”

The boy unwound his arms and sat forward. “You’re bullshitting me. You can’t possibly know.”

“I am not bullshitting you.” Sophie opened her small laptop and activated it with a button. The machine woke up. Her fingers moved in a blur of motion over the keys as she activated her remote access to the different computers. “We’ll be on in a moment.”

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