Page 55 of Wired Strong

Leede seated herself beside Sophie on the couch. “Good to see you again, Conrad. The headmaster has asked us to interview you. What you say and do with us is going to have a big effect on how the school decides to handle the situation.”

“If by ‘situation’ you mean the boy’s hacking and embezzling, I think the time has come to call it what it is,” Sophie said. “Perhaps you’d like to start by telling us why you did this, Conrad. Otherwise, people will assume it was just because you wanted the money.”

Jana Kanekoa seemed too restless to sit down. She headed for the kitchenette. “Can I get you ladies something to drink?”

Leede, ever socially appropriate, nodded. “Please. Monsieur Raveaux is waiting for us in the car, so we hope this won’t take much of your time. But, like we said, if Conrad will talk to us and give us a way to recover the money, I feel certain we can persuade the administration not to press charges.”

Mrs. Kanekoa poured four tall glasses of pale yellow liquid from a plastic pitcher and added some ice. “This is passion fruit juice. We call itlilikoiin Hawaii, and it’s Conrad’s favorite.” She glared at her son. “Go on, boy. Tell these ladies what they want to know. I don’t want you getting dragged off to jail. You should have a brighter future than that.”

“Indeed, he should,” Sophie said. “Your son is quite brilliant, Mrs. Kanekoa. I have been able to discover how he did what he did and where the money is, but not why.” She gazed at Conrad’s sullen face. “Only you can tell us that, Conrad.”

Chapter Forty

Sophie

Sophie accepted the tall,cool glass of lilikoi juice. She sipped. “Hmm, this is delicious, Mrs. Kanekoa.”

“Please. Call me Jana.” Jana handed Heri Leede a glass of juice, took one herself, and left one on the coffee table for her son, pushing it toward him. Her displeasure with the boy was evident in every gesture. Sophie glanced up to observe how he reacted to that.

The boy was stressed, it was clear to see. His light brown skin was ashy beneath his eyes and on his lips. Though she could tell that he was trying to look angry and defiant, his shoulders were hunched, and he stared at his glass of juice. “I don’t want to talk to you in front of my mom.”

Jana, who had just seated herself in the other lounge chair on the other side of the couch, sprang up again. “I won’t have you disrespecting me! Not in front of these ladies, and not alone either! If you don’t start talking, right now, I might have to send you to your dad’s!”

The boy recoiled. “He’s an asshole, Mom. You can’t do that.”

“Just watch me.” Jana sat down and gulped her juice, setting down the glass with a bang. “I’m staying right here. It’s my right as your guardian to hear whatever you have to say. I need to know it anyway to figure out what to do.”

Leede leaned forward and took a sip of her drink. “This is delightful, Jana! Thanks so much for the refreshment. I understand that these things can be very difficult for families; and it’s clear that you’re shocked and upset by what your son has done. But I encourage you to keep an open mind. He might just have had a philanthropic motive.” Leede angled her body to face the boy. “Do you mind if I record our conversation, Conrad? It might save you having to repeat all this again.”

“Whatever.”

Leede took an electronic pad out of her leather satchel. She swiped to a recording app and pressed it. “Audio only. We are recording now.” Leede named the location, date, time, and the people present. “This is an informal interview, Conrad. An opportunity for you to share what you did, and why.”

“I don’t want to talk about it in front of my mom,” Conrad repeated.

Jana threw up her hands in frustration. “Why? What is so terrible that you can’t say it in front of me?”

Conrad stared at her and tightened his lips mutinously.

Sophie had her laptop fully engaged with the various computers she had been able to tap into. “Jana, maybe it would help if I explained to the group what your son has done, and we could just speculate why he did it. Then he could just say yes or no.”

Jana rolled her eyes. “If that’s what we have to resort to.”

Sophie copied her fellow investigator’s body language by angling herself toward the boy, inclining her upper body as the small laptop sat open on her knees. “Here’s what I’ve been able to discern so far. You set up a series of randomly occurring deductions for the Kama`aina Schools’ bank account, which you had hacked. You had access to your mother’s computer, and you manipulated the numbers you were skimming to feed into the regular bookkeeping. No one noticed the amounts, as they were random, smaller computer-generated numbers, and appeared under various categories of legitimate purchases. You routed the skimmed money to a bank account in the Cayman Islands, opened under a currently unknown alias. Am I correct so far?”

The boy, looking miserable, nodded his head. “Yes.”

Jana opened her mouth, but Leede put a restraining hand on her arm.

Sophie went on. “We also know that you were researching racial-equality type charities. What this tells us, Jana, is that your son was stealing from Kama`aina Schools, but planning to give away the money. A modern-day, anti-racist Robin Hood.”

Jana’s brows drew together and she leaned forward. “What were you doing, son?” Her voice had softened. Her eyes filled. “What did you care about so much that you would do something like this?”

Conrad cleared his throat. His eyes were suspiciously shiny as well. “I know how hard things are for you, Mom. But I feel like it’s wrong that Kama`aina Schools discriminates against students on the basis of race as far as their admissions policy. I took the money and I . . . well, it’s still in the Caymans account, but I was going to give it to a whole bunch of different charities for kids who wouldn’t be able to benefit from a Kama`aina Schools’ education.”

“Like who?” Jana’s eyebrows had risen.

“Black kids. Mexican kids. Even . . . poor white kids.” Conrad stared down at his hands.

---