Page 14 of Knight's Desire

Hope could only pick at her chicken salad as she watched Sydney work. She had a bad feeling the computer analyst would not find anything good. She had no idea what was going on, but she couldn’t shake the notion that someone was trying to drive her crazy.

“Look at this.”

Kayla abandoned her own lunch and fixated on the ticket that showed the order and payment.

Hope waved a hand as a signal to brush it off. “Don’t worry about the mix-up with the deli.”

Kayla shook her head. “No, Hope, look. The time was recorded when they rang up the order. Remember when you told me to order lunch? This is the time I called, but the phone was busy. Then I got distracted and was later in calling in an order. But this order was placed for us. Almost like someone knew we were busy and wanted to help us out or something. Could Parker have done this?”

“No, he’s been in client meetings all day. Are you sure it’s the same time?”

“Positive. I was looking at the time on the phone when I called. That’s weird.”

“A lot of weird stuff has been happening lately,” Hope murmured, not realizing she said the words aloud.

“You’re right! What if the person who sent the flowers ordered lunch for us too? You could have a secret admirer or something.”

“I think these days they call that a stalker, and I don’t think that’s what this is. There has to be an explanation for the flowers and the rest. We just haven’t figured it out yet.”

“Well, I figured out one thing for you,” Sydney interjected, barely sparing a glance from the monitor in front of her. “Your computer’s been hacked.”

“What? Can you tell who?” Hope moved over to Sydney and stared over her shoulder at the rows of computer code on the screen.

“You were sent a trojan horse. A virus disguised as something legitimate, but once you open it, it infects your system. This one came from an email requesting an appointment, but once they gained access to your system, they were able to mess around,” Sydney explained.

“Did they access our clients’ personal information or payment information? I don’t want someone’s identity to be stolen.”

“I only see evidence of them messing with your order system, but I can’t be sure. I’ll do some more poking around to see if I can detect just how much they messed with. I also cleaned the virus off your system and added some additional security. But you said there have been other things happening?”

“Someone broke into the Shoppe.”

“What? When?” Kayla exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me this.”

“Because I felt foolish. Nothing was stolen or damaged. The worse they did was change out the dresses on the mannequins.”

“I knew something was off when I came into work this morning!”

Hope frowned as she nodded. “They left sunflowers and the smell of cologne behind. Oh, and I’m missing a sketch from my drafting table, but I can’t be sure that wasn’t accidentally thrown away or blown off the table and under the furniture or something.”

“Did you report the break-in?” Sydney’s tone was gentle as if she sensed Hope was more unnerved by what was going on than she wanted Kayla to know.

Hope shook her head, her lips pursed in frustration. “Can you imagine what the cops would say if I reported someone giving me flowers and dressing the mannequins? They’ll think I’m crazy, and then what if my clients find out. I’ve only been in business a few months, and reputation is everything. Something like this – that makes me seem paranoid and crazy – could ruin my business.”

Hope expected the computer analyst to beat a hasty retreat from the crazy woman who was imagining threats that didn’t exist. Instead, Sydney cleared her throat and gave her a slight smile. “Look, it’s none of my business, but I work for the PI firm next door. We’ve seen all types of cases, and you wouldn’t believe the things that go unreported because people don’t want to risk law enforcement not taking them seriously. But it’s better to have a report on record in case something happens again. We have contacts with the Sheriff’s Department I can talk with and ask if they would file a report. They will treat you with respect. I promise.”

“She’s right,” Kayla interjected. “Even if nothing was stolen, they still broke in. If they think they’ve gotten away with it, they could do it again, and next time they could steal something or wreck something or worse.”

Hope started to protest, but she couldn’t bring herself to say the words. She felt everything was getting blown out of proportion, but what Sydney and Kayla said made sense. She couldn’t imagine why someone would choose her or her Shoppe to harass, but the who and the why were not as important as making sure she was covered should it happen again.

“Okay. Sydney, I would appreciate you calling the Sheriff’s Department on my behalf, and I would appreciate anything you can do with our computer system to protect our clients’ information.”

Sydney smiled reassuringly. “Of course. I’m happy to help.”

∞∞∞

Brick barely registered putting his truck in park. His attention focused on the two patrol cars parked next door. A sheriff’s deputy stood next to one, making notes in a notepad while two others stood outside the wedding dress store, pointing to the front door and display window as they discussed something. His mind took him back to earlier that morning when the pretty brunette left in a rush. Her fearful eyes and expression of unease had haunted him during random moments of the day, and now curiosity had him crossing the parking lot over to the store front.

“Hey,” he greeted the two deputies, interrupting their serious conversation. “What brings you to my neighborhood?”

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