Page 34 of Nick
“Can I talk with Destiny? I’m hoping she can help me with some computer-related stuff.”
“Uh, sure, come in.” Dane ushered Nick into the living area before turning to yell toward the stairs, “Des, honey, Nick’s here. He’s got a couple of questions for you.”
“Be right down.”
The clip-clop-thump of feet running down the stairs preceded Destiny’s appearance through the side opening into the kitchen. Looking a bit disheveled, she brushed her hair back off her face and offered Nick a tentative smile. He had the feeling he’d interrupted some personal time between the two.
“Hi, Nick. What can I help you with?”
“You’re the best computer person I know here in the States. Wondered if I might pick your brain with a couple of questions.”
“Dude, she’s one of the best computer experts in the world. At least according to good old Uncle Sam, who keeps trying to steal her away to work for them.”
Destiny bumped her shoulder against Dane’s. “Stop. You know I’m not going anywhere.”
“Darn right, you’re not.” Dane placed a brief kiss against Destiny’s forehead. “Their loss is my gain.”
“Um, you guys want me to come back later?” Nick almost felt like an unwanted third wheel. While it was lovely to see one of the Boudreau brothers happy, he needed help figuring out whether his hunch about the twins held water.
“No, it’s okay. What can I help with? I’m always up for a little computer sleuthing. Please, please, tell me you want me to help you spy on somebody important. Maybe the Prime Minister of Australia? Oh, I could dig into ASIS, let you look at your file?” Destiny’s expression was filled with mischief, and Nick bet Dane had his hands full trying to keep this one on the straight and narrow.
“Thanks, maybe another time for some fun. Right now, I need you to help me look into a couple of people. Twin sisters. Cassandra and Alexandra Norville.”
“Norville? That name’s familiar. Isn’t that one of the men you mentioned to Dad you suspect of being involved in Antonio’s shooting?” Dane motioned for Nick to follow him and Destiny into an office space tucked away in the back of the house, past the kitchen.
“Simon Norville. Yeah, he’s at the top of the list of persons of interest. The twins are his nieces.”
Destiny sat and immediately started typing, her hands flying across the keyboard. There were three color monitors across the desktop, and photos and pages of data began populating each as she typed. Finally, she stopped and began explaining what she’d found.
“The picture on the left is Cassandra Norville. That’s her passport photo, which was issued about eighteen months ago. Prior to that, she didn’t have one. The picture on the right is Alexandra. Again, that’s her passport photo. Hers is less than a year old. They’re definitely identical twins. The only thing distinguishing them is their hair. Alexandra’s looks like it’s her natural color, what I’d call a mousy brown. Cassandra on the other hand has changed hers to platinum blonde.”
Nick studied the photos of the twins closely. He didn’t recognize either of them, though up until six months ago, he’d been involved in the Brashear case, and hadn’t been back in Australia much. Deep undercover, he been too focused on bringing down the human trafficking ring to pay much attention to his prior arrests.
“You’ll note that Alexandra’s passport has never been used. Cassandra’s looks like a frequent flyer, a different country almost every month. Lucky girl.” She pointed to a different monitor. “She writes travel articles for a magazine-type blog, The Travel Bug. Not a very original name. Doesn’t look like they’ve got a lot of traffic to their site, either. Lemme see who owns the mag.” Her fingers raced across the keys, and she gave a grunt of satisfaction. “Yeah, just what I thought. Cassandra owns the domain for the magazine. Interestingly, she started it just over six months ago. Pays all her own expenses for travel, meals, etc.”
“You got all that in less than five minutes? I’m impressed.”
“Oh, Nick, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It would be easier if you could tell me what you’re looking for.”
“My boss has been looking into any connection between Simon Norville and the hit on my life. So far he’s dug up three family members who have visited Norville while he’s been incarcerated. The twins, who are his nieces, and a nephew, Jesse Norville.” As Nick spoke, Destiny started typing, giving him a keep going motion. “We’ve pretty much eliminated Jesse. He’s only left Australia once in the past six months, on a work trip to London.”
“Are you thinking Norville hired somebody, or had somebody do the dirty work for him, since he’s not allowed to use computers?” Dane leaned against the wall while Destiny worked, though he had kept a silent vigil until now. “Dad mentioned something about Norville being in a wheelchair.”
“He is. Paralyzed from a fall which he blames me for. We struggled during his arrest, when he tried to run. I tackled him and we fell down a flight of stairs. Man hates my guts.”
“Um, guys, somethings not adding up here.” Destiny looked at Nick. “Take a look at this.” She pointed to a photo on the third monitor.
“What am I looking at?”
“I might have been tinkering with a facial recognition program that a friend developed. Really cool stuff, a whole lot better than anything available on the market today. He sent me a copy a few months ago, and we’ve been making adjustments and tinkering. Stefan Carlisle works for Carpenter Security Services in New Orleans, and people who know about this software are ready and willing to toss billions of dollars his way to license it. Anyway, this right here is a surveillance photo of Cassandra Bishop five and a half months ago in Greece. Athens, to be more precise.”
“Right. Calvin said she was in Athens right around that time.”
“By every account, he’s absolutely right. The passport shows Cassandra Bishop. Identification shows it’s her too. Plane ticket, hotel, they all show Cassandra Bishop. Except this,” she tapped the screen, “isn’t Cassandra. It’s Alexandra.”
“Wait, what? How can you tell?”
“Like I said, awesome facial recognition software. I won’t go into all the technical stuff you probably wouldn’t understand about pixels and finite measurements and all that jazz. But there are subtle differences which aren’t visible to the naked eye. Like the cheekbones being higher and wider on Alexandra. By millimeters, but it’s there. It’s hard to explain. There’re also indications she’s wearing a wig.”
