Page 28 of Just Tonight

“Barney Sutherland,” he said.

“Agent Connor, and Cami Lark, IT specialist,” Connor introduced them. Sutherland was already glancing uneasily at the airport security line, which was just as long and slow moving as the traffic on the road had been.

“Listen, it’s going to take me ten minutes to get through there. And my flight boards in twenty. So I’m in a rush. I don’t think I have the time to get into a conversation now.” He looked stressed and impatient, just the way Cami felt.

“Appreciate you waiting,” Connor said. “Let me get to the point, and I can also get you to the front of the security line, which will save some time.”

“You sure about that?”

Connor nodded. “I promise you that if I tell airport security we were interviewing you, they’ll let you through that side door on the left, and take you to the front of the line.”

“Okay,” Sutherland agreed, still frowning.

He sat back down, and Connor brought over two more chairs from other tables. Nestled together in the busy coffee shop environment, around the small table with an empty espresso cup on it, Connor explained the background.

“We have had two murders occurring at homes where your company’s smart systems were installed,” he said.

Immediately, Cami could feel the atmosphere sharpen. Defensiveness was bristling from Sutherland, just from those few spoken words. It made her instinctively feel suspicious. Why would he be so defensive? Was there a weak point in the systems that he’d known about?

"I can't help that," he shot back at Connor. "We have thousands of clients – literally, our users now number in the thousands. If there are murders at one or two of the sites, it's tragic, but I don't see how it's my fault. How is it possibly anything to do with me?"

"Tell me about your company," Connor said, ignoring the way that Sutherland was bristling at them. "Tell me who works for you who does the installations, and what the protocols are. Who does the services and who accesses the smart home operations if things go wrong?"

“So you want me to give away all my company secrets to you?” Sutherland accused, causing Cami to feel even more flummoxed about why, exactly, he was arguing back so much.

“We need to know who to look at,” Connor said.

“We have a team of installers who work in various states, and we use about ten or fifteen different specialists. Then our service and maintenance team is probably about twenty people,” he said, reluctantly, but at least they were getting the answers. “The rest of our workforce is made up of onsite admin staff, salespeople, marketing, accounts people, and then some janitors and maintenance workers. Nobody but our installers and service team has access to client login details. I guarantee that.”

“And how does the installation work?” Connor asked. Just as Sutherland took a clearly annoyed and argumentative breath, Connor continued. “The reason I’m asking is that these homes were nonfunctional. Your keypads were not working when we arrived at the crime scenes. Nothing was linked. And at least one of the homes had problems in the past. One of the clients had called in a couple of electricians to try to sort it out, and even other specialists as well.”

“That’s impossible,” Sutherland argued, but Connor shook his head.

"We saw it for ourselves. And in due course, when the media starts researching the crimes, these facts are going to come out. Everyone in your company could be under suspicion."

Now, Cami saw his face change. At last, he was understanding what the full implications might be.

Connor continued, stern and assured. “It’s going to create a massive amount of bad publicity for you. Murders terrify people. Dysfunctional smart home systems that might have allowed a killer to access them are going to be something they latch onto. Now, if your company's name comes to light as a common factor, what do you think the consequences will be?"

“Yes, okay,” Sutherland capitulated. “I can see the consequences would be very serious for us.”

“Let’s start with you. Where were you yesterday evening?”

He sighed. “I was in a conference, on site at a hotel, with three of my senior crew members, and two new clients who want to use us in a roll-out of new developments they’re planning. The meeting went on for the whole afternoon and only wrapped up when we all had dinner. So I guess I’m cleared, right?”

Listening to the conversation, Cami was starting to put two and two together in her head. Now she had a question for the CEO, based on what he’d said so far, and also on what he hadn’t said.

“Please, Mr. Sutherland,” she said politely, causing his head to turn sharply and for him to fix her with his dark, and rather intimidating, stare. “I have a question.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Can the whole operating system be remotely accessed? I mean, you say you work in a number of states on the east coast. And actually, your repair team is quite small. No way could twenty people keep track of more than a thousand installations over such a wide area if they had to go there physically, could they?”

She knew she was right. The logic dictated it. And sure enough, he gave a nod of assent.

“Yes. Most of our problems can be fixed remotely.”

Cami glanced at Connor. “So, how’s that done? Is there an override code, something that they can key in to take control of the system and go through it and test it?”

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