Earthbound : A gripping crime thriller full of twists and supernatural suspense by Fynn Perry (popular romance novels TXT) 📗

forearms: a pistol, flowers, a skull, a heart, and a dagger—follies from his youth and of poor quality––over the years the ink had gradually bled and the skin had slackened, making the images blurred.

David introduced Jennifer and himself. “We’re concerned about the safety of someone you know, the journalist Paul Hamilton,” he said in a low voice.

Lazlo tilted his head as if appraising the father and daughter before him. If Hamilton was in trouble, Lazlo wanted to know about it. The journalist had been very helpful in putting pressure on the mayor’s and the governor’s offices to publicly draw attention in the press to the current under-resourcing of detective squads, which was allowing gangs to thrive. And Hamilton’s efforts had worked. Lazlo had got extra officers allocated to his team. This had allowed him to take down some smaller Ukrainian and Haitian crime rings dealing with drugs and prostitution.

“Come with me,” Lazlo said quietly and invited them into a meeting room.

David kept the details of his previous friendship with Hamilton to a minimum, avoiding mentioning his past life as state prosecutor for Miami. He fabricated a story, which he claimed to have also told Hamilton, about a worker who was being forced to work at a secret drug-manufacturing facility, packing pills inside consumer goods for transportation, hidden beneath a respectable-looking fulfillment center and apparently owned by the same people who distributed the manufactured drugs. David continued to elaborate the fictitious story. The worker, he lied, had come in to see him at the legal clinic for advice. He had declined to give his own name or that of his employers, despite the information being subject to attorney-client privilege. Lazlo listened carefully. David continued, stating that Hamilton had later gone out to do his own research and had summarized it in an email with photos that he had sent to David’s daughter’s email account. He decided to leave out the part, for now at least, about the fantastical-sounding brewing of the drugs. His ‘client’ wouldn’t be privy to how the pills were being made and it would be better to have the detective onboard first with the existence of a hidden drug-manufacturing center, which he could back up with Hamilton’s photos.

“Why involve your daughter?” Lazlo asked.

It was a good question and one for which David didn’t have a suitable answer. “We’re family. We share all our problems,” he said rather weakly.

Lazlo shrugged. He wondered if he had stumbled upon some kind of family of conspiracy theorists for a second, but the guy was supposedly a lawyer, and if Hamilton was looking into it, the story must have some merit. “Show me the mail and the photos,” he said, wrinkling his brow.

Jennifer pulled out her laptop from her bag and placed it on the table, opening it with the back of the screen facing Lazlo. He watched her wait as it powered up and then type in a password. As she peered intently at the screen, he noticed her expression of deep concentration, gradually change to one of increasing concern. “It’s not here!” she panicked. “It was sent at around four this morning, but it’s gone. Wait—there is a later mail from Paul. That’s strange, it’s blank. But there’s an attachment…” she said, clicking on it.

“Don’t open it!” John and Lazlo shouted, almost in unison. But she had already done so.

“Oh, shit!” Jennifer exclaimed as the screen went blank except for a small alert window, which popped open in the middle. In it were three words: WIPING IN PROCESS!!!

The alert was accompanied by the image of a creepy-looking, pink cartoon rabbit’s head, which tilted from side to side and appeared to be laughing as it moved around the screen silently. There were no buttons to press in the window and it couldn’t be closed. Nothing else was accessible on the display. “Shit! Shit! What’s happening?” she screamed, now highly alarmed.

“Quick, give it to me!” Lazlo grabbed the laptop and ran out of the meeting room.

John followed Lazlo down the corridor and through a door with a small sign bearing the words IT Dept. Beneath this was a worn sticker with the words Genius at work.

“Check if this is a legit virus, will you, Harry?” he shouted to the only person in the room, a skinny guy sitting hunched over a laptop. The specialist had red-framed glasses and a mop of brown hair. He didn’t look up as he reached out for the laptop. He seemed to be impervious to any stress or urgency as he methodically connected another laptop to Jennifer’s machine and started calmly, but quickly, typing away. As he typed, he periodically shook his head slightly from side to side as if to say, ‘Well, that didn’t work.’

David and Jennifer had now joined Lazlo and were standing in the doorway.

The IT guy turned around in his chair to face them. “Your laptop?”

Jennifer nodded.

“No go,” he said very calmly, and continued in a dull monotone. “You’ve been attacked by a virus. This one is fast, efficient, and tailored to the recipient. Whoever made it is a pro.” He shrugged and glanced at Jennifer and David.

Jennifer went pale. “It came from Paul’s email,” she blurted to Lazlo. “He wouldn’t do that! What does it mean?”

The computer nerd swiveled back to look at his screen again as he answered in a matter-of-fact tone, “It could be a remote hacking of this guy’s email account or the guy could have given access to this hacker directly.”

Jennifer tried Paul’s number on her mobile again. “There’s no response! What if someone has got to him and killed him?”

David put his arm around her and gestured to Lazlo that they needed a moment.

“Take Meeting Room Two,” Lazlo said, pointing to a door on the opposite side of the corridor, after noticing someone had just occupied the meeting room they had previously used.

They entered the room and sat down. Jennifer was badly shaken. David assumed that although he couldn’t see him, John was talking to Jennifer now, given