Michael

James looks sick at heart. “They sent an email to Charlotte which appeared to come from me. And so of course, she responded to it. And because there was nothing amiss with any of the content and the link was to a trustworthy website, there was nothing for her security to pick up on…

“Whoever did this, they've hacked a completely legitimate company, a supplier of lingerie and other perfectly innocent goods. Charlotte could have worked her way all around that website and the only damage would have been the spend on her credit card, until she hit that single image. And they ensured she would hit it by making it look like a request from me.

“After that, Charlotte replied to my email and I clicked it open. The fucking thing infected my system and I didn’t spot a thing because I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I don’t follow all this,” I say. “So what’s this infection done, James?”

He sucks at his cheeks, as though trying to work up saliva. Then, speaking as though making a confession, “While Klempner was here, I hacked his phone. Or to be precise, he uploaded an image I sent him, one of those of Baxter while we were searching for him. The image was a lot more than it appeared to be. I’d set it up as a Trojan into his system which meant I could keep an eye on him wherever he was…”

James raises a finger… “That is what I was telling Will about when he was deciding whether or not to arrest Klempner. I knew that at the time of Mickey’s stabbing, Klempner was nowhere near. He couldn’t have been the attacker. Will took that as a sign of good faith. With that information and the promise that I would keep an eye on where Klempner was at all times, he accepted that he didn’t need to arrest him.”

“So…?” prompts Richard.

“So… Klempner destroyed that phone. I’m guessing he realised I’d got a tracker on him. The phone went out of commission just after he spoke to us that day he found Baxter…”

Richard folds arms. “I detect a But coming into the conversation…”

his

he got himself a new mobile… the moment he logged into his

now, I’ve been hacked, more than that… I’ve been suckered. The moment the hacker obtained access to my machine, they set about searching out

There’s more…

that, because I messaged him, because he opened my messages, their virus

says Richard slowly… “Our hacker is

at the

say… “…We can assume the hacker is Juliana… Sola…

“Who else?”

Juliana not only knows where he is? She has access to

about the size of

better let him know, pretty damn

message to

cue,

rises quickly.

his side. “What can I do for

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