office could see it as a reminder of God’s goodness.
Holly could feel herself smiling, reminded again about how good God was in every situation. “We sure can. And if you want to, we can pray together right now for that, and a little guidance on how to spend the rest of this Christmas present money from Jake in a way that will make his mom happy, honor the Lord and do the best things for the shelter.”
Half an hour later Holly was on her way to the office, buoyed up by the prayer time and discussion she’d had with Jessica, and the knowledge that she’d gotten this errand done quickly and so well. She stopped at the coffee shop in the lobby, never doubting for a moment that Jake hadn’t made coffee upstairs. He drank plenty when it was made, but didn’t bother making a pot just for himself. So she ordered a latte for herself and their largest cup of dark roast for Jake, complete with the three ice cubes he always had them put in the cup to bring the brew to his perfect drinking temperature. Going up the elevator took less time than usual, at what seemed like midmorning for her. When she got to her office, there was only one light on and her computer screen was dark, giving the front office an eerie, almost cavelike look. From his slightly open doorway, she could hear Jake talking to himself, and small metallic noises.
She set her coffee down along with her purse and knocked on his door. “Hey, Jake. You mind company as long as I come bearing coffee?”
“Come on in, Holly, as long as you can stand the mess in here.”
She started to say something glib about never minding the condition of his office, but froze a step into the place and forced her mouth closed to keep her shock from showing. “Uh, Jake? I think Barclay’s computer exploded.” The tower housing of the machine was in pieces and there were bits of the insides of the computer strung out over almost every flat surface in the room.
Jake laughed and took the coffee from her. He took a long drink before he said anything, setting the cup down on a small island of clear space on his desk. “I know. It’s not the commonest way to find somebody’s passwords, but I’m down to desperate measures. See, you can find the BIOS password by taking apart hardware, and I’m figuring that this will lead me to the other passwords I need to open the files he thought he’d hidden. I found them, just can’t open them.”
“Okay.” The room still looked like the elephant’s graveyard of computer parts. Holly trusted her boss to do the right thing in most situations, but this was a new one on her. “There sure looks like there’s more than one computer in all this.”
“There is. Somewhere along the line someone apparently expected this kind of interference. So when I opened up the tower, there were dummy circuits as well as the real thing. I looked around this morning until I found somebody with a similar unit and borrowed it for a little while to compare the innards.”
“This means that somewhere in this building is an agent who has no idea that his computer, which he loaned you, is now totally in pieces.”
Jake’s grin was a delight. “Well, yeah, but it’s Bob. He doesn’t use his computer all that much anyway, and I’m nearly to the point of putting it back together. He’ll never know what it went through. In fact, it will probably run smoother once he gets it back.”
Holly just shook her head. “As long as mine’s in one piece. Now give me your lunch order. I’ve already decided I’m going to run over to the café and bring stuff back about one. From now on we’re eating healthy and keeping to as regular hours as possible.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said, throwing her a mock salute. “And thanks for the coffee. It really hit the spot.”
“You’re welcome.” Holly was surprised he even noticed. If she had this much hardware strung across her office, she wouldn’t have noticed a mere cup of coffee. She did the rest of her morning’s work to the accompanying tune of Jake putting the two computers back together and continuing to talk to himself while he did it. As far as Holly was concerned, there were few sweeter sounds outside the church choir.
Jake looked around at the piles of stuff in his office, wondering if he could really put it back together as easily as he’d told Holly that he could. She was a great assistant, and thought he could do anything. He hated to disabuse her of that notion. If anything would, it would be this case they were preparing for the prosecutors. Everybody knew that Barclay was working for La Mano Oscura, the drug ring that was bringing tons of junk into Colorado Springs. But Barclay had certainly hidden his connections well. So well that even though he’d ratted out his boss in Venezuela, Baltasar Escalante, there just wasn’t the trail leading back to Barclay that would let prosecutors convict him of the worst of the charges against him. They needed proof that matched Escalante’s files to Barclay.
While Jake toyed with all the options for opening those files on Barclay’s hard drive that could provide that proof, he put Bob’s computer back together. It wasn’t a difficult job. During college and in the twelve years since he’d built far more complicated computers himself from parts. In fact, he preferred building his own because it allowed him to look at the circuit boards fairly quickly and see whether or not someone had tampered with anything.
By the time Bob’s tower was back together, Holly was at his door again. “Okay, I’m double checking your lunch order before I go over to Aunt Lidia’s and get it.”
Jake glanced at the watch his long-sleeved shirt hid. “Man, time flies when you’re having fun.”
“So does the snow. It’s been snowing off and on all morning since I came in. Can I borrow your car keys to take Big Red on the lunch run? I’ll be nice to him, I promise.”
Jake fished around in his pocket. As late as he’d made Holly come in, her Jeep was more than likely in a parking space she’d lose if she left it for lunch now. Especially on a snowy day. Since his spot was reserved, it made more sense to let her drive his vehicle. “Sure. And the soup and sandwich I ordered earlier are fine, unless they have apple pie left this late. Then get me a piece of that, too.”
Holly caught the keys he tossed her and grinned. “Already done. I had Aunt Lidia save two slices so they’d be there this late. Otherwise it was no chance. I’ll be back in twenty or so.”
“See you then.” He started putting the screws back into Bob’s tower housing, ready to take it back to the other agent. As he’d told Holly, no one would ever know that the machine had been in pieces on his floor and desk half an hour ago.
He’d dropped the unit off in Bob’s office and was back, reassembling parts of Barclay’s when Holly came in with the bags and bundles that made up lunch. He could hear her rattling around in the outer office, and expected to hear one of her always cheerful greetings. Instead she was standing silently at his doorway a moment later, and she looked upset.
“Hey, you’re back. What’s up?” He laid down his tools and came to the doorway to greet her. His normally smiling assistant looked on the brink of tears.
“I was careful like always, and I parked in one of the café’s twenty-minute spots right in front. I took my eyes off your car only for a minute or two inside.” Her lip was trembling.
“It can’t be that bad, because you drove back here, right? What happened, did somebody hit Red?” If so, they would have come out the worse for wear unless they were driving the biggest truck or SUV on the market. He couldn’t see what Holly was this worked up about.
“Worse. Somebody scratched the paint all the way down the passenger side. It wasn’t a little thing like an accidental door ding, either, Jake. Looked like a screwdriver
