the one whiskey he allowed himself in any twenty-four-hour period, he thought of her hiding in the bathroom to speak to him and grinned as he looked out over the green grass beyond the half wall surrounding his yard.
Of course she’d be out. “Michael?” The concern in her tone sobered him, so he gave her the bad news all at once.
“Someone is not only using your old email address as a screen name, they’ve hacked into your email account, too.”
“Who’s doing it?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ve traced an IP address to a physical address not far from your place in LA.” He wasn’t sure how much he wanted to tell her. He sure as hell didn’t want her confronting anyone herself. “I still don’t know what we’re dealing with here, Kace,” he told her. “There’s no evidence that your address has been used for anything other than to register for the account used to post the one photo. I’ve searched deep and I don’t find anything else.”
“But it’s a concern that they used my email address.”
That was putting it mildly.
“The first thing I’d like to do is talk to Lacey...”
He’d met her sister several times, mostly at the Lemonade Stand. Jem, Lacey’s husband, had been in counseling at the Stand for most of the past year. Mike had also chatted with Kacey’s family at several of the Stand’s social functions.
They’d invited him to do more, to join them at their place for dinner a time or two, but he couldn’t let that happen. Couldn’t risk giving anyone the impression that he and Kacey could or should be paired off as a couple. If that happened, things would only grow uncomfortable between them and inevitably have a negative impact on their friendship.
But for business, with Kacey in Beverly Hills, he could stop by her sister’s place.
“No. I don’t want you bothering Lacey with this. She and Jem have been married three months and are only just this next week leaving for a honeymoon in Italy. Mom and Dad are going to be watching Levi for an entire seven days. I don’t want that messed up.”
“We need to talk to her, Kace,” he said. “We need to know who could have had access to her account information. Is it on her computer at work? Could someone there be behind this?”
“I have no idea.”
“I don’t, either, but we need to find out.”
Her pause let him breathe a little easier.
“Okay, but let me tell her about it.”
“Then have her call me.”
“Okay. I’ll call her as soon as we hang up.”
He had a thought about dinner and the show. Wondering how much time she had. And how patient Bo Neanderthal would be.
“I have a lunch meeting tomorrow in LA,” he continued. “I plan to drive in a little early and check out the physical address where the IP address is registered.” Before she suggested she could do it herself, he added, “But in the meantime, I’d like to know how many people actually knew and used this email address.”
“Just Lacey and me.”
“I mean, who might have known it from emails you’ve sent.”
“I have no idea...” Her voice trailed off and he heard a toilet flush. Heard her chuckle and make a muffled comment. “Sorry, someone was in here. We haven’t sent emails or given out the address in years. Not since Lacey went to college. But when we were in high school, our close friends had it.”
“I’ll need those names.”
“Okay, but...should I be calling the police, Michael?”
“And tell them what? That someone used your email account to post a picture of you?”
“A Photoshopped picture.”
“But coming from your account.”
“But it made me look...drunk. Or high.”
“A year ago, from what you’ve said, the depiction would have been accurate, so it would be hard to prove a motive of maliciousness, or even harm.”
“It’s illegal to hack into someone’s email account.”
He heard the tiger in her voice and almost smiled again.
“Yes, it is, but until we have proof that it’s happened, or proof that malicious harm is intended, or any harm, we have nothing to take to anyone. This could be little more than a prank.”
“Do you think that’s what it is?”
He wanted to tell her he did. Simply to ease her mind.
“No. What I want is for you to be careful. Watch over your shoulder, but live your life and let me do what I do...”
“Okay.” She sounded...definite.
“How soon can you get me those names?” He had all night.
“You want me to cancel my evening plans? I can go home right now and look through past emails. At the advice of an agent, Lacey and I have always saved everything we’ve ever sent or received. They’re on flash drives. I’m happy to go now if you think it’s necessary.”
Poor Bo.
“No, that’s fine. But call Lacey for me, would you? I’d like to speak with her tonight, while she’s at home, just in case there’s someone in her office who’s trying to cause trouble.”
He didn’t think that was what had happened. At all. Whoever had posted the picture had clearly been after Kacey. But to what purpose? Why now, after she’d stopped living the wild, partying lifestyle?
Ringing off, he reminded himself that the purpose was not his business. His job was internet investigation. Beyond that was up to Kacey. Or, if things turned bad, the police.
* * *
THE LAST THING in the world Kacey wanted to do was phone her sister with her crap. Their whole lives Lacey had been the one to take care of things, whether it was smoothing the way with their parents when Kacey had gotten them into trouble or getting rid of an unwanted suitor—and, their whole lives, Kacey had been the one to shine.
Over the years, while she hadn’t understood it and had been hurt horribly by it, she and Lacey had grown further apart. Until one day her identical twin, her other half, had left her. Just...left.
Well, Lacey had told her that she was going—but only the day before. Then she’d packed up and walked out. Left the modeling business. The commercial-making business. They’d been in front of the camera together since they were too young to do anything but look cute and gurgle, and Lacey had broken up the team.
They’d become almost strangers after that—as much as identical twins who still saw each other often and talked every week could be strangers.
Then
