Cherry Bomb

Hajek had a roundish face and large blue eyes magnified to cartoon-ish extreme by his thick glasses. The top of his head came up to my nose. He had a crush on me, and had asked me out several times over the years. I always deferred, saying I already had a boyfriend. Hopefully he’d have the tact not to ask me again.

Per our call, I met Hajek in one of the many labs, this one crammed with computer equipment, expensive-looking electronic devices, and an impressive collection of empty pizza boxes stacked neatly in the corner.

Hajek, sitting in a swivel chair and peering at a computer, glanced over his shoulder at me when I entered.

“Still raining?”

I held my thumb and index finger an inch apart, indicating a wee bit.

“There are some takeout napkins on the table there, next to that container of Parmesan cheese.”

“I’m fine.” My teeth were only chattering a little.

“You hungry? I still got some pizza left over from lunch. Double pepperoni.”

“No thanks.”

“You don’t like pizza?”

“I just came from a funeral. I’m not very hungry.”

Hajek stared at me, and for a moment I saw his eyes flicker to my boobs, which felt ready to fire two shots across his bow.

“Maybe later to night? You have to eat, and if you want to talk, I’m a good listener.”

“Thanks for offering, Scott.” I tried to sound genuine, even though I was tired and he was a

Hajek blinked, swallowed, and turned back to his desk.

“It’s a PP Tangsung 117EX. Quad-band, GSM 1900 network, MMS and EMS. Or, in non-geek terms, a pay-as-you-go model with enhanced video and messaging capabilities, and a good ante

I shivered. “Traceable?”

Hajek swiveled to face me, except his eyes didn’t meet mine.

“She bought the phone at the mall in Gurnee, Illinois, six days ago. I called them, spoke to the employee who sold it to her. Said it was a tall woman, well built, with bandages on her face. Used a credit card in the name of Sha

“Were you able to trace the call? Where Alex called from? Her number?”

Hajek didn’t answer. His eyes were having a telepathic conversation with my breasts. I folded my arms over my chest.

“Officer Hajek?”

He blinked.

“Captain Bains called me. Said you’re on a leave of absence. You’re not part of this investigation.”

My demeanor grew as cold as my skin.

“So you’re not going to tell me?”

“I could get into trouble, Lieutenant.”

“She killed my fiancé, Scott.”

“I’m sorry about that.”

I could have gone all superior officer on him, but instead I lowered my arms, knowing he’d look at my boobs again. Girl power.

“Please, Scott. Between you and me.”

He licked his lips, then slowly nodded.

“There isn’t a record of her activating the phone. That means she unlocked it, and used a different SIM card as a new number.” He cleared his throat. “Then she spoofed the caller ID.”

“In non-geek, please.”

“Basically, she hacked the phone to make it usable with any network, then put in a stolen Subscriber Identity Module so the calls are being billed to someone else’s account.” He held up the cell. “This phone is using Sha

“Can we find out the number Alex called from?”

“No. Because of the spoof. Alex used this phone as a remote camera, switching it on by calling it. When I checked out the caller ID recorded on the SIM card, it showed that fake number Hollywood uses in movies, 555- 5555.”

I’d seen the 555 number myself, on calls from Alex. She probably thought it was fu

“There are Internet ser vices you can sign up for that let you place a call and leave false caller ID numbers and names. You use a VoIP-a Voice-over Internet Protocol service-and punch in the ten-digit number you’re calling, plus the ten-digit number and name you’d like the recipient to see.”

I frowned. I’d been hoping there was a way to trace it through the provider.

“Can we get all the names of customers who had phones recently stolen, see if we can co

“Do you know how many people lose their phones every day? And not everyone who does reports it. In Mrs. Arnold’s case…”

He let the words trail off. I knew what he meant. Sha

“So there’s no way to find out where she called from?”

Hajek gri

“Tell me, Scott.”

“You sure you don’t want to have a bite to eat later? I live real close.”

The little extortionist. If I hadn’t been on a mandatory leave of absence and warned away from this case, I would have gotten seriously pissed.

“Not to night, Scott. But I’ll have some free time next week.”

“Tuesday?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

He gri

“MMS sent through GSM is stored on the SIM card, which also records the unique TAP/CIBER, which can be put into the HLR database-”

I held up my palm. “The bottom line.”

“If Alex sends video or text messages, I can use the SIM card to get the phone number and basic location of the phone she called from. She activated this camera from a phone in Deer Park.”

“Do you have the phone number?”

“There’s a problem.”

“What problem?”

“I tried calling the number already. When I did, this one rang.” He held up the phone from the cemetery.

“Meaning?”

“Alex must have known the SIM cards could be traced, so she set up a call-forwarding daisy chain. She calls phone number one, and it automatically forwards the call to number two, and so on, to as many phones as she wants, until the last one in the chain receives the call.”

“But if I find the phone, I can bring it to you, and you can trace it to the next one?”

“Sure. But it won’t be easy to find. A cell phone can only be traced to within three hundred meters of its location. It could be in a hotel room, in a parked car, or plugged into an outlet in some public place, like a library or a bus station. She bought twelve phones in Gurnee, plus she could keep adding more to the chain.”

“I’ll chance it. Gimme the number.”

“You need help, Lieutenant. A big team, working on this, is the best way to go.”

I chewed my lower lip, which still was sore from the same encounter with Alex that resulted in twenty-six stitches on my scalp.

“What if we had a phone that wasn’t part of the daisy chain? That was a direct link to Alex?”

“What do you mean?”

Alex had sent me a cell phone in a floral arrangement, during my hospital recuperation. I hadn’t told anyone, even Herb, because I didn’t want it taken away. I wasn’t on Latham’s murder investigation, but I wasn’t about to give up my only link to Alex.

Unfortunately, I needed Hajek’s expertise, and that meant disclosure. I didn’t know if I trusted Hajek. He’d done good by me in the past, but he was a by-the-book kind of guy, all about protocol and chain of evidence and forms in triplicate.

I weighed my choices, realized I had none, and took a leap of faith.

“Alex gave me one of those twelve phones. She’s called me, text messaged me, a few times. Could we get her location from the SIM card?”

Hajek’s face fell. “She gave you a phone?”

He sounded a bit more upset than I would have liked.

“I just said that. Can we get her phone number from it?”

Hajek rolled his chair a few inches backward, like I’d suddenly become a leper.

“Withholding evidence in a murder investigation is a felony, Lieutenant. Obstruction of justice.”