Predator (13 page)

I frightened a little mouse, under her chair.

Pussycat, pussycat, why weren’t you careful on the Internet?

I behaved very badly; I behaved like a slut
;

Pussycat, pussycat, where do you go from here?

To a place called Hell, my angel, now that you know fear!

—The Predator

The Cyber Search

It was nearly noon. A warm breeze rustled the leaves as its silent caress rippled through the green alleys of the vineyard. The place looked deserted and eerie. The grapevines safeguarded their deep dark secrets.

The subdued humming of the machines in the cold server room enveloped a tense and distracted Salmonella. She sat staring at her computer screen as though waiting for a magical message from Grace to pop up on the screen to say she was fine. Chief sat in the swivel chair beside her, scribbling notes in a little pad.

He was charting a strategic game plan with the cyber search. Derek sat on the other side of Salmonella, alternating between Temple Run and Angry Birds on his iPad. Chief had made sure he had muted the irritating sound effects.

Salmonella, Derek and Chief had a history together. They’d hung out a lot during their college days, shared all the ups and downs of academic life together, and were very comfortable with each other. Derek always made Salmonella smile, and she harboured a soft spot for him.

During this trip, they had instantly re-connected and resumed their easy camaraderie. Their worry about Grace had strengthened their bonds.

The door beeped, and Salmonella turned to see Inspector Khan carefully picking his way over the criss-crossing wires that semi-carpeted the server room. ‘You’ve got to do something about this mess, Florence Jones, or should I say Miss Indiana Jones?’ said Inspector Khan in a gruff voice.

Salmonella smiled wryly. She outlined her plan for the next few hours to the Inspector, Chief and Derek. She noticed Inspector Khan scratch his head doubtfully. The server room looked haphazard and highly disorganized to the untutored, and did not inspire much confidence.

Salmonella smiled, ‘Whether you like it or not, these wires make the perfect snare for the amateurs in the cyber world. That includes you, Inspector, for I can tell, you aren’t really what one would call “tech-savvy”.’

‘Look, I admit I don’t understand the world of Internet, so I need your help with it. I want to run a trace for the past six months on your brother, Chris. The search party found a wallet and a fabled party pill,’ said Inspector Khan bluntly. He saw the blood drain from Salmonella’s face, and her hand moved up instinctively to the scar on her cheek. Khan added in a softer tone, ‘I’m sorry, but he’s one of my key suspects. You need to bullet proof your heart, and be unbiased … ’

Salmonella nodded, and without taking her eyes away from the monitor, said, ‘Why can’t you tell your cyber sleuths to do it, Inspector?’

‘Well, I don’t want to trigger a witch hunt. Just so you know, Salmonella, your Dad and your boyfriend are suspects as well … ’ Inspector Khan realized there was no easy way to tell Salmonella of his suspicions. After a pause, and careful not to upset her any more, he added, ‘I’ve been doing a bit of sleuthing myself.’

‘Great stuff, Inspector’, Chief butted in. ‘And we’ve been at the job since dawn. Just so you know, we’ve managed to trace Grace’s online activity across the Internet and phone apps that she’s been using for the past six months. We have been able to generate her complete digital footprint. Here … ’ he thrust his little, notepad towards Inspector Khan, ‘that’s her physical footprint of area coverage.’

‘And what would be your assessment?’ asked Inspector Khan, taking the book from Chief. He opened the notebook and slowly flipped through the pages of Chief ’s exhaustive research.

Salmonella took a sip from the styrofoam cup of steaming coffee to steady herself. She was still feeling shaken by the Inspector’s disclosure of his list of suspects. She couldn’t help but have fond memories of some of the good times she’d spent with Chris, Joe and Prince.

Inspector Khan figured that locking the ones she cared for into a list of suspects must be really hard for her. Salmonella ignored the look of concern in the cop’s eyes and said, ‘Statistics show that in terms of physical distance covered, most of the missing persons are usually found within a radius of 40 km. Your search perimeter, I hope, has covered that much.’

Inspector Khan snorted. He was busily flipping through Chief ’s notes and spoke impatiently, ‘“
Gone missing
” is a very local issue. Most of the victims are usually found within a span of a five-kilometre radius. I know that. Tell me something I don’t know!’

‘Listen then, Inspector! Foursquare, which is a location-based social networking site, tells us all about Grace’s physical footprint. We know for a fact that for the past six months, she left town just for a week, to go abroad. Otherwise, her whole life revolved around a radius of 20 km and which included her bank, her workplace, the beauty salon, coffee joints, pubs, clubs, grocery stores and home,’ said Salmonella, her screen showing a map of Grace’s virtual footprint that she’d generated.

Inspector Khan stared at the monitor looking at all the geo-location badges that dotted the map superimposed on the physical map of town. Staring at an out of place badge at the farthest corner in the map, he asked, ‘What’s that place? All the other places are within a 10 km radius, except that one.’

‘That’s Joe’s vineyard’, replied Chief. ‘These locations are flagged up by the GPS hardware in the mobile device, the cell phone in her case. Or, it could be from the network location provided by the application.’

Salmonella looked surprised by the inference.

‘Interesting! Which mobile phone was she using, Salmonella? And did she go to the vineyard often?’ asked Inspector Khan, pleased with himself, his bloodhound instincts stirring.

Salmonella launched into an incomprehensible dialect, ‘See, Foursquare supports iOS, Symbian, Series 40, MeeGo, Android, WebOS, Windows, Bada, Blackberry and PlayStation Vita applications. Of course, Grace uses a Smartphone – she’s got only one number. She’s an Apple addict. She visited the vineyard just the once, when she accompanied me … and that was over a year ago!’ Salmonella’s eyes remained glued to the desktop screen, and added quietly, ‘I’m sorry, that was unnecessary technical jargon.’

Inspector Khan nodded wisely, not knowing how to respond.

She looked intently at information scrolling while her fingers were busy caressing the keyboard as if waiting for some unknown information to manifest on its own.

‘Well, are you sure that’s Grace’s virtual footprint, Salmonella? Can you click on every badge and tell us if that’s a mark from an Apple Smartphone or anything different?’ Chief was wondering whether the model, OS version and other details could confirm that that the digital footprint was indeed of Grace and had emanated from a single Smartphone.

Inspector Khan handed the little notepad back to Chief, and stared at the screen while Salmonella furiously punched a few keys on her keyboard and used the mouse to enlarge the detailed image that popped up on the screen. The image listed out the mobile device details that lay beneath each badge. Smartphones, iPad and a MacBook Air.

‘Well, nothing out of the ordinary. But surely Grace has been a regular visitor at Joe’s Vineyard. That too, with a ‘Senator’ status on Foursquare! She’s been visiting the vineyard every single day!’ exclaimed Inspector Khan, and Derek leaned forward to take a closer look.

Derek put his iPad aside and stared at the image on the screen for a few minutes, and said, ‘You know what it could be? Maybe, there are two cell phones – two people. While Grace has been using one Smartphone all the while, someone else from the vineyard has been using the other. That’s not Grace at all!’

Salmonella looked at the ceiling and closed her eyes wishing it would all go away. She remembered the times Grace and she had spent together; their walks in the rain, their crazy talks and the moments of laughter. It seemed like only yesterday when they had made plans for the reunion party. She missed Grace.

Chief could sense the upheavals within his nerdy friend, although she was bravely maintaining her composure. ‘Hmmm! That would mean that Grace must have two numbers listed on her Facebook account and she’s hidden her contact details from public viewing. Her other mobile applications like Foursquare, WhatsApp, Google Latitude, Twitter and anything that is there on her cell phone account is linked to her Facebook account and uses one of the two listed numbers. Derek could be right, Salmonella! Is there any way we can get the operating system version details across all the devices?’ asked Chief, his eyes lit up with anticipation that they were actually making some progress.

Salmonella looked astonished, not by the fact that this was a new theory, but the fact that the theory came from Derek who had been playing silly games on his iPad since morning. She smiled, as it was always Derek’s attitude that made her fall in love with him. He was doing it again.

She loved his carefree outlook and the way he let his life go with the flow. Having understood the complexities of life, he appreciated its small pleasures, and his nonchalant approach was simple, pure and raw. Was she falling in love with him again? Had she ever fallen out of love?

‘What’s the other number? I’m not authorized to hack into her accounts nor can I get the details from her cell phone provider, Inspector,’ said Salmonella, throwing up her hands in frustration at the dead end. Inspector Khan could see the irritation in her hazel eyes as they darted between Chief and Derek before locking into his own gaze.

Inspector Khan rubbed his chin, paused for a while and said, ‘Before coming here, I spent an hour with my team at the cyber crime cell and initiated a thorough Skip search. We know for a fact that Grace did have two SIM cards. She had two cell phone numbers. Sorry, I cannot give you the other number. It’s a cop job.’

‘Well, what are those cyber crime cell dudes going to do differently from what we’ve already done?’ queried Derek, intent on his iPad as he had inched closer to his highest score in the video game.

‘It’s simple or just simply complicated,’ answered Salmonella. ‘They have unlimited authority to leverage the most powerful of all technological developments. At the cost of your individual privacy, they can triangulate your cell phone down to any location. The whole process is shrouded in secrecy as at times it may violate your personal space as well. It’s both good and bad,’ she said, hoping to quench Derek’s unlimited thirst for knowledge.

Derek stayed focused on the iPad, as his fingers flew over the touch screen to rescue the running man. Salmonella sighed; she had no clue where Derek’s pearls of wisdom came from, and that too at the critical psychological moments.

Inspector Khan’s cell phone rang. It was from Officer Amar Singh calling in from the cyber crime cell. ‘Excuse me, I have to take this call in private’, said Inspector Khan and got up, cell phone glued to his ear. He gingerly navigated the health and safety hazards posed by the mesh of wires on the floor and made it out of the door. Salmonella and Chief watched him leave in pregnant silence. They were hoping for the start of something good with this call.

‘Sir, we have got Grace’s cell phone records from the cell phone service provider; both phones; both incoming and outgoing. There is a pattern of repeated calls to one particular caller, unfortunately, that’s where we got banged up, by God!’ said the caller, the frustration evident in his voice.

‘What do you mean? Are you drunk on duty, officer?’ thundered Inspector Khan. It was the one key lead he was looking for.

‘Well, sir, the SIM card of the other phone is in Grace’s name as well. All incoming calls to this number have been made only from Grace’s current cell phone number for the past few weeks. There are no other incoming or outgoing calls, but just from Grace to Grace! It’s a dead-end!’ said the voice at the other end of the phone meekly, understanding fully well that this was not what Inspector Khan wanted to hear.

‘What about the geo-location of the Smartphone, you fool, I’m told that you can pinpoint the location?’ said Inspector Khan, running out of patience as he fumbled for the pack of cigarettes in his pocket. He was happy that at least now it was confirmed that there were two SIM cards in the name of Grace. At least Grace hadn’t lied to Salmonella.

‘That’s been turned off on the suspect’s phone, sir. All we know is that the last call to Grace was made from Joe’s vineyard … and that’s confirmed by the service provider. All calls were made from a Smartphone from there till the geo-location was turned off a couple of weeks ago,’ said the voice at the other end, hoping that it would appease his boss.

‘OK, I guess that’s what we have for now. But don’t you dare call on that number till I tell you to. If the suspect knows that we have that number, he will destroy both the SIM card and the Smartphone. Any other breakthrough?’ asked Inspector Khan, calming down for he knew his team was working just as hard as anyone else to save Grace. They hadn’t slept a wink since her disappearance.