Just enough to be frustrating

Dan's computer came live. Unlike Misty, he actually had a password. It took Rick all of two tries to get it. He tried 'Nicki' first but it opened with 'Misty'. He had to wonder if Nicki knew that another college girl was formidable competition. Misty might be a couple of years older than Nicki, but she had that little girl act down and Dan seemed to go for that. Nicki, on the other hand, had rocketed into maturity.

Misty had saved a few dick shots and her own correspondence. Dan's went back a lot farther and included dozens of nudes of his daughter, of Misty, and of other girls who, Rick guessed from their makeup and remains of their outfits, had also been on the teen beauty circuit with Nicki. Good ole Dan was nailing girls and young women across America. He dragged those photos into his flash card also. A little image match and maybe he could find a daughter with an important and jealous father.

Most of Dan's e-mails were dating requests and correspondence with members of the sales team. Rick was interested to see that materials and plans he'd slaved over and sent to Dan for approval hadn't even rated a folder. They went under 'corporate misc.' It was only when he did a search for 'black+hat' that he came up with anything useful. Well, he guessed photos of near-nude teen girls was useful for something.

A series of e-mails between Dan and his Black Hat contact only hinted at what might be going on. Dan referred to the 'project.' For the night of Olivia's murder, his Black Hat contact urged him to make sure he was out on a sales call. But nowhere was there any description of what that 'project' might be. Rick was pretty sure it was Olivia's murder, conducted at Dan's behest by Black Hat operatives. But nowhere did anyone say that.

He was about to give up when he noticed the very first Black Hat e-mail. This asked for a fifty thousand dollar weekly retainer with checks sent to a Mesquite P.O. box.

Rick made a note of the box number, checked to see that he hadn't left anything, then headed out.

He hoped nobody would notice anything wrong and so any security footage would simply be erased but he couldn't be sure so he hopped on the DART train and headed into Dallas where he'd left his car. He certainly wasn't going to have his car in the parking lot during a breakin.

Once he'd reconnected himself with his car, he headed for Bachman lake where he turned off the engine and grabbed some sleep. Hopefully Dallas Police Department would have something more important to do than harass homeless people living in their cars.