CODE TO MURDER, page 17
“We don’t have secure areas in here, apart from offices for James, Richard and myself. The only other place is the computer room. Even I don’t have the code to get in there, but we can get Forbes and go take a look if you’d like?”
Ben and Julie followed Millar and they went to get Forbes, who took them through to the computer room and let them in. There were no laptops inside, all terminals connected directly to the various servers.
“If you do come across Mr Anderson’s laptop, please let us know straight away,” said Julie.
“It was a challenging day for you last time we saw you, Mr Forbes,” said Ben as they walked back through the office.
“Sure was,” said Forbes.
“I gather you managed to get everything under control?” said Ben. “I’m assuming you’ve met my colleagues from the cybercrime team by now? Hopefully they will be of some help to you.”
“They seemed to know what they were about, and with their resources and contacts they can do a bit more to track down the source. It was a funny one: we’ve had a few attacks before, but it seemed like this attack was part diversionary and part trying to hack in to specific places, almost like they knew what they were looking for, whatever it was. I mentioned that to Tom Phillips when he was over and he was going to run some forensic software to look at the footprint of the attack and see what he could come up with,” said Forbes.
“That certainly sounds a bit suspicious, I’ll pick that up with Tom,” replied Ben as he walked towards Pettigrew’s office. He saw Pettigrew coming off the phone, knocked on the door and he and Julie went in.
“Good morning, Mr Pettigrew, there have been a few developments and we wanted to discuss them with you,” said Ben.
“Okay, Chief Inspector, what’s happening?”
“Well, first I wanted to make sure things were going okay with Tom Phillips and the cybercrime team? Hopefully not taking up too much of your time or that of your team?”
“Not so far. Forbes and I spoke to them yesterday morning and they spent more time with him in the afternoon. I’m still not hopeful they will find anything, though.”
“Okay, we’ll wait and see. I take it you are aware we released Mr Williams? I notice from the sign-in sheets he was in the office on Wednesday, but wasn’t in yesterday and isn’t in today?”
“Yes, he came in first thing on Wednesday and we had a long chat. He swore he had nothing to do with what happened to James and he only went to see him about the appraisal. I have read the appraisal now and I can’t help but think James went over the top – I’m not sure why. Yes, Williams has a lot to learn, and his people skills need work, but I can see why he was hacked off. Being perfectly open, Chief Inspector, I need him just now, so I have told him to work from home the rest of the week, get his head straight and catch up on the time he missed.”
“When was the last time you spoke to Diane Anderson?”
“I phoned her a few days ago to see how she was doing. Why do you ask?”
“She got a call yesterday from someone telling her she had to hand over James’s laptop.”
“Does she have the laptop?”
“No, she doesn’t, but someone thought she did.”
“Does she know who it was? Where did they want her to take it?”
“They told her they had Kayleigh and if she didn’t hand it over Kayleigh would suffer the same fate as James. They put Kayleigh on the phone and she said if her mum didn’t do what they asked, the man was going to hurt her.”
Ben and Julie were both watching Pettigrew’s reaction closely.
“What? Really? What did she do? Has she got Kayleigh back?”
Pettigrew seemed genuinely shocked.
“She phoned us, and yes she has Kayleigh back.”
“And did you catch the guy?”
“We haven’t caught him yet, but we are on to him,” said Ben, cryptically. “He never actually had Kayleigh. With your knowledge of AI, have you ever heard of ‘deepfake’, Mr Pettigrew?”
“Only what I have seen on TV. It is not the type of thing we do with AI here. So, are you saying somebody used Kayleigh’s voice and manipulated it using AI and played it during the call?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“That is horrible! Plain horrible! Is Diane okay?”
“As you can imagine, she is pretty shaken up by it all.”
“I’ll go and see her over the weekend. When is this all going to end?”
“I can’t help but think whoever did this is closer to home than any Russian gang of cybercriminals,” said Ben. “They know where Mrs Anderson lives, they know of her daughter, Kayleigh, they have a recording of her voice and they know the local area. Makes you wonder, eh?”
“I guess it does,” said Pettigrew.
“I’m sure you’d be very keen to get the laptop back as well Mr Pettigrew.”
“Of course I would, but I hope you are not suggesting it was me. I would never do that to Diane and Kayleigh. If I thought she had the laptop, I would just ask her for it back.”
“Can I ask where you were yesterday afternoon?” said Julie.
“I was in the office in the morning and working from home in the afternoon – and before you ask nobody can confirm that,” replied Pettigrew bluntly.
“Do you often work from home, Mr Pettigrew?” asked Julie.
“When I want to. If I have something I need to work on without the myriad of interruptions I get in the office, I’ll work at home.”
Pettigrew sighed. “You guys are unbelievable. I have lost a close friend, a key business partner and I am working my butt off to keep this company going, and you continually imply I had something to do with it.”
“Sorry, Mr Pettigrew, but we do have to ask these questions. What I would say is that the person that made the call wasn’t as clever as they thought – they made a few mistakes, which has given us some good leads that we are following up. We’ll leave you in peace now. Thanks for your time,” said Ben.
Once back in the car, Julie said, “Despite the pressure we were putting on him sir, he did seem surprised about what happened to Mrs Anderson – either that or he’s a good actor. But he went a bit quieter than usual. Maybe he was genuinely concerned about Diane and Kayleigh?”
“Yes, we need to put the pressure on everywhere now, Julie. We need to get to the bottom of this and soon. Sounds like you’re changing your mind about Pettigrew, though,” said Ben, smiling.
“Let’s head over to Dollar and to Diane Anderson again and see if she will let us look for this laptop.”
As they drew up outside the Anderson house, Ben’s phone rang.
Julie could only hear one side of the conversation.
“Hello, Ben Fitzpatrick, here . . . Monday at two p.m.? Okay, but can you not tell me what’s what over the phone? . . . Okay, I’ll be there. What’s the doctor’s name? . . . Right, that’s fine, thank you.”
Julie could make out the mention of Forth Valley Royal.
“Everything okay, Ben?” she asked.
“Just some tests I was having – got to go back for the results now. Keep that to yourself though, Julie.”
“Of course,” answered Julie. Ben didn’t elaborate, and she got the feeling he didn’t want her to ask, so she left it. But it set her wondering.
Once inside, they explained the situation regarding the laptop to Diane Anderson, and she agreed to let them have a look around.
“Let’s start in Mr Anderson’s office. You’d think that would be the most likely place,” said Ben.
They opened all the drawers in the filing cabinets, but given that they knew someone had already gone through them during the break-in, they didn’t expect to find anything. They checked behind the drawers and behind and underneath the cabinets themselves.
Nothing.
Ben opened all the drawers on the large desk, which was old-style, antique-looking, and searched for any secret drawers like some of the cabinetmakers of old used to build into desks. Again, they had no joy.
Ben looked at the large patterned rug which sat on top of the large square carpet tiles that covered the room.
“Right, let’s roll this up, Julie,” said Ben.
Grabbing one end each, Ben and Julie rolled up the rug.
“Would you mind if we pulled some of these carpet tiles up, Mrs Anderson? We’ll put them back for you afterwards.”
“If you want to,” she said, not expecting them to find anything.
“Where do you think we should start, Julie?”
“I would start at the midpoint of where the rug was,” she replied.
Ben removed two carpet tiles where Julie had suggested.
“Well, would you look at that?” exclaimed Ben. “Bullseye!”
Hidden underneath two carpet tiles was a large floor-safe, duly locked.
“I don’t suppose you have the key for this?” said Ben, looking up at Mrs Anderson and smiling.
“I didn’t even know it was there,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief. “James didn’t take his keys with him when he went to the hotel, as Richard was driving him, and he keeps all his keys on the same ring as his car keys. I’ll go and get them, they’ll be in the cupboard in the kitchen.”
Diane soon came back up and said, “There are a few keys on here. I always assumed some of them were for his work.”
She handed the keyring to Ben.
“Let me try them, maybe we’ll get lucky. Failing which, we will get a locksmith over here pronto.”
Ben looked at the lock before trying a couple of the keys he thought might fit, but they didn’t. He then went on to the last one on the keyring, which looked like it could be the one.
“Third time lucky?” he said.
All eyes were locked on the safe as Ben opened the door.
“There it is! We’ve found it at last!” said Julie.
“Hopefully this will hold the answers to everything,” said Ben.
But he knew accessing the laptop would take a different type of key – one from the digital forensics team.
CHAPTER 45
Early Friday morning in Pettigrew’s office, he and Millar were having a meeting about the spend to roll out the new AI add-on. They were looking at figures in a spreadsheet on Pettigrew’s laptop. Next thing, the screen went blank and a message appeared:
Bitcoin pulses, a heartbeat in the net.
Commodity prices spiral in a digital vignette.
A trader smiles, unaware of the silhouette.
A phantom code lingers, placing the bet.
Eleven days to go. Not quite your final hour – but tension will start to grow.
Pettigrew was trying to take it in, but at the same time hoping it would disappear before Millar spotted it.
Then it was gone. But it was too late.
“What on earth was that, Richard? You look like you’ve seen a ghost. I didn’t catch it all, but it said something about your final hour? Is somebody threatening you?”
“I think it must be someone having a joke. I had a word with Forbes and there have been no ransomware requests or anything, and given everybody in the office knows the cyberattack happened, I think someone is trying to be a smart ass, winding up the boss. When I find out who it is, he’ll be leaving with a foot up the proverbial.”
“Do you not think we should report it to the cybercrime team?”
“No point. There’s no demand for anything, that’s why I think it’s a spoof by someone in here. Keep it to yourself, Alan. I’ll do my own checks and find out who it is.”
“Okay, if you insist.”
They finished the meeting and Millar left the office.
CHAPTER 46
On the way into the police station on Friday morning, Ben met the chief superintendent in the car park.
“Hello, Ben. This is some case you’re working on: murder, hacking, artificial intelligence, deepfake – all a bit far from the old school stuff we’re used to.”
“Sure is, sir, but we’re starting to make some progress,” replied Ben.
“And how about you, Ben? How are you?”
“I’m okay, sir, thanks,” said Ben, not sure why had he been asked, especially given the nature of the last conversation they’d had, when Paton hadn’t seemed to give a damn.
“It’s just that my wife, Anne, saw you at the hospital last week. She called out to you, but I don’t think you heard her,” said Paton.
Ben took a deep breath, wondering, did she see me go in for the scan?
“I’m okay, sir. Cholesterol and blood pressure are a bit high and Clare forced me to get some tests. I’ve got tablets now, so all good.”
“Glad to hear it, Ben. Regarding the case, though, it’s raking up the costs with cybercrime and digital forensics involved. It’s nearly a fortnight since the events up at The Heartlands and it doesn’t sound like you are close to finding the murderer yet.”
“We are making progress, and as you said yourself it’s not a straightforward case.”
“Okay, Ben, but I want an update in my office by the end of next week – preferably someone charged. Clear?”
“Very.”
Ben was glad to get away. That was the last thing he needed – his boss on his case about his health. Not to mention the undue pressure Paton was putting on him to solve the case, when he knew little about the detail of it.
When he got to his office, Emma immediately came in.
“I have some information about the accident at Glencoe you asked me to look into, sir.”
“Okay, Emma, what have you found out?” asked Ben.
“As I said last week, there is nothing in the case files that suggested anything other than a tragic accident. I spoke to a uniformed police officer and a DS who had worked on the case, and they said pretty much the same as the notes. I then spoke to another uniformed officer who was part of the team that went up the mountain to bring Colin Smith’s body down, along with Anderson and Pettigrew. He had a different view and believed there was something not quite right about it all. He said he’d raised it with the DS, but was told he was misinterpreting things. The good news is that he’s now moved down here and is working for Fife Constabulary as a DC and has agreed to come over later this morning to have a chat about it. Do you want to sit in, sir?” asked Emma.
“I will, Emma, give me a shout when he’s here,” said Ben, before going to find Julie.
Ben was a bit more optimistic about making progress with the case, having found the laptop. He had stressed to Diane Anderson the importance of not mentioning it to anyone, but he was keen to crack what was on it as soon as possible.
“Don’t suppose there is anything through from digital forensics on the laptop yet, Julie?” he asked.
“Nothing yet. They’re still trying to determine a password to get in. As James Anderson was an IT specialist, his password protection was never going to be simple. I’ll let you know once they get back to me.”
Ben’s phone rang. It was Tom Phillips from the cybercrime team, so Ben went back to his office to take the call.
“Morning, Ben. I thought I would give you a quick update on where we’re at. I got some budget to spend time at the weekend on this, given the gravity of what has happened with Mr Anderson’s murder and all,” said Tom.
“That’s good, Tom, I appreciate that. What have you found so far?” asked Ben.
“We’ve looked at it from a couple of perspectives: first, where did the DDNS attack originate from? Now, this can be difficult because cybercriminals often use computers from multiple locations and constantly changing IP addresses, using methods like so-called fast flux. It is uncommon for a hacker to log in from his own computer IP or from any server directly traceable back to him. It’s far more common for hackers to use previously hacked targets as jump-off points for future attacks—”
Ben was getting exasperated. Why do IT guys speak in a language full of jargon? He interrupted Tom in full flow.
“It all sounds complex, Tom. Can you tell me in layman’s terms whether you found anything that is of any use to us?” said Ben.
“In this case, we got lucky. In the tracing, while it did use geographies mentioned by Forbes and Pettigrew, we saw some IP addresses we had come across in previous investigations. They are not from a known cybercriminal gang, but in fact from a so-called ethical hacking organisation. They’re an outfit who market a service of hacking into a system to test it and find holes that need to be plugged,” said Tom. “This outfit is based in London. I’ll email you the details,” said Tom.
“Excellent. Anything else you noted that was unusual?” asked Ben.
“Well, we examined the various logs from the different systems Forbes already had in place and we used some of our own tools to examine the digital footprint of any access made to the systems. It looked like the hackers were focused on the computers containing the software development code and associated areas where documentation was stored, a lot of which seemed to have been well locked down – even Forbes can’t get into it. My gut is this was the primary objective and the DDNS attack was a diversionary tactic to get Forbes and others focused on that before they came in what may have been a ‘back door’, taking them to where they wanted to go. The fact they went straight to that area without going anywhere else on the system would imply to us prior knowledge, which you would think could only come from someone internal,” said Tom.
“Wow, good information, Tom, thanks for that. I’ll start by having a word with these guys in London. Given what you have found, don’t feed anything back to Forbes or Pettigrew,” said Ben.
“Sure, Ben, no problem. We’re still running additional data analysis and if I find anything else I’ll let you know.”
“Great, Tom, thanks. Bye.”
Ben had barely finished the call when Emma came in to tell him DS Davy Edwards had arrived to talk about Colin Smith’s accident in Glencoe. They walked downstairs to the meeting room where Davy was waiting.
