Hacker (4 page)

‘Aunt Beth!’ Gib sprang up off the sofa.

I turned my head to see Mum follow Aunt Beth and her husband Sebastian into the room. Mum sat down in the armchair, while Aunt Beth sat down in the space Gib had left for her on the sofa. Sebastian stood leaning against the door frame.

‘Hello, Aunt Beth,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know you were coming round tonight.’ I had to force myself to speak normally. I wasn’t sure if Aunt Beth knew what had happened.

Aunt Beth wasn’t really our aunt but that’s what we’d always called her. She and Dad both worked at Universal Bank, although they worked in separate sections of the computing department. They’d known each other for years. I think Aunt Beth was actually matron-of-honour at Mum and Dad’s wedding. So she’d never believe Dad was guilty. She’d be on our side.

Aunt Beth was tall, quite a lot taller than Mum. She wore glasses with bright red frames and her blonde hair was pulled back into its usual ponytail. I’d never seen her hair in any other style. And she was wearing her usual tiny, gold-stud earrings and her necklace with a ‘B’ hanging from it that she had bought for herself when out shopping with Mum once. I looked past her to Sebastian.

I liked Sebastian. He was Aunt Beth’s second husband. He didn’t really say much, but he smiled at me a lot. Sebastian was a manager in one of the big West End department stores – I’ve forgotten which one.

‘Hello, Gib, Vicky.’ Aunt Beth smiled. ‘Do you mind if I just have a quick word with your mum?’

From the forced smile on her face and the anxious look she gave Mum, I guessed that she knew all about Dad and the business at the bank.

‘It’s all right, Beth. I’ve already told them what’s happened,’ Mum said wearily.

‘Is there anything I can do for you, Laura?’ Aunt Beth asked Mum.

‘No, I don’t think so,’ Mum sighed. ‘I just wish I knew what this was all about. David phoned me from the police station but all he said was that one million pounds went missing from the bank and it was found in his bank account.’

‘I’m afraid I don’t know much more than that,’ Aunt Beth apologized. ‘Usually banks like to try and keep this sort of thing quiet, but the sum of money was so large and David is an employee rather than an anonymous hacker from outside, so the General Manager felt she had to call in the police.’

‘Why would the bank want to keep it quiet?’ Gib asked curiously. ‘Surely they’ve got more chance of getting their money back if they make it public.’

‘’Cause they don’t want all the people who keep their money at the bank to think that it isn’t safe, of course,’ I answered.

‘I didn’t ask you.’ Gib glared at me.

‘You’re absolutely right, Vicky,’ Aunt Beth replied. ‘It’s silly but there it is.’

‘What do you think will happen, Beth?’ Mum asked her.

Aunt Beth shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened at Universal Bank before. But I think the bank will definitely press charges. They’ll want to deter anyone else from trying it. So I guess David will have to appear at a magistrates’ court tomorrow and what happens then depends on the magistrate who gets the case. But I’m sure David will be fine. We all know he didn’t do it.’

I looked up at Sebastian, watching as he brushed his hair off his forehead. He caught me looking at him and smiled. I smiled back. Somehow, it was better with Aunt Beth and Sebastian here. I could see that Mum was glad they’d come round.

‘Will Dad be coming home tonight though?’ I asked, my smile fading.

Mum shook her head. ‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘Sebastian, Beth, did you drive here? Do you think you could give me a lift to the police station? I want to be with David.’

‘Of course we’ll drive you there.’ Sebastian smiled at Mum. ‘We’ll stay with you and drive you back as well if you like.’

‘We’ll see,’ Mum replied. ‘I might be there for quite a while.’

An uncomfortable silence fell over us. I forced myself to break it.

‘Aunt Beth, when exactly did the money go missing?’ I asked.

‘Last night, or rather in the early hours of this morning during the batch-job run,’ Aunt Beth replied.

‘What’s the batch-job run?’ Gib asked.

‘If you transfer money into, or take money out of your bank account, depending on the transaction the new details don’t always show up immediately,’ Aunt Beth explained. ‘All the details that aren’t updated straight away are stored in a file on the bank’s computers, but the file doesn’t get used until the bank’s batch job reads that file each night. Then the results of each overnight transaction are held in the transaction log file.’

‘Is the batch job just a computer program, then?’ Gib asked.

‘Since when have you been interested in computer programming? You hate the subject.’ I scowled at him.

He was just doing it to impress Aunt Beth. He only went near Dad’s PC to play games. Dad and I were the only ones who used it for programming and analytical stuff. ICT at school was my brother’s worst subject. Gib glared at me.

‘Gib, the batch job is really a special set of programs that are scheduled to run each night,’ Aunt Beth said quickly, before Gib and I could launch into a full-scale quarrel.

I was barely listening. Something else had popped into my mind.

‘Aunt Beth, Dad said that everyone who works at Universal Bank has to have their bank account there,’ I began. ‘Is that true?’

‘Of course. It’s one of the bank’s rules when you start working for them,’ Aunt Beth said.

‘Then anyone at the bank who knew what they were doing could have put that money into Dad’s bank account,’ I said, thinking out loud.

‘Really, Vicky,’ Mum sighed. ‘Who would do such a thing? More to the point,
why
would they do such a thing? No, it’s just a misunderstanding, that’s all. I’m sure it’ll get sorted out.’

I didn’t answer. Mum was just trying to reassure Gib and me but somehow – maybe because of the way the day had gone so far – somehow, I didn’t think this would be sorted out quite so easily.

‘Don’t worry, Laura, I’ll do everything I can to get this resolved,’ Aunt Beth said.

‘Thanks, Beth.’ Mum smiled. The first real smile I’d seen from her all evening. ‘Right then, Gib and Vicky. I don’t know when I’ll be back, so don’t wait up. And don’t forget your homework. Don’t leave it till Sunday evening the way you two usually do.’

And with that, Mum, Aunt Beth and Sebastian left the room. I still couldn’t take it in about Dad being arrested. I felt so helpless. There had to be something I could do, but what? If only …

‘You rotten cow!’ Gib turned on me the moment he heard the front door shut.

I frowned at him. ‘What did you call me that for?’

‘Thank you very much for showing me up in front of Aunt Beth!’ Gib said furiously.

‘Oh, that,’ I snorted. ‘You know as well as I do that you couldn’t care less about the batch job and how it works.’

Gib froze with rage. He just stood there scowling at me which made him look even more drippy than usual.

‘At least Aunt Beth likes me,’ Gib hissed.

‘She likes me too,’ I said, surprised.

‘No she doesn’t. No one likes you,’ Gib said.

I stopped smiling at that. I stood up. ‘Stop talking rubbish,’ I said coldly.

‘It’s not rubbish. No one likes you. You’re not wanted. Even your own parents drowned to get away from you.’

Every drop of blood in me froze. I stared at Gib.

‘That’s a n-nasty, mean thing to s-say …’

‘It’s true though.’ Gib’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. ‘At least Mum and Dad are my real mum and dad. They’ll never be yours, no matter what you do or how hard you try to suck up to them. And you’ll never be my sister – thank God. You don’t belong. I wish you’d go away. I wish you’d disappear …’

Gib only stopped talking because he ran out of breath. I stared at him. I had to fight not to blink. My eyes were stinging and my throat was hurting. I tried swallowing hard, but I couldn’t stop tears from rolling down my cheeks.

‘Vicky … I …’

‘Y-you don’t have to say any more,’ I interrupted. ‘I get the picture.’

Gib opened his mouth to speak again, but I didn’t want to hear another word. I ran out of the living room and up to my bedroom. Slamming the door behind me, I flung myself on the bed. I cried and cried until I had a pounding headache and a pain in my chest and I felt terrible. Gib had never said anything like that before. So that’s what he’d been thinking all this time.

That thought made me cry even more. I stood up and stumbled over to my dressing-table. Opening the top drawer, I threw my socks aside. I’d been crying so much I was gulping now and I couldn’t stop.

There it was, at the bottom of the drawer. The only photograph I had of my real parents. I took it out and looked at it. I walked slowly over to the bed and hugged it to me. Fresh tears rolled down my cheeks. If I didn’t stop crying I’d be sick, but I just couldn’t stop.

I mean, I’d always felt that I never
quite
belonged – like a round wooden block in a larger square hole. But me feeling it and Gib saying it were two different things.

I thought about how Mum and Dad and Gib and me would all walk down the street and I’d pretend they were my real family – that I really belonged to them. No one could tell for certain that I didn’t. OK, so Dad was black and Mum was white and Gib’s colour was lighter than mine, but so what? That didn’t prove anything. Mum and Dad
might
have been my real parents.

I admit that sometimes I couldn’t help wondering if the way I felt about them would have been different if they were my real parents. When I bought them Christmas and birthday presents, I sometimes wondered if a real daughter would buy them the things that I bought. On my birthday, I would always wonder what my real mum and dad would have bought me. And then I’d tell myself not to be so silly. I didn’t think about it all the time, but it was always there at the back of my mind.

I didn’t belong – not really.

I didn’t belong anywhere.

And Gib was right. I wasn’t wanted.

Mum and Dad certainly wouldn’t want me now. Not when things were going so badly. I would be in the way. An extra burden. What if Dad went to prison? I could hardly bear the thought. How would Mum cope with a new baby and Gib and me, all by herself? I cried even more at that. I’d never, ever felt so miserable. It was the worst day of my entire life.

I curled up in a ball and cried myself to sleep, wondering if Dad was all right and wishing myself a million, zillion miles away.

‘Victoria … Victoria, dear, wake up.’

It was Mum. I sat up immediately. Mum didn’t usually call me Victoria. She stood by the bed, her shoulders slumped, her lips turned down. Her head kept drooping and she’d straighten her neck and raise her head, but it was almost as if her head was too heavy for her neck and shoulders. I’d never seen her look so unhappy. I looked past her … but Dad wasn’t there. Gib was. And he was looking everywhere except at me.

‘Victoria, are you all right?’ Mum asked.

‘I’m fine,’ I lied, running my hand over my face. Mum frowned but said nothing.

‘Mum, where’s Dad?’ I asked.

‘Gib, don’t lurk behind me. Come inside so I can tell you both together,’ Mum said.

Reluctantly, Gib came into my room. Mum sat next to me on the bed. Gib sat next to her.

‘Your dad is …’

I watched Mum trying to get the words out.

‘Your dad is being held at the police station tonight. He’ll appear before a magistrate tomorrow morning. Hopefully, he’ll be released on bail so he’ll be home tomorrow evening.’

‘But what happens if he’s not released on bail?’ I couldn’t help asking.

‘Let’s cross that bridge if and when we get to it,’ Mum said firmly. ‘Now then, you two – bed!’

Her lips smiled as she spoke, but her eyes didn’t. For once Gib and I didn’t argue. I cleaned my teeth and waited until I could hear no one on the landing before dashing back to my room. I didn’t want to see Mum and I certainly didn’t want to see Gib.

Before today I would never have believed it possible to feel so miserable. And my head was killing me.

Where was Dad? Locked up in a police cell somewhere – all by himself. I switched off my light and got into bed, sitting up. Was Dad asleep now? Or was he doing the same as me, staring into the darkness? I lay down on my side. Fresh tears ran across the bridge of my nose and down to the pillow. I didn’t think I’d sleep for a second, but once I closed my eyes, I was out.

When I awoke, my room was pitch black. I felt snug and warm and sad. Then I remembered why. I lay still and listened but the house was totally silent. The kind of deep silence you only get when it’s really late. I turned over to lie on my back and pulled the duvet up around my neck. I still had my headache and my nose was bunged up from all that crying. I stared into the inky darkness of my room and wondered again how Dad was. I was sure that, if they’d only let him, he could find out who had put that money into his bank account and why. Dad was good at that sort of thing. That’s why he was the Computer Auditing Manager at the bank. He always said that programming was like solving a good detective story. You had to put the pieces together so that they fitted like a jigsaw, and if you had bugs or mistakes in your program then you had to hunt them down – just like a detective. That’s why I liked programming and computing so much. Because I liked puzzles. That’s where Dad and I were so alike.

If only I could write a program to get me out of the trouble I was in at school! Or better still, write a program to find out who’d taken all that money from Dad’s bank. Next to this business at Dad’s bank, my school problems seemed trivial. How about an all-purpose program to solve both of our problems? The idea made me smile, but my smile didn’t last long.

Yeah! I thought sadly. Give Dad a couple of days and he could solve this puzzle – no problem.

Only Dad wasn’t here.

But I was
…

I sat up in bed at that thought. And the more I thought about it, the more I kicked myself for not having thought of it sooner.
I
could find out who put that money in Dad’s account. Why not? Dad’s PC was downstairs and I knew how to set it up so that I could dial into Universal Bank’s computer. I even knew the passwords for Dad’s two accounts – although Dad didn’t know I knew – so logging on would be no problem.