No Way Out (36 page)

“Ms Phoenix is it true that you logged on to the CODIS database in a desperate search for evidence to exonerate your client?”

“No comment!” snapped Alex angrily.

The female reporter pushed closer and held out her microphone close to Andi’s mouth.

“Ms Phoenix?” she persisted.

Alex pushed the microphone away.

“Ms Phoenix has no comment,” he said again, firmly.

As the barrage of questions continued, Alex forced a path through the crowd of reporters and guided Andi to Juanita’s waiting car. They got in the back and Juanita floored the pedal before Alex even had the chance to say “drive.”

“I’m glad to see you’ve finally learned the art of keeping your mouth shut,” said Alex as the car roared away from the prying eyes of the reporters.

“She’s going to pay
–
the fucking bitch!” said Andi.

“It’s no use getting angry now. We’ve just got to figure out who’s behind this and nail ‘em.”

“Oh I know who’s behind it all right! It’s that bitch Lannosea!”

“The person whose been sending you the eMails?”

“Of course it is! Who else could it be?”

“But do you know who that is?”

“Not yet. But I intend to find out.”

“How?”

“I think it’s one of Claymore’s victims from the past”

“What makes you think that?” asked Alex.

“The things she said… the anger… the bitterness.”

“Well if you’re right then she shouldn’t be too difficult to find. That reminds me – call David.”

“Why?”

“When I told him about your call from the courthouse he told me that had some results on some probes. He said you’d understand.”

Without another word, Andi pulled out her cell phone and pressed two keys.

“Hi Andi. Glad you made R-O-R.”

“How d’you know?”

“I heard it on the radio. Where are you now?”

“I’m in Juanita’s car, with your dad. We’re on our way back to the office.”

“I see that Lannosea has upped the ante,” he said wryly.

“It looks like it.”

“Anyway listen, you remember those probes I set up on your account? Well they’ve created a traceroute log of what happened these past few days.”

“What did you find?” she asked eagerly.

“That unauthorized access to the DNA database was done via your office Wide Area Network but it ultimately traced back to the hotel where you were staying.”

Andi froze.

“They’re doing it from the hotel?”

“It’s worse than that. I was able to get the MAC number of the computer they were doing it from.”

The MAC number had nothing to do with Apple Mac computers. It was an identification number that identified an individual computer.

“And?”

“It came from your laptop Andi.”

“
My
laptop!”

This sent a jolt through her.
When
could it have happened? She had her laptop with her at all times as far as she could remember. The only time when she had left it was when it was in the car when she went into the rape crisis center. Could some one had got into her car, used her laptop – via the WAN of Levine and Webster – and then switched if off and left the car looking untouched all the in the space of a few minutes?

“Is it possible for some one to spoof a MAC number?”

“A few years ago I’d’ve said, yes, but only if it was a very experienced hacker. Now
anyone
who can do an internet search can download an off-the-shelf MAC spoofing program. You can get an evaluation version free or the standard version for thirty dollars.”

“But how would they have got my MAC address to spoof it? Only the IP address is transmitted with the message header. The Mac address is only transmitted to the initial service provider.”

“Maybe that’s where they got it. From the company WAN.”

“You think some one at Levine and Webster.”

“If the hacker could access the network there then they might be able to get the MAC address from there, if you use the laptop at work. Does anyone else have access to your computer – I don’t mean just now, but generally.”

Andi hesitated. She knew the answer to this. But didn’t want to think about it.

“Gene wouldn’t have the knowledge to do this sort of thing.”

“Gene?” he sounded surprised. She forgot that he didn’t know what she had found out last Wednesday. As far as the rest of the world knew, Gene might have the opportunity, but she wouldn’t have had the motive.

“She has access to my laptop… some of the time. But not recently.”

“And as you say, she wouldn’t have had the knowledge of how to spoof a MAC address… let alone a motive.”

“So what do we do next? asked Andi.

“Well, there’s something you should be thinking about. Let’s take an off-the-wall scenario and consider what if some one did somehow manage to gain temporary access to your laptop. We
know
that the person downloaded a file from the Bethel Newton rape case.”

“So?”

“That means then they might have left some tell-tale sign on your computer.”

“Holy shit! I almost missed that!”

“Well what I suggest is that you check it out when you get back to the office. Let me know what you find. In fact, if you can connect it up with PC Anywhere, I’d like to do a hard drive image.”

“Okay. Thanks David. Bye.”

She put the phone away and became aware of Alex’s eyes upon her.

“Good news?”

“It could be Alex... it
could
be.”

Twenty minutes later they were back in the office. Alex had decided not to quiz her about this latest development immediately but to let her calm down first. Her animated conversation with David had perked her up somewhat but when he asked her about the “good news” she had refused to elaborate. He sensed that she didn’t want to jinx it by talking prematurely. She would tell him in her own good time.

So now Andi sat alone in her office, searching through the laptop’s hard disk for any trace of what was downloaded from the DNA database. She was checking deleted files too. If Lannosea had really managed to gain access to the computer to log on to the Ventura LDIS and downloaded anything, then even if she subsequently deleted it, the ghost of the file would probably still be there on the system. Even if she overwrote it completely, there should be a record in the activity log.

She had to find it.

File, by file, deleted file by deleted file, she searched the disk, using a range of software tools and utilities devised for system management. Finally she saw something that made her eyes pop open. There was a file called EliasClaymore.dna and then another called nailmidfngr.dna. As she looked further, she discovered something very interesting. The nailmidfngr.dna file had been created locally on this computer, whereas the EliasClaymore.dna file had simply been downloaded.

But then as she continued to look through the deleted files, she found the shadow of another downloaded file,
also
called nailmidfngr.dna. This had been downloaded at about the same time as EliasClaymore.dna and then deleted. It was clear that the hacker, had downloaded the EliasClaymore.dna file and then used it to create a false
evidence
sample file. But why also download the
real evidence sample file
if they were planning to overwrite it on the DNA server with a fake one?

Maybe it was because they needed to refer to the metadata in the file header, to get it right on the forged version. Or maybe Lannosea had originally planned to create
a fake Elias Claymore sample
– using the real evidence sample – and then changed her mind and decided to do it the other way round.

Andi decided to compare the forged evidence sample file with what she presumed was the real one.

But what she saw this time made no sense. Because the original evidence sample file that had been downloaded and deleted was the same as the new one that the hacker had created.

Why overwrite a file with another identical copy?

“But that doesn’t make sense,” said Bridget.

She was talking on her cell phone to Victor Alvarez, from her car at San Francisco International airport, having flown in to be available to help Sarah Jensen on this, the most crucial day in the trial of Elias Claymore. It was going to be an uphill struggle winning the case if it continued. And if it didn’t, they’d have a hell of a job persuading Bethel Newton to testify at the retrial.

“That’s exactly what Paul Greenberg said. But he checked and double-checked. The fact is, whoever did it, all they did was delete the genuine evidence file that had been uploaded from a computer at the crime lab and then uploaded an
identical
copy from the remote computer where they were hacking in from.”

“But why would anyone do that?”

“Maybe the person who did it
didn’t know
that it was the same profile. Maybe they meant to upload something else and instead uploaded the same file they’d already downloaded.”

Bridget was trying to concentrate on what Dr Alvarez was telling her while at the same time navigating her way out of the airport parking lot. She didn’t relish the prospect of the morning drive across the Bay Bridge in commuter time.

“Do we know who did it?”

“Greenberg said he’d passed on some information to the FBI. I heard on the radio that Andi Phoenix was arrested in connection with it. But the hacker may have hijacked her computer with a Trojan, or spoofed her IP address. At any rate, she was released R-O-R and we’ll have to wait for the evidence hearing.”

“In any case, that still doesn’t help us resolve the question of who is actually guilty.”

“Not in itself,” said Alvarez. “The way things stand now, we’ve got two suspects, neither of whom can be eliminated by the DNA, and in both cases the chances of a random match are 500 to 1.”

“It’s worse than that, Victor. We’ve got one suspect who was identified by the victim and another who matches the age of the perp. We’ve got one who matches the description of the perp and the other who
used
to match that description when he was younger. We’ve got one suspect who owns a car that matches the one described by the victim and another who was caught
driving
that car with false number plates. We’ve got one suspect who was a rapist in his youth and another who has no
priors
for rape but was arrested
when he tried to rape a reporter who’s covering the case.
”

“The thing is,” said Alvarez, “I haven’t been able to get through to Nick Sinclair or Sarah Jensen on their cell phones. And I don’t want to leave a message with the Alameda D.A. ‘cause that might dump ‘em in the shithouse.”

“They’re probably crossing the Bay Bridge. I know Nick Sinclair lives in San Francisco and I think Sarah Jensen may be staying there. She’s been driving in with him.”

“Well, if I don’t manage to get through to them, you’d better tell them.”

“But surely it doesn’t make any difference if the results are the same.”

“Well that’s just it. You see there are some
additional
results.”

“
What do you mean ‘additional’?” Bridget replied.

“We had one more nail sample – a
third
sample… from the other hand.”

“But how does that help? You said the computer guy managed to recover the original evidence sample file from the
second
test. Why would a
third
sample make any difference?”

“ ‘Cause this time we ran a
mitochondrial
DNA test on it.”

“And you’ve got the result?”

She could hardly contain her excitement.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. It excludes Claymore but nearly matches Louis Manning.”

“
Nearly
matches?  What does that mean, like a sibling? A cousin?”

“Hold your horses lady! Let me explain. Okay you know that siblings and cousins who are related by the
maternal
line have identical mitochondrial DNA sequences in these regions.”

“I know that.”

“But two maternally
unrelated
people have about
ten differences
on average.”

“Yes but you said it
nearly
matches – what does
that
mean?”

“Well if the samples differ in two or more places they’re not related. If the samples are
identical
, then it means they’re related. And if there’s a difference at only
one
location, then it’s inconclusive.”

“And is that what we’ve got in this case?
One
difference?”

“No that’s the funny thing. What we’ve got in this case is
two
differences.”

“But you said that counts as an exclusion.”

“Well officially yes. But it’s actually quite surprising too find a difference of only two. Like I said, normally if they’re unrelated you’d expect to find about
ten
differences.”

“So what the heck
does
it mean?”

“Well there is one complicating factor that we always have to consider.”

“Surprise me,” said Bridget, realizing that Alvarez was enjoying this game of I-know-something that-you-don’t-know.

“Mutation.”

“Mutation?”

“Mitochondrial DNA mutates as the cells grow and divide.”

“Yes I know what mutation is but what’s the bottom line? Are you saying it
could
be from Manning – and the two differences are due to mutation?”

“I wish it were that simple Bridget. The problem is that we can tell which sample is the mutated one and which is the one from
before
the mutation.”

“You
can
tell?”

“Yes.”

“So what’s the problem? I mean that’s
good
isn’t it? It be more of a problem if we
couldn’t
tell?”

“The problem is that the mutation is in the
evidence
sample, not Manning’s reference sample.”

“So?”

“You don’t get it do you? Okay let me spell it out to you. The evidence sample is
older
than the reference sample that we just took from Manning. But that means that
older
DNA has a mutation and the
newer
reference sample
doesn’t
have it.”