WEBCAM by Jack Kilborn Page B

get it in the lock when her cell phone vibrated with a text message.
    Kendal didn’t want to look.
    She looked anyway.
    You can run. But I know where you live.
    Kendal turned slowly around, and saw the black van parked only a few meters away.
    Then the world went swirly, her legs went rubber, and she passed out.

CHAPTER 13
    “Detective Nafisi?” Tom asked, eyeballing the man standing next to his desk.
    The man extended his hand, and shook Tom’s with surprising force. “Call me Firoz.”
    “Tom.”
    “I wanted to do this in person, Tom, for two reasons. First, I wanted to meet you. I heard about South Carolina, what you and Roy Lewis went through. Must have been intense.”
    Tom nodded. “What’s the second reason?”
    “I found something on Kendal Hefferton’s laptop, and I need to confirm it in person.” Firoz looked at the empty chair across from Tom. “May I?”
    “Please.”
    Firoz dragged it over next to Tom, then turned it around and straddled it like it was a horse, propping his arms up on the back. “I heard you were tortured,” Firoz said.
    Tom didn’t mind a man who was direct, but something about Firoz was off-putting. Tom felt like he was being scrutinized.
    “What did you find?” he asked, ignoring the comment.
    Firoz stared at Tom for a moment, then said, “The victim was having problems with one of her online clients. He was cyberstalking her.”
    “Is it traceable?”
    Again Firoz paused before answering. “To a degree. But the better the cyberstalker, the harder he is to trace. Do you know a lot about computers?”
    “As much as anyone, I guess.”
    “When devices communicate with each other over a computer network, each has a unique Internet Protocol address. This can be traceable, unless someone takes steps to make sure it isn’t. If it’s something like an email, the IP is recorded. But in a chatroom, like the victim used for her webcam modeling, tracing after the fact is practically impossible. Once the stalker disconnects, there is no way to find him. But Kendal was smart. She kept screen shots of the harassment. The last time, he used the name Tilphousia. His threats match up to the way she was killed.”
    “How do you spell Tilphousia?” Tom asked, pen in hand.
    Firoz spelled it out.
    “Do you have those screenshots?”
    “I emailed them to you before I came up. Check to see if you got them.”
    Tom turned to his computer screen, accessed his department email, and saw he’d gotten a new one from superhackercop17. Tom clicked on it, then clicked on the attachments, creating a slideshow of screen captures. Half the screen was a picture of Kendal Hefferton, a snapshot of her live feed. She was in lingerie, looking disgusted. Tom could understand why. The other half of the screen was chat text. Tom read through some of Tilphousia’s threats and felt himself become disgusted as well.
    “Yeah, he’s quite a psycho, isn’t he?” Firoz asked.
    Tom nodded.
    “Keep looking. The next to last jpeg is of an email Kendal received. It’s a different name, but the tone is the same.”
    Tom found it and began to read.
    Little girls who do naughty things must be punished. Accept your fate and accept your Penance. Vengeance comes from the blood of Uranus, whore.
    “Can you trace the email?” Tom asked.
    “I already did. Click on the last picture.”
    Tom did. He stared at the screen, blinking a few times, confused.
    “Don’t you recognize it?” Firoz asked, his eyes narrowing.
    “I don’t understand,” Tom admitted.
    “What’s so hard to understand?” Firoz asked. “That email, the one I found on Kendal’s laptop. Do you know where it came from?”
    “Of course not. Why would I?”
    “Because it was sent from your account.”

CHAPTER 14
    Erinyes watches.
    It is easy to watch when there are so many cameras.
    Cameras in businesses.
    Cameras on streets.
    Cameras in homes. Security cameras. Nanny cams.
    Cameras on computers. On tablets. On cellphones.
    Taking a selfie?