Free Burning Justice by Leighann Dobbs Page A

of him and stuck the fingernail of his index finger into the USB port. His nose wrinkled and his eyelids twitched as he downloaded the data from my tablet.
    “Oh, yes, I see that you have quite a few questions but not much of a timeline mapped out.” He raised his brows at me.
    “Right. All I know is that Evangeline came to my office and then later that night was murdered. How did they get in the boat? Who was involved? How exactly did they blow it up?”
    “Yes, those are good questions. It’s possible that the killer did fill the boat with fumes ahead of time. They could have already rendered Evangeline unconscious, then they could place her on the boat and they would only need a spark to ignite it. Maybe something that could be triggered remotely?” Artemis suggested. “I’ll search my database for various ways to do that.”
    “That would be helpful.” I took another sip of soup. “I wonder if the coroners found any signs of foul play on the body.”
    Artemis raised a brow at me. “I could check the police database…”
    “You mean hack into it?”
    He blushed.
    “I don't think that's a good idea. If they find out I could lose my license,” I said sternly and he looked appropriately chastised if a little disappointed. I wasn't above pushing the envelope, but messing around in the police computer system would be tempting fate.
    “I’ve already compiled a list of the neighbors and have sent that to the printer in the home office." Artemis gestured toward the hallway where my spare bedroom home office was. "I will also compare the database of employees at Barrows Investments to the database of your friends and acquaintances.”
    I frowned. “You have a database of my friends and acquaintances?”
    “Of course. Anytime you come in contact with someone new, their data automatically gets recorded in my database.”
    I guess that didn’t seem as creepy as it sounded. That sort of behavior is probably par for the course when you are a computer. “Can you check the travel databases to see where Jenny Sparks went?”
    “Already done. Jenny Sparks took the super shuttle train this morning and got off in Boston. I checked for connecting travel, but her name did not come up. Unfortunately, after she got off that shuttle in Boston there doesn’t seem to be any indication of where she went next.”

Chapter Eleven
    I wondered why Jenny would go to Boston. Did she have family there? Artemis hadn’t found any evidence of her having any family when he'd checked her out before, but that was probably because she was using an assumed identity. Who knew what her real name even was or where she was from? Maybe she had taken a connecting shuttle or hopped a train or plane using a different name. Given her suspiciously empty past, she was probably a master at using assumed identities.
    It was a mere ten-minute super shuttle ride from here to Boston. I could go and check it out, maybe bring a picture and question the people who worked there or the cab drivers. There must be some way to track her. She didn’t just stop existing at that super shuttle station.
    I had a lot of other leads to follow up closer to home, so I figured it might be better to search through the surveillance videos of the super shuttle terminal. I knew they had cameras set up in many locations and I figured Artemis could access those videos. If we focused on the time that Jenny’s shuttle arrived, we might luck out and see where she'd headed. I was hoping she got into a cab, or took another shuttle. Maybe she’d even have a plane ticket in her hand and we could zoom in and read the destination, and possibly her new assumed name. It was worth a shot. Besides, what else did Artemis have to do?
    I decided to pursue my easiest lead first. So the next morning I went up to Lexy’s, grabbed a dozen of her famous frosted cupcake tops and headed over to 420 Oak Street to visit Gerta.
    But before I could get access to Gerta, I had to do battle with the