Free Now You See It by Cáit Donnelly

table. Before she could answer, Mike responded. “Braden McGrath is a cyber-security consultant for my law firm. Ms. Cavanagh’s computer was tampered with Sunday night while she was away from home. I asked him to assess the situation and see what could be done to prevent its happening again.”
    Olsen turned to Gemma. “So, you don’t know him?”
    “Other than that? No,” she said.
    “What were the circumstances that made you file a restraining order against your estranged husband?”
    “I thought he’d—someone broke into the house when I wasn’t there. I thought it was him.”
    “Any particular reason to think so?”
    “I hadn’t changed the alarm codes after he moved out. And they accessed his computer files. He was the only one who knew the password. He changed it every couple of weeks.”
    Abernathy frowned. “This is the first we’ve heard of a break-in.”
    “It didn’t seem important, in comparison to murder.”
    “Yeah, but who did it?”
    “That’s what we’d like to know,” Mike said. “The IT security guy said there was no way to tell, since nothing was sent over the Net.”
    “McGrath.”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you think the two incidents are connected?” Abernathy asked.
    “I have no idea,” Gemma said, “but I have a hard time coming to grips with someone coincidentally breaking into my house in the middle of the night right after my husband was murdered, and accessing his computer files.”
    “What files?”
    “I don’t know. I’m not a computer expert.”
    “And you only met what’s his name—McGrath—that day?”
    “I’d never seen him until about an hour before you arrived.”
    For a moment, everyone was silent.
    “Thank you, Ms. Cavanagh,” Olsen added. “We’ll be in touch.”
    * * *
    Olsen waited until the Cavanaghs were out of sight before he spoke again. “I want to look at the computer guy,” he said. “Mc—what’s his name again?”
    “McGrath. Yeah. Actually, I did a little research on him this morning. Had the Geeks help me. McGrath has a nice solid background, service record, work history—until you really start to dig. It’s good enough for a shallow browse, like a credit check. Then it starts to get murky.”
    “Murky?”
    “Geekspeak. Got it from the tech guy. A few layers down, he hit a wall. Solid enough to get his hacker’s blood up. Let’s see what he can find, and we’ll go pay McGrath a visit.”
    * * *
    Gemma turned toward Mike as they drove away. “Was that weird, or is it just me?”
    “It’s not just you.” He shook his head.
    “Why did they have to come all the way up here, just for those few silly questions? I could have come up with better ones myself.”
    “So could anybody who ever watched Law and Order . Maybe they came because they already had permission for the trip. They’re tying up detectives from two jurisdictions. I don’t know what that’s about.”
    “The guy from Seattle, what’s his name? Anyway, he didn’t ask me a single question. And what was all that about Brady?”
    Mike winced. “You noticed, huh?”
    “Duh.”
    “I’d better clue him in. He probably won’t be too surprised, though, considering how he showed up. Dead husband, wife packing, strange guy upstairs. I mean, it’s natural to look at the estranged wife, even when she has a solid alibi. You could have hired somebody like Brady to knock him off.”
    “‘Knock him off’?”
    Mike grinned. “My guess is they’ll move on to Wheeler next. The business partner-as-killer is almost as standard as the spouse. And you’re not off the hook yet. You’ve got the motive—more than one. They don’t know that. At least, I don’t think they do. They were surprised about the money. So was I.”
    “I didn’t know—”
    “Yeah, but you can’t prove you didn’t.” He paused. “You should have told me about Ned’s mother. If not getting along with your in-laws was a common motive for murder, half the world would be burying the other