Free 2 CATastrophe by Chloe Kendrick

crossed her arms over her chest and stood feet spread apart like a giant statue of disapproval.
    I shrugged. “Technically, that’s not true. The Vires case was labeled a suicide, and so no one is investigating anything. I’m not breaking any laws by asking some questions about a closed case of suicide.”
    Her arms dropped to her sides, but her eyes still flashed anger. I’d gotten around her direct orders through loopholes. While I was in the clear as far as the law went, she was not happy with me and was willing to make that known.
    “So what’s your theory on that case?” she said finally. Her curiosity had beaten out her anger at my manipulation of the rules.
    I explained about the changed locks on the front door of Vires office and the discovery of the app that would lock or unlock a door automatically. I went through all of the things I’d learned about locked rooms from Dana and tied up the case neatly.
    She sighed. “It doesn’t change anything. Yeah, the police might have looked at the case more if they’d known about the app, but how does that tie to this case?”
    I explained to her what Brett had told me about Vires’ work and the apps that had been developed from that. “Miller took those apps and made a fortune from them. So it stands to reason that he’s the one who killed Vires. So anyone who had a desire for revenge would have a motive for this murder.”
    “Only if they knew what you figured out. Obviously the police didn’t figure that out, so it wasn’t obvious to everyone. You would have to know about the app, and you’d have to know that Miller profited from the crimes. It’s definitely not open and shut.” I could read her like one of my pets. She was interested now. Her guard had come down; she was less defensive and her voice held a thrill of discovery and satisfaction. “Old-time cops always tell me that if the original officers did their job that the name of the perp will be in the cold case file. I guess they were right again. And it would explain why Miller was unwilling to release that app when times were tough.”
    I cleared my throat. “Since I’m being a good citizen and not investigating this, there are two things that you could look into.”
    She smirked. “You’re being a good little citizen? Since when? Did I blink and miss it?”
    I chose to ignore her comments. We were getting along – somewhat and I wanted to keep that détente going. “The first is to talk to Adam Nelson at Advent. Who else had that app? You could check everyone’s phones and see if it’s downloaded. Theoretically, anyone who knew Miller could have downloaded the app and used it. They’d just have to connect to the host computer.”
    “Do you really think that a killer would be stupid enough to keep that app on his or her phone? It’s not available to the public, so it would nearly be an admission of guilt if they got caught with it, especially now that we are on to its abilities.”
    “You really have to ask if criminals are stupid? I’ve heard some of your stories.”
    She nodded. “Yeah, what was I thinking? Of course they are. So we can follow up and ask to see the phones of some of the people associated with the case. I’d need a warrant to demand it, but since the actual case has nothing to do with phone, I likely couldn’t get one. I can just go off who denies my request. That’s not enough to prove anything, but it certainly could allow us to focus on one suspect, which is always helpful. You don’t even know if the doors at the Miller house would work with the app. If I were Miller, I’d make damned sure that they didn’t work. I would think that I’d be a little too nervous about someone trying that on me. After all, it worked well the first time.”
    “But someone did do that to him. It can’t be coincidence. The crimes have to be related because of the way they were carried out. How many locked rooms do you get in a year?”
    She gave me a blank face. “Try zero