meet.â
âYou want me to meet someone?â Quinnâs heart performed a loop-de-loop. Jane wanted her to meet a man friend.
âDonât start planning the wedding. This is merely a meet-and-greet. No big deal. Understand?â
âOf course, I understand. Meet and greet. What time and where?â Jane provided the details before ending the call.
Jane had to be serious about this man if she wanted to introduce him to her mother. This was happy news and she would hold off on thoughts about the wedding ⦠until she met the man.
Finally it was after nine oâclock â time to call Ruthie, who was available.
âI have a quick question for you,â Quinn said.
âWhatâs up?â
âWhen we talked yesterday you mentioned that a targeted virus could have been used to change the wire instructions.â
âYes, thatâs a possibility.â The clicking of Ruthieâs nails on the computer keyboard accompanied her words.
âCould the virus have been launched by opening an email?â Quinn hoped that wasnât a cyber idiot question.
âSure, but usually something else is involved.â
This was the confirmation of her theory. The pot of coffee had made her stomach queasy. âCould an attachment be used to initiate the virus?â
âThatâs the most common way. It wiggles its way through the system and finds the target server. Then it carries out its mission,â Ruthie explained. âFairly simple if you know what youâre doing.â
Quinn performed a mental cartwheel then pounded a fist on the counter. This was the âhowâ part of her speculation.
âMy working theory is that the wire instructions were altered by an attachment to an email.â
âGood possibility.â
âThanks, Iâll call you later.â
Quinn basked in the glory of their conversation for less than fifteen seconds. Before executing a happy dance, she called Lynne.
âI need your help with something.â
âSure,â Lynne laughed. âAs long as itâs legal.â
âNot to worry. Would you check your email log of received messages during the last week?â
âWonât take a minute. What am I looking for?â
Quinn heard the curiosity in Lynneâs voice but she held off on sharing her theory until she had verification of any email attachments. âLook for messages from any HCU employee.â
âLetâs see, last Monday thereâs one from Scooter Taylor, on Thursday one message from Rebecca Holland, one from Dr. Arnold and two from Scooter, then another from Rebecca on Friday. Thatâs it. Why are you asking?â
âCuriosity, mostly. Is there anything strange or odd about the messages?â She looked out the window above her kitchen sink. It was going to be another beautiful day.
âThey all related to the gift transfer. Scooter and Rebecca both wanted to make sure the bank was alerted to the transfer. Nothing unusual.â
âWho â â
âI almost forgot,â Lynne said. âBill Jenkinsâs assistant emailed the instructions on Thursday.â
âDid any of the messages have an attachment?â
âLetâs see, Iâll have to check each one.â Lynne spoke again after several seconds. âThe message from Rebecca Holland on Friday had another copy of the wire instructions. Thatâs the only attachment.â
âHmm, does anyone else routinely receive emails from HCU?â She had to be missing something. âWhat about your assistant?â
âHold on a second and Iâll go ask her.â
It didnât take more than a minute for Lynne to return. âMy assistant received an email from Rebecca last Thursday. It was one of those silly jokes with a picture of a black cat in a pink bikini.â
âHas she received them before from Rebecca?â
âYes, they both like animals and send jokes back and