Free Strings of Fate (Mistresses of Fate) by Deirdre Dore

Agent Patel. I hope something you found helped the investigation.”
    “Oh, it helped us enormously,” Helmer chimed in. “You’ve been hacked, Ms. Pascal.”
    “Hacked?”
    “Yes, hacked.”
    Chris focused on Sandeep. “You found evidence that I’ve been hacked?”
    “Yes, miss.” He bent slightly to pat her shoulder. “I’m afraid so.”
    “I don’t see how that’s possible. I have firewalls, antivirus, sixteen-digit passphrases that I change weekly.”
    “I know. Your security is very good, but you were hacked, Ms. Pascal. The unsub, he is watching everything you do, even helping you sometimes. He is very clever.”
    “Helping me.” Chris put a hand to her chest, as Tavey’s grandmother used to, but Chris didn’t have any pearls to clutch.
    “He sends you tips sometimes, like the one that led you to the little boy being held by his cousin in Shreveport.”
    “He sent me that?” Chris whispered.
    “He seems to like you,” Agent Helmer muttered darkly. “Actually, strike that. He seems to worship you.”
    Chris flexed her fingers a little. “Why do you say that?”
    Agent Midaugh made a calm-down gesture. “We’re going to take all this information back to the analysts in Rome, put together a display board with all the identities you’ve created for the past year, and match them with the cases we’ve got on this unsub. We’d really like it if you came in tomorrow and talked to our analysts about the background to each identity, how these identities are requested, things like that. Maybe bring a list of identities you’ve created. Would you be able to do that for us, Ms. Pascal?”
    Chris nodded, standing. “Yeah. I have a class at ten, but I can be there by twelve.”
    “Don’t you think your class can wait?” Helmer sounded impatient with her, like she was being obtuse.
    She wanted to explain to Captain Jackass that, in light of this information that she’d been hacked, the yoga studio could possibly end up being her only source of income, but a thought occurred to Christina, an unwelcome one, but she’d learned to trust her intuition. “Just women?”
    “What?” Helmer shoved his hands in his suit pockets.
    Chris waved her hands in the air like someone calling for silence, and then she began to pace in a small circle. “You said I’ve been hacked, but I don’t just create online profiles of men for women; I also create women for men. Have any men been killed the same way as your other victims?”
    Helmer looked intrigued in spite of himself; his hands had come out of his pockets, and his fingers twitched as if he were clicking a mouse.
    “Check it,” Christina ordered. “And I’ll be there as soon as I can tomorrow.”
    Agent Helmer looked taken aback, but Midaugh nodded. “I think you might be on to something. We’ll call it in to the rest of the team; see what they can dig up.” He nodded to Helmer, who pulled out his cell phone, looking disgruntled, and walked away to make the call.
    Midaugh turned back to her. “Thank you, Ms. Pascal. We appreciate all your cooperation.”
    Chris squirmed uncomfortably; she wasn’t a big fan of thanks.
    “All right; they’re on it.” Helmer shoved his phone back into the holder on his belt.
    “Good.” Agent Midaugh held out his hand for her to shake. His massive palms engulfed hers; he even patted her hand in a fatherly fashion before going to gather up his things from her bedroom.
    Mr. Patel was next, shaking her hand. “I think what you do is very noble, Ms. Pascal. I’m sorry this has happened to you.”
    Chris felt tears sting her eyes, taken aback by the rare praise of her work, but she ignored them and smiled at the man. He had very gentle brown eyes.
    “Thank you.”
    “All your computers are still running. We’re going to be monitoring them. I created a remote connection to one of our secure servers.”
    “Okay, I won’t mess with anything.” Great. So Agent Helmer would know everything she did and said.