Dino by Jaime Lewis
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Arianna was in the garage going through a couple of boxes when she came across a bag of items that was from her final night in Rome. It was her torn dress that had bloodstains on it. She had no plans on keeping that as a souvenir. She threw it into the trashcan, but when it landed, she heard a thump. Like something heavier was inside. She walked over and fished the bag out, and opened it. She pulled out the dress, a pair of panties, and a towel. At the bottom of the bag, she found the clutch she had used. She had forgotten that Enzo had picked it up. She opened it, and all of her usual stuff was in there; lip gloss, mint breath strips, a little bit of cash, but what caught her eye was the object at the bottom. She reached in and pulled out a black flash drive. She had no clue whom it belonged to or how it got there.
She pulled her phone from her back pocket and called the one person who may know.
“Arianna!” The Greek’s loud voice boomed over the phone.
“Hi, Enzo. How are you?”
“I’m great now that you called.” He teased. “What can I do for you, beautiful?”
“Well, I’m calling because I found something today, and I’m not sure where it came from.”
“Okay.”
“I was going through some of my things from Italy, and I found my black clutch that you found during the mess with Demitri. And inside, there was a black flash drive. It doesn’t have any markings on it.”
“I remember that. It was inside one of the pockets in the jacket you were wearing. When you passed out, I took the jacket off of you, and when I did, the flash drive fell out. I thought it belonged to you.”
“No.” She told him. But then suddenly realized what jacket she had been wearing.
“Oh shit!”
“What?”
“That was Demitri’s jacket.”
Enzo whistled low. “If you open it, be sure you have someone who knows how to hack passwords. Demitri is known to program files that will wipe everything clean from the file if a wrong password is used.”
“And how do you know this?”
“Eh…I have my ways.”
“Okay. Well, let me go so I can figure out what to do with this.”
“Good luck.” He told her before he disconnected.
She held the drive in her hand. She was curious and wanted to know what was on there. She was good on the computer, but without the proper equipment, she wasn’t taking a chance. She didn’t want to lose the data on it or have someone be able to trace the drive if there was a code attached to it.
She hit Dino’s number and waited for him to answer. He was over at Diego’s, helping him paint.
“Hey.”
“Hi.”
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Does your friend Skittles have access to a computer that’s secure?”
“Maybe. If not, he can probably get his hands on one. Why? What’s up?”
“I have a flash drive that I need to gain access to, however, because of where it came from, I’m a little leery of opening it on a general computer.”
“Let me give him a call.”
“That would be great. I’m heading to the bar right now. Just give me a call and let me know.”
“Will do.”
“Love you.” She told him.
“Love you back.”
A little over an hour later, Skittles walked into the bar and Arianna waved to him.
“Hey. Dino said you needed help accessing a flash drive?”
“Yeah. I think it’s probably encrypted too. Do you think you can crack it?”
“Probably. I’ll have to take a look at it first. It might take some time depending on what type of program was used.”
She pulled the drive from her pocket.
“Can I take it?”
She bit her lip nervously. Not that she didn’t trust Skittles, but if something were to happen, that was her only copy.
Skittles chuckled.
“I can tell by your expression that you’d rather me not. Give me the drive, and I’ll work on it here.”
“I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t—”
He held up his hand. “Say no more, I get it, and no offense taken.”
He slid off the stool. “Let me run to my car and grab my laptop and bag.”
“Thank you. You can use the office if you want.”
He nodded. “That’ll work.”
Arianna hoped Skittles could access the information because she was eager to see what Demitri had hidden on there. Her thoughts were interrupted by a customer.
“Hey sweet cheeks, how about another round down here?”
She turned toward the big burly fisherman and rolled her eyes. He was a harmless guy who knew how to put away his alcohol and sometimes make inappropriate comments to women. He thought they were pick-up lines, or so he said. When the alcohol was flowing, he had no filter on his mouth.
She pulled four mugs from the cooler and poured them from the tap. She walked them down to Captain Rusty and the three other men sitting with him.
“Here you guys go. Enjoy!” She smiled.
Rusty grinned and winked.
“Arianna, have you met my oldest son, Spencer?”
He slapped the youngest looking of the four on the back, and Arianna wanted to laugh when Spencer rolled his eyes.
“Jesus, dad, Arianna, and I went to high school together.”
Arianna chuckled when Rusty looked between her and Spencer.
“Hell, son, this here is a fine woman. You should ask her out.”
He looked at Arianna. “You aren’t seeing anyone, right sweet cheeks?”
She squinted her eyes. “How would you know? Maybe I have a sugar daddy waiting for me back at home.”
Rusty’s eyes widened before he barked out a loud, boisterous laugh. He looked at Spencer. “And she has a sense of humor.”
Thank god Skittles was coming back in. His timing couldn’t be any more perfect.
She pointed at Rusty. “You behave.”
“Awe, now what fun would that be?” he teased, and she smiled and shook her head.
Captain Rusty suddenly sobered. “Honey, whoever manages to steal your heart is going to be one lucky guy.”
She smiled. “Holler if y’all need anything.”
She met Skittles by the end of the bar, and they walked down the hallway that led to the office.
“What was that about?” Skittles asked.
“Just some customers having a good time.”
“Huh…”
“What?” She asked, looking up at him.
She followed Skittles into the office. He took the seat at the desk, and Arianna watched him connect several cables to his laptop. Then he took one of the cables and connected it to a small black box.
He fired up the computer and went through his normal process of logging in. When he told her he was ready, she took a big breath and handed the drive over to him.
He slid it into the port and went to work on it. It took a good twenty minutes and one wrong log-in attempt, but he finally accessed it.
Suddenly, numbers started scrolling up the screen.
“What in the hell is this? It looks like just a bunch of numbers.” Skittles asked, and she studied it.
Arianna couldn’t believe it. It was a list of numbers, but it’s code.
She pulled another chair over and sat down next to Skittles. There were hundreds if not thousands of sets of numbers listed.
“ASCII. I’ve seen it before.” She looked at Skittles and seemed to know then what she was talking about. He just had never seen it before—American Standard Code for Information.
“How did you end up with this?”
Arianna sat back in her chair. “It was a little luck and a very good friend.” She looked at Skittles and smiled. “Someone who wants to put away Demitri Barros just as bad as I do.”
She glanced back at the screen and still couldn’t believe it. “This is the motherload of evidence to nail the bastard.”
Skittles eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. “Wait! Is this the guy that you were working undercover to get information on?”
She nodded and then explained how they could’ve arrested him on some lower-level crimes that may not even stick, but they want to nail him on the trafficking charge that carries a larger sentence.
Skittles rubbed his jaw. “Damn. Who do you need to call about this?”
She reached for the phone on the desk. “Chris.” She answered, and Skittles nodded, knowing who Chris was since he had met him the other morning at the house when the whole Gabbert ordeal went down.
“I’m going to give him call while I drive over to the hospital,” she told Skittles and left for her car.
As she pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the main road, she dialed Chris’ number.
“Unless you’re calling to tell me that you’ve reconsidered our offer, I don’t want to talk to you,” Chris joked as he answered the phone.
“Well, considering what I have to tell you, I would hope that the FBI would consider throwing in a little more from their previous offer. Although, my intentions are still the same. I’m happy where I’m at.” She didn’t mention that she had interviews with Tink and some of his staff yesterday and that she would be their new Forensics Accountant.
“Okay, you’ve got my attention.”
She started telling him what she found and what all it included. By the time she was finished, she had thought that he hung up because he was so quiet.
“Arianna, I hope this isn’t one of your jokes.”
“No joke, Chris. This is what we’ve been looking for.”
“Jesus Christ. And you have it with you?”
“Yep.”
“Where are you now?”
She looked at the street sign. “I’m at Douglas and 8th Street.”
“Where are you headed?”
“The hospital. My dad’s supposed to be discharged tomorrow.”
“That’s great to hear about your dad. Listen, do you mind if I meet you there to get the drive?”
“No, not at all. I should be there in about fifteen minutes or so.”
“Okay. I need to finish up a few things here at the office, but I’ll meet you there. Give me about an hour?”
“Yeah. No problem. I’ll see you then.”
“Arianna?”
“Yeah?”
“Great work.”
She smiled. “Thanks. But I’m still not coming back,” she teased, and he snickered.
“I’ll see ya soon,” he told her and then disconnected.
Funny how things turn out, she thought to herself.
