Okay, there’s a chance I’ve read too many spy books. Not just that, but thrillers too. God, I’m addicted to thrillers in the worst way. Or what do they call them when they’re part horror and part thriller? A chiller? Those are really good too since I don’t watch TV. Books can be so much more terrifying.
“That’s just my driver,” Helen says, seeing my doubt. “I don’t drive myself anymore. These eyes aren’t what they used to be, and I also don’t want to kill anyone.” She says the last part with more of a grin than she should and slaps her thigh like it’s actually funny. Then, she turns serious again, as serious as she can be since I see she’s still fighting back a smile. “Can we talk inside?”
What if that’s her line, and she has a gun stashed in her bag?
Helen must also read spy stories, thrillers, and chillers because she holds up her bag immediately. “Oh, this?” She opens it slowly and lets me peer inside. All I see is a necklace with a thick gold chain—the kind that looks like it would be one heck of a neck hair pincher—and a large antique-looking gold pendant at the bottom. Inset into the gold is a circle of pearls and a massive green stone. I bet that thing is worth a fortune if it’s real. It looks like something that would only be found in the jewelry box of long-forgotten royalty. Or in a museum, since it looked like it belonged there.
“Here’s the deal,” Helen goes on. She ducks her head secretively, eyes sparkling, and lowers her voice to a whisper. “I need you to steal this.”
I can’t help myself. I lean in closer and whisper back even though I’m now starting to doubt her sanity. “But why would I steal what you already have?”
“Oh, ah…” Helen snaps her bag shut and gives me a scolding look. “Not from me. From my grandson. As a test. Good lord, I’m not senile.” I have to admit she has me there. “As to how I found you, I have my ways. Namely other hackers. There seriously are no limits to how dark the dark web gets.” She cackles at that like it’s actually funny.
It’s not. It’s honestly not funny. And there’s no way this lady is senile. Strange, maybe, but not senile. She wants something, and I have a distinct impression she’s not going to leave until she gets it.
“I know quite a few things about you,” Helen goes on, disregarding my silence, or maybe because of it. “I know you hardly ever leave the house. I know you’re a great hacker and a great burglar when you have to rise to the occasion. I also know you have four cats, which is a crazy number of cats if you ask me. And you’re a loner. You never did have a lot of friends, even before you moved here. You have one older sister who you hardly talk to, and you’re single.” Her eyes rake over me from my burnished strawberry blonde hair, past the flannel men’s shirt, old athletic shorts, down to the tips of my bare toes. “You’re attractive even if you’d rather dress like a hipster had a baby with a trashcan. Why do girls these days pull their shorts up so high? They used to call that mom pants or granny pants. Now it’s ‘cool pants.’ Anyway, I also know you like to eat cereal for dinner and at midnight, which is just plain weird.”
“How the hell—” I stop myself when I realize Helen is just being observant. My door is open, and she’s looking into the house, through to the kitchen, where I have the cereal box and my bowl on the table.
Without asking for permission, Helen pushes her way in. I step back in surprise, and she shuts the door behind her. I don’t feel threatened. Instead, I just feel…I don’t know. Weirded out. And maybe a little threatened. This lady knows a lot about me. Too much.
“I…my midnight is like most people’s seven in the morning,” I stammer since I feel the need to defend myself.
“I have a job for you,” Helen says like she doesn’t care about the cereal at midnight thing. “I’m willing to pay cash upfront and then a bonus when the job’s done.” She undoes her little bag and holds up the necklace. The pendant swings back and forth like she’s trying to hypnotize me. “Thing is, my grandson is the head of his own security company. He thinks he’s hot stuff and thinks he’s designed an impenetrable program. Not just to intruders but hackers. I know people’s home security systems get hacked all the time because it happened to me. I actually paid someone to track down the guy who did it and had them do a hack job on you. Ha! Wonderful how the world works, isn’t it?”