"See, what happened was I have a data-warehousing company, and--"
"Data warehousing?"
"We store data that companies like SSD process."
"Not, like, a warehouse where you store merchandise?"
"No, no. It's all computer storage. On servers out in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Anyway, I got . . . well, you could say I got seduced by Andrew Sterling. All his success, the money. I wanted to start mining the data too, like SSD, not just storing it. I was going to carve out a niche market in a few industries that SSD isn't that strong in. I wasn't really competing, it wasn't illegal."
Sellitto could hear the desperation in the man's voice as he justified whatever he'd done.
"It was only nickel-and-dime stuff. But Andrew found out and locked me out of innerCircle and Watchtower. He threatened to sue me. I've been trying to negotiate but today he fired me. Well, terminated our contract. I really didn't do anything wrong." His voice cracked. "It was just business. . . ."
"And you think Sterling changed the files to make it look like you were the killer?"
"Well, somebody at SSD had to."
So the bottom line, Sellitto reflected, is that Carpenter's not a suspect and this was all a big fucking waste of time. "I don't have any more questions. 'Night."
But Carpenter was having a change of heart. The anger was gone completely, replaced by an expression that Sellitto decided was desperation, if not fear. "Wait, Officer, don't get the wrong idea. I spoke too fast. I'm not suggesting it was Andrew. I was mad. But it was just a reaction. You won't tell him, will you?"
As he walked away the detective glanced back. The businessman actually looked like he was going to cry.
*
So yet another suspect was innocent.
First, Andy Sterling. Now, Robert Carpenter. When Sellitto returned he immediately called Rodney Szarnek, who said he'd find out what went wrong. The techie called back ten minutes later. The first thing he said was, "Heh. Oops."
Rhyme sighed. "Go ahead."
"Okay, Carpenter did download enough lists to give him the information he'd need to target the victims and fall guys. But it was over the course of two years. All part of legitimate marketing campaigns. And nothing since early March."
"You said the information was downloaded just before the crimes."
"That's what it said on the spreadsheet itself. But the metadata showed that somebody at SSD had changed the dates. The information on your cousin, for instance, he got two years ago."
"And so somebody at SSD did that to point us away from him and toward Carpenter."
"Right."
"Now, the big question: Who the hell rearranged the dates? That's Five Twenty-Two."
But the computer man said, "There's no other information encoded in the metadata. The administrator and root-access logs aren't--"
"Just no. That's the short answer?"
"Correct."
"You're sure?"
"Positive."
"Thanks," he muttered. They disconnected.
The son eliminated, Carpenter eliminated . . .
Where are you, Sachs?