“So how do you do that? If you write this program, doesn’t it give you, like, a billion results, with all these profiles of people? How is that useful?”
“Well, that’s a moot point, because I can’t sit down and write a program fast enough to give us that problem, anyway. But there’s ssome stuff I might be able to c-cobble together to do my bidding.”
The cocky way he said it made her suspicious. “Cobble together how?”
“I’m not going to tell you that part.”
“Is it legal?”
“More or less.”
“Would Caleb be mad if you told him exactly what you were going to do?”
“Probably. But I’m not planning to t-tell him.”
“So what’s the outcome if you manage to do this the way you want?”
“Hopefully I get
ssomething that lets me ID a group of people and then actually starts searching out their other business online and looking for ssuspicious activity. My goal is to figure out what a normal level of interest in Judah Pratt is and look for people who are outliers. Or for p-people who stalk the websites late at night.”
“All the messages from the psycho came after midnight.”
“Exactly. I’m hoping we’ll end up with a set of profiles we can sort through to find our guy.”
“Or girl.”
“You think it’s a woman?”
“I don’t know. Maybe.” She’d assumed it was a woman all along, but she had no evidence to back that up. Caleb had warned her against making unfounded assumptions. Minus ten points for Agent Katie.
“This sounds good,” she said. “How long is it going to take you?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe before we go to Iowa City next weekend we’ll have some solid leads. It will help to have my own equipment. I’m gonna need your help, too, c-combing through the data. You know a lot more about Pratt than I do, and you’ll spot things I don’t see.”
“Just let me know when you need me.”
She didn’t mean it to be a come-on, but her voice emerged from her throat sort of husky and do-me, because Sean had her all revved up. Did it make her a complete pervert, that hearing Sean geek out about computer stuff was turning her on?
Probably.
Did she officially have a candy-apple-red girl crush on her partner?
Yes. Yes, she did.
Way to go, Smarticus. Very La Femme Nikita of you.
“Clark?” Sean asked.
Something menacing had crept into his speech. The good kind of menacing, if she wasn’t mistaken. The drag-you-to-bed-by-one-arm kind. She couldn’t make out his expression, but she thought if she could see his eyes they’d be almost black.
She didn’t answer him. She needed a minute.
“I’ve been thinking about last night,” he said. “What you told me.” His hand found her knee again. “Two years.”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
Want me, she thought. Want me, and I’ll so make it worth your while.