“I need access to your computer.”
Ray strode to the desk in the corner of the room and hit a few keys. “There, it’s all yours. What are you planning?”
Jonas closed the distance and sat down, then went to work. “Addicted241 is going to send Cade a new instant message telling him the time of the meeting’s been changed.”
“How will you do that? And, wait, what? I don’t want him going to that meeting at all, Jonas.”
“I know. One thing at a time. First, go shower.” Jonas grimaced. “No offense, but you stink. Second, let your fingers do the walking, dude. Look in the phone book and call a fucking cleaning service. I’ll take care of this, then explain everything. Deal?”
Ray stood there and stared at him, as if trying to decide whether he should be offended or not. Finally, he said, “Deal.”
Ray turned to go, then stopped and said, “Thanks, man,” over his shoulder before heading for the stairs.
“Okay, I’m already lost. What’s a sniffer?”
“A network sniffer is a piece of hardware that will monitor your network data.” Jonas held up the small black box. “By attaching this to your router, I’ll be able to capture all of the traffic coming in and out of any computer on your network.” When Ray still looked lost, he explained, “In other words, when Cade gets an instant message from his go-to guy, this baby will record it, and I’ll get notified.”
“What good will that do? I’m basically already doing that with the chat-snooping program I installed.”
“Yes, but this will allow me to take the instant message, alter it, then send it back to Cade. When he logs onto his instant messenger, it’ll look like he’s received a new message from Addicted241.”
“And what will the modified message say exactly?”
“That the meeting is scheduled for tomorrow night instead.”
“Wait, if Cade replies back, won’t he know that the message was false? I mean, won’t Cade’s friend tell him the meeting is on as scheduled?”
“We’ll have to word the message so Cade knows not to send a reply.”
“Okay, but if it’s a setup, then what will Cade really be walking into?”
Ah, here came the tricky part, Jonas thought. “A meeting with a narc officer.”
Ray jumped out of his chair. “What the hell, Jonas?”
Jonas held up a hand and stood. “Calm down. Cade won’t be in any real trouble. This guy is a friend of mine. He’s just going to shake Cade up.”
He scowled. “Scare him straight, you mean?”
“Yeah. It’s the only way I can see to keep Cade from being Valdez’s drug mule. If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
Ray ran a hand through his hair. “Shit. How did it come to this, Jonas? How’d I let my kid down so badly?”
“You’re human, Ray. It happens. The key now is to get him back.” Just then the doorbell chimed. “And the cleaning service is here. My advice?”
“What’s that?” he asked as he moved to let them in.
“Tip them real fucking good. They’re going to deserve it.”
Ray snorted. “Thanks, asshole.”
“Anytime, buddy.” Jonas followed Ray out. “I’ll be back in the morning to download those traces and modify the message.”
Ray nodded as he let the cleaning service enter. Jonas wished them luck, then headed toward his car. Tomorrow night Cade was going to be in for a big surprise when he met with the narcotics officer. If Granger didn’t scare the kid straight, nothing would.
Deanna loved Jonas, and she’d all but blurted it out over a video chat, no less. “Crap,” she grumbled as she sped up in the hopes of being on time for her meeting with Valerie Rhodes.
The estimate was finished, and Deanna had even wrangled Dean’s construction company to do the remodel. But she was having a terrible time concentrating on the road because all she kept hearing was Jonas telling her that she wasn’t the only one falling.