James Swain - The King Tides

He got lost in the phone. The lights on neighboring buildings had gone out, as had the lights on the boats on the Intracoastal. The city had gone to sleep, and he’d hardly noticed. He decided not to quit and fixed a second cup of coffee.

An hour later found him studying a collection of photos on the Gallery app. Most were work related and showed Kenny and his coworkers engaged in company celebrations, while the rest were from a Carnival cruise that Kenny had taken to the Bahamas. None were sexual in nature or contained images of Nicki.

The apps were in alphabetical order. He smothered a yawn and came to the very end. An app called VideoVault stared back at him. He clicked on it, and a landing page appeared. It was a service to store videos on the cloud. Zack Kenny had an account, and it was password protected.

He sat up straight in his chair. He had looked at everything on the Droid except what was stored on this app. By process of elimination, that meant that VideoVault had what he was looking for. But what exactly was he going to find? Were there videos of Nicki besides the one of her singing in her underwear? If that was the case, then the innocent young teenager wasn’t so innocent after all.

He clicked on the password box. A keyboard appeared on the bottom of the screen. He typed in “Fendi123” and hit “Enter.” The message INCORRECT PASSWORD appeared. Kenny used a different password to protect his VideoVault account. On a hunch he typed in “Cassandra123” and hit “Enter.” The default message again appeared.

He spent a moment gathering his thoughts. Most password-protected apps only allowed a person three tries to gain access. If he typed in a third incorrect password and failed, the app would shut down, and he would be forced to go to the VideoVault website and create a new password. This would require him to answer questions Kenny had completed when he’d set up his account. He might get lucky and be able to correctly answer those questions with the information he had about Kenny, or more than likely, he’d encounter a question he didn’t know the answer to, and fail. If that happened, the videos stored in Kenny’s account would not be accessible to him.

He had one more chance. If he blew it, he was back to square one. He pulled out his own phone and used Google to find the phone number for the Booty Call. A minute later he was talking to Sergey, hoping the Russian could help.

“You have made my life miserable,” the hacker said.

“What did I do now?”

“Nothing. It’s what you did before. Try running a strip club without a bouncer. My customers are all over the dancers, touching them in the wrong places. I’ve already had two of the girls quit.”

“Want me to send someone over?”

“Is he big and muscular?”

“No, he’s actually average size, but he’s good in a fight.”

“I don’t want a fight! Fights are bad for business. A bouncer must be menacing. The customer looks at him and thinks, ‘I don’t want him messing with me,’ so the customer behaves himself. If the bouncer isn’t here, the customer turns into an animal. Does that make sense?”

“A guy with a baseball bat will do the same thing.”

“A baseball bat.”

“Have a guy sit on a stool with a baseball bat leaning against the wall. I knew a bar where they did that. There were never any fights.”

“That is not bad advice. What do you want?”

He explained the situation, hoping Sergey would have a solution. The Russian did not disappoint him.

“This should not be too hard,” Sergey said. “We know the password for the phone was Fendi123, which is a combination of letters and numbers. The letters are the name of a pet, and the numbers are sequential. More than likely, the password for the VideoVault app is also a combination of letters and numbers, most likely a name and a sequence of numbers which are easily remembered. You have already tried Fendi123 and also Cassandra123, and neither worked. What is the significance of the name Cassandra? Do you know?”

“It’s the name of a woman the owner of the phone has a thing for.”

“So you believe her name is probably the name in the password.”

“That’s a good assumption.”

“I would agree. When men use names in passwords, the names are either of a favorite pet or a woman. That leaves us with figuring out the numbers that follow the name. Usually, people use their birth dates because these numbers are easily recalled. This is not the case with criminals, who tend to use combinations of numbers that are known only to them. If you can get that number, you will have an excellent chance of hacking this app. Now, if you will excuse me, I have another dancer who wants to quit.”

Sergey said something that sounded like a curse, and the call ended. He told himself the Russian would get over it and called Karissa. He got voice mail and left a message saying that it was urgent. A half hour later, she called him back.

“Hope I’m not interrupting anything,” he said.

“I’m still at work and just took a break. What’s up?” she asked.

“I found an app on Zack’s cell phone where videos are stored, but it’s password protected and I can’t get in. Zack likes to use a combination of names and numbers in his passwords. I think the name is Cassandra, but I can’t figure out the number. Did Zack ever share with you any special numbers?”

“Try six, eight, seven, nine.”

“What’s the significance?”

“Zack’s older brother perished in a car accident. They were close. His brother’s birthday was June 8, 1979. Zack used to drive a Lincoln Continental that had a keypad entry system. That was the password he used, six, eight, seven, nine.”

“You’re sure those were the numbers?”

“Positive. I saw him punch it in enough times. What kind of videos do you think he has stored on his phone?”

“I’m guessing they’re pornographic videos of young girls.”

“Will he get in trouble if you’re right?”

“If the videos are sexual in nature and the girls are underage, I’ll turn the phone over to the sheriff’s office and they’ll have him arrested. I’ll keep your name out of it.”

“I know you will. Call me if you have any more questions.”

“I will. Thanks for the assist. You’ve been a great help.”

“Goodnight, Jon. Be safe.”

He ended the call. He put his own cell phone into his pocket, then picked up the new cell phone that lay at his feet. It had timed out, and he typed in “Fendi123” to bring the screen to life. He scrolled through the apps until he found the VideoVault icon and clicked on it. The landing page filled the small screen. He clicked on the password box, and a keypad appeared on the lower portion of the screen. He typed in “Cassandra6879” and hesitated before hitting the “Sign On” button.

He took a deep breath. It was late, with hardly a light in the sky or down below. It was just him and the darkness. If he’d learned anything in the military and later as a cop, it was that evil was real and darkness was its playground. He needed to be careful when he stepped into the darkness, because if he wasn’t, evil would envelop him, and he’d never be the same.

He hit the button and gained entry to Zack Kenny’s account. He was one step closer to learning the truth. There were a dozen videos stored in the secure area. Each one had a title, and they all began with the name “Cassandra” and ended with an exclamation mark. CASSANDRA SAYS HI! CASSANDRA LEARNS TO DANCE! CASSANDRA TAKES A SHOWER! CASSANDRA DISCOVERS LOVE! Just reading the titles made his skin crawl, and he clicked on the first video. It was called CASSANDRA PLAYS COY! A few moments later, the video began to play. The lighting was muted, and he strained to see a young girl lying naked in bed. Her face looked terribly familiar.