Jamie Brodie 01 - Cited to Death

lung function before I even got out of bed. It was at 84% - still not good, but a little better than yesterday. I'd have to be extra careful today.
    I used my daily inhaler, took a steamy shower, and felt a little better. I got dressed and went to the kitchen. Abby was there, pouring coffee into her gargantuan travel mug. "Hey, how are you feeling? I heard you coughing last night."
    I was coughing in my sleep? That was bad news. "I'm okay. I was outside too much yesterday. My tires got slashed, and I had to wait for Triple A."
    "Mmm. Yeah, Kev said something about that."
    I poured cereal in a bowl and went for the milk. "Is he gone already?"
    "Yep. Yesterday and today. We're apparently having a murder wave in West LA." She put the lid on her coffee mug, washed out the pot, wiped up the counters, and walked past me to the door, patting me on the head. I swatted at her hand. She laughed and picked up her tool belt. "Stay inside. Take care of yourself today."
    "Yes, Mom." I stuck my tongue out at her. She laughed and closed the door. I finished my cereal, rinsed out my bowl, brushed my teeth, and went to work.
    I opened my office door onto a disaster. The mess I'd returned to on Tuesday was nothing compared to this. The whole place was tossed. My file cabinets and desk drawers had been locked, but they'd managed to open the file cabinet drawers and dump everything out. The floor and all of the furniture was coated in at least two inches of paper. All the books had been dumped off the shelves.
    A quick survey didn’t show that anything was missing. Hell, it looked like they’d added stuff to what was already in here. My diplomas were still hanging from the walls, and my pictures were still intact in their frames on the tops of my bookshelves. Everything else, though, was on the floor.
    And when I turned on my computer, I got the blue screen again.
    Fan-fucking-tastic.
    I called IT and left a message again. This was getting ridiculous. When IT Andy or whoever got here, I was just going to ask them to replace the computer. It must have gotten a virus of some sort which caused the email fiasco and then wiped the hard drive again. I still didn’t understand how that was possible, but it had happened, so it must be possible. It occurred to me again that I’d found Diane behind my desk twice this week. When she picked me up yesterday she was supposed to meet me outside, but she’d made a point to get here early and come inside. I’d only been in the men’s room a couple of minutes. Why would she need to check her email then? And didn’t she have a smart phone? Yes, she did; she’d pulled it out and checked it after the funeral.
    But why would Diane mess with my computer? Was that her idea of a joke?
    She’d kept in touch with Dan; did she have some knowledge about what he was investigating?
    No. Diane couldn’t be involved in this. There must be some innocent explanation for her actions.
    But she was the only other person that had used my computer. Whoever broke in to the office last night wouldn’t have been able to log on.
    I’d have to figure out a way to ask her about it that didn’t seem accusatory.
    And if Diane wasn’t sabotaging my computer, who was? And why?
    All of the weirdness had started after I got Dan’s letter.
    I sat down and took out a pen, found a scrap of paper, and started making a list.
    1. Tuesday - Diane comes in, I find her behind my desk
    2. Dan’s letter - someone after him?
    3. Wednesday - Dr. Oliver shows up after I get his article
    4. Wednesday, computer dead
    5. Creepy feeling Wednesday night – being watched?
    6. Thursday morning, email hacked
    7. Diane comes in, catch her using computer
    8. Thursday at funeral, author #2, Dan’s boyfriend, acting funny?
    9. Thursday evening, tires slashed
    10. Today, office broken into
    11. Today, computer dead again
    Wow. I hadn’t realized the list of weirdness had grown to eleven items. That was an awful lot of coincidence.
    A thought occurred to me. At one of our safety updates from the UCLA Police Department last fall, they had talked about having a detective that investigated computer crimes. Would this computer problem of mine qualify as something worthy of investigation?
    One way to find out. I called the police department main number and was transferred to the computer crimes detective. He wasn’t in; I left a voicemail with a brief explanation and asked him to call me back.
    Then I called back to the main number and reported that