Icarus

CYLOCKHOLMES DETECTION KIT

[Background [Information [Internet

Information

Reference] Source] Source]

[Information

[ADDRESS RESULTS WILL DISPLAY

HERE] Sources]

[Current Search

[PHONE NUMBERS WILL DISPLAY HERE] Category]

[Business Records]

[Driver Records]

[Vehicle [ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WILL

Ownership] DISPLAY HERE]

[Vital Records]

[Voter

State: [Alabama] [Retrieve] Registration]

[County

[Return Address] [Print Envelopes] Courthouse]

[CD Interface Help] [Check for Update] [About] [EXIT] [Cylock Holmes [Report]

Notebook]

"Jesus," Jack breathed. "Anyone can just do this?"

"As long as you got a credit card," Randy said. "Feeling paranoid?"

"A little."

"Wise man. No such thing as privacy anymore. You want me to lead you through this at the beginning?"

"Yes," Jack said.

"Okay, tell me what you're looking for."

"Something called Grave Enterprises."

"What about it?"

Jack exhaled. "Not sure," he said. "How about exactly what it is and who runs it."

"Okay. I'm looking at the screen, too. Go to the icon that says 'Investigative Tools.'"

Again, Jack clicked as per his instructions. He then typed in the information that Randy told him to type in at exactly the spots where Randy told him to type it. Within moments there was a long list of corporations and companies that had the word "grave" in them.

"You're gonna have to narrow it down, Jack. Or else you're going to have to check out each one of these. Looks like there's about a hundred and fifty – and that's just in New York. A lot of 'em you can get rid of immediately, I'm sure. This doesn't look like it's the world's greatest search engine, so I think you'll find words like 'gravy' and companies that have names that are just close; stuff like that'll clog up the list."

"Okay," Jack said. "You don't have to hang on while I do that. That could take a while."

"What else do you need?"

Jack told him that he had a credit card number that he wanted traced back to the owner.

"You don't have the owner's name?"

"No," Jack explained. "Just the number."

"That might take a little more time 'cause it's not the way the system's set up. I'll tell you what. Try finding what you want on this 'grave' list. Then, if you can narrow things down to a few names, we can track the credit cards for each person until you get what you're looking for. If that doesn't work, give me the number and I'll do a search. But I'll have to tap into a few things that might not be kosher."

"All right. Let me try it the kosher way first," Jack said. "Although I don't understand how this can really be legal."

"Trust me," Randy said.

"Believe me, I do. I also owe you. How much?"

"This? This was just a wake-up call. Consider this a freebie."

Jack thanked the Australian profusely, assured him he'd call him back if he got stuck on his search, and hung up the phone.

Then he went to work on his new CylockHolmes program.

– "-"-"IT TOOK ONLY twenty minutes for Jack to narrow his list down to six companies he wanted to check out. It was easy to eliminate all the "gravy" and "gravel" and "engraving" business that had popped up. Within minutes after he'd done that he had descriptions for the six he was interested in. There was only one that matched up exactly to the name on Kid's travel receipt, so Jack focused on that one first. It was a company called Grave Enterprises. The other five had addresses that automatically appeared alongside their names but there was no address for the company Jack was focused on. That fact alone made him certain he was on the right track.

He began using the various tools that CylockHolmes offered. He found a large number of vehicles registered to the company, all in New York State and New Jersey. He went into courthouse records to check the ownership of Grave Enterprises and found that it was part of another corporation, Migliarini Construction. The name rang a bell, although Jack couldn't initially come up with why. He then used his new computer program to run a search on Migliarini. It didn't take him long to understand why he knew the name. The more he searched, the more astonished he became. As he went along, he printed up anything that struck him as particularly relevant. An hour into his reading and research, CylockHolmes sent him to a list of newspaper and magazine articles as well as published books that had references to Migliarini Construction and its parent company, Joeva, Inc. At ten-thirty, he called the nearest Barnes amp; Noble. Whoever answered the phone told him they were open until eleven. Jack didn't even say thank you. He slammed the phone down, ran outside, and hailed a cab. He made it to the bookstore in fifteen minutes. By eleven-fifteen, he was back in his apartment, sitting in the leather living room chair under the Hopper painting, tearing through a book that had been published six months earlier called Future Crime: The 20th Century Gangster in the 21st Century.

By one-thirty in the morning, Jack knew he had what he was looking for. But to double-check he went to the computer and logged back on to CylockHolmes.

He made a few mistakes, wound up at a page that kept telling him to register again, but he finally got back on track. Under "Search," he typed in the name Eva Migliarini, a name he'd gotten from his reading. Information popped up immediately. He clicked on "Business Records," saw exactly what he expected to find. And then for his final cross-reference he tracked down two months' worth of her latest shopping sprees. There was nothing at all suspicious or seemingly illegal. But that didn't matter to Jack. All he needed was to match one particular item. And match it he did: he wouldn't have to call Raymond the computer whiz to get her Visa card number. He had her purchases. And on April 16, she'd bought two tickets for Bermuda. Jack looked at the receipt he'd taken from Kid's apartment. Same date. Same location.

Grave Enterprises, he thought.

Very fucking clever.

And you, too, Kid. Just as fucking clever. He could hear Kid's voice, as clear as if he were still standing in the room: She's got some really nasty friends and I don't think I want to piss them off just yet.

Nasty friends is right, he thought. But that didn't bother Jack, not now, because he was feeling even cleverer. Because when he finally closed his eyes and went to sleep at three in the morning, he knew he'd found what he was looking for: the first member of the Team.

He'd found the Mortician.