The Sholes Key (An Evans & Blackwell Mystery #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

suspect he designed the code and came up with the device used as the key.”
    “When we’ve tried implanting listening devices in Masters home,” Foxton continued, “we got nothing. Surveillance, nothing. A search through his home has proved futile. The emails have been traced to his home, but we can’t find the key he uses to encode them.”
    “It’s to be expected,” Vincent added. “He’s incredibly smart; he has a technical engineering degree and currently works as a network engineer.”
    “How do you want me to find the key?” Sophia asked.
    “It’s going to take more than a night. He’ll have to lead us to the key.”
    “Why would he do that?”
    “Because he’ll trust you.”
    “Me?” Sophia sat forward. “I don’t like where this is going. I may have experience with codes but I have no experience with undercover work. It’s best if you send in someone who won’t…be me. Besides, how do you know he will even like me, never mind come to trust me?”
    Silence.
    “What?” Sophia rose from her chair and looked around. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “You already have a connection to him,” Foxton said.
    “No, I don’t. I don’t know him.”
    “You don’t,” Vincent replied, “but your father does.”
    “What? My father is not involved in the bombings. There’s no way.”
    “That’s not the connection. Autism is the connection,” Foxton said.
    Sophia sat down again. She didn’t want to hear this.
    “Listen.” Foxton sat down in the empty chair next to her. “Masters’ younger brother has autism, and Marcus is heavily involved in charities to raise funds for research. Your father is a lead researcher and doctor in that field, and he happens to be hosting a charity event for just that cause in the near future.”
    “In two days.” Sophia nodded. She knew where this was going.
    “You have to understand,” Foxton continued. “It’s an access to him we can’t pass up. It would take any of our undercover agents weeks to build the trust you could build in a night. We know it ultimately puts you and your father at risk—”
    “Not just us, it puts everyone I know at risk.”
    “We wouldn’t leave you in the lurch. Of course we would provide your family with protection,” Vincent said.
    “It’s simple,” Foxton said. “You attend the event, try to arrange for a date, get into his house and catch him writing an email. The emails are becoming more and more frequent. He should be checking his email often. Something will happen soon. A few days, it should only take a few days.”
    Famous last words.
    “Can I ask you something?” Sophia put down her fork, leaned over the table, and grabbed Marc’s hand.
    “You can ask me anything, my dear.”
    “Why did you agree to go out with me that night, the night of the autism dinner?”
    “I ask myself that a lot,” he said quietly. “It actually scares me.”
    What did he mean scared? “Do you have regrets?” she asked.
    “Regrets? Hell, no. Because of you, I’ve had to do a lot of soul searching. What scares me is what my life would have been like if we’d never met. You were so beautiful, and I’d never had a woman like you ask me for coffee before. I think the bigger question is why you asked me in the first place.”
    She suspected at one point he would ask that. “It was actually when you told me that you couldn’t get your girlfriend to go with you,” she said.
    “What? Why?”
    “It was the exact problem I faced. Do you know how many times I’ve tried to get blokes to come with me? It’s a charity event, and I always offer to pay for their meals, but they still won’t attend. Pathetic. And here you were, a man that actually gives a damn.”
    “I’ll never forget that night.”
    Neither would she. She had been replaying that night in her mind over the past five months. As relaxed as she felt with him now, she did not feel that way five months ago.
    The night of the charity event started with Sophia in