Burning Rage by Jean Heller

Author:Jean Heller [Heller, Jean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

The weather was nothing short of gorgeous so traffic on Lake Shore Drive overflowed with locals enjoying the weather. Rick and his partner, Paul, lived in the Lakeview neighborhood, one of the centers of Chicago’s LGBT activity, where alternative lifestyles melded beautifully with older residents who had lived there for years, and young straight couples with children. Lakeview, also known as Boys’ Town, had some extraordinary restaurants and shops. What it lacked was street parking.

We had taken Mark’s personal SUV. Fortunately, he had a visor placard that identified the vehicle as being on official state business. It allowed him to park in a CVS drug store parking lot where no one would question it. Neither of us mentioned that he could get into serious trouble for the subterfuge. But who would know?

Rick and Paul lived on Aldine, less than a block off Lake Shore Drive. They had a lovely condo in a U-shaped building that wrapped around a pleasant private park. Rick met us at the door and invited us in. Paul poked his head out of the kitchen. I introduced both men to Mark.

Paul wiped his hands on a dishtowel and extended it to Mark.

“While you all work,” he said, “I’m making some snacks. When you’re done, we can go sit outside and have them with some drinks.”

“That’s very nice of you,” Mark said.

“Any excuse for a party on a day this lovely,” Paul said as he turned back to the kitchen. “You kids have fun.”

Rick took us upstairs where he had converted a giant bedroom to a computer workshop. We talked about the call I’d gotten.

“So you need to know where the call originated,” he said.

“That would be nice,” I said. “But I thought about it on the way over, and I’m not sure it’s worth the risk. I’m guessing you’d be breaking about a dozen federal laws. Let’s set that aside as a last resort. What I need first is to find a man named Ali Muhammad Kaar. I Googled him and got a few near-hits but no perfect matches. Most of the people who came up don’t live in the United States.”

“Maybe your guy lives overseas and just came here to help with the arsons.”

“My guy’s in the morgue, Rick. He’s one of the two men who burned up in the warehouse fire. I need to know what he did and where he lived while he still walked among the living.”

He nodded and powered up his impressive array of computer equipment.

“People who want to live off the grid can do it,” he said. “It’s not easy. Most of them slip up once or twice. For example, you can’t open a utility account without a name and full address. Same with cable. Let’s start with ComEd and Comcast and see what we find.”

“You going to hack into their systems?” I asked. “I don’t want you winding up in prison over this.”

“I know how to cover my tracks,” he said. “As long as I don’t do any damage to their systems or steal their account data, they shouldn’t even notice.

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