Dean Warner Intrigues - 21. Back to IU

Chapter 21 Back to IU

Wednesday was a strange day. The Warner's were surprised to be called to the police station for another meeting in the afternoon and John of course accompanied them. Jack Turner was there as well the U.S. Marshal. Surprisingly Bruce Schuetz was there as well. Dean, John and Debbie were brought up to date about the events of at the club and then told that the two men brought in by the Trask's security team were in the custody of the FBI. They were identified as hired thugs from Chicago and their car was impounded because it contained drugs including Roofies as well as traces of cocaine and heroin. After being in custody for a little more than 36 hours, they started showing signs of being in distress. A medical evaluation showed they were in withdrawal from heroin and they were put on diazepam to ease their symptoms and gain their cooperation. The feds were involved in the beginning because of the possible connection to the Weiss murder. It was expected that whomever had employed these guys would arrange for an attorney but one did not show up and a public defender was assigned. The goons figured they would be hung out to dry and decided to cooperate, but they knew little. They had been contacted by an anonymous phone call on Saturday which asked them if they were interested in making $10,000 a piece. Of course they were interested and the caller told them to come to a Sofo's and ask the bartender for the package for 'sidecar' and to take it back to their place before opening it. .

They followed directions and the packaged contained photos of Dean and John. An instruction sheet indicated the people in the photos would be going to the club in Terre Haute for New Years Eve. They were to get someone to put the Roofies (which were in the package) into their drinks and then as they lost coordination to walk them out of the club and take them somewhere and call the phone number supplied when they had the targets secured. The FBI found the phone number was for a Trac phone and it was untraceable as long as it wasn't used. So they called the number but as it was past the time of any expected call, it had probably been turned off and trashed. The package had contained $5,000 (most of which they had spent) with the balance to be paid when the targets were handed over. This was the sum total of what was known from these guys who were being held on attempted kidnapping.

The Marshal also had some news about Dean's initial key chain which he had gotten from Weiss. It too contained a tiny chip but it was also proving to be another elusive chore to figure it out or how or with what it was to be used. The police were advising both the Warners and the Trasks to be extra vigilant. Bruce Schuetz had more specific suggestions. He wanted all the vehicles used by Dean, his mother and John to be thoroughly gone over to detect any bugging or tracking devices. The Warner house would also be thoroughly gone over to for any bugging or listening devices as well. Dean's dorm room needed to be swept as well and it was suggested he return to school early so that could be done. It was also felt that Dean may be safer at the school as he was always around friends.

Debbie was worried sick by it all and didn't quite know what to do. She asked Dean, “do you think we should just move away and relocate far away where we could get away from all this?”

Dean looked at his mom and said “I am not leaving the state. John is here and we are a couple. I think the theory that Bruno Weiss was providing security programs for the mob after he went into the protection program and didn't realize with whom he was dealing is correct. I suspect the mob has the resources to track me down no matter where I went anyway. I wish I could just call them and tell them I know nothing and have nothing to give them nor anything that they want.”

Thursday was spent with their cars being gone over thoroughly as well as the Warner house. Nothing was found. Dean and John discussed the latest events and decided that somehow the mob suspected that Dean had another component to Weiss’ security key and that the chip on the key chain was what they had wanted and why they continued to pursue him. They then speculated that there might be something else that they suspected Dean knew or could come across and that he was still in some danger. It was all getting to be more than a little nerve wracking.

Dean packed his stuff and went back to Bloomington. He arrived and settled into his room. Their security guys did a sweep of his pod and found nothing. None of his pod mates were there yet. He went to bed early and tossed and turned most of the night. His dreams again were filled with vague and disturbing figures seemingly always in pursuit of him.

Friday morning he went to the campus bookstore and bought his books and supplies for the semester which started on Monday.

Ty came in on Saturday and Jacob and Justin on Sunday as they had no Monday morning classes. Dean's roommates all liked his new leather jacket but told him to keep the parka with the hood for the cold winter days ahead.

On his own and without telling any of his security detail, Dean made an appointment with the Dean of Students and saw him on Monday afternoon. He explained that he had survived two and possibly more attempts on his life and that he believed there was a security problem with his current laptop and student internet account. He planned to keep his current laptop, but planned to obtain a new one and he wanted another student account through the University. He said he would pay for it as he also wanted to keep his current account and see if he could feed some false information over it and see how it played out. He asked that this be kept in strictest confidence. The Dean of Students asked how he could verify this and Dean reluctantly told the Dean to ask John Trask Jr about the attempts on his life and nothing else and gave him John's father's private cell phone number to be used just this once. The call was made and John's dad confirmed the attempts on Dean's life. The Dean established a new account for Dean himself and told Dean there was no extra charge. Dean went to a local computer store in Bloomington and bought an Apple MacBook Pro and used it to set up his additional student account with internet access. He intended to use the Mac for most of his studies and especially for communicating with John by e-mail. He did not ever plan to copy anything from his old laptop or home computer to the new Mac. Both he and John had avoided using any social media sites and they would continue to avoid them per the recommendation of John's security people.

Classes were interesting and challenging and following his pattern in the prior semester, he organized or joined some informal study groups for most of his classes.

On Friday January 11^th, Dean met John in Indianapolis when they checked into the Marriott shortly after 7 p.m. They had only discussed their plans on their cell phones and had not told anyone else where they were going, including their security. They had each taken indirect routes to their destination and were constantly checking their rear view mirrors. Neither thought they had been followed. John's security guy Adam called him on his cell phone at 7:35 and told him that he had followed John and was checked into the same hotel and to call him if he planned to leave or go out.

“Damn they are good” Dean said when John filled him in on the call. Then Dean explained in detail his concerns about his PC at home and PC laptop and that perhaps there was some sort of program or trojan that was undetectable and was somehow feeding information to the mob. John thought it unlikely, but given the expertise shown by Bruno Weiss, they could not be sure. They knew Weiss had hacked into the Warner internet connection at home and perhaps there was something in their computers or even the router that was skimming information and forwarding it. Who really knew what was possible with a genius or what he had already sold and provided to the highest bidder?

Dean explained to John that he wanted his help in coming up with a plan to send some false information from his laptop PC on his original student internet account to John and see if that drew any response from the people hunting him. They couldn't come up with anything on the spur of the moment but decided to think about it for a week or so and see what they could hash out. They ordered room service and ate in their room and then decided to get into the jacuzzi together.

They checked out on Monday, it was the Martin Luther King holiday, and they had not left their hotel all weekend. It was as if they were making up for all the nights spent apart since Dean had returned to school. They were both somewhat sore and frankly drained. Dean drove back to school and started studying as he had an eight o'clock swim class on Tuesday morning followed by more classes.

Another storm struck that week and the weather was miserable. So was Dean.

Classes were going okay, but Dean was stuck on developing a plan to test whether his PC laptop had some sort of trojan or other malware that was providing information to whomever was out to get him and how to exploit that to an advantage. Finally, he broke down and decided to talk to one of his security guys and see if he had any ideas. The guy's name was Russell and he was in a couple of his business courses and also in one of his study groups. Dean explained his gut feeling about his PC laptop and home PC being compromised with some sort of trojan or malware. He told him about his desire to test it out by setting up a test situation by feeding some sort of specific information transmitted over his PC laptop and see if they could provoke a reaction which could verify that his PC's were the source of the leaked information. Dean did not mention that his online actions were also being monitored by the Feds.

Russell thought about it and asked if he could get back to Dean as he had an idea but he wanted to think it through before discussing it. He told Dean not to use his new MacBook to access his old student e-mail account or his e-mail through the cable provider back home. Dean said he already figured that out but wasn't sure if the suspected trojan program just targeted e-mail or targeted anything that connected to the web from his PC or PC laptop.

Dean did not get a chance to discuss the situation with Russell until Friday morning after class on the January 25^th. Russell knew that Dean planned to return home for the weekend and leave that afternoon. He suggested that Dean and John discuss going to South Padre Island for spring break from March 8^th to the 16^th and make some reservations from his home computer, including hotel reservations.

Dean replied, “okay, but how are we going to know they actually find out and do anything unless we actually go down there?”

Russell answered, “you are the target, therefore, you must be the bait. Don't inform the local police or anyone else that you are going. Don't use the phone lines at home or at John's and don't use your cell phones. Make all arrangements on-line and print out copies for yourselves and your security team only. Don't discuss it out loud at home or at John's nor with your mom or friends or John's parents. We want to keep this information as compartmentalized and impossible to know outside of you two and security. That is how we will know if the computer is the source.

Remember, there could be other unknown leaks or listening devices. Well aimed parabolic microphones can pick up a lot as can other listening devices. While our company swept your house, it did not do the houses around yours nor across the street. Who knows what kind of surveillance has been employed. Discuss your plans with John in a neutral site where you can't be easily overheard, one preferably with a lot of people in sight and where you can observe around you and talk in private with a lot of background noise. Then go and book everything on line and make a couple of printouts for yourselves and the security company. We will have your backs all the way.”

Dean thought about what Russell was saying and realized they had to make their plans this weekend. He drove home that afternoon wondering just what would happen next.