CHAPTER TWELVE

"Code, tell me something good, brother. There has to be a way to get into the backend of this dating site," said Gaspar.

"Backdoor, not backend," smirked Code. "That's a different kind of business."

"You knew what I meant."

"I know. But I like pointing out that I'm smarter than you about some things. Whoever their tech folks are, they're very, very good. They built an algorithm that selects certain people as their ‘stars' of the day. Their photos are highlighted, and they suddenly get inundated with requests to hookup. Most of these people are between twenty-seven and forty-five, but there are a few younger and a few older.

"For both Caroline and Shelby, the site showed them very specific men. On paper, they were handsome, successful, well-established. They watched them search for photos for a few days, and the algorithm then tells them what specific types of men they're attracted to. Tall, dark, light, short hair, long hair, blue-collar, professional. It covers it all. Once they know that, they create their own fake profile to appeal to the women or men.

"The same is true for the woman that Mica met. They watched him scroll through the photos, picking out buxom blondes. I think they could have a stable of people that they're using on this site and possibly others.

"Some of the messages I've been able to pull off the site are pretty straightforward. Before someone even meets the other person, they're crying about a sick child that needs medicine or a parent in a war-torn country that needs airfare."

"That's not fucking scary at all," growled Ghost. "And these people are falling for it?"

"Some almost immediately. But I'm not done," said Code, staring at his friends. "Two message threads that I was able to isolate requested that the individual ‘sponsor' someone coming from Syria. The individual claimed they couldn't do it because their green card wasn't approved yet, but that the person in Syria was in danger and had to leave the country immediately. When I went backwards to find the IP address of the user…"

"Let me guess," said Ian, holding up his hand, "he was in Syria."

"Yep. They're pulling all kinds of fucked up shit. They're asking people to open bank accounts with a hundred or two hundred bucks, then saying they'll put their own money in it and pay them back, it looks all legit, but what they're doing is collaborating with them, unwittingly.

"We used to believe it was primarily women who got scammed, but some of these men are getting hosed pretty bad as well. One poor guy even wrote it on his profile, listing the names of two women that asked for plane fare to come and see him and never showed up."

"He did it twice?" frowned Nine.

"What can I say? He's a hopeless romantic. His profile was removed by the site for violation of their privacy rules. I'd say they're more concerned about other things."

"How do we shut them down, Code?" asked Gaspar.

"That's the trickier part. I can shut them down, but believe me, they'll just start up another site. There are about fifteen hundred sites around the world, with the U.S. being the largest in revenue at more than one and a half billion dollars."

"Did you say billion?" frowned Ghost.

"Billion, brother. The vast majority of these users are on the sites using their smartphones. As you can imagine, for most people today, doing all their business on their phones, that opens up their financial and personal world to the underworld. If you don't have great protection on your devices, it's wide open for every creep out there. According to the data available, it's estimated that more than half of all users are fake profiles made to scam other users."

"What the fuck is wrong with people?" asked Ian.

"That's a question for another day. I think we have to get someone on the site to meet some of these people." Someone knocked on the door, and they all turned, waving Shelby and Red inside.

"Sorry to bother you guys, but Shelby got a disturbing call," said Red, guiding the young woman into the room.

"I wouldn't say it was disturbing as much as it was telling," said Shelby. "One of my former coworkers called to tell me that they found Amber's body in her home this morning. She was dead of a drug overdose. I've never known her to do drugs. Never."

"You think someone killed her?" asked Nine.

"I think she knew more about the dating site than she let on. This friend also commented that inside her apartment, they found a dozen luxury handbags, all well over a thousand dollars apiece. There were a dozen pairs of luxury shoes, her furniture was brand new, new television, everything top-of-the-line."

"She was getting paid to help them steer people to the site," said Ghost. "Are the police at her apartment?"

"I don't know," said Shelby, shaking her head. "My friend just said that they were all told at work to not speak with anyone other than the police."

"Okay. Code? Try to trace her calls, e-mails, everything. See what you can find on her. Other friends, family, anything that might help us to understand what she was doing. Shelby, I am sorry about your friend."

"Me, too. She was a friend once. I don't know what she was these last few weeks." Shelby turned to see Code's computer with a photo of a handsome male. "Why do you have that photo?"

"There's another woman that was scammed, and this was the photo. His name is Landon," said Code.

"No. His name is Peter. Or at least that's what he told me. He refused to do a live call with me before we met, so I wouldn't agree to a meeting spot. He also kept feeding me sob stories about his kids needing medications that he couldn't afford. It was all very creepy. He didn't even indicate that he had children on his profile. He said it was a glitch, and he couldn't get it changed. I just didn't buy it, so I blocked him."

"Well, it looks like he found another way to get what he wanted. He stole almost twenty thousand dollars from this woman." Shelby just shook her head.

"This is all so pointless. It's so pathetic. I don't think I'll ever be able to think about dating again." She turned to leave the room, and Red started to follow her.

"Red?" called Ghost. He popped his head back into the room. "Maybe you could speak with her. Let her know that not all men are swindlers. She's in a bad headspace right now, and we don't want her doing anything stupid."

"I don't know, you guys."

"Do it for the team, Red," said Gaspar. He shook his head, following Shelby out of the building. "Bastard likes her and won't admit it."

"Yeah, that might be, but she's a wounded bird, and I'm not sure he should go after her just yet."

"Well, we'll wait to see what happens. For now, continue to try and find a way for us to shut that site down," said Nine. Code just shook his head.

"Nine, you're not listening. I can shut it down right now. But we have to find these people, or it will happen again. I need to figure out who is controlling this site in order to ensure they can't pick up again."

"Fair enough. Find them."

"Shelby, wait up!" called Red as they walked back through the gates. "Don't you want to take one of the carts back?"

"No. I want to walk. I'm sorry, Red. I'm just not very good company today."

"Hey, you don't have anything to be sorry for," he said, holding her arm. "You've had a blow, and I, for one, think you're handling it pretty damn great. These people are shit, Shelby. They're the lowest of the scum on the earth taking advantage of one of the most precious things a human can have. Feelings."

"That's a good way to describe it," she smirked. "I don't think I'll ever be able to date again."

"Don't say that," he said as they began walking. "I think you're far too beautiful and smart to lock yourself away. You deserve to go on dates. Lots of dates. With flowers and candy and sweet notes, just because."

"Maybe I should have dated you," she grinned. He stared at her, swallowing.

"Would that have been bad?" He wasn't sure what made him ask that. What was he thinking? She'd been taken advantage of. He should be consoling her. But something inside him wanted to ask her on a real date.

"No. Oh, no! I didn't mean that at all. I meant that was what I was looking for. Romance. Flowers, candy, notes, just sweet things. It's what I do, what I give, in relationships. It's what I did with my ex-husband. At least, I did until I found all the notes torn up and thrown in the trash. It hurt me. It was silly and stupid, but it hurt me."

"It's not silly and stupid. I would have saved every damn note you ever wrote. Then again, I'm an old man."

"No, you're not. Your beautiful daughter told me how old you are. We're only a few years apart."

"Nine. We're nine years apart," he whispered. Shelby looked at him, smiling to herself. He'd gone to the trouble of finding out her age.

They walked for another twenty minutes before speaking again. This time, it was Shelby who spoke up.

"Did you mean it when you said you would date someone like me? I mean, did you honestly mean it, and you weren't just trying to make me feel better."

"I honestly meant every damn word of it. I wasn't looking for anyone right now, Shelby. I admit that. But you came as a bit of a surprise. I'd love it if we could just get to know one another. We could have dinner together tonight. Just you and me in the grove."

"I think that sounds lovely," she smiled.

"I'll be on the porch at seven."

"I'll be waiting."