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ôThereÆs blood in the water!ö said Norwell, flapping his arms like a chicken and going from concerned business partner to full-blown drama queen. ôOur investors are going to drop usùbanks are going to call in their loans. This is going to be bad. Very, very bad.ö

ôLook, weÆre not the first business that got hacked. Others have survived, even thrived, and so will we. So we took a hitùweÆll rally. The most important thing right now is to make sure we put measures in place that make us impregnable. And thatÆs where you come in, Norwell.ö

ôI knew this was going to happen,ö said Norwell, grabbing his head and going back to pacing back and forth. ôThe site is like a sieve. Anyone could have gotten in. Even some snot-nosed kid playing amateur hacker in his momÆs basement could have hacked us.ö

ôThen you better make sure you plug the hole,ö said Valina, quickly losing patience with the guy. ôYou need to get your act together, Norwell. And get the site back on track.ö

He stared at her for a moment, a sort of wild-eyed look in his eyes, then turned on his heel and left her office.

She breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she needed right now was for the people the site depended on to lose their shit. Norwell Kulhanek had come highly recommended for his programming prowess, and since sheÆd always known that programming was the siteÆs weak point, sheÆd wooed the man relentlessly, even going so far as to make him a partner, even though that went against the grain in every sense of the word.

Valina Fawn was her baby, a site she had nurtured and turned from a fledgling start-up into a juggernaut. And it was exactly that explosive growth that had caused a lot of teething problems. The infrastructure designed to carry a small site had quickly outgrown its usefulness, and since itÆs hard to redesign a site from the ground up when itÆs already up and running, sheÆd kept postponing the inevitable, until, apparently, it was too late.

Not too late, she chided herself. TheyÆd recover from this disaster. TheyÆd learn and grow and in due course regain peopleÆs trust, and it would be as if this hack had never happened.

Yeah, right. Who was she kidding!

Chapter 6

Odelia was in her editorÆs office, seated in front of the manÆs desk. Dan seemed particularly excited, as evidenced by the distinct waggle of his long white beard.

ôThis is the story of the century,ö the aged editor said. ôWe have to grab this thing and grab it good!ö

ôIt just sounds like a lot of gossip to me,ö said Odelia. As she had always understood, Dan didnÆt want theHampton Cove Gazette to turn into yet another gossip rag. Many times he had stressed that they had to be above that kind of tabloid journalism. And yet here it almost felt as if he was abandoning the principles of a lifetime for a juicy story. Then again, maybe the story was simply too big to ignore. Everyone was talking about it.

ôItÆs not just idle gossip, Odelia,ö said Dan. ôItÆs a human interest story. And it involves the whole community. Did you look at the list?ö

ôI did,ö she said, not wanting to point out that her own husband and her dad were on the list, not to mention her uncle.

ôEverybodyÆs on there! From the pharmacist to the council member to businessmen, lawyers, shopkeepers, butchers, plumbers, celebritiesà You name it and theyÆre there!ö

ôI didnÆt see your name on the list,ö said Odelia.

ôIÆm too old for the dating game,ö he said with a wave of the hand. ôBut looks like the rest of the population isnÆt. So you go out there and you talk to as many people as you can. Cheated wives, husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends. Jilted lovers, cheated partners. WeÆre going to cover this from every angle and go big on this story or go home. And IÆve already got the first interview lined up for you: Valina Fawn and Norwell Kulhanek have agreed to talk to theGazette and only theGazette. They wonÆt be giving any other interviews.ö

ôAn exclusive, huh?ö

ôAbsolutely. Me and Valina go way back. And also, she knows weÆll treat this with dignity and respect. Now get out there and bring me back some exciting copy! LetÆs sell some papers!ö

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I donÆt usually protest when Odelia drags me and Dooley along on one of her interviews, but today I felt I needed to lodge an official protest. IÆd just settled in for a nice nap on the couch she has installed in her office, and I didnÆt feel like traipsing off to talk to Valina Fawn about her site. I have this peculiar character defect, you see. I like to hunt down mysteries and solve them.

Whenever a murder is being committed in town, or some other crime, IÆm usually to be found taking a first-row seat and gathering the facts of the matter. But this was no mystery. This was just a tawdry story about hackers hacking yet another site, the way weÆve all read dozens or maybe even hundreds of stories the last couple of years. Hackers hack, usually forfinancial gain, and nobody seems to be able to stop them.

ôDo we have to go?ö I asked now, not hiding my reluctance.