They sat around the table and discussed who else had the technical skills to put the malware on his phone and Maggie's that would seem a little too interested in him and his life. They didn't have to work at the company he was at; it could be anyone in his life. The connection could be very limited or well formed.
First came his family. He dismissed his parents and siblings because they all lived out of state and were, upon checking, all currently at home. He also reviewed his aunts, uncles, and many of his cousins.
His friendships were gone over one by one. They investigated several friendships more deeply because their technological backgrounds suggested they could have planted the malware on Andy's phone. One of them was in the area so he became one of their people of interest.
Brighton left to do some legwork and research into the background of Andy's friend from college, Michael Collins. He worked for a local telecommunications company as a programmer.
Maggie and Amelia moved into the living room with their morning drinks to wait to hear from Brighton. Andy paced around the room wondering if someone that had been one of his closest friends might now be someone that kidnapped him and had tried to kill Maggie.
Without thinking, he opened the door to the backyard and when out with the dogs. He stood on the patio enjoying the fresh air when he heard a loud pop. Dropping to the ground, Andy covered his head and realized where he was…outside!
The on-duty police officers ran outside to find Andy, on the ground, and to determine the source of the loud noise clearly heard inside the little house. Andy was rushed back into the house by an officer while the other investigated the noise.
"What were you thinking? You know you are not supposed to go outside." Said Officer Jefferies.
"I'm sorry, I just wasn't thinking." Replied Andy. "Someone I know is doing all this nonsense, and that distracted me."
Just then, the second police officer returned and let them know that the noise they heard was a large exercise ball popping and not a shot being taken at Andy. Both women sighed with relief, knowing this meant that they would not need to move again and they were still safe.
Andy apologized for his mistake and sat in the living room with Maggie and Amelia. The two dogs came in and Ripley jumped up into Maggie's lap for scratches before curling up on the floor with Max.
As the day progressed, Maggie became more anxious, waiting for news from Brighton about Michael Collins. She really wanted to know who was behind all the chaos that had been happening for the last few days. She also wanted to get the work started on repairing her home so she could move back in. That couldn't happen as long as she was stuck in this Safehouse. For all she knew, her home was a complete disaster area and getting worse and worse as every hour ticked by without her there to get the work started.
Brighton had tried to reassure her it was not that bad, but without seeing it for herself, her imagination was going off in wild directions. Her mind had the damage to a level that no one could ever live in her beautiful condo again. She mourned the loss of her home without knowing for sure if he was a total loss or not. Maggie hated not knowing what was going on back at her condo while they were all waiting for news about who might be doing all this craziness.
Maggie went online and looked for information on Michael Collins for herself. It gave her something to do besides worrying about the damage to her condo. There was nothing she could do about it right now, so she might as well try to do something useful.
She found several men named Michael Collins on a business social networking website and there were two that worked in the telecommunications industry. Only one of them seemed to be in the right age group to be Andy's friend. Maggie looked at the profile for that Michael. She found he had been working for his current company for the last six years and was currently working on getting his master's degree through an online program in software engineering.
She also found a link to a profile on Friendspage for the same Michael Collins. The profile showed pictures of him with a variety of friends out for bike rides, on hikes, and at the beach. He seemed to be single and unattached. All the pictures showed him with a welcoming, friendly smile. If he wasn't a person of interest in their case, Maggie would find him attractive.
Maggie confirmed with Andy that this was the Michael Collins with whom he went to college. Together, they did a bit more online sleuthing and found that he had published a book of puzzles. He also had a small book of poetry published last year called "Roses and Volets."
Andy did a little checking with the IT department at his firm and found out that the telecommunications company that Michael works for is the one that they have their phone services through. This gave a direct link between Michael and Andy, even if Andy hadn't seen Michael since graduation.
Maggie and Andy got into a debate about calling Brighton with the information they had found out. Maggie wanted to call right away, and Andy wanted to wait until Brighton called them. He didn't want to interrupt whatever work he was doing now with the online information they had gathered, just in case it was something he had already found out. Eventually, Andy gave in, and Maggie made the call.
Brighton didn't answer the call, so Maggie left him a brief message letting him know they had done a little online digging into Michael Collins and had some information to share with him in case he didn't have it from his sources. She hoped he would call back soon because she felt like she was going to burst if she didn't find out if Michael Collins was the one behind all the chaos that had happened over the last few days very soon.
Brighton arrived at the house about thirty minutes after Maggie's phone call with news of his own. He had found Michael Collins and brought him into the police station for questioning. Michael confessed he had placed the malware on Andy's phone and had broken into the college's career center but said he had nothing to do with the kidnappings or attempt on Maggie's life. He was blackmailed into doing those things by unknown persons. Apparently, Michael had plagiarized some of the poetry in his book and someone took advantage of him with that information.
Maggie and Andy filled Brighton in on the information they had found online, and some dots connected for all of them. The notes left for Maggie were inspired by the book *Roses and Violets*; whoever orchestrated the chaos used this information to frame Michael. Michael, it turns out, knew nothing about the notes, the kidnappings, nor the attempt on Maggie's life.
"What about the fire?" asked Maggie.
"No, he wasn't aware of what was going on long before the fires started. We still need to figure out who blackmailed him because that is the person who is the mastermind of this entire thing."
Brighton turned to Andy and asked, "Did we overlook anyone connected to you who might be doing all this?"
Andy sat on the sofa for a few minutes deep in thought, reviewing everyone he had ever known, trying to think of anyone that could be crazy enough to do something like this, and he couldn't think of anyone.
Then suddenly, a thought occurred to him, and he said, "There is one person I just thought of that we haven't talked about," said Andy quietly. "My birth mother."