The Kill Switch (Book One) A Gripping Crime Thriller

The Kill Switch

A Gripping Crime Thriller

Book One

By

IAN C.P. IRVINE..

Published by Ian C. P. Irvine on Smashwords

Copyright 2022 IAN C.P.IRVINE

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright observed above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Chapter 1

Day One

Devon

England

Monday morning

The phone first rang at 9.15 a.m., just after Jane had returned from the school run. She’d only just sat down, a freshly brewed coffee in one hand and her favourite magazine in the other, her legs stretched out and her feet resting on the footstool.

This was her special time of the day. Her ‘me’ time. Her sanity break after packing the kids off to school, before the endless cycle of daily chores began.

Jane was tempted to ignore the phone, but since there was the slight possibility that it could be the kids’ school calling to say there was something wrong with one of her little munchkins, she did what any mother would do, and decided to answer it.

Putting the coffee down on the side table and pushing herself up from the sofa, she crossed the room to the sideboard and picked up the receiver.

Hello, Mrs McIver? a man’s soft and rather sexy voice asked.

Yes?

A Mrs Jane McIver? the man enquired further.

Yes. How can I help?

This is a courtesy call from the fraud department of your bank. Please, don’t worry, but there’s a problem with your account. Our system has detected some unusual activity and it may be that money has been taken from your account without your knowledge. It’s important that you take action as soon as possible. Following standard security procedures, we’ll hang up now, but we would suggest you call your bank as soon as possible, go through security, and discuss your account. If there is a problem, you’ll be reconnected to our fraud team and advised what action to take.

"Oh dear…Has any money been stolen? How much?" Jane asked, a sense of dread quickly welling up within her.

I’m sorry, but we can’t discuss that with you without going through security, which you can do when you call us back on the number on the back of your bank card. We would advise that you call back on a land-line phone and not a mobile phone, just in case your phone has been infected with a virus, which could be how your account has been breached.

What do you mean ‘breached’? Has someone got my passwords? And has my money been stolen already?

Please call your bank and discuss this with them. Thank you. I hope it all turns out well. Goodbye.

There was a buzzing sound at the end of the phone and a long drawn out tone which signified she had rather abruptly been disconnected.

For a moment she was left standing facing the wall, the phone receiver still in her hand, but then she sprang into action.

If her account had been hacked into somehow, every second counted. She needed to call the bank, find out what had gone wrong, and sort it out immediately.

Her heart beginning to race, she rushed through to the kitchen, found her purse and retrieved her bank card.

Seconds later she was back by the phone, picking up the receiver and dialling the number on the back of her card.

She heard the dial tone change and the sing-song electronic pulsing of the digits being dialled and winging their way round the world through the phone system.

At the other end of the line the phone rang for a few seconds and was then answered by an automated voice.

We are sorry, but due to exceptionally high call volumes, we expect it to take several minutes before we can answer your call. Please hold. We will be with you as soon as possible.

Jane felt the stress she was feeling increase a notch or two, and her toes started tapping the floor, a classic sign of her becoming increasingly fraught and impatient.

Come on… she whispered to herself.

We are sorry, but due to… the monotone voice began to recite its mantra once again.

As she listened several times to the cycle of the automated dial tone and repeated apology, Jane began to worry that with every second that passed, more and more money was possibly being siphoned out of her account into the hands of some thief that no one would ever catch.

Then abruptly, the sequence changed and a voice invited her to enter her account number into the phone, followed by a hash sign.

Reading the number off the card, she did as requested, typing it as slowly and carefully as she could so she’d get it right.

Now, please enter your date of birth.

She complied, slightly relieved that progress was being made at last.

And now, please enter the second number of your security code…

A ‘six’.

And now, please enter the third number of your security code…

A ‘two’.

There was a momentary pause, then an automated voice said thank you and informed her she was being transferred to an attendant. Almost immediately a voice greeted her. A human voice.

Relief!

Hello Mrs McIver. Thank you for going through security. How can I help you this morning?

I was just contacted by the fraud department and instructed to call you as soon as possible to check my bank account to make sure it hadn’t been hacked into. They mentioned some suspicious activity on the account.

Let me see, one moment please… A short pause, Jane’s heart skipping a beat, the tension ratchetting up another notch. Actually, yes, I see. Please, can you tell me what you think the balance of the account should be? According to what I see here, there is no money in your account… and there were several rather large withdrawals earlier this morning…

What do you mean? My husband only got paid yesterday. There should be about three thousand pounds in that account. I normally call you at the weekend to transfer some to other accounts and pay the bills, but the majority of it should still be there just now.

You didn’t make three separate transfers of eight hundred pounds each at about six o’clock this morning?

No, we were still asleep.

A moment’s pause.

I’m sorry, Mrs McIver. It seems the fraud department may have been correct. It looks like someone has accessed your account without your permission. Is there anyone else who may have your account details?

No…only my husband. It’s our joint account.

Could he have made the transfer this morning?

Absolutely not. He was asleep with me too. Look, can I speak to someone about stopping this and getting my money back? We didn’t do this. Our money has been stolen!

I’ll transfer you over to the Fraud Department. You’re already through security so you’ll get straight through. Please hold.

Jane heard a couple of beeps and then a man’s voice came on.

Mrs McIver? Hello, my name is Sebastian. I understand you believe your account has been broken into and money illegally transferred out?

Yes…I’ve been cleaned out. Someone has transferred it all out this morning. Every penny. But we didn’t do it. It wasn’t us.

Yes, I have your account details on the screen in front of me here, and I can see what’s been happening. You should actually have received a call from our department this morning already to tell you something unusual had been noticed.

Yes, that’s why I’m calling you now.

Good. The faster we stop this, the better. The most important thing we have to do now is to prevent further access to your account, so we need to change your security code immediately. I’ll put you through to an automated system. It’ll ask you first for your account number, your date of birth, then your old security code, and then lastly it will ask you to type in a new security code twice. First to put it into the system and then to confirm it. Please write it down somewhere. Once that’s done, the system will pass you back to me, your account will be secure and then we can take some notes and fill in a form to get you your stolen money back. Is that okay? I’m putting you through now…

Yes…thank you. For your help…

Please type in your account number. A voice invited her.

Without further thinking, but breathing deeply and trying to control her fingers and make sure she got it right, Jane slowly typed in the digits as requested.

First her account number.

Then her date of birth.

Then her old security code in full.

She paused only when it came to the request to type in a new code, panicking slightly that she didn’t know what to do. It had to be something she’d remember when she hung up the phone. Something simple. For a moment her mind was blank, but glancing at the newspaper on the side of the table not far away, she saw the date at the top of the paper and without further thought, typed in today’s date. First the day of the month, then the current month, and then the last two digits of the year. She’d remember that!

At the prompt she entered it again, which confirmed she’d done it right the first time.

Thank you. Change confirmed an automated voice told her, then seconds later she was back to Sebastian again.

Mrs McIver. It’s Sebastian again. Thanks for that. Your account will now be secure, so you can relax. I can see from the system when the money was transferred out of your account. What we have to do now is to register a claim on your behalf and capture some details from yourself. I’ll use the information I can see here, start the paperwork and then send you an email later this morning, asking you to confirm a few things and provide a few extra details. Will that be okay?

Yes… I’ll check my email in a few hours’ time… yes?

Yes, Mrs McIver.

I will get my money back, won’t I? I mean, all of it?

As soon as we can confirm the fraud and identify exactly what funds have been stolen, we will be able to re-credit your account. Don’t worry. We’ll make the process as smooth and painless as possible. Jane breathed out loudly.

Sebastian? Is that your name? Thank you for your help. I appreciate it. Thanks…

Goodbye, Mrs McIver. The line went dead.

Jane hung up, walked back to her chair and her coffee and slumped into the seat.

AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Jane screamed loudly, venting her stress and frustration. "AAAAAGGHHHHH!" Three thousand pounds?

Gone?

Shit!

--------------------

Jane wasn’t too worried. She knew she’d get the money back. Eventually. After all, it wasn’t her fault. She was innocent.

But she could guess that before she did, she’d have to climb a mountain of stress and fill in a zillion forms to prove it wasn’t her.

But the bottom line was, she’d get the money back.

She’d read about cases like these. As long as she hadn’t voluntarily given her passcode to any one, and followed all normal security precautions, she’d be okay.

Yes, she had nothing to worry about.

She looked at her watch. It was just after ten.

She’d wait ninety minutes and then check her email.

So, settling back in the sofa, she started to read her magazine.

Started.

Her eyes skimmed the first paragraph at least ten times but none of the words were going in.

Plus, her coffee was cold.

So, she got up, went back to the kitchen and made fresh coffee, staring out of the kitchen window at her garden whilst she waited.

Should she call her husband and tell him what had happened? Or just wait until it was confirmed that it was all okay before she let him know?

Deciding on the latter, she finished making the coffee, returned to the sofa and tried to read her magazine again.

At ten thirty, she decided to check her email. Why wait until later, if they had already sent her an email? The truth was, she was actually quite stressed. She couldn’t relax. Couldn’t read. And her morning would remain ruined until she’d got the email from the bank.

Maybe she should drive to the nearest bank and go and speak to the manager, just to make sure it was being sorted out as soon as possible? … To check on the progress of things?

The problem with that plan, she quickly realised, was that the nearest bank with an actual human in it with whom you could talk, was about forty minutes away by car and by that time she would definitely have heard from the bank anyway.

Her laptop was taking an age to fire up. Longer than usual. Or was it that just like a kettle when you watched it, when you really needed your laptop to come up fast, it just seemed to take forever.

Three thousand pounds was a lot of money. Would she get it back from the bank all at once or in several instalments? Surely it would be all at once.

It had to be all at once.

They needed the money.

At last, finally, she managed to click on the shortcut to her email and her latest batch of messages appeared on the screen.

It only took a second to skim through the headers and see that none of them came from the bank.

Nothing yet.

Just to be sure, she went to her Junk Mail, but found the same result.

Nothing.

Yet.

Maybe she should call her husband after all.

Perhaps the email had been sent to his account and not hers?

She thought about that.

It was a possibility.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d received an email from her bank. Perhaps the default email address associated with the account was actually her husband’s, not hers?

Oh dear.

She would definitely have to