Three Computer Geeks Gruff: Dana Sanderson Short Mysteries, #5

By Kari Kilgore

When the cat drags in a mystery

A cold IT dungeon, full of noisy servers and grumpy  workers. Not exactly a natural fit for a cat.
Until you consider blinking lights and all those places to hide. And folks more comfortable with animals than other people.
But this cat discovers toys more disturbing than cute.
What will Dana find in the impossible hiding place?

A Dana Sanderson Short Mystery

An excerpt from Three Computer Geeks Gruff

Gayle sat back, rubbing her chin and staring at a bright red line on the screen.

"Huh. Looks like Mr. Rawson is under suspension. Hasn't reported to work at all for a week, or even called in. Still doesn't explain how this thing got down here."

She held the token up, turning the smooth black plastic back and forth.

When Peluda jumped up on the desk this time, she held a heavy gold ring in her teeth. A man's college class ring, from the looks of it, with a big sapphire stone and lots of engraving.

"What the hell?" Gayle absently patted Peluda's head as she extracted the ring and held it up to the light. A

gold G with a T joined to it.

"Please tell me McGranville went to Georgia Tech," Dana said, trying to catch her breath through the falling sensation in her gut. "Please tell me that's his ring."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Spiral Publishing, Ltd
• Release date: Mar 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393776789

Kari Kilgore

Kari Kilgore started her first published novel Until Death in Transylvania, Romania, and finished it in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where Stephen King got the idea for The Shining. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction. Kari’s first published novel Until Death was included on the Preliminary Ballot for the Bram Stoker Award for Outstanding Achievement in a First Novel in 2016. It was also a finalist for the Golden Stake Award at the Vampire Arts Festival in 2018. Recent professional short story sales include three to Fiction River anthology magazine, with the first due out in the September issue. Kari also has two stories in a holiday-themed anthology project with Kristine Kathryn Rusch due out over the holidays in 2019. Kari writes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and contemporary fiction, and she’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives at the end of a long dirt road in the middle of the woods with her husband Jason Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about. Kari’s novels, novellas, and short stories are available at www.spiralpublishing.net, which also publishes books by Frank Kilgore and Jason Adams. For more information about Kari, upcoming publications, her travels and adventures, and random cool things that catch her attention, visit www.karikilgore.com.

Book preview

Three Computer Geeks Gruff

For everyone who’s spent time

in the server room deep freeze

Three Computer Geeks Gruff

Kari Kilgore

Spiral Publishing, Ltd.

Chapter 1

The last thing Dana Sanderson expected to hear when she walked into the IT dungeon at Gosalor Insurance was laughter.

Not the mad laughter of the insane, or the manic cackling of the condemned.

This sounded more like the honest, joyful outbursts of people out in the bright Atlanta sunshine, or maybe at a play or watching a kids’ soccer game. About the furthest thing she could imagine happening in the dimly lit, freezing cold room full of little charcoal-gray cubicles set up in a rat-like basement maze.

Dana pocketed her tiny keychain keycard and brushed her shoulder-length brown hair back over her ear, dreading how it would get crackly and full of static in the dry air designed more for huge servers than human beings. Even in November, Atlanta stayed humid enough to mildew her uniform of black jacket and nerdy t-shirt while she was still wearing it.

Not a trace of moisture down here.

The usual aromatic combination of weapons-grade coffee and way too many pepperoni pizzas lingered despite the AC.

Another strange thing: Dana didn’t hear the clashing of various music from the inmates of the cubicles, either. Only the low whir of a couple dozen servers and the rumble of constant airflow from the big air conditioners.

The current manager down here, Will McGranville, had a preference for light jazz that didn’t match his age of Dana-didn’t-actually-know-but-way-too-young-for-the-job. And her often-grumpy mentor Gayle, the only other person who was often down here, preferred classic rock played as loud as possible.

Upstairs where the actual business of insuring happened, all the blinding overheard lights stayed on. People chittered and chattered constantly, and too many of them wore enough perfume or cologne to drive a typical person crazy. Dana wasn’t sure what it said about her that she’d preferred her time down here in the dungeon over her coding days up there in the noisy, bright, normal world.

And people sometimes