No Dash without Bash
Previously: Jen Tyson offers her theory on the Pr3pSF Admin.
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3:51 PM - Friday, November 6, 2014
US Park Police Office, Ft Winfield Scott, The Presidio
“Thank god you’re here.” Steph sounded both giddy and agitated as Mark and Jeannie entered the conference room. “The news stations are calling in advance of the press conference — like they can’t wait to hear what we have to say? Where have you two been?”
“We looked in on Jen Tyson; she’s home sick.” Jeannie said simply, offering a wry smile. “And Mark needed protein, caffeine, and sugar.” Mark sucked down the end of a protein shake, rattling the remnants in the straw. He tossed the gloopy cup into the trash and immediately started in on the cup of coffee in his other hand. “Personally, I think he should try a glass of water, but I got overruled.”
“You’re going to love me.” Raj piped up from the table, causing Mark’s eyebrow to raise sharply.
“Oooh yeah — Raj and I had this idea.” Steph began, blushing slightly. “Okay, I kind of had the idea and then Raj thought of a way to do it.”
“And you think I’m going to love it?” Mark’s voice was beginning to tell his exhaustion.
“Okay, Steph and I were putting together questions for the tip line, and she thought it would be so much easier if people could just upload their party photos somehow. That way, we wouldn’t need to run interference unless we saw something we needed to know more about in the photos, right?” Raj looked up, his brown eyes expectant. “So, we went with a simple submission form.” He clicked over to a new screen that was branded with the three logos of the FBI, US Park Police, and SFPD, along with a clear request to submit no more than 25 photos, along with a standard personal information form.
“But the beauty of this is — “ Steph began rapidly, “there’s also an anonymous option. They can just click the box at the top if they want to submit without giving their name. You know? Like if they think they’re going to get into trouble?”
“But the submission form is still uploading information to us, so we’d see the IP address even if there’s no name.” Mark countered. “They’d know we could track it, even if it was anonymous.”
“Well, maybe we’ll be surprised.” Raj offered. “Maybe some of these kids haven’t thought of that. Or maybe, they think it won’t happen because they picked “anonymous”…I don’t know, but I think this is going to be revealing. It might also simplify things.”
“Fair enough. You may have something here.” Mark said quietly. “Where’s Paco anyways?”
“He’s downstairs on the porch with Owen — they’re marking out the area where the press conference will be.” Steph offered. “Some of the trucks have already started showing up.”
Mark blew out a long breath, not seeing how Jeannie considered him as he and Raj recapped the activity on Pr3pSF.
Jeannie moved over to the to-do list on the white board, noticing how uncomfortable her uniform felt within her afternoon fatigue. She felt hot and bulky, unbuckling her kevlar vest and draping it over the back of one of the conference room chairs. Opening one of the windows that looked out over the parade ground, she noticed a handful of news vans that had already parked around the large oval, their satellite towers already extending up into the sky. Sighing slightly, she went back to the whiteboard to make edits.
CAROLE & SPIRO THOMAS:
Reveal contents of July 4th statement?Hear/see anything between Tally and Alexa at July 4th drop-off?Spiro gave permission for Alexa to go skiing with Dagonets at Xmas - did not admit to relationship; what did they know? Did they see signet ring?
JEN:
Why would Alexa leave the party with Jen? - double-cross: Jen/Alexa Jen/Tripp
Did Jen know Alexa’s Tito’s shot was dosed? - YES
Did Jen know about the video of her with Seb & Dash? YES - motive for double-cross of Alexa. Did she know about other video(s)? Did not ask about other video of Tripp & Seb.
Who is the Admin/hacker? —
Rumor that Jen knows who this is?- Jen said this was Marjorie Sands? Background on MS? Mark to subpoena computer.
Jeannie left most of the points under Jen Tyson’s name open; even though they’d heard plenty, there were more questions to answer. The video of Tripp & Seb would be explosive, not only for Seb, but if anyone else ever found out about it. Jeannie wondered what Jen Tyson would do if she’d ever seen it. Had she ever seen it?
TALLY:
Reconfirm Talbot Briggs timeline - Owen compiling photos
Tip line - request photos from 9pm and afterward
Confirm interest in Charlie Dagonet/cotillion
Presence at Hartman’s late night - dose drink for Charlie?
Sequins on Lanvin dress - Cherry St
trench coat + wolf mask, diamond bracelet
Did Tally see Alexa wearing signet ring? Who may have noticed it?
Confirm cocaine from Tripp Hartman - how much, how often for how long?
Federal charges for online bullying via Pr3pSF account? - what charges?
To Tally’s list, Jeannie added one more point:
JT mentioned that Tally owed Tripp money for drugs — truth?
Tally Briggs was next on their list of re-interviews, but something was still missing. Was it really enough that she had such a crush on Charlie that she’d do harm to Alexa? And make Charlie sick in the process? And would partner with Tripp Hartman to make it happen? A beautiful, rich, debutante acting a bully…for kicks and cocaine? Even with the evidence and statements, it felt like a stretch. Tally was brilliant; this felt extremely stupid and sloppy. It didn’t make sense.
TRIPP:
What is on his phone/laptop? Anything we haven’t seen yet?
What is the play here? Indict for Alexa - charge?
Whose idea was the “wolf pack”? Who purchased masks - mother or Tripp? WHY?
why did the group need faces to be concealed? - JT said to scare Alexa?
Federal interest - knowledge of drug dealing?
Federal charges for video content online?
Likewise, one point was added under Tripp Hartman:
JT received texts from Tripp Friday afternoon - cross reference number and see other activity on phone data. What EXACTLY did both of them agree to for Friday night?
SEB:
Confirm SA video? How to approach/necessity?
Confirm Seb did not know about Alexa + Charlie
Confirm knowledge of Dash + Tally
Given what they’d learned about Jen, Tally, and Tripp thus far, Jeannie wondered when they’d come back to Seb Podesta. She looked at the picture of the handsome boy with golden curls pinned to the board and wondered if he was really as unaware as he seemed, or if it was all a giant put-on.
VIN/TYLER/ANGELA:
Gather school files & any discipline reports
Confirm Angela’s activity on Friday night - any crushes, etc, outside of Tripp?
Confirm boys’ in “Wolfpack” - whose idea was it and why?
Jeannie stared at this section of the list, wondering how to proceed. All three of these kids knew more than they were admitting, but she had no idea what it would take to unlock it all. They were sideline players, so either they knew nothing or they knew everything.
HARTMANS:
Federal interest?
Hartman/Con Sullivan - why? where is the Hartman money?
is this even pertinent to Alexa’s case?
Mark had revealed nothing about what had happened at The Hartman house this morning other than the points about what was found in Tripp’s room. Jeannie re-read this and shook her head, adding one point she’d overlooked this morning:
Alexa had photo of Jim Hartman threatening Ryan Dominguez physically — due to his relationship with Tripp.
Now that they’d spoken with Jen Tyson, Jeannie re-added a section for Dash Reilly. More answers creating more questions, at least, she still had questions considering she never heard what the kid had said last night.
DASHIELL REILLY:
Is he in play or already a witness?
Can confirm Jen Tyson, Tally Briggs drug usage from Tripp’s supply?
Sending photo of JT giving AT shot of spiked Tito’s to Tally? - WHY?
Did he know of Jen’s double-cross?
Jeannie stood back and almost walked into Mark who was considering the board behind her.
“You never told me what Dash Reilly said last night.” Jeannie hated that she sounded bratty.
“No, I never did.”
Jeannie’s head snapped to Mark’s face. “Is he a witness?”
“He is.” Mark’s expression was flat. “He’s a federal witness, but he’s told us everything he knows.”
“So why did he send the photo to Tally?”
“It was confirmation. Step one of their plan. Tally wanted to make sure Alexa would be drunk and disorderly when the boys started running around with their wolf pack routine.”
“But Jen Thomas said that was Tripp’s plan.”
“She did. But I think it was all of their plan: Tripp, Jen, Tally, and Dash. Of course, I think Jen and Dash didn’t really know it would be anything more than a prank, but I also think Tally and Tripp had their own ideas.” Jeannie’s eyes were huge as she looked at Mark, whose tone was flat. She considered him again as he took another drag off of his coffee. He looked wiry and haunted.
“You waited all day to tell me this.”
“Well, we had to talk to Jen Tyson, and that’s when it came together for me. It’s the only way it makes sense: all four of them had to be involved. Maybe the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing, but I’ll lay odds that Tally and Tripp knew exactly what they were doing. Dash is basically slobberingly infatuated with Tally, Tally strings him along with this little “prank” and he goes along with it, thinking there’s a prize inside the Cracker Jack box, right? But all along, it was something cooked up by Tripp and Tally — they used Dash and Jen Tyson to get the wheels turning and keep themselves clean. We’ll have to dig into it and find out. I think we have enough on Tally that we can get her to flip on Tripp.”
“Is that what we want? Tripp Hartman? The cheese stands alone?”
“Jeannie, it’s all been there from the beginning.” Mark gestured at the board. “Remember last Sunday at the meeting? Tally shouted out “it was a prank” — she said it right there in front of everyone.”
“I know, I’ve been thinking of that too.”
“Okay, so it was a prank. But they fucked it up. And I guarantee you, Talbot Briggs isn’t the kind of girl who will go down without taking someone with her. Dash is already a witness, so the only other options are Jen Tyson and Tripp Hartman. Don’t you think Jen could be persuaded to give up Tally to save herself? She knows she’s in a corner already, but she isn’t stupid. So that removes Jen Tyson.”
“You honestly think Tally Briggs would give up her drug dealer?”
“If it means she can make it to her cotillion, yeah, I do.” Mark huffed. “Besides, she’ll do a 28-day stint in some program in Malibu and will head off to Princeton. No one will be the wiser. She’ll find a new drug dealer while Tripp is under indictment.”
“I know we haven’t talked to Tripp, but I think Tally is the mastermind here. If she manipulated Dash and Jen, it’s likely she did the same to Tripp.”
“But Dash and Jen wanted something: Dash wanted her, and Jen…well, Jen wanted drugs and Seb…both of which she thought Tally could provide in a way. Tally’s out of Tripp’s league socially, and…wait —” Mark paused.
“Don’t stop, you’re on a roll.” Jeannie sighed, more than a little annoyed that it was Mark’s razor-thin control on his exhaustion right now that was letting his mind move so freely, connecting things in ways she hadn’t seen him do thus far.
“Wait — what if Tripp wants what Jen wants?” Mark looked at Jeannie and moved to the board, pulling down the photo of Seb Podesta and handing it to her. “What if Tally promised both of them the same thing?”
“Seb? But why? What would she gain?”
“She’d get Jen to lead Alexa Thomas away from the party on Friday night, and she’d get Tripp to supply her with drugs. We know Tripp was fairly closeted, so it’s unlikely many people knew he was even into guys, let alone that he was into Seb. But this is the kind of thing a smart, devious girl like Tally finds out. She holds this over Tripp, threatening to expose his…preferences? unless he keeps her supplied with cocaine. Plus, she’d assure Tripp that they’d teach Alexa such a lesson that she’d never come after him or his father about the Ryan situation.”
“I guess that’s why she owes Tripp money.” Jeannie sighed, adding up everything Mark was saying. She squinted at the board a little, trying to make it into a cohesive picture. “But Tally and Seb? Are they even friends?”
“That’s why she used Dash. There’s no Dash with Bash, right?