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Previously: Jeannie and Mark get an insider’s take on The Hartman family.
12:20 PM - Tuesday, November 4, 2014
Upper Ecology Trail, The Presidio, San Francisco
“Okay, here’s the garbage can. The jacket was found inside, but right on top.” Amanda began, scoping the trail.
“On top, like it was just put in there?” Paco asked.
“Yeah, like someone had found it and they tossed it.”
“Hard to believe someone would just toss it; those varsity jackets are expensive. Someone was trying to hide it.”
“Exactly. Plus, it had Alexa’s phone inside which means no one bothered to check the pockets.” Amanda added. “So, we probably won’t be able to find where she shed the jacket, but this is a good starting point, don’t you think?”
“Yeah. Show me the picture again?” Amanda went into her phone to find the evidence photo of the figure in the trench coat wearing the wolf mask. The high glare in the dark background of the photo was at odds with the warm, bright trail. “Okay, there’s fence posts just behind him, you can kind of make them out.”
“That, and the slope of the hill — the redwoods are right here where we found the masks, let’s start heading down hill. Wherever she was, the angle looks like it was taken toward the uphill.” The pair moved slowly down the trail carefully noting the soil and spacing of the fence posts.
“These posts are a little too close together,” Paco offered, “and they’re a little short. Plus - I don’t see any redwoods behind the wolf man here.” He pointed to the background of the photo, just over the shoulder of the figure. “I mean, they could be there, but I think we’d see some more trees.” Amanda made a faint noise of assent looking over his shoulder. They moved apart again, each taking their own side of the trail, inching forward.
“I have a footprint, I think.” Amanda called to him. “It could be anyone’s but it looks like the lug sole pattern of her shoe - and roughly the same size.” Paco opened the evidence kit to find a foldable L-square ruler. Placing it on the ground next to the footprint, both he and Amanda took photographs and notes. “Ground is a bit softer over here, even today and it’s 5 days after that rain.”
“Yeah, but this downhill gets really wet. It would have been mucky on Friday night - probably why this is a deep print.” Paco huffed, rising to stand. “And it looks like she was moving downhill.”
“Maybe there are more.” They inched forward down the slope of the trail, the redwood grove on their left making the light dark and dappled.
“Right here…it looks like some shuffling, but there’s a clean print in there.” Paco called, moving the ruler into place again, making notes.
“Here’s another, but it’s a partial.” Amanda called to him a few yards down. Paco joined her to look it over.
“Yeah, just the ball of the foot here - she was running.” Paco said quietly looking up at Amanda. “Look at the photo again and see if it’s close.” They both considered it, but it still wasn’t quite right - the fence posts being too low still. Amanda sighed and kept moving slowly down the hill. Another partial footprint, this time of the opposite foot was found and photographed where the trail began to curve to the right.
“Okay, so she’s running and we don’t know why, and it would have been very dark, the ground wet…” Amanda faded. “Oh God.” Paco’s head snapped up to her. “Look over there.” Amanda was pointing to a fence post about ten yards further down the trail. Where all the others stood straight and even, this one was listing at a peculiar angle. Amanda walked down toward it, watching the ground carefully, pausing near the tilted post.
Paco inched down the trail from the last footprint trying to estimate where the next footfall should be placed. A few yards ahead, an erosion wattle crossed the trail to shore up the soil. Paco looked back at the spacing of the footprints they’d found, imagining Alexa’s movement between them, and right past him and right into the tilted fence post. A large, angled, heavy blunt object. Adding it up, Paco heaved a deep sigh.
“Amanda — I think Alexa tripped on the wattle here. She wouldn’t have seen it in the dark, and if she was running, it may have been enough to land her on that fence post.” He called.
“Yup — “ Amanda called back. She was leaning over the bent post and peering closely at its surface, taking photos. She slowly came to standing and turned toward him with something in her hand. “I agree with you.” Her face was still and serious. The tweezers in her hand held a partial monarch butterfly.
Xavier Prep, Outer Richmond District, San Francisco
Mark followed Jeannie into the school building where she immediately took a left turn to an office with yet another receptionist. After a brief chat with her, the inner door labeled “Dean of Students” quickly opened to reveal the Dean they’d met on Sunday.
“Officer Hagen, Agent Greenberg — we weren’t expecting you?”
“Yes, that was the idea.” Mark answered. “We’d like to speak with three students, please.”
“And keep it quiet. No PA for this, we don’t need the whole school knowing we want to talk to them.” Jeannie added. “We need them found and brought somewhere quiet. The library?”
“W-Well, it’s the lunch period. A lot of students use the library at lunch.” Jeannie tilted her head at him in response. “Al-alright. We’ll put up some kind of sign. Which students do you need to see?”
They left the Dean with a short list of names and Jeannie led Mark across the building and into a light-filled atrium. Students were milling around, sitting in circles, eating lunch, reading, listening to music, laughing and yelling. It was just like any high school anywhere, but the surroundings were newer, cleaner, and more glossy than most — just like the students. Jeannie moved to the left where she opened a large swinging door and marched at a clip into the school library. Mark paused just inside the door, impressed by the size and the seemingly endless racks of books. There were a half dozen or so work tables on the left, matched by the same amount of tables on the right, but with a multitude of computer stations set up on top. Jeannie was chatting with the librarian who made a call to the Dean’s office to confirm the library’s closure. Perturbed, he stood and began asking people to pack up and exit.
Mark looked over at the computer stations. A number of students were typing at pages, or browsing the internet. A few had Wikipedia pages open, or researching through newspapers. At a far table, a kid with sandy blonde hair was leaning back in his chair casually, and glanced up at Mark, meeting his eye. Mark looked away and avoided moving directly toward him. Passing a few racks of books on the far side he gave a sign to Jeannie by the librarian’s desk, motioning her over.
Re-approaching from behind, they got a clear view of the back of the kid and the computer screen he was browsing. The now-familiar heading of “Pr3pSF” graced the top of the page as the kid scrolled. Mark shared a look with Jeannie and they moved forward quickly.
Reaching the table, he moved to the kid’s right, pushing the computer mouse out of his reach.
“Hello. What’s your name?” The kid looked terrified.
“Um - um, Tyler Shea.” Jeannie perched on the kids left.
“Ooooh. Mark, it’s Tyler Shea. We’ve heard a lot about you Tyler.” Jeannie said with faux pleasantry. The kid’s cheeks flushed in response, bringing out an array of auburn freckles. “Your name has just been everywhere the last few days.” The kid moved to stand, but Mark steadied him back into his chair.
“No no no no no. You sit. We’ll sit too.” Jeannie and Mark both grabbed chairs and sat close to Tyler. “You’re the one they call Shady, correct? Shady Shea?” An embarrassed nod as the kid rolled his lips together. “Quite the nickname.” The kid was staring at the screen, almost crying.
“Wait, Greenberg scroll down a little and show him my picture.” Mark reached for the mouse and scrolled down the page to rest on a familiar face. “There it is!” A picture of a much younger Jeannie appeared. “This is my senior portrait, Tyler. I was 17, can you believe?” It was a classic senior photo with the black off-the-shoulder drape that every girl wore. A simple strand of pearls and a bright smile. “Gosh, senior year. It feels like it was so long ago, well, I guess it was. I mean, it was the fall of 2000 I guess when this was taken...” Jeannie finally got really quiet and turned to stare at Tyler Shea. “But then you knew all that, didn’t you Tyler?” This was delivered dangerously low.
The kid glanced at her and said nothing.
Jeannie glanced at Mark.
“He’s not talking Mark.”
“Mmmmm. That’s fine, he doesn’t have to. We can ask the librarian about who was checking out old yearbooks and making scans. It can’t be too many people, can it?” The kid shifted nervously in his chair, compulsively luging toward the mouse.
“No, no no…thank you, I’m going to hold the mouse, but you — you’re going to give us a guided tour of Pr3pSF.”
“I - I don’t know anything.” Tyler finally got out.
“He doesn’t know anything.” Jeannie parroted.
“I’m sure he knows something, give him some time, Hagen.” Tyler Shea looked between the two of them and glanced around the library, realizing it was nearly empty.
“Okay Tyler, let me give you a question to work out. If you don’t know anything, how did you know to look up my senior photo and post it online?” Tyler sniffed and heaved his chest with a heavy breath.
“The - the admin posted a request to see if someone could find your photo.” He admitted quietly.
“And do you do whatever the admin says?”
“No, but it —”
“And why did the admin make such a request?”
“I guess to kind of burn you or something? I don’t know.” Jeannie’s whole face went steely. “The admin - no one knows who it is, but the whole thing is about burning people, like, bullying…”
“Well, that’s pretty clear.” Mark countered. “Must be why everyone’s mum about the whole thing. What, aren’t you allowed to talk about it? It’s just a website.” A curt shake of the head from Tyler before he glanced at Jeannie. Her eyes bore right into his.
“Burn me? So this admin made the request and you immediately did your part to pile on.” Her low voice was edgy. “I’m a police officer, Tyler. Do you know what happens when people come for police officers? It doesn’t usually end well.” Tyler looked petrified.
“Oh, and there’s this photo too, where did you find it?” Mark scrolled lower down the page to reveal another, more recent photo, but still a few years old. This one showed Jeannie wrapped in the arms of Chris, both tan fit, sun drenched, and freshly out of the Aegean Sea. Jeannie was laughing, while a smiling Chris’ muscled arm wrapped around her bare middle, framing her striped bikini. Mark knew this was the photo that really hurt Jeannie to see on this forum or whatever it was…a private, personal moment of two people newly in love on a vacation in a beautiful place. The comments below were particularly harsh: “Woah, lady cop gotta HBF.” “Where did she get the hot boyfriend?” “She’s not even on his level of hot.” “He’s with her? How? Why?” “Is he looking for a side piece?” “He went to Xavier too…” This last comment had resulted in someone digging out Chris’ senior photo and posting that too.
“I - I didn’t find that one. I don’t know - it just appeared.” Jeannie was silent.
“But you added this photo of Chris Rossi, is that correct?” A slight nod from Tyler. “Yeah, see we figured it was you because you didn’t come to the meeting on Sunday although your name definitely came up a few times, but we figured your friends Seb and Dash probably filled you in on what happened. You probably heard that Officer Hagen here went to Xavier, but you posted the photo because if it had been Seb or Dash it would have been too easy to trace back to them. But you, you’re Shady, right…?” Tyler Shea gave another slight nod. “Yeah, shady is as shady does, so I figured it was you. And you probably didn’t know that posting someone’s private photos without their permission is against the law, or maybe you did know?” Tyler’s eyes were huge at this. “It’s tantamount to cyberbullying, so you may not know who the supposed admin is, but you just admitted to posting the photos so that’s all on you.” Tyler’s mouth opened as though he was beginning to say something, but no words came out. Mark continued: “I’m not sure how we didn’t know you were so in the mix before — you really should have been at the meeting on Sunday, but everything shakes out, doesn’t it?” Tyler’s eyes narrowed a little as he looked at Mark. “So, I’m going to drive, but you’re going to tell me where to go.” Mark reached for the mouse. “And when we’re done with Pr3pSF, you’re going to tell us all about Friday night at Tripp Hartman’s house.”