Stealth Chick
Previously: Mark, Paco & Jeannie solve the mystery of Alexa’s ghost.
To catch up on The Spring, please visit the chapter index here:
3:12 PM - Thursday, November 6, 2014
3235 Pacific Ave, Presidio Heights, San Francisco
“Okay.” Mark began again, “here’s what’s going to happen with all of you.” He looked at everyone in the room, demanding their attention. “Absolutely nothing. You’re all staying offline and you’re all staying home from school tomorrow — except for you, Ryan.” He added, looking at the boy huddled on the floor. “You have too much at stake to miss any school.” Ryan nodded slowly, eyes downcast. “And I want absolutely no more posts on Pr3pSF — from your own computers or the ones at the library.” He looked again at Ryan.
“Which one of you was that?” Paco asked softly.
“It was me.” Carolina admitted. “I pulled my hair back and put the hoodie on and went between classes.” Mark exhaled slowly.
“And what about that threat to the account that posted the video of Jen, Seb, and Dash? Who wrote that.” Everyone was silent. “Nothing?”
“We— we all kind of did it together.” MJ admitted, curled up tightly in the desk chair.
“Are there any other interactions you’ve had on Pr3pSF we don’t know about?”
“Um — “ Carolina began quietly, “the Admin sent me a DM on Tuesday and I chatted with them. They were trying to be mean, but I let on that we knew who they were — this, this was after Jen had mentioned that thing about the Admin?” Mark nodded, eyes narrowed. “They kept asking who I was and kept telling me to fuck off.”
“Okay, is this chat still in the DMs?”
“I think so.”
“We’ll look into it.” Mark sighed again. “But all of this ends now. No more.” He shook his head at Carolina and then all of them. “You’re all laying low until Monday, understood?” Slow nods around the room. “No parties, no games, no activities — you’ve all got a bad flu and if your parents have a problem with it, they can call me.”
“Ryan: school and work.” Jeannie said to him. “If you’d like though, I’ll talk to Ed and see if we can ease up a little. I’d rather you had some downtime too.” Ryan nodded, roughly wiping a tear away.
“And this doesn’t mean you all get a free pass to hang out together, no, you’re all staying home. No texting each other, no calls, absolutely no Pr3pSF. Watch movies, read books, lay low for one weekend, that’s all I’m asking. Understood? And if you do go online, you know we have a full-time hacker on our team and we will know about it.”
Again, a group of slow nods.
“Okay. Weekend starts now.” Mark said simply. “I think it’s time you all went home.”
“What — what about everyone else?” Zizi piped up from the carpet. “What’s going to happen? Do you know what happened to Alexa?”
Mark inhaled slowly, staring in the mid-distance.
“I understand that all of you want answers and you’ve been trying to help. All I can tell you is that there’s a lot of effort going into solving what happened to Alexa, but we don’t have firm answers quite yet. Everyone else? They aren’t your concern. I promise you that we are looking into everyone. There are many elements involved here and you’re going to have to trust me, and Officer Mayfield, and Officer Hagen that we’re doing everything we can to get you answers. And, once we have answers that we can tell you, we will tell you. For right now though, I need you all to lay low and be patient, okay? No matter what you might see or hear over this weekend, you say nothing, and you do not participate.” Everyone was silent for a long moment.
“This is the only warning you’re going to get.” Mark concluded softly. He looked to Mrs. Parker in the doorway for her unspoken agreement. She returned his gaze with a pained face and nodded shortly.
Jeannie led the way out to the sidewalk, toting the brown Whole Foods bag; the handles felt clammy somehow, the brown paper soft and tattered. No one said anything until they were in the SUV, Jeannie taking the back seat.
“We have to get this bag to Amanda right away.” Jeannie said as soon as the door closed.
“You’re right.” Paco started the SUV and accelerated up the hill to the Presidio Gate, turning left into the park.
“I knew it was one of them posting from that account, but all of them?” Mark shook his head.
“I guess we know who posted the video from Holy Heart then.” Jeannie countered. All were quiet, running through their own thoughts.
“I knew it would be that girl Tally somehow.” Paco said quietly.
“We don’t know anything for sure though.” Mark insisted. “We have to interrogate her. If anything, she can give us something to insist Tripp Hartman talks to us too. If they’re working together, she might have information we need. Plus, what’s her motive?”
“Jealousy? It’s a classic.” Paco offered, giving Mark a small smile.
“That’s plausible, but we need to know what Charlie knows first.” Jeannie countered. “And why he didn’t tell us everything before.”
“Do you actually think those kids will stay on the down-low all weekend?” Paco asked.
“Didn’t you hear Mark give them the “stern daddy” routine?” Jeannie bubbled, “he’s clearly been practicing. I doubt any of those kids will come up for air until Thanksgiving.”
“I’m not a daddy yet.” Mark said, checking his phone to see if Katie had called.
“Oh, you’re definitely a daddy.” Jeannie laughed from the back seat. Mark shook his head trying not to laugh with them.
Paco and Mark stayed in the SUV while Jeannie ran in to give the bag to Amanda at the lab. Jeannie knocked on the door and Amanda’s head, bent over the sequin blue crop top on the table, jolted up at the disturbance.
“Sorry to interrupt but this is top priority.” Jeannie said, holding up the Whole Foods bag.
“Thanks, but I have plenty of groceries.”
“How about a trench coat?”
Amanda’s dark eyebrows raised behind her eyeglasses, cat eyeliner squinting slightly.
“THE trench coat?” Jeannie nodded. “You’re kidding.” Amanda gestured her over to an open table on the far side of the room.
“Anything on the sequins?”
“They’re a match to what was in the water material-wise, but I’m still soaking them to see if the color washes out the same way. It looks like it will though.” Amanda lit the table with a bright spotlight and pulled a fresh pair of gloves from the box on the wall. “Where’d you find the trench?”
“Apparently Tally Briggs borrowed it from Carolina Parker on Friday night, but Carolina doesn’t remember her wearing it at the party. What Carolina does know is that when they went back to Tripp Hartman’s after Inspiration Point, suddenly Tally had this trench coat, found a grocery bag and put it inside so Carolina could take it home.” Amanda cocked her head to the side, listening to the story. Jeannie could tell she found this piece of evidence particularly juicy. “Carolina says that she put it in her closet and forgot to hang it up.”
“Well, we’ll see about that.” Amanda placed the tote on top of the clean work table and pulled out a pocket flashlight from her lab coat. Shining a light on the surface of the bag, she began exploring it from all sides.
“Have fun. The fellas are still in the car — we have more stops to make.” Heading upstairs, Jeannie scanned the empty small conference room and went down the hall to the large one where Raj, Steph, and Owen were set up.
“You’re back?” Steph asked, glancing up.
“Not really, had to give something to Amanda, but we have another stop to make. How is it going with Alexa’s phone? Any videos or pictures we haven’t seen?”
“It’s going. Nothing really new, but trying to see if there’s anything in these blurry ones from late Friday night — nothing so far.”
“Owen? How did it go?” Owen leaned back and pulled some folded papers out of his jacket, draped on the back of the chair.
“It was just what you thought.” He handed her the papers and nodded flatly. Jeannie gave him a long look.
“Okay. Thank you.” She pocketed the papers quickly. “I need you to get back to the Tally Briggs thing — can you track any images of her on Friday night, from her own phone or any one else’s? Even if she’s in the background of someone’s picture? We need them with the time stamps too. Raj, can you help him with that?”
Raj looked up from his screen briefly. “Sure, what about Pr3pSF?”
“Well, I need you to look at any DM’s that came to Alexa’s account and see where they came from. One should be the video that went up this morning — apparently it was sent to Alexa weeks ago — and another should be from earlier this week which was a conversation with the Admin.” Raj’s eyebrows went up. “Do your thing with the IPs if you can. And of course, if there’s anything else in those DMs that look exciting to you, let me know. But then…please help Ownie.”
“How’d you figure all that out?” Raj asked over his shoulder, going back to the keyboard.
“Oh, we found out who Alexa’s ghost is…” All three of them stopped and stared at Jeannie, who smiled a little.
“Who — Carolina?” Steph asked.
“It has to be Carolina.” Owen agreed.
“It was Carolina…and Zizi, and MJ, and even Ryan Dominguez. They’ve all been doing it together.”
“And the library?” Raj asked excitedly.
“Carolina in a big hoodie.” All of them made a noise between a groan and a cheer.
“I knew it.” Raj said. “I love a stealth chick.”
Jeannie chuckled a little, heading back out the door.
“We have an interview coming in around 5:30 — Dash Reilly and his father — put them in the back room. We may be a little late, but just tell them we’re on our way.”