Nobody Girl

by Leslie DuBois

  Locke’s face lit up. “Really? I didn’t think our first date went so well since it ended so abruptly and I hadn’t heard from her since. Tell her tonight will be different. She has my undivided attention. I’m gonna go make reservations for dinner right now. What kind of food does she like?”

  “She’s not really picky, but we eat at P.F. Chang’s a lot.”

  “That’s perfect. I gotta go. Tell her I’ll pick her up at 7.” Locke turned around and almost floated down the hallway on a cloud of glee.

  “Do you need to know where she lives?” Delia called after him.

  “Nope, I already know.”

  ***

  “You told him what?” Donna Lee exclaimed when she learned of the plans Delia made for her. Delia had invited her over to her apartment under the pretense of catching up. “I will not go out with him again, Delia. That guy gives me the creeps. I think you should just go to the police with what you know.”

  “But I don’t really know anything. I need to figure out who has been looking at my network space and printing out my tests. I should also check out what other teachers have been targeted. It’s probably a school-wide thing. It’s going to take me hours to get through all the data.”

  “I have a date with Marcus tonight,” she said before flinging her head back and pouring milk straight in from the carton.

  “Oh.” Delia felt a tinge of guilt for asking her sister to break her date. “I really wish you wouldn’t do that.” She said in reference to the milk fountain her sister had created.

  “And I wish you wouldn’t force me to go out with this loser that literally, and I do mean literally, stinks.”

  “I’m sorry, Donna Lee, but what do you expect me to do? I can’t sleep at night thinking about this. I have to find out the truth. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself knowing I had the ability to find out the people behind Lena’s death and did nothing about it.”

  Donna Lee sighed. “I know your heart is in the right place, Dee. And I’m actually pretty proud of you for throwing yourself into this mystery and not dwelling on your creep of a soon-to-be ex-husband. But think about this, Dee: someone killed Lena. Someone has tried to kill you twice. How is this going to end?”

  Chapter 30

  Locke was known to spend hours after school in his office working on one computer program or another. That was why it was necessary to get him out of the building. If Delia had two or three hours when she didn’t have to worry about interruptions, she felt she could make a lot of headway.

  She sat down at his computer and tried his password. Spliff. It didn’t work. He was probably one of those security fanatics that changed all his passwords every few days.

  Her phone buzzed. It was a text from Donna Lee:

  He hugged me hello. Almost choked on the stench.

  Delia knew she was in for a long night, especially if Donna Lee kept sending her updates like that.

  She turned her attention back to the computer and began typing in every other nickname for marijuana she could think of. Nothing worked.

  Twenty minutes later she got another text:

  I think I saw a bug crawl out of his head

  Delia closed her phone and went back to trying to figure out this weird guy’s password. She decided to try Asian related words. Still nothing. After 45 minutes she had an epiphany and typed:

  Donna Lee

  It worked. Wow, the guy had it bad. Delia cursed herself for not thinking of that earlier. She tried not to look at the clock for fear of seeing how behind on time she was.

  Delia found her personal network space and noted how easy it was to circumvent the system and get in. Locke and anyone with the right administrative access code had the ability to tap into her personal space and view whatever she added to her files as she added them. They could also read her email and see what websites she visited. Delia suddenly felt very vulnerable, like she had no privacy. She hoped she hadn’t revealed any sensitive information through this account.

  Another text:

  Ugly, smelly,…let’s add boring as hell

  Donna Lee was just trying to make Delia feel guilty with all these texts. She was going to owe her big time for this favor.

  The network was pretty genius. Locke had set it up to where someone could view anyone’s activity on a split screen with their own. He could even watch the movements of more than one person at once. Delia wondered how many other teachers were being spied on.

  A few clicks later, she determined that all the academic teachers at Saxon Arms had been victims. Delia figured that the mastermind watched as each teacher created a new test or quiz, then just copied it and sent it to a particular student or students. In her case, the student was C.J.

  Now to figure out the mastermind. Delia felt she had a pretty good handle on how the cheating was accomplished, now she needed to find out more about Promise Stone.

  Her cell phone buzzed again, but she chose not to open it. Donna Lee’s complaining could wait till later.

  She didn’t even know if she could find anything on Promise Stone on the network. Saxon Arms apparently wasn’t the only private school involved in this crime ring. Maybe another school was the center.

  An hour later, she had found nothing in the system files about Promise Stone. She was just about to give up when something caught her attention on Locke’s personal file. There was an icon of a garnet ring. She enlarged the icon and stared at it closely. The color, the detail, the shape of the ring all looked very familiar. Then she remembered. Jason had a ring exactly like that. She clicked on the icon and, of course, the files were hidden and access was denied. She would have to go through a whole bunch of passwords once again to figure it out.

  But this wasn’t any simple text password that she might be able to guess by delving into Locke’s disturbing psyche. She typed in Donna Lee and noticed the encryption code running as it tried to verify the password. She was in trouble. This application was networked to another server where unique passwords were continually generated and displayed digitally upon a token. A token she didn’t have. Not only that, but this new server would lock her out after three attempts. She had already failed once. She only had two more chances.

  She sighed and rubbed her temples. After three hours of staring at a computer screen she needed a break.

  She took out her phone and saw she had missed five text messages from Donna Lee:

  Okay this is getting weird. He keeps talking about sex

  Why is he talking about Japanese prostitutes?

  Dee, can’t take anymore.

  Feel dizy 2 much drink

  Fgra h rhs

  The last text was completely incomprehensible. That wasn’t like Donna Lee. She was an expert texter. Delia bolted out of the seat and dialed Donna Lee’s phone as she ran out of the school. No answer. What had she done? She made her sister go out with a guy she knew absolutely nothing about and who was possibly involved in Promise Stone. In fact, with all of his computer knowledge, he could very well be the mastermind behind it. Or worse, the creep who killed Lena.

  Chapter 31

  As Delia ran at full speed toward her car, the thought of being attacked again briefly crossed her mind, but knowing her sister was in danger trumped any fear for her own safety. She made it to her car without incident and was already out of the school parking garage when she realized she wasn’t sure where she was going. She decided to start with the restaurant.

  When she arrived at P.F. Chang’s, she ran through the restaurant like a madwoman, poking her head into every booth in search of Donna Lee.

  “Can I help you?” A waiter asked, pulling her away from obviously annoyed customers.

  “Yes, I’m looking for my sister. She’s about 5’2”, Korean, with waist-length black hair,” Delia said, looking past the waiter into the restaurant. She craned her neck to strange angles searching each table. “She was with a creepy looking white guy with dreadlocks,” she added.

  “Yeah, I remember them,” the wait
er said. “The Asian chick seemed completely disinterested and kept typing into her phone under the table.”

  “Do you remember anything else?” Delia’s attention quickly focused on the waiter.

  “Yeah, the girl seemed a bit unsteady, like she had too much to drink. The guy practically had to carry her out.” It wasn’t like her sister to have too much to drink especially if she was with a guy she didn’t know, like or trust. Donna Lee knew she had a low tolerance for alcohol and always limited herself to two drinks at most when in mixed company. “They left about 15 minutes ago,” the waiter added.

  “Do you know where they went?” Delia asked frantically.

  “Um, he kept saying something about Willard. I think they went to Willard’s house.”

  “Willard? Do you mean the Willard Hotel?”

  He shrugged. “Could be.”

  Delia darted out of the restaurant. Not again, she thought. Not again.

  She broke several traffic laws as she made a frantic trek to Pennsylvania Ave. She didn’t even bother to find a legal parking space or turn off her car once she got to the hotel. She ran inside as quickly as she could, but before she reached the front desk someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into a stairwell.

  Delia kicked, flailed her arms and tried to scream, but he had her in a death grip and had muffled her mouth with his hand.

  “Delia, calm down. It’s me.” She recognized the voice. It was Chase, but it didn’t make her any less anxious. She pretended to acquiesce so he would release his hold. As soon as he let go, she elbowed him in the stomach. She turned and kneed his doubled over body in the groin. Then she dashed up the stairs.

  She didn’t get too far, however, as Sam Howard was at the top of the next flight. He grabbed her forearms and said, “If you want to see your sister again, you will calm down and cooperate.”

  Her blood froze. Tears welled in her eyes. What had they done to Donna Lee?

  Chapter 32

  “Please don’t hurt my sister, please. I’ll do anything.”

  “We didn’t … hurt her … we saved her,” Chase groaned as he practically crawled up the stairs clutching his stomach with one hand and his nether regions with the other.

  “Saved her? Saved her from Locke?” Delia’s distress waned a little, but her confusion rose.

  “We’ve got her. We’re coming up,” Sam said into his wrist before grabbing Delia’s arm and leading her up the stairs.

  She reluctantly let him lead her to a room on the third floor. When he opened the door, she saw Donna Lee passed out on the bed with a uniformed officer and an EMT standing over her.

  “Donna Lee!” She exclaimed running over to the bed to hug her sister’s lifeless body. “What’s wrong with her? Is she gonna be okay?” Delia wiped tears from her face and tried to get control over her emotions.

  “Locke slipped her some GHB,” Principal Howard volunteered. “He would’ve raped her, but Chase caught him in time.”

  She looked over at Chase now lying on the floor still doubled over in pain. She felt guilty for putting him in so much pain when he had just saved her sister, but she was still quite confused.

  “I’m sorry for attacking you, C.J. And thank you for saving my sister. It was a very brave thing for a young man to do,” Delia said, trying to sound as formal as possible. She wanted everyone in the room to know that she was the adult and he was the child. That there was only a teacher-student relationship between them.

  “God damn it, Delia. My name is not C.J., it’s Chase Donovan just like I told you. And I’m not some seventeen-year-old child. I’m a twenty-four-year-old undercover cop.”

  Delia’s eyes bulged. She looked around the room carefully for the first time. She didn’t know much about police procedure, but the room looked exactly like she imagined a police stake-out would look. Surveillance equipment sat in the corner complete with a TV monitor that gave them a view of the front door.

  A flood of conflicting emotions overwhelmed her. She was relieved that she wasn’t actually a pedophile. She was elated that Chase wasn’t a criminal and that her feelings for him weren’t inappropriate. They were completely appropriate since they were practically the same age. But she was livid at the thought that he had let her believe he was a teenager for three months. He’d lied to her this entire time. He’d put her through hell. On top of that she now felt like a complete idiot for not realizing the truth on her own.

  Of all the emotions, anger won. She lunged for him and started pounding him in the back. “You lying little punk! You put me through hell! I thought I would end up in jail for you. How could you do this to me? You let me think I was some sort of pedophile attracted to murderous teenagers.”

  Principal Howard grabbed Delia’s arms and easily restrained her. “I will never forgive you!” Delia continued yelling as Principal Howard chuckled and tossed her into a chair.

  “You’ve got a live one. I hope she’s worth it,” he said

  “She is,” Chase groaned.

  “We didn’t mean to lie to you,” Principal Howard began to explain over a cup of coffee in the kitchen area of the suite. “We just really didn’t want to break our cover. Chase and I have been on this case for two years. When I found out that you were the one he met on the cruise, I almost made him quit.”

  Delia looked over the counter and caught a glimpse of Chase’s shaggy hair. She tried her best to see him as a twenty-four-year old instead of a seventeen-year-old. She couldn’t. She had thoroughly convinced herself that he was underage and untouchable. It was practically impossible to see him as anything else.

  In an instant, he was once again the same Chase she had met on the cruise. But it would take some time before she would let herself believe it. Before she would let her heart flutter at the thought of his touch or his kiss. Who knew how long it would be before she would be able to share a guilt-free kiss with him.

  After twenty minutes, Chase had finally been able to return to an upright position. He sat on the floor with his elbows on his knees and his head bowed into his hands.

  “I’m so sorry, Chase.”

  Chase grunted something to the effect of wanting to puke or die or both then went back to concentrating on his recovery.

  “So, Principal Howard, are you really his Uncle?”

  “Yeah, and Felicia is really my mother. That much is true. And please call me Sam or Sammy.”

  “Sorry, Sam. So where are you on the case? Do you know who’s responsible for Promise Stone?”

  “We’re really close. We were planning on catching one of the higher ups in this stakeout tonight, but Locke’s presence probably scared him off.”

  “I’m sorry. Was that my fault?”

  “No, it’s not your fault. In fact, you’ve helped us a lot in this investigation. We had no idea Locke was involved until you started fooling around on his computer. How were you able to break so many access codes?”

  Delia shrugged and blushed. She was never good at accepting compliments. “Locke is not too imaginative actually. It wasn’t that hard.”

  “Captain Howard,” the EMT interrupted, “I think I need to take this woman to the hospital. I don’t like how her pulse rate is dropping.”

  Delia looked at her sister who hadn’t moved the entire time she was there. She had put her in that position. “I’m going with her,” she said, hopping out of her seat.

  “Actually, we kind of need you somewhere else. I’ll go with Donna Lee to the hospital and make sure she’s all right.”

  Moments later, she watched as the emergency medical technicians carried her sister out on a stretcher.

  “I’ll call you with regular updates,” Sam assured Delia. “Chase,” he called before he walked out of the room as he looked at his nephew. The simple tone of his voice seemed to include orders and a caution.

  Chase looked up and said, “Yeah, I got it.” With what looked like great effort, he rose to his feet. Delia wanted to give him a hand, but she was afraid to touch him again. Afraid
that after the beating she gave him earlier, her touch might not be received too well. “Delia, you’re with me.”

  Chapter 33

  Back at the school, they sat in front of Locke’s computer. “We need you to get into the system again and find out what client was expected at the Willard Hotel tonight.” Those were the first words he’d said to her since they left the hotel room. They drove in a painful silence, each not knowing who should take the first step to break the barrier that had developed between them.

  Delia typed in Locke’s password, Donna Lee, and began navigating her way through his files. “I was in the system earlier, but I didn’t learn anything new about Promise Stone. I just figured out how you were able to cheat in my class.”