The Case of the Digital Deception

by Ellie O'Ryan

  “It definitely does,” Ben said. He moved back from the microscope. “Anybody else want to take a look at these prints?”

  Hannah peered into the microscope first, then Corey had a turn. “Lots of smudges and partials,” Corey observed.

  “Yes. And these ones from the locker door are clearly Whitney’s, which is to be expected,” Ben said. “What do you think about the print from the tape?”

  Hannah looked into the microscope again. “I’d say that’s Whitney’s print too,” she replied.

  “Now, I was able to lift a few prints from the photo itself,” Ben continued. “Whitney’s prints are obvious—again, that’s to be expected—but check this one out. The whorl is pretty different.”

  The swirly lines on that fingerprint were obviously different from Whitney’s prints. Hannah picked up the piece of paper where she had had Alyssa stamp her fingerprint and then compared the two. “It matches Alyssa’s fingerprint,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean anything, really. Since Alyssa gave the photo to Whitney, her prints would be all over it.”

  The three friends were silent for a moment. Then Hannah spoke again. “Guys, I think this case is a waste of time,” she said.

  “No,” Ben disagreed. “I mean, someone vandalized that photo. And we shouldn’t quit until we’ve figured out who. What’s next? Will someone graffiti the outside of Whitney’s locker? Or perhaps steal some of the decorations from inside?”

  “Hopefully not, of course,” Hannah said. “But unless something else happens . . . the trail is cold, right?” She turned to Corey. “You’ve been pretty quiet. What do you think we should do next?”

  Corey shrugged. “You both made good points,” he said. “So I think we should wait and see if the vandal strikes again . . . or if any other clues turn up.”

  Ben and Hannah could both agree on that.

  Chapter 5

  Before school the next day, Hannah intercepted Corey on the way to his locker. “Come on, let’s go find Ben,” she said. “I had an idea last night—about Whitney’s case.”

  Corey was surprised. “Really? You seemed so ready to stop working on it.”

  “I know,” Hannah admitted. “But Ben’s right. Someone vandalized that photo—and if the only prints we have are Whitney’s and Alyssa’s, then at the very least we should re-interview them, right? Both of them, I mean. And you should be the one to do it.”

  As Corey puffed up with pride, they arrived at Ben’s locker. Though Ben’s face was twisted into an unusual scowl, Hannah jumped right in with her new plan. “So . . . Whitney’s case—” she began.

  “Forget it. You were right,” Ben said bluntly. “Total waste of time.”

  Corey and Hannah stared at him in surprise. “Um, who are you and what have you done with Ben?” Corey joked. “Ben would never say that about an open investigation!”

  “What changed your mind?” Hannah asked.

  Ben paused, as if he wasn’t sure he wanted to say. But he knew he couldn’t keep this a secret from Club CSI. It wouldn’t be fair to Hannah and Corey. Without another word, he pulled a crumpled-up piece of paper out of his backpack.

  “Alyssa found me on my way into school this morning, and she gave me this,” he said in a quiet voice. “Just . . . read it for yourselves.”

  To: MissLys@we-mail.com

  From: cheergirl12@smartmail.com

  Sent: Wednesday, April 4, 4:56 p.m.

  Subject: Club CSI—LOSERS!!!

  Lys! OMG, I am soooo soooo soooo sorry u had 2 deal with Club

  CSI 2day. What a bunch of dorks! Seriously, I am always 5 secs from falling asleep when they R around. I don’t even care who broke in2 my locker anymore. Like those losers could even figure it out. I’m surprised they figured out how 2 tie their shoes! LOL. Their “investigation” was so incredibly dumb. If they try 2 talk 2 u again, just ignore them and hopefully they will go away!!!

  <3

  whit

  When Hannah finished reading, she glanced up at Ben with a knowing look in her eye. “You seem surprised,” she said. “And upset.”

  “Well, aren’t you?” he asked. “Whitney came to us. I don’t know why she’d send such a mean e-mail to Alyssa. We were only trying to help. Because she asked us to!”

  Ben reached out for the e-mail, but Corey snatched it away from him. Then he turned and stormed off down the hall. Ben and Hannah had to run after him just to keep up.

  Corey marched over to Whitney, who was staring at her reflection in her locker mirror. “You owe us an explanation,” he said hotly. “And an apology.”

  Whitney jumped and spun around to face Corey. “Huh?” she asked. “What?”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know,” Corey snapped as he shoved the e-mail toward her.

  As Whitney read the e-mail, her face fell into a troubled frown. When she looked up again, her eyes were open wide. “I—I didn’t send this e-mail,” she stammered.

  “Yeah, right,” Corey said sarcastically.

  “No, Corey, I mean it,” Whitney said, staring directly into his eyes. “I don’t understand—I mean, that’s definitely my e-mail address, but I know I didn’t send the e-mail. I couldn’t have. I was in ballet class yesterday from four to five.”

  “So if you didn’t send it . . . ,” Hannah began slowly.

  “Someone must have broken into my e-mail account!” Whitney finished for her. She looked from Hannah to Ben to Corey. Corey still looked upset.

  “Corey, please, you have to believe me. I would never call you a loser,” Whitney said so sincerely that everyone believed her. “Whoever wrote this e-mail . . . it wasn’t me. I swear.”

  Corey looked at Whitney and nodded. She did sound very sincere, and she hadn’t been anything but nice to him since coming up to him in the cafeteria.

  “So do you want us to continue with our investigation?” Hannah asked, just to be sure.

  Whitney nodded. “Yes. Please,” she said. “It totally freaks me out that someone sent that e-mail from my account.”

  “And broke into your locker,” Ben added.

  “Huh? Oh. Yeah, of course,” she said.

  Hannah, Ben, and Corey walked away from Whitney’s locker in a tight little group so that no one could overhear their conversation. “We need to interview Alyssa again,” Corey said right away. “And this time, we should all be there.”

  As luck would have it, Club CSI passed Alyssa on their way back to the seventh-grade hallway. She had just purchased a protein bar from a vending machine when Hannah tapped her on the shoulder.

  “Oh. Hey. What’s up?” Alyssa asked.

  “Can we talk to you for a minute?” asked Hannah.

  “About what?” Alyssa sounded bored.

  “I think you know,” Ben replied.

  Alyssa raised an eyebrow, but she didn’t argue as Club CSI led her toward an empty classroom. Once inside, Corey put the crumpled printout of Alyssa’s e-mail on a desk.

  “What can you tell us about this?” he asked.

  “This?” Alyssa asked. She tucked a strand of her long auburn hair behind her ear, then started twirling it around her finger. “This is the e-mail—the one I gave Ben before school.”

  “Why?” Corey asked. “If your best friend sent you this e-mail in private, why would you show it to Ben?”

  Alyssa shrugged and glanced over Corey’s shoulder, toward the door. “Just, you know . . . I thought you guys should know. What Whitney really thinks about you.”

  “Do you usually print out her e-mails and show them to people?” Hannah asked.

  “Do I usually what?” Alyssa frowned. She started chewing on her cuticles. “I don’t know what you’re getting at, but you should be thanking me. Whitney was trashing you guys behind your back. I thought you’d want to know. I certainly would.”

  “Here’s the thing,” Ben began. “We showed this e-mail to Whitney, and she says that she didn’t send it.”

  “You did what?” Alyssa blurted out. “Look, I don’t h
ave time for this. I wouldn’t have even shown it to you if I’d known you’d turn it into such a big deal. Just forget it, okay?”

  Then Alyssa picked her up bag and hurried toward the door.

  “Hang on,” Corey called after her. “We have a few more questions we want to—”

  But she was already gone.

  “Well, that was weird,” Hannah remarked.

  “So she didn’t act like that when you interviewed her yesterday?” Corey asked.

  “No. Not at all,” Hannah replied. “She didn’t fidget, and she just seemed a lot more . . . I don’t know. Less nervous, I guess.”

  “Maybe she’s worried that Whitney will get mad at her for showing me the e-mail,” Ben suggested.

  “Or maybe it’s because somebody used Whitney’s e-mail account to contact her,” Corey said.

  “Or maybe it’s just something else altogether,” Hannah said as the bell rang.

  After forensic science, Hannah excused herself from the usual dash to the cafeteria with Ben and Corey. Her two best friends had already started eating by the time she hurried into the cafeteria and sat down at their usual table, her face flushed.

  “I have news,” she said. “It might be important for our case.”

  “What’s up?” Ben asked.

  “Whitney and Alyssa had a fight this morning,” Hannah reported. “Everybody in the girls’ bathroom was talking about it, so I hung around to listen. It happened just before homeroom, right after we spoke to Alyssa. And when I say ‘fight,’ I mean huge fight. Enormous. Maybe even bigger than the one they had with Maya.”

  Corey and Ben looked confused. “Maya?” Corey repeated.

  “You guys don’t know about that?” Hannah asked. “It was the biggest drama at Woodlands last year.”

  Ben shrugged. “Sorry. I don’t know anything about this.”

  “Let me fill you in,” Hannah said. “So, up until last year, Maya, Alyssa, and Whitney were totally inseparable. They did everything together. They even coordinated their outfits every night before they went to bed. But then Alyssa and Maya both started crushing on Scott Leesom, and they had a big fight over who liked him first, and Whitney took Alyssa’s side. They started ignoring Maya, and she was totally crushed. And practically friendless for the rest of the year. She even quit the cheerleading squad over it.”

  “Wow! Why didn’t you mention this before?” Ben asked. “Maya should be treated as a suspect. She definitely has motive, right?”

  Corey rubbed his hands together. “Dude, I cannot wait to interview her.”

  “Wait, guys,” Hannah spoke up. “There’s no way Maya vandalized the photo. She’s been out of school all week because her uncle is getting married in Mexico on Saturday, and her whole family went down early to help with the wedding preparations.”

  “How do you know all this?” Ben asked in amazement.

  Hannah shrugged. “You can find out a lot in the girls’ room,” she said matter-of-factly.

  “It is possible she hacked into Whitney’s e-mail from Mexico,” Corey pointed out. “We should still interview her when she gets back.”

  “But how would she know about the investigation if she’s been absent for the entire week?” Hannah asked.

  “Maybe someone else e-mailed her about it?” Corey suggested. But he didn’t sound convinced.

  “I guess it’s possible. And we can certainly interview her when she gets back. But I think we should find out more about Whitney and Alyssa’s fight,” replied Hannah. “Because, really, why did Alyssa show you that e-mail, Ben? That was a major betrayal of her best friend. It doesn’t add up.”

  “You’re right,” Ben said. “It doesn’t. So the most important thing to do now is figure out who sent the e-mail.”

  “I know what that means,” Corey spoke up. “Our investigation is about to go digital!”

  Chapter 6

  Right after school, Club CSI decided to check out Whitney’s alibi. It wouldn’t be hard to confirm that she really was in ballet class when the e-mail was sent, since Hannah and Whitney took lessons at the same ballet studio, Pirouette. They weren’t in the same class, but they had the same teacher, Miss Yvette.

  “What if Whitney sent the e-mail from her phone?” Ben asked as they walked together.

  “Not possible,” Hannah replied. “Cell phones are definitely not allowed at Pirouette. Miss Yvette freaks if somebody’s cell goes off during a lesson.”

  “Really?” Corey asked curiously. “What does she do? Throw ballet slippers? Shred tutus? Tear ribbons with her teeth?”

  “Believe me, it’s not pretty.” And that was all Hannah would say on the subject.

  When they arrived at Pirouette, Hannah checked her watch. “Miss Yvette will be in a lesson for fifteen more minutes,” she told the boys. “But we can just hang out in the lobby until she’s free.”

  The lobby was nearly empty, except for a teenage girl who was kneeling next to a wall. She was surrounded by open bottles of paint in vibrant, shimmery colors. She looked up as the silver bell on the door chimed.

  Hannah waved at the girl. “Hey, Jessica, how’s it going?” she asked in a low voice so she wouldn’t accidentally disrupt the lesson.

  “Hey, Hannah! Are you taking lessons on Thursdays now?” Jessica asked.

  Hannah shook her head. “No, just Saturday mornings—at least until summer vacation starts,” she said. She turned to Ben and Corey. “Jessica is the most talented dancer at Pirouette.”

  Corey and Ben looked impressed, but Jessica seemed a little embarrassed. “I just really love dancing, that’s all,” she said modestly. Then she waved her paintbrush in the air. “And painting, of course!”

  “Did you do all this?” Ben asked, gesturing at the wall, where a sprawling mural had been sketched. In the mural, ballerinas danced through an enchanted forest, with rainbow-colored ribbons streaming behind them.

  “Guilty,” Jessica said with a grin. Then she turned back to the wall so that she could keep painting as she talked. “I finally finished sketching last weekend. It’s so great to start adding color and see it come to life!”

  “These poses are amazing,” Hannah said. “So realistic!”

  “You think?” Jessica asked, pleased. “I guess I’ve been able to observe a lot of dancers, since I take lessons five days a week with Miss Yvette and have solo practice in the studio the other two days. When Miss Yvette offered me extra lessons in exchange for painting the mural, I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ I mean, I practically live here, anyway!”

  Club CSI laughed. Then Ben had an idea.

  “So, were you here yesterday?” he asked Jessica.

  “Yes, until five o’clock,” she replied. “That’s when Pirouette closes.”

  Hannah understood right away why Ben had asked that question. “Do you remember if Whitney was in class yesterday?” she said.

  Jessica stopped to think. Then she nodded. “Intermediate ballet, Wednesdays, four o’clock to five o’clock. She was definitely here,” Jessica replied. “I remember because she thought that the dancer over there with the purple tiara looked like her.”

  “Of course she did,” Hannah said with a grin. “Thanks, Jessica. See you Saturday?”

  “Absolutely,” Jessica said. “If I’m not pirouetting, I’ll be painting!”

  Once they were on the sidewalk waiting for the bus that would take them close to their homes, Club CSI immediately started talking about the case again. “So Whitney’s alibi checks out,” Hannah said. “I have to admit, I’m a little surprised.”

  “How come you hate her so much?” asked Corey bluntly.

  “I don’t hate her,” Hannah replied. “It’s just that she’s notorious for being kind of mean, especially to kids in lower grades. So when I read a mean e-mail sent from her account, I assume Whitney is the one who sent it.”

  “Do you guys have your Quark Pads with you?” Ben interrupted them.

  Hannah and Corey shook their heads. A while back, each member o
f Club CSI had received a Quark Pad as a reward for uncovering a ring of thieves who had been stealing the electronic tablets and selling them to kids. But because Quark Pads were really expensive, the club members usually didn’t bring them to school unless they knew that they would need them.

  “Me neither,” Ben said as a bus pulled up and Club CSI got on it. “Too bad. Anyway, let’s go over to my house. I think our next step should be tracing the e-mail’s IP address.”

  Corey and Hannah looked at him in confusion. “The e-mail’s what-what?” Corey asked.

  “IP address,” Ben repeated. “It stands for ‘Internet protocol address.’ Basically, every computer connected to the Internet has its own unique IP address—a long string of numbers. It’s how computers communicate with websites and stuff.”

  “So what does that mean for us?” Hannah said.

  “If you can find the IP address for certain computer functions—say, sending an e-mail—sometimes you can trace it to find out which computer was used,” Ben explained. “Earlier today, I was able to find the IP address for the e-mail Alyssa received. Hopefully, our luck will continue and we’ll be able to find out which computer was used to send it.”

  “You mean we could find out the sender’s address?” Corey asked excitedly. “Then the case would be solved, right?”

  “Perhaps,” Ben said. “If the e-mail was sent from a public computer, like at school or a café, it will get a little trickier. Either way, it will still give us more info than we have now.”

  “How’d you get the IP address, anyway?” Hannah said. “I don’t remember seeing any long numbers on that printout.”

  “I needed digital access to the e-mail itself,” Ben said. “So I asked Whitney to log on to her e-mail at school and let me see the copy that was in her sent folder. The IP address was hidden, but I know this website that will uncover them.”

  “That’s cool . . . and a little creepy,” Hannah admitted. “It’s sort of freaky to think that there are all these secret records on the Internet, huh?”