by Ellie O'Ryan
Ben started to laugh. “I can’t believe it,” he said to Corey and Hannah. “There was a sign-in book right there this whole time!”
“If only we’d tried to use one of the computers when we were investigating the e-mail,” Hannah said. “Mrs. Gomez would’ve asked us to sign in, and then we would’ve known about it.”
Corey hopped off the bleacher. “We shouldn’t waste another minute. Come on—let’s go to the library!”
Chapter 14
It’s over there,” Alyssa whispered as she pointed toward the back of the reference librarian’s desk. “That big navy blue binder.”
Club CSI, Alyssa, and Whitney were camped out on the floor in the library. Corey had found the perfect aisle for conducting their investigation—nestled away in the Property Records section; it didn’t get much traffic, but gave them a clear view of the reference desk . . . and the computer bank. With books and papers spread around them, they looked like any group of students working on a school project. No one would’ve suspected they were actually in the middle of solving a crime. They watched the reference desk for a few minutes as people walked over to the binder, signed in or out, and then walked away.
“We’re going to need a few minutes with the sign-in book,” Ben said, a worried frown on his face. “But Miss Wilson is right there. Won’t it seem weird to a librarian if we’re examining every page of the book?”
“Maybe,” said Alyssa. “And Miss Wilson is pretty strict. She sees everything!”
“I have an idea,” Corey said. “What if I tell her I need help finding a book? Like, I have a big project for school and I don’t know where to begin?” He made a funny face. “That’s actually not a lie. I really do need to start working on my social studies project this weekend.”
“Sounds good,” Alyssa said. “That should get Miss Wilson away from the desk long enough for me to grab the book and bring it back to you guys. Then I can hang out near the reference desk in case Miss Wilson comes back too soon, and I can distract her again.”
“You don’t have to do that,” Hannah spoke up.
“It’s no problem,” Alyssa said with a shrug. “I’m here so much that no one will even notice me at the reference desk.”
“Wish me luck,” Corey said as he stood up.
Everyone watched as Corey chatted with Miss Wilson. Then he followed her to the back of the library, flashing a quick thumbs-up at Club CSI, Whitney, and Alyssa as he passed.
“You’re up,” Ben whispered to Alyssa. “Go get it!”
Alyssa casually walked toward the reference desk. She grabbed the computer sign-in book off the desk and, glancing over her shoulder for Miss Wilson, hurried back to Ben, Hannah, and Whitney.
“Here you go,” she said in a hushed voice. “I’ll be waiting at the desk.”
Then she disappeared down the aisle.
Hannah started flipping through the book as fast as she could. “March twenty-second, March twenty-sixth, March twenty-ninth, April first, April fourth—Here it is!” she said. Hannah’s finger traced down the long list of names. “Okay, Alyssa Gomez . . . signed in at 4:12, signed out at 5:01.”
“So who signed in after her?” Whitney demanded.
Hannah squinted at the page. Then she frowned and shook her head. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s just a big, messy scrawl. I think the initials are . . . J . . . G? Maybe?”
“Wait a second,” Ben said, grabbing the book and pulling it onto his lap. “That could be an O, right? A fancy, frilly, weird-looking O?”
Hannah took another look. “Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, I think it could be.”
“J. O.,” Ben said. “J. O. . . . jojo2020!”
“One of Dancer99’s other usernames!” Hannah added.
“Quick,” Ben said. “What are the other hacking dates? Let’s see if J. O. signed in on the other days, too.”
“Okay,” Hannah said. “The next time was April sixth.”
Ben scanned the page. “No J. O.,” he reported, with a hint of disappointment in his voice. “But someone signed in with really loopy handwriting at 6:42.”
“That’s right when the hacking happened!” Hannah said excitedly. “I mean, 6:46 to be precise—but close enough.”
“Maybe J. O. used a fake name every time she signed in,” Ben suggested. “She thought that would keep people from connecting her with the hacking.”
“You guys,” Whitney said. “Alyssa’s looking kind of nervous over there. I think you’d better get the book back before Miss Wilson returns.”
“We don’t have enough time to look up all the hacking dates, find the fake names, and compare the handwriting to be sure,” Ben said.
“I know!” Hannah said. “Let’s photocopy the pages from the days when Whitney’s account was hacked. Then we can take all the time we need to analyze the handwriting.”
“Here,” Whitney urged. “Use my copy card!”
With the sign-in book under her arm and Whitney’s copy card in her hand, Hannah sprinted toward the photocopy room. A few minutes later, she emerged from the room with a triumphant smile on her face. Hannah swung by the reference desk and handed the binder to Alyssa. They put it back on the desk and opened it to that day’s date. It was like it had never been taken. Then both girls joined Whitney and Ben.
“Mission accomplished!” Hannah said proudly as she placed the still-warm photocopies on the floor. Then she pressed her hand across her chest. “It’s silly, but my heart is totally pounding! I got so freaked out that Miss Wilson would suddenly walk into the copy room and want to know what I was doing with the sign-in book!”
“Where’s your faith?” Corey teased Hannah as he returned to the group, carrying a stack of heavy books. “I would never let you down!”
“I know that,” Hannah replied with a grin.
Ben handed Whitney the list of dates when her account was hacked. “Can you read us the dates and times from this list?” he asked. “Then we’ll search each page for the hacker’s messy handwriting.”
“Sure,” Whitney said. “The next one was . . . April seventh.”
“My mom worked that day,” Alyssa said suddenly. “I remember because it was a Saturday and she usually doesn’t work on Saturdays. She was filling in for Miss Wilson.”
Then Alyssa gasped and clutched Whitney’s arm. “I was right here at the same time that Whitney’s account was being hacked!”
“That is all so freaky,” Whitney whispered.
The group worked quietly for several minutes, identifying ten different signatures that corresponded with the hackings.
“All right,” Corey said as he lined up each photocopy so that the suspicious signatures were arranged in a neat row. “Let’s start analyzing.”
“Even if we weren’t looking at photocopies, we wouldn’t have to worry about the kind of paper or the type of pen that was used,” Ben began. “Every page of the sign-in book is the same, and it looks like everyone signed with a ballpoint pen.”
Alyssa nodded. “Yeah, there’s a blue one on a chain right next to the sign-in book,” she confirmed.
“So our main focus will be the handwriting itself,” Ben continued. He leaned down to get a closer look. “Check out all the loops and swirls. It’s really artistic looking, isn’t it?”
“That’s what makes it so hard to read—some of the letters are overlapping,” Hannah said. She pointed at the upper case O in the first signature. “That’s why I thought the O was a G when I first saw it.”
“And each one of these signatures slants far to the right,” Corey observed. “But the biggest thing I noticed is the way the Is are dotted. See that? Every single I has a big, open circle over it. It’s really distinctive.”
“So I think it’s pretty obvious that all these signatures are from the same person—even though she used different names,” Hannah said. “But this is kind of weird. I think I found an additional signature from last night—April twenty-seventh.”
She handed the photoco
py around so that everyone could see it.
“J. O.,” Corey said. He frowned. “It’s identical to the signature from the first hacking on April fourth. But why would the hacker suddenly start using her real name again?”
Everyone thought about Corey’s question. Then Ben’s eyes lit up. “Look at the date!” he exclaimed. “That’s the day after we sent messages to Dancer99, jojo2020, and LOL1234 . . . and two days after we investigated at Whitney’s house!”
“Which means it was two days after my parents unlinked the credit card, too,” Whitney realized.
“Dancer99 realized her expansion-pack spree was over,” Ben deduced, “so when she stopped hacking, she also stopped signing in with fake names.”
“Then her real initials are J. O.,” said Corey.
“It means something else, too,” Hannah said. “It means she’s still coming to the library to use the computers—and she’s signing in with her real name again!”
“We’re going to catch her,” Corey said eagerly. “I just know it. We’ll have to take shifts hanging out here and monitoring the sign-in book—”
“But we have to be careful,” Ben interrupted, shaking his head. “J. O. is here a lot. If we’re suddenly staring at the sign-in book every day, she might get suspicious.”
“I know,” Alyssa spoke up. “I can do it. I’m already here every afternoon, so it won’t be weird at all for me to hang out near the reference desk. Sometimes I help my mom with filing and stuff, anyway.”
“So you can keep a close eye on the sign-in book, and the minute you see J. O.’s signature, text us,” Hannah told her. “We’ll come right over.”
“And make sure you don’t, like, try to talk to her or anything without us,” Ben added.
“Thanks, Alyssa,” Corey said. “This is the biggest break in the case we’ve had so far. If you hadn’t told us about the sign-in sheets, we’d still be at a total dead end.”
“No problem,” Alyssa replied. “I’m just glad you still don’t think I did it.”
Hannah turned to Ben and Corey. “I’m thinking it’s time we told Officer Inverno about the case,” she said. “Especially if we might meet up with J. O. soon.”
“For real? You’re going to the police?” Whitney asked, her eyes wide. “That seems so serious.”
“Yeah. But what happened to you was a crime,” Ben explained. “And Officer Inverno likes to know what we’re up to . . . especially when we’re going to confront a suspect.”
Corey started stacking up his pile of books.
“Oh, I can put those books back on the shelves, Corey,” Alyssa said as she reached for the pile.
“Put them back?” Corey asked. He shook his head. “No, I need to check them out. I really do have to start working on my project!”
When Club CSI stopped by the police station, they found Officer Inverno sitting at his desk. “It’s Woodlands’s best junior detectives!” he said as he ushered them into his office. “What can I do for you?”
“Sorry to bother you, Officer Inverno,” Hannah began. “I hope we’re not interrupting anything important.”
“I’m just catching up on some paperwork,” Officer Inverno replied, gesturing to the stack of folders before him. “The job isn’t all excitement and adventure—but you’ve probably realized that already!”
“We’ve been working on a new case,” Ben said. “And I think we’re getting close to solving it.”
Officer Inverno leaned back in his chair with an interested look on his face. “Tell me everything,” he said.
Ever since Club CSI’s very first case, Officer Inverno had supported them in any way that he could—while always looking out for their safety. As Ben, Corey, and Hannah told him the facts of their current case, Officer Inverno started taking notes in a small notebook. He stopped to ask a few questions as they presented the evidence: the dates and times of when Whitney’s You Can Draw It! account was hacked; the stolen expansion packs that were gifted to Dancer99, jojo2020, and LOL1234; the printout of IP addresses and the map that led them to the library; and, finally, the photocopies of the sign-in sheets. Officer Inverno examined each piece of evidence carefully without saying a word. When he finally looked up, there was a smile on his face.
“Excellent investigative work, Club CSI,” he said. “You’ve done a great job here—and I agree that you’re close to solving this one.”
Hannah, Corey, and Ben grinned at one another.
“But I have one request for you,” Officer Inverno continued. “When you get word that your suspect is at the library, I want you to call me right away. I don’t think Dancer99 is dangerous, but I want to be on the scene when you confront him or her.”
“We will,” Hannah said at once. “Promise.”
Officer Inverno rose as Ben, Hannah, and Corey packed up the evidence they had collected. “Good luck,” he said. “I expect I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Chapter 15
Officer Inverno was right: Alyssa’s text to Club CSI came just three days later.
J. O. IS HERE!!!! signed in 5 min ago. sitting @ computer 3 right now!!!
Luckily, the members of Club CSI were close to the library. Ben responded immediately.
on our way!
The bus ride to the library only took ten minutes, but it felt like an eternity to Corey. “What if she leaves before we get there?” he asked, drumming his fingers anxiously. “Man, is this bus taking the scenic route or what?”
“Relax,” Hannah told him. “J. O. just logged in for some computer time. I bet she’ll be there for a while.”
Ben stared at a floorplan of the library on his Quark Pad. “This time, we should go straight to the Pottery and Ceramics section,” he said. “It’s not as exciting as the Science section, but I think if we slip a couple books off the shelf, we’ll have a perfect view of Computer Three.”
The bus’s brakes screeched as it stopped in front of the library. Corey leaped into the aisle. “Let’s do this!” he exclaimed.
Inside the library, Club CSI crept down the aisles in total silence, trying to act as casually as they could. They could see Alyssa leaning against the reference desk, chatting quietly with her mom—but her eyes never left the computer bank.
In the Ceramics aisle, Hannah slid three books off the shelf, making a small window that was just the right size for the friends to finally get a glimpse of the hacker. When she realized who it was, Hannah was so shocked that her hands flew up to her face. She immediately covered her mouth so that her gasp of surprise wouldn’t attract attention.
“I can’t believe it!” she whispered to Ben and Corey. “I mean, I never, never, never would have guessed . . . ”
“Me neither,” Corey whispered back. He didn’t look away from the suspect for even a second. “Wait, what’s her name again?”
“Jessica,” Hannah whispered. “Jessica Olivera. We’ve been taking dance classes at Pirouette together for five years. She’s always been so friendly. Even though she’s in high school, she never acts like she’s cooler or better than everybody else. She helps everybody learn the toughest steps! I just—I never would’ve guessed . . . ” Hannah’s voice trailed off for a moment as she thought about it. “Then again, a bunch of things do make sense. I mean, Jessica loves to dance, so the Dancer99 username fits—and so does jojo2020, with her initials. And she only played in the evenings—after Pirouette closes. And you guys saw that mural. She’s really artistic. No wonder Jessica is obsessed with You Can Draw It!”
“Obsessed enough to steal, though?” Corey asked.
“I don’t know,” Hannah admitted. “I guess—I guess it’s not official until we see Jessica logged in as Dancer99.”
Ben squinted as he tried to get a closer look at Computer Three’s screen. “I just can’t tell from here,” he said in frustration. “We’re going to have to get closer . . . maybe talk to Jessica . . . ”
“Then we have to call Officer Inverno,” Hannah said, reaching for her phone.
&
nbsp; Corey shook his head. “We can’t call him unless we’re sure . . . really sure,” he said. “I mean, what if we’re wrong? If we start wasting his time, Officer Inverno won’t take us seriously anymore.”
“But I promised,” Hannah argued.
“I think Corey’s right,” Ben said with a frown. “What if one of us walks past Jessica and just talks to her a little? Just to find out her username, if we can—not to confront her or anything. And if she really is Dancer99, we’ll call Officer Inverno before we actually confront her.” He turned to Hannah. “You know her best. Want to give it a try?”
Hannah looked worried. “I don’t know if I can,” she said frankly. “Jessica and I might know each other too well. If she can tell I’m nervous—”
“I’ll go,” Corey volunteered. “It won’t be totally weird for me to talk to her, since you introduced us a few weeks ago.”
“You’ll do great, Corey,” Hannah whispered, giving his arm a quick squeeze. “Just get her username. That’s all you have to do.”
“Oh no!” Ben suddenly exclaimed.
“What? What happened?” Corey and Hannah asked at the same time.
“Whitney’s here!” Ben replied, pointing at the glass door to the library. “And she looks ready for a fight!”
Chapter 16
Oh no. No, no, no, no,” Corey said. “Alyssa must have texted her, too! If Jessica sees Whitney, she will split for sure. She knows it was Whitney’s e-mail account and Whitney’s You Can Draw It! account! We’ve gotta—”
“On it,” Hannah replied. She darted to the door just as Whitney stepped inside. Ben and Corey followed Hannah as she pulled Whitney into an aisle.
“Please, Whitney, you’ve got to wait outside until we figure out if Dancer99 is Jessica’s username,” Hannah said.
“No way! I’m sick of waiting!” Whitney argued. “I can’t believe Jessica hacked my account, stole my parents’ money, got me grounded, and almost ruined my party! She’s not getting away with it!”