The Case of the Digital Deception
Page 9
“Exactly—we’ve almost caught her,” Ben said urgently. “But if she sees you and takes off before we can confirm that she’s Dancer99, she might actually get away with it.”
“Officer Inverno promised he’d come as soon as we know Dancer99’s real identity,” added Corey. “You just have to be patient for a few more minutes.”
Whitney’s eyes flashed angrily, but she had to admit Club CSI was right. “So what do you want me to do?” she asked.
“Wait outside to make sure Jessica doesn’t see you,” Ben told her. “If Jessica really is Dancer99, you’ll have a chance to tell her how you feel about what she did.”
Whitney nodded without saying a word. Then she turned around and left the library.
“Corey, go,” Ben said. “I don’t know how much time we have before Jessica leaves!”
Corey was already on his way to the computer bank. As he walked, he psyched himself up for the most important moment of the entire investigation.
“Jessica?” he said as he passed behind Computer Three. “Is that you? Hey, it’s me, Corey—Hannah’s friend.”
It took a second for Jessica to place Corey, but as soon as she recognized him, a big smile spread across her face. “Hey, Corey, what’s up?” she asked.
“Just getting some homework done,” he replied. “What are you up to? A little You Can Draw It!, huh? I love that game.”
“Oh, this is just a picture I’ve been working on,” she replied, nodding her head at the computer screen. “I’m having some trouble with the beams of sunlight shining on the snowy mountains. I don’t know, what do you think? It looks kind of fake to me.”
“Fake?” Corey repeated, shaking his head. “No way. That drawing is awesome! I can’t believe you made it! Man, Hannah said you were crazy talented, but now I see for myself it’s true.”
Jessica’s smile grew even bigger. “Really? You think so?” she asked.
“For sure,” Corey replied. “I bet you could win that big contest they’re having.”
“Oh, I hope so!” Jessica exclaimed. “I have to enter my drawing by midnight—that’s the deadline. Could I ask you a big favor? If I make it into the top twenty-five . . . would you vote for me?”
Corey’s heart started pounding. This was it—the big moment.
“Sure,” he said. “What’s your username?”
“It’s Dancer99,” Jessica replied as her eyes drifted back to the screen. She frowned a little, then switched over to an expansion pack that offered different sparkle effects. With a click of her mouse, Jessica’s snowy mountain started to gleam. “There. That’s better, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Corey said. He swallowed hard. “Um, see you around, Jessica.”
“Bye, Corey,” Jessica replied, adjusting the color on her picture. She looked up to give him another smile. “Thanks again for voting for me!”
Corey felt funny as he walked back to Hannah and Ben. Hannah was right about Jessica; she was incredibly nice. It was hard to believe that she was the same person who had stolen all those expansion packs by hacking into Whitney’s account.
But it didn’t matter how nice Jessica seemed. What she had done was wrong—really wrong. And it was time for her to be held responsible.
“Call Officer Inverno,” he said in a strained whisper. “It’s her. Dancer99.”
Chapter 17
Club CSI moved fast. While Ben went outside to call Officer Inverno, Hannah slipped away to tell Alyssa and Mrs. Gomez what they had discovered. Corey, meanwhile, kept an eye on Jessica to make sure she didn’t leave before Officer Inverno arrived.
Then everything seemed to happen at once: Officer Inverno, Ben, and Whitney walked into the library just as Hannah waved to Corey from an empty meeting room where they could confront Jessica.
“Jessica?” Corey said.
She spun around in her chair. This time her smile wasn’t quite so big. “Hey, Corey, do you need something else?” Jessica asked.
“Actually,” Corey replied. “I need to talk to you.”
Corey made a motion for Jessica to follow him, but she only turned back to the computer. “I’m really busy with this drawing. Like I said earlier, the deadline’s tonight.”
“We can do this here, but I doubt you’d want to,” warned Corey.
Jessica looked up at Corey again, and this time she had suspicion in her eyes.
“Um, I think I’m going to go,” said Jessica. “I can finish this drawing somewhere else. You’re starting to weird me out.”
Jessica grabbed her bag, jumped up from her chair, and moved toward the front door . . . only to run smack into Officer Inverno, who had been standing off to the side.
“Hello, young lady,” Officer Inverno said. “Would you please come with me?”
All the color drained from Jessica’s face, leaving her pale and ashen. “What do you—I don’t—What?” she stammered.
“Come,” Corey said. “Let’s go somewhere quiet.”
Jessica looked like she might want to make a run for it, but then she sighed. She nodded and turned the other way.
“Oh, you’ll want to log out of your game,” Ben spoke up. “Leaving your account open on a public computer is a bad idea. A really bad idea. You never know who might steal your information.”
Jessica went over to Computer Three and clicked the mouse a couple times, still moving in a daze. Then she followed Corey over to the conference room where Hannah, Alyssa, and Mrs. Gomez were waiting. The small room was pretty crowded when Corey, Ben, Officer Inverno, Jessica, and Whitney joined them, but there were enough chairs for everyone.
“Have a seat, Miss Olivera,” Officer Inverno said. Then he glanced over toward Corey, Ben, and Hannah. “Club CSI, go ahead.”
“Jessica, is Dancer99 your You Can Draw It! username?” Ben began.
Jessica started to shake her head—but a piercing look from Corey reminded her that she had already told him it was.
Jessica swallowed a few times, as if her mouth was suddenly dry, and bit her lower lip. “Um, yeah. So what?” she asked, glancing at the door. She seemed like she wanted to run out of that little room more than anything in the world.
“Well, we have reason to believe that the person behind Dancer99 stole ten expansion packs by hacking into another person’s You Can Draw It! account,” Ben continued.
“N-no way,” Jessica said. “I didn’t do—what, hacking? I don’t know, like, anything about computers.”
But as she said that, Jessica began wringing her hands together. She bit her lip and pressed them together, like she didn’t want to say another word.
“So those expansion packs you were just using,” Corey said. “How did you get them?”
“Um . . . I b-bought them. Of course. Like everybody does,” she said.
“Can you prove that?” Hannah asked. “Because we think that those packs were purchased through Whitney’s account, gifted to several other accounts, then transferred to Dancer99.”
“Well, maybe . . . maybe . . . maybe my account was hacked too!” Jessica blurted out. “Maybe your ‘hacker’ is transferring stolen expansion packs through my account! Did you think of that, maybe?”
Club CSI exchanged a troubled glance. It was so clear to them that Jessica was lying, and yet they had never expected her to deny the charges like this.
“Okay. Let’s explore that possibility,” Ben said. “When you noticed ten new expansion packs in your account, did you contact Customer Service? Did you tell anyone your account had been hacked? Or did you just start using the expansion packs? Like you had every right to them?”
“I—I—I thought they were, like, free upgrades or something,” Jessica said.
“Wait, I’m confused.” Corey frowned. “First you said you bought the expansion packs. Now you are saying that maybe your account was hacked and that you thought the expansion packs were free upgrades? Which one is it, Jessica?”
Jessica’s eyes darted back and forth nervously. “I don’t know!�
�� she replied.
“Well, I know! You stole them—using my account!” Whitney yelled so loudly that everyone in the conference room jumped.
“Whitney. I know you’re upset. But this is still a library,” Mrs. Gomez interrupted her. “Shhh!”
Everyone chuckled a little—except for Whitney and Jessica. When Whitney spoke again, her lowered voice was worse than her yelling.
“These guys have evidence,” Whitney hissed. “And they can show it to you, and you can come up with a bunch of different lies, but that doesn’t change the truth. You got my password, you logged on to my account, you bought expansion packs with my parents’ credit card, and I got grounded for it! There’s only one word for what you did: stealing. And that makes you a thief!”
Officer Inverno cleared his throat like he was about to intervene. But before he could, Jessica buried her face in her hands. Then she started to cry. No one spoke. When Jessica finally looked up, her face was blotchy and streaked with tears.
“I know that,” Jessica said. She shuddered a little as she wiped her eyes. Everyone waited while Jessica took a deep breath and tried to calm down.
“I mean, it didn’t feel like stealing when I did it.” Jessica’s voice was halting as she struggled to find the right words. “I just clicked the mouse, you know? I know this sounds stupid, but I just didn’t think about the fact that it was someone else’s account—and someone else’s money. I am so sorry. I will pay you back every penny, I promise.”
“Jessica, you should know I’ll be contacting the people at You Can Draw It!” Officer Inverno spoke up. “I expect they’ll close your account and report you to the credit card company for fraud.”
“And I’m going to need your library card,” Mrs. Gomez added. “Your library privileges are suspended for illegal activity and misuse of library computers.”
Jessica nodded silently as she slid her card across the table to Mrs. Gomez. It seemed like there wasn’t much more to say. But Corey had one more question for the girl who was Dancer99.
“Why did you do it?” he asked.
“For the contest,” Jessica said simply. “I wanted to go to dance camp so badly this summer. If I’d won the grand prize, I could. But there’s no way you can win unless you have a bunch of upgrades. It’s not fair. Everyone should have all the same tools, not just the people who can buy expansion packs!”
Jessica took another deep breath. “But that doesn’t matter,” she continued in a quieter voice. “There’s no excuse for what I did. I’m—I’m truly sorry, Whitney, and I hope you can forgive me.”
Whitney had her arms crossed, but her angry expression softened a little. “I’ll try,” Whitney replied honestly.
Chapter 18
The sun was just starting to set on Friday night when Hannah reached for the doorbell. Then she paused and turned to Corey and Ben. “Ready?” she asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Ben replied. He sounded a little nervous. “What if we’re the only seventh graders here?”
“Oh relax,” Corey said confidently. “It’s a party! It’ll be fun! And besides, they’re just eighth graders. They don’t bite!” Then Corey’s smile faded. “Well, I guess vampire eighth graders do. But we don’t have to worry about that . . . right?”
Before Hannah could answer Corey, or even ring the doorbell, the door swung open. Alyssa must have been watching for them. “I thought you guys would never get here!” she exclaimed, but Club CSI could tell from her smile that Alyssa wasn’t mad. She led them downstairs to the basement, where strands of tiny lights twinkled across the ceiling. Whitney’s laptop was hooked up to the speakers, playing a nonstop stream of dance music so loud that Corey could feel it pulsing in his chest.
“Party can start now, everybody!” Alyssa announced. “Club CSI is here!”
“Awesome!” cheered Whitney from across the room.
Then, to Club CSI’s surprise, a group of eighth graders swarmed around them—with lots of questions.
“How did you figure out that the hacker was using the library computers?”
“What made you think all three usernames were for the same person?”
“Where did you learn all that computer investigation stuff? You guys are awesome!”
“Enough!” Whitney said, laughing as she pushed through the crowd. “Let them get some pizza or brownies or something first. Then you can ask them whatever you want.” She pulled Club CSI over to a table that was crowded with food. “Sorry about that. Everyone has been wanting to meet you!”
“Really?” asked Ben.
“Oh yeah. You guys are practically the guests of honor. We all know that my party would’ve been canceled if you didn’t prove to my parents I was innocent,” Whitney replied with a sly smile. “I swear, it’s like the whole school has been talking about it all week!”
“Yeah, we kind of figured that when Miss Hodges heard about Jessica getting busted before we even had a chance to tell her!” Corey replied.
Ben and Hannah looked at each other. It was obvious they were both thinking about the part that Corey had left out. Miss Hodges had been impressed by their investigation, as always, and she had praised them for the way they’d managed to solve such a tricky case. But she had also warned Club CSI that their investigations might get a little more complicated as their reputation spread . . . and potential suspects tried to avoid them.
Corey wasn’t too worried, though. It seemed clear to him that Club CSI’s knowledge and techniques improved with each investigation. At least, that’s what had happened with his interview skills.
So Corey had a feeling that no matter what happened next, Club CSI would be ready to tackle the case!
Ellie O’Ryan doodles on just about every scrap of paper within arm’s reach, but she’s never gotten in trouble for it . . . yet! Ellie has written more than two hundred books for children and young adults, and has loved reading, writing, and solving mysteries since she was a kid herself. She lives with her family in North Carolina.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
Simon & Schuster, New York
Cover illustrated by Chris King
Design by John Daly
Ages 8–12
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
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© 2013 by CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Entertainment AB Funding LLC. All Rights Reserved. CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION in USA is a trademark of CBS Broadcasting Inc. and outside USA is a trademark of Entertainment AB Funding LLC.
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ISBN 978-1-4424-7257-0 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-7258-7 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-7259-4 (eBook)
Library of Congress Control Number 2012938001