Sally Singletary's Curiosity (The Sally Singletary Book 1)

by J. M. Cataffo

  Lani watched but made no move toward him as he seemed quite distraught and was headed straight for the boys’ dorm. A short time later, she spotted Sally entering the building with another boy in tow. A new player in this drama? Lani wrote a description of the new kid in her journal and watched as they made their way toward the girls’ dorm.

  Lani pulled out her iPad and pulled up information on Athens. There had to be a reason Sally had gone there. Lani checked her news sources and shot off a couple emails, but found nothing. Lani hadn’t recognized the boy Sally entered with. He’d looked too old to be a student at the school. Using her press credentials, Lani pulled up what access she had to police records and county databases, hoping to find something helpful, but without knowing his name, the chances of finding information on him were slim at best. Then a small picture caught her eye. Could she be that lucky?

  She clicked on the headline under the thumbnail to go to the full article. Sure enough, the picture was the boy she had seen; the article, a laundry list of the kid’s offenses. Jake DeLancie had been to jail a few times. Why would Sally be hanging out with someone like this? Lani was beginning to think the girl wasn’t as clean cut as she had imagined.

  A commotion arrested her attention. Sally had returned and moved quickly through the commons with Jake in tow, followed closely by a rather buxom blonde. Lani smiled. She had, of course, already talked to Stephanie and persuaded her to help with the investigation. It wasn’t as if it was hard; the blonde was easily impressed and seemingly not too bright. Lani didn’t need intelligence, just another set of eyes; and it seemed she was about to get a lot of use out of this particular pair.

  The trio moved down the hall, headed toward the library. Lani slid her iPad into her bag, then followed. She was barely halfway across the commons when she was interrupted by a voice calling her name.

  “Ms. Tanaka?” It was the headmistress. “There’s someone here who’d like to see you.”

  Lani turned, a brief bolt of fear shooting through her when she saw the two suited men on either side of the woman. She straightened, adjusting her bag, giving them as much confidence as she could muster. “Is there anything I can do for you, gentlemen?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE PAIN IN YASIF’S RIGHT EYE was matched only by the pain in his right hand from when he’d punched the bedpost. Not to mention his bruised ego. His tears already stung the tender skin. Yasif sat alone on a chair at his desk. Ben had left with the trophy to try to get it fixed.

  Yasif considered reporting Ben, but what would that get him? More beatings? It was Yasif’s fault. If he’d only waited to tell Sally how he felt, none of this would’ve happened. Yasif grabbed a cool Coke can he’d stashed and held it to his eye to reduce the swelling.

  The one benefit of being clocked on the side of the face was it seemed to have knocked some sense into him. It allowed him the chance to think about his actions over the past few hours. Perhaps Sally was just not attracted to him in the same way. He knew she had no ill intent, but he couldn’t help the rejection he felt, the humiliation of baring himself to her when he knew it would’ve been better to keep it inside as he always had. And yet even amidst the anger, he still felt some glimmer of hope for something he knew he could never have.

  A headache throbbed to life behind his eyes. He sighed. Now he had no choice but to suck it up and go to the infirmary. As he reached for the door, his phone vibrated with an incoming text.

  It was from Sally.

  [Y. We need u now. Server. No time to explain.]

  His mind focused in an instant as her words settled in. The server? The government men must have found it! Adrenaline pushed away the pain in his skull and his nerves went on full alert. He grabbed a light coat and pulled it on. Passing the mirror, he winced, seeing the fresh bruising around his eye. He snatched a ball cap and pulled it low to cover as much of his face as he could. Yasif stepped out, ready to rush to the server room, but found himself face-to-face with Ben.

  He froze and swallowed hard.

  “Where do you think you’re going, you little dweeb?”

  “I… I need to go to the infirmary. I think you broke something in my face.” It sounded convincing.

  The fearful look on Ben’s face was enough. “Look, dude. If you hadn’t broken…”

  “It’s okay, Ben. I deserved it. I was careless. I’ll come up with some excuse and leave you out of it, okay?”

  “Man, I didn’t mean…”

  “Really, it’s okay. I mean, it hurts, but I’ll live.” It took everything Yasif had to hold his composure.

  Ben moved out of the way to let him pass. Yasif didn’t hesitate. He headed toward the commons, pulling the front of the hat down slightly and keeping his gaze to the floor. When he arrived at the server room, he was surprised to find Stephanie standing there just inside.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Stephanie shrugged. “I didn’t want to be alone.”

  Yasif rolled his eyes and turned to Sally, his lips immediately turning to stone as her gaze fell on him. “I…uh… You…I mean…”

  “Yaz! Oh, my god! What happened to your face?” Sally touched him, her soft fingers gentle against his bruised skin.

  He stared into her eyes and every bit of pain and anger seemed to melt away. “It’s nothing. I fell.”

  “And hit your head on the doorknob?” Jake offered with a smirk.

  Yasif shot him a dark look. “I’ll be fine.” He motioned toward the computer. “How’s the server?”

  Sally regarded him sadly before answering. “It’s okay for now. Jake’s checking it over to make sure no one has compromised it. He said it doesn’t look like there have been any detectable intrusions, but he’s looking for less obvious signs right now.”

  “He can do that?”

  “Apparently. See, I told you he’d come in handy.” She placed a hand on Yasif’s shoulder, her eyes still examining Ben’s handiwork. “Look, Yaz. I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  His brows fell. “It’s okay. I’ll deal.” She led him over to Jake. Yasif peered over the guy’s shoulder, his nose wrinkling as he caught a whiff of stale cigarettes.

  “Things are looking good.” Jake rubbed his nose and sniffled. “They’re poking around at the firewalls, but nothing has been breached that I can tell. We really need to get this thing out of here.”

  “How can we do that without taking down the Hi-Li?” Sally asked.

  “We can’t. We’re going to have to take it down while it’s being moved,” Yasif interrupted.

  Sally glanced up. “We can’t have it down that long. We’d lose everything, especially with all the news flying around.”

  Yasif knew enough about computers to know there was no way to move the box without disconnecting it. “We may not have a choice.”

  “Actually, we might.” Jake tapped at the keyboard, entering some strings of code.

  Watching him reminded Yasif of those late nights with Daniel, programming the AI. He’d been astounded by even those first attempts at getting the program up and running.

  Jake continued. “If you can give me access to the AI program, I can dump the most basic functions onto a school server. It won’t be able to do everything the program normally does, but it might be enough to keep the site running while we move the CPU. You two will have to fill in for some of the sorting. The feeds will buffer into a queue until you release them.”

  “You’re going to do what to the what?” Stephanie scratched her head.

  Yasif scowled. “How long will that take?”

  Jake shrugged. “Twenty minutes?”

  “Okay, so the next question is—where do we take it?” Sally asked.

  “I’ve got a place we can take it, but it’s not around the corner,” Jake told them.

  “Where?” Yasif insisted.

  “It’s in the city, actually.”

  “Atlanta?” Sally sounded surprised.

  Jake nodded. />
  Stephanie joined in once more. “Isn’t that where your mom lives?”

  “Yeah, but I—” Sally froze.

  Yasif gave her a confused look.

  “Oh, my god! Stephanie, please tell me you didn’t tell the agents that.”

  The blonde thought for a moment. “You know…that might have actually come up. I was saying—”

  “No!” Sally pulled out her phone and dialed her mother. “Come on…come on…”

  “What’s the matter?” Stephanie asked.

  “You idiot!” Yasif spat. “If they know about her mom they can cause problems for Sally. Don’t you ever think before you say things?”

  “How was I supposed to know?” Stephanie pouted.

  “No answer.” Sally looked worried.

  “You don’t think they’ll do something to her?” Jake was still typing away on the server’s keyboard as he spoke.

  “I don’t even know who these guys are,” Sally said. “We know nothing about what they want or what they’re capable of, but if they’re asking those kinds of questions, the only thing I can gather is they’re looking for information to hold over me.”

  “Why are they so interested in you?” Stephanie asked.

  “Probably because she saw Billy and Daniel disappear,” Yasif blurted out, then quickly realized his mistake. “I mean…”

  “Really? Is that what this is all about?” Stephanie seemed thrilled with herself. “I…uh… I’ve gotta go. I just remembered I left my curling iron on.” Stephanie left the room before any of them could react.

  “What was that all about?” Jake asked.

  “She’s up to something.” Sally stared at the door.

  Yasif hung his head. “I’m sorry, Sal. It’s my fault. I can’t seem to do anything right today.”

  “Just go find her.” Sally tried her best to mask her frustration, but Yasif knew she was angry.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  THE SUBTLE NOISES of the server room did nothing to calm Sally’s nerves. Between the whirring fans, random beeps, and blinking lights, Sally felt as though she was going to lose her mind. She redialed her mother for the fifth time.

  “Something’s happened. I just know it.”

  “Ease up.” Jake jabbed at the keyboard. “We’ll get answers.”

  “How much longer?”

  Jake shrugged. “Another ten, maybe fifteen minutes.”

  It had already been fifteen minutes, longer than she’d hoped. She called her mom again—no answer. She took to pacing a while before texting Yasif to see if he’d caught up with Stephanie.

  [Not yet]

  Before she could dial her mother again, the door to the server room opened. “Mr. Bruce?”

  “What are you doing in here, young lady?” the man asked.

  “Fixing an issue with the Hi-Li server. We won’t be long, but we can’t be disturbed right now.” She ushered him back toward the door.

  “I just need to pick up a camera.”

  Sally rushed over before he could protest. “I can get one for you, Mr. Bruce.” She grabbed one of the school cameras from a shelf and then whisked it over to him.

  “Thank you, Miss Singletary.” Mr. Bruce smiled, taking the camera and shuffling out of the room.

  A sigh of relief escaped her as she closed the door.

  “I think I’ve got it!” Jake announced.

  “Thank goodness!” She rushed over and examined the screen.

  “Here’s the core program.” He gestured at a few lines of gibberish. “It’s crude, but it should hold things together for a while until we can get the server back up. You’ll lose a lot of the automation, but the important stuff will be directed to where it needs to go. This is really quite impressive work. I can’t believe Daniel—”

  “You can admire his work later. We’ve got to get out of here. And I need to know that my mom’s okay.”

  Jake nodded and initiated a shutdown of the server. The screen flashed red.

  [INCURSION]

  “Damn it!” His fingers scrambled across the keyboard. Several windows flew open, more lines of code scrawling on the screen, but it didn’t seem to be coming from Jake.

  “What’s happening?” Sally asked.

  Jake kept pecking at the keys, ignoring her question, sweat beading up on his forehead. “No. No. No. No. No!”

  “What is it?”

  “They’ve broken in. I took down the firewall to disconnect the server and they got in before I could shut it down!” Jake looked terrified.

  “Can’t you just pull the plug?” Sally gestured toward the rack of servers.

  “No! It could damage the drives without a proper shut down. Besides, it’s a rack-mounted server. It doesn’t have a plug. You just have to pull it out to disconnect it.”

  “They’re going to get our data!” Sally countered.

  Jake looked at her for guidance. “If the AI is damaged, I don’t think I can fix it. I’m not as smart as Daniel.”

  “We don’t have a choice! Pull it!”

  He eyed her, reaching for the server release handle. She nodded. He squeezed his eyes closed and yanked the release. The screen he’d been using went dark.

  Jake held the server with two hands, staring at the space where he’d pulled it from as though waiting for the perpetrators to pop out.

  “Is it okay?” she asked.

  Jake gave her a worried expression. “I won’t know until we get it back up and running.”

  Sally squared her shoulders. “Let’s get moving then.”

  Jake retrieved the backpack they’d brought to put the server in. It barely fit, but was good enough. As long as no one was paying too close attention, they wouldn’t know what Jake was carrying. He stuffed a few cables into the side pocket and then shouldered the bag. “It’s not going anywhere.”

  “We’d better get out of here. Once they realize the server is unplugged, they’ll come looking.”

  They checked the hall before making their way toward the back of the school.

  Along the way, Sally sent a message to Yasif.

  [Y. We got the srvr. Gotta move.]

  [okay. Bad news tho. Stef is with the reprtr.]

  “That’s not good.”

  Jake adjusted the backpack. “What?”

  “My roommate is with the reporter. Now she’ll know what I saw. Great!”

  “What do we do?”

  “How should I know?” She hadn’t meant to snap, but her fears were rising. They just needed to make it to Jake’s car.

  “There’s the back door.” She pointed to the exit.

  “Miss Singletary!” Sally turned to find the headmistress approaching. Something about her tone caught Sally off guard. The woman had never spoken with such determination.

  “Yes, ma’am?” Something bothered Sally, but she wasn’t sure what it was. There was something in the way the woman walked that seemed…different.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” The woman was now a few feet away.

  Sally’s eyes grew wide as she realized what it was that bothered her. “Are you okay, Mrs. Padilla?”

  “Certainly, my dear. Why wouldn’t I be?” A confused look crossed her face.

  Motioning toward her leg Sally said, “It’s just that your leg seems all better.”

  “Oh, it was nothing.” Mrs. Padilla chuckled. “Just a muscle spasm. Nothing to worry about.”

  Sally’s eyes narrowed. “A spasm?” She threw Jake a cautioning glance, then addressed the headmistress. “We’ve really got to be going.”

  “Going?” Mrs. Padilla crossed her arms. “Where could you possibly be going on a school day?”

  “It’s my mother,” she replied. “There’s something wrong.”

  “Nonsense! I just spoke to your mother a few minutes ago. There’s nothing wrong with her.”

  “I tried to call and she didn’t answer.” Sally studied the woman’s movements. It wasn’t just the leg. Everything about her movements and gestures seemed o
ff.

  Mrs. Padilla smiled. “I assure you there is nothing for you to be concerned about.”

  This was not the same woman Sally had known during her four years at the school. Sally backed away, her hand grabbing Jake’s wrist.

  “So you see,” Mrs. Padilla continued, “there’s no need for alarm.”

  “Run!” Sally yelled.

  The two bolted for the door and fled the building, passing the same alley she’d witnessed the disappearance.

  Mrs. Padilla had emerged from the school and was chasing them at a full run.

  “Okay, I don’t know what the hell is up, but that’s most certainly not Padilla!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  AS LANI LEFT the school’s office, she adjusted her shoulder bag, and placed a hand on her stomach. The men had rattled her. She’d tried her best to remain stoic in their presence, but now that it was over, she felt ready to fall apart. She’d interviewed a lot of people. This was the first time she’d been at the other end, and she’d been told if she continued her investigation, she’d be arrested for obstruction of justice. Lani was pretty sure it wasn’t legal, but she got the impression they didn’t care. Maybe a nice warm cup of tea would make her feel better.

  Sally’s roommate appeared in front of her as soon as she sat in the cafeteria with a cup of tea.

  “I’ve got some info for you!” the girl said excitedly.

  Lani glanced around, grabbing the blonde’s arm, leading her away from the table. She’d forgotten her tea.

  Lani led Stephanie to an empty science classroom, locking the door behind them before speaking. “What did you hear?”

  Stephanie wasted no time. “Sally saw the disappearance! She just admitted that she saw the whole thing.”

  Lani cocked her head slightly. “Really? I knew she had to be up to something.”

  “And there’s more.” Stephanie spoke with her hands. “They were in the room with all the computer stuff. And they disconnected the thingy that runs the Hi-Li screens.”