Days of Destiny

by Aiden Vaughan

  “I don’t know him either,” Jason replied. “I called Chauncey and Kololo to ask if they knew him at all, but neither of them did. They said he hangs out primarily with other students on the football team.”

  “What is Victoria’s take on all of this?” Daniel followed up. “Did she have any insights into why someone would want to do this to her?”

  “I did specifically ask Victoria some of those questions,” Jason answered. “She said that their breakup was very painful for her, but he didn’t act particularly mean about it. He did tell her that he was upset that she would send him pictures like that, because he never felt that they were that close. Victoria got the impression at the time that he had gotten rid of the photos, although clearly that wasn’t the case.

  “I asked her about who her friends were on campus, and she replied that mostly she was hanging around Brice’s football crowd the past six months. When their breakup happened, then she stopped seeing those people. For the first week, she was depressed, and kept to herself. Then gradually she was back in touch with some other friends, and they had persuaded her to attend the St. Patrick’s Day dance, as a way to meet some other boys and start having social fun again.”

  “Boy, did that backfire!” Daniel said shaking his head. “One area that I think we need to investigate is how someone would have access to so many student emails. I believe that those photos were sent to over several hundred students. There must be a way to track that!”

  “I thought about that, too, Daniel. The first question is where the list of emails came from, and the second question would be how whoever did this got access to the photos of Victoria. Then the next and probably the most important question would be why? Why would someone want to do something so damaging to a fellow student?”

  “Yeah, the why of this is what bothers me,” Daniel responded. “This didn’t just happen by accident. Somebody really had to have a grudge against Victoria for some reason. Did she say anything about that in her answers to your questions?”

  “I got the impression from her answers that Victoria tended to stick to her own small crowd of friends,” Jason said. “Perhaps someone felt slighted by her, or that she was stuck up. Even if that was true, this was a very malicious response.”

  “Unfortunately, that kind of response is not uncommon,” Daniel went on. “We have heard about cyber-bullying, where a kid is mercilessly targeted online. Did Victoria mention anything along those lines?”

  “After her break up with Brice, Victoria decided to take down her social page so she wouldn’t have to deal with people asking her online about what had happened, and why she had ‘unfriended’ Brice and some others. I suppose that could have been a source of irritation or anger for someone. But Victoria said that to her knowledge, no one was specifically targeting her online.”

  “Clearly the first step then is to talk with Brice Henderson,” Daniel concluded, “and find out what he knows about this and how he disposed of the explicit photos, if indeed that is what he did.”

  As Jason and Daniel were finishing their discussion, Edith Hunter opened the front door and called the boys in for dinner. She had prepared teriyaki chicken, rice pilaf, and a large green salad for their meal. Soon Jason, Daniel and Edith and Bill Hunter were enjoying the food and talking about what was going on. Just like Melinda and Gary Holmes considered Jason to be a second son, Bill and Edith Hunter felt the same way about Daniel. During the dinner conversation, Daniel updated them about the progress his band was making on their demo recording.

  “Every time I hear you guys perform, I am impressed with the progress you are making,” Bill Hunter complimented Daniel.

  “We hope to hear you again soon,” Edith Hunter said with a smile.

  After some ice cream for dessert, Jason and Daniel then headed up to Jason’s room for some game time. The two had a great time as they became engrossed in playing video games until Daniel had to leave around 9:30.

  Monday at school, Jason and Daniel’s plan was to make contact with Brice Henderson at lunch and set up a meeting time, either then or right after school. They had both brought bag lunches so that they wouldn’t have to spend any time in the food lines, and then went looking for Brice. After about ten minutes of looking around campus, they found Brice eating lunch with a couple of the other football players on the Merriam High School team.

  Jason went over to Brice and introduced himself and Daniel. After Brice congratulated Jason on the basketball team victory, and they talked school sports small talk for a few minutes, Jason asked, “Brice, we would like to have a word with you in private sometime. When could we do that?”

  “This is about those pictures, isn’t it,” Brice said with a frown. “I already have been questioned by the police but I really don’t know much about what happened. I figure that everyone is going to blame me, but I swear I had nothing to do with sending those photos out. I really wish everyone would leave me alone!”

  “Until the person or persons responsible for this are caught,” Jason told Brice, “that unfortunately is what most people are going to think. We have been asked by Victoria’s parents to look into this and see what we can find out. Obviously things are going to start with you, Brice, since you were the first one to receive the photos.”

  “All right, let’s go talk now,” Brice replied with some frustration in his voice. “I want to get this out of the way!”

  Brice got up from where he was sitting and went with Jason and Daniel to an area where no one else was nearby. There was a bench and the three sat down. “What do you want to know?” Brice asked.

  “The first thing is about when you first received the photos of Victoria,” Jason began. “Was this totally unexpected or something you had talked about before?”

  “The photos were a total surprise,” Brice answered. “When I received them I was already thinking about breaking up with Victoria. She was starting to become real possessive, and while I liked her, I didn’t want people to think we were going steady or anything like that. But she clearly had other ideas, and I guess did this to persuade me to remain her boyfriend.”

  “After you got the photos, and realized what they were, what did you do with them?” Daniel asked.

  “I must admit I wanted to check them out,” Brice said, “so I downloaded them onto my computer at home. Then I erased them from my phone. I didn’t want to get into any trouble over them. I realized that Victoria was going over the top in our relationship and I decided that I needed to get out of it quick. A day later, we broke up.”

  “So after you put them on your computer, did you erase them there?” Jason asked.

  “No, I kind of forgot that they were there. I’m not really into technology very much. I just use the computer to surf the net and sometimes write up a paper for my English class.”

  “Does anyone else have access to your computer?” Daniel followed up.

  “Sometimes I play games with other friends on it, but I don’t lend it out or anything. Most of the time it is just in my room shut off.”

  “Who are some of your friends that you play games with?” Jason asked.

  “Mostly my football buddies, Jack Walsh and Jim Moreno.”

  “Did you tell them about the pictures?” Jason said.

  Brice hung his head and looked somewhat sheepish. “I did talk to Jack about them. He told me to get rid of them or I could get into trouble. I wish I had followed his advice!”

  “Did you show Jack the pictures?” Daniel asked.

  “No, I didn’t show them to anyone!” Brice exclaimed. “That’s why I don’t understand how this could have happened!”

  “Do any of your family members ever use your computer?” Jason inquired.

  “No, my younger brother and sister know that I will kick their butts if they mess around with my stuff,” Brice replied. “My parents have their own computer.”

  “Is there anyone else who visits your house on a regular basis that might have access to your computer?” Jason follo
wed up.

  “I can’t think of anyone. When I want to socialize, I want to get out of the house and go somewhere. The only other students from school that come over once in a while are the two guys who help tutor me in math and English. I have to get at least a C grade in those classes to stay eligible for football. Mr. Hamlish’s and Mrs. Potter’s classes are tough for me. But unless I have an essay assignment to print out, we don’t work on the computer. And I am there when we do use it. Mostly we just go over homework assignments.”

  “Who are these tutors?” Daniel asked.

  “Their names are Jacob Marjoram and Ryan Zucarrion. They are nerdy kids, but help me out a lot. Sometimes we have the sessions at my house instead of at the tutorial center at school. I think they like having a chance to hang out with a football player instead of their usual loser friends. My parents pay them some extra money to come over. I usually can’t work on homework until later due to my involvement in after school sports teams.”

  “Are the pictures still on your computer?” Jason asked.

  “No, after I heard about what happened I immediately erased them. I still don’t understand how someone else could have gotten hold of them. I feel terrible that Victoria tried to jump off that building! You have to believe me when I tell you that I had nothing to do with any of that. All I did was break up with her, but that was a couple of weeks ago! I never thought that something like this would happen!” Brice got up and paced around as he was telling this to Jason and Daniel.

  “We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and being honest about what happened,” Jason said as they concluded their interview.

  “Do you think you will be able to find out who did it?” Brice asked.

  “There is not too much to go on right now,” Jason replied. “We’ll let you know if we find anything out.”

  Chapter 29

  Tracking the Sexters

  (March 21-23)

  After school, Jason and Daniel got together at Jason’s house to talk over what they had learned from Brice Henderson. Like they did on Sunday, the two friends sat down outside in the screened porch to discuss things. Although the day had been mostly sunny and warm, dark storm clouds were now moving in, and rain was expected that evening.

  “What did you think of Brice Henderson and his story?” Jason asked Daniel.

  “I tend to believe most of what he told us. He doesn’t strike me as a vindictive type of person,” Daniel replied.

  “What didn’t you believe about it?” Jason followed up.

  “The part where he told his friends and they said get rid of the photos right away,” Daniel answered. “I think that his friend Jack probably looked at the pictures and maybe his other friend, Jim, did too. I’m sure that they probably had a few laughs at Victoria’s expense.”

  “You’re probably right about that,” Jason said. “Most teenaged boys are very curious about anything that has a sexually explicit nature to it. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if several other friends found out about the pictures. But I tend to believe him when he says that he didn’t act on it. Unless he is putting on a very good act, I would be surprised if Brice has the computer skills to pull the texting episode off in such a dramatic way. Do you think one of his football buddies could have done this?”

  “That seems highly unlikely to me, Jason, unless Victoria was making a big scene about being dumped by Brice.” Daniel answered. “From what you told me yesterday, her response was to go into hiding instead. And Brice said that he wanted to move on away from their relationship, not put it onto center stage like this sexting incident did.”

  “What you are saying makes sense,” Jason went on. “I think we need to refer to your cousin Sherlock for our next possible suspects, you know the line about the whatever is left, no matter how improbable.”

  “I think you are right,” Daniel said in agreement. “We should take a very long and hard look at Brice’s two tutors, Ryan Zucarrion and Jacob Marjoram. They seem to be the only other people we know about who had the means to get at the photos. It shouldn’t be hard to find out if they possess the computer skills. But why would one or both of them have the desire to do something like this?”

  “There are lots of possible answers to that question, Daniel, none of them very nice. Maybe they felt snubbed in some way by Victoria. Maybe they wanted to prove that in reality they are superior to other students.”

  “Or worse yet, maybe they just wanted to prove to themselves that they could do something like this that would grab the attention of the entire student body,” Daniel added. “That type of response is often what you hear from computer hackers or people who send out mal-ware, you know, computer viruses and the like.”

  “Do you know either Ryan or Jacob?” Jason asked.

  “I can’t say that I do,” Daniel replied. “I know they are not involved in any of the school’s performing groups.”

  “And from what Brice said, they are not jocks involved in school sports either. Let’s see what we can find out about them.” Jason quickly got up and went inside his house. A few minutes later he returned with his copy of last year’s school yearbook.

  Jason opened the book to the student photo pages. “It looks like they were both sophomores last year, which makes them juniors now. Let’s see what activities they were involved in.” Jason noted the reference pages for both Jacob Marjoram and Ryan Zucarrion and then turned to those pages. “They were both members of the Computer Club, so it looks as though they might have the means and interest to handle the computer side of this incident.”

  “I think we need to be very careful about what we do next, Jason. We don’t want those two to get wind of our investigation before we are ready for them.”

  “Good point, Daniel. Maybe we should divide up our efforts. If the two of us go stumbling about campus asking a lot of questions as a team, the news will get around fast. Why don’t you take on the issue of where they might have obtained that list of student emails while I try to find out what could have motivated one or the other of those two to send out those pictures?”

  “Okay, Jason,” Daniel agreed. “Let’s divide and conquer!”

  The next day at school, Daniel began digging around to discover where there were large email lists of students. He remembered that one of the altos in the advanced choir also had a period as an office teaching assistant. He asked her if the school office kept a listing of student emails. “No,” she told him. “They have records on all of the students, but they contact parents by telephone if a student is absent or they have an emergency. Telephone is their preferred method also if a student is sent to the office for discipline on a teacher referral.”

  With the school administration crossed of the list, Daniel then realized that the next possible source would be teachers. Many teachers asked for student emails as a way to contact students if there was an issue with their grade, to remind them of upcoming projects due, or in case of a missing assignment. Daniel remembered that Brice had mentioned the names of his math and English teachers during their conversation yesterday. He networked around a little with his friends until he found someone who also had classes with those two teachers. It turned out that Tim Wilkerson had an English class with Mrs. Potter.

  “Yeah, Daniel, Mrs. P uses email a lot in her class. Pretty much every student has an email address, and usually once every couple of weeks she sends out a reminder to all of us about something or other in the class. It has helped me to remember an important due date several times.”

  “When does she have time to do that?” Daniel asked. “Doesn’t that take a lot of time and effort?”

  “I don’t think that she does the actual emailing herself. I think that is one of the duties she has her TAs do. She only takes on TAs that have computer skills for that reason. Like in my class, there is this quiet nerdy kid, Jacob, who handles stuff like that.”

  “Jacob?” Daniel pressed. “Do you mean Jacob Marjoram?”

  “Yeah, that sounds right,” Tim
answered. “Why are you asking?”

  Daniel realized that he had hit the mother lode! That explained how Jacob could have obtained a large list of student emails. “Let’s just say that I was curious,” Daniel replied, trying to put Tim off.

  “Oh my God,” Tim exclaimed, “You are investigating that sexting scandal!”

  “Please don’t say anything about this to anyone, Tim!” Daniel pleaded with his friend and fellow band member. “It’s a very sensitive issue and I can’t afford to have anyone know about it until we are done.”

  “Don’t worry, Daniel,” Tim replied in a reassuring voice. “My lips are sealed. So you think that Jacob was somehow involved in this?”

  “It’s something that Jason and I are looking into,” Daniel answered somewhat evasively. “Please don’t blow our cover!”

  “I owe you so much, Daniel,” Tim went on. “You know I wouldn’t do anything to damage our friendship and trust in each other. Besides what was done to that girl was really mean. That little punk deserves to get caught and punished if he was the one responsible. I understand that you are involved in this case, but don’t forget our mixing session after school!”

  Meanwhile, Jason had been working on finding out the reason why Victoria might be targeted by Ryan or Jacob. Last night he had talked on his cell phone with Laura about the situation, trying to find out who on campus would have the latest gossip about Victoria. He decided to confide in her about what he was trying to do.

  “You know that what happened to Victoria Romano has been a hot topic of conversation ever since the dance,” Laura told him. “The people on our dance committee are still upset that it spoiled a really good event. So I don’t have any problem helping you find who was responsible. The person who has been talking the most about it is Angela Simon. She has been Victoria’s friend for a long time, although I don’t know exactly how close. Angela seems to know a lot of the details about Victoria’s break up with Brice Henderson, so she might have some useful information for you.”