"So how old would he be?"
"At least forty, perhaps even older. I doubt if he'd be younger than mid-thirties." Ryan gave a small grunt. "Arrogant bastard, though."
"Why do you say that, Ryan?"
"Those photos of himself. When enlarged, every photo had almost microscopic writing on it that said one word enoon."
"E noon, what's that?"
Ryan laughed. "No one spelt backwards. If the police can help, this could be his undoing. How many fake faces and names has he used? I can check out some of the Joseph Ward sites. Perhaps Jasmine's friend could give you some of the site names."
"Good idea. I'll get Vivian back at the school office to ask her."
Karla handed her news onto Janet who called in and repeated everything before thanking her. "Heard your hubby was a wizard on the internet." She glanced at her watch. "Twenty to eleven. We have our people everywhere but it's a large terminal with crowds everywhere. Shall we go and look for your young student?"
*
Jasmine felt that buzz of excitement as she walked along the corridor linking the terminal with the aircraft that had arrived. She found the one where the latest Wellington plane had just taxied in, turned around and mingled with the incoming passengers. She had arranged to meet Nick by the closest overhead monitor of the incoming flights and had already found where it was. She was sure she'd recognise Nick straight away and was slightly disappointed that she hadn't seen him. Mind you, he'd recognise her. In his latest text he'd asked her to stay in school uniform so that he could find her easily. Not many schools in Auckland had yellow tops so she would be easy to find.
She walked out but instead of keeping with the crowd that headed to the luggage conveyer belt she headed for the arrivals monitor and waited near it. Of mild interest were two police officers that were talking to an agitated middle-aged guy across the concourse. She turned and her stomach lurched. There, only metres away and dressed in her quite commonly used red business suit, was a woman that looked like Karla Spicer.
She gasped. It was her principal but how could she be here?
"Hello Jasmine," her principal said. "Everything is okay and there is nothing to be scared or ashamed of. You are a victim of a giant hoax and I've come to take you back to school."
Jasmine felt ill, staggered and would have fallen if a woman hadn't stepped across and seized her arm. "Mrs Spicer. But how?"
"It doesn't matter, Jasmine. The lady who stopped you falling is Janet, a police officer. We will explain everything." She glanced beyond her. "See those police officers talking to that man?"
"Yes," retorted the girl but really had no interest in the guy or the police who by now had their suspect handcuffed and were leading him away.
"He is a well known paedophile the police believe was pretending to be Nick. There is no Nick, Jasmine. It was a sham and if your friend Gwen hadn't come to me you could have been in serious trouble with this depraved criminal."
"No," screamed Jasmine. "No, it's not true! It can't be. He was ..."
"I'm afraid so, Jasmine," said the police detective. "I'm sorry but there was no Nick. Even the photos he sent you were faked. This man or somebody like him use internet sites like Petal Life to lure and abduct girls like yourself
Jasmine stood there shaking before she burst into tears and sobbed hysterically. She found herself hugged tightly and buried her head into her principal's shoulder. Deep down though, she realised that everything they had told her was true. What a fool she had been! What would everyone think of her now?
"My husband, Ryan will be arriving at the airport soon in my car," Mrs Spicer continued. "We'll take you back to school where you'll be safe. I know your parents are away for the weekend. I'm sure Gwen's parents will love to have you stay for the weekend until your parents return, otherwise you can stay with Ryan, Alexis and myself."
"But aren't you going to punish me for running away from school?" Jasmine asked.
"No. We are a large school, Jasmine but that doesn't mean we don't care for our students. Everyone makes mistakes; it is something we all go through. Perhaps we may even be able to help other girls and boys too who find themselves in similar situations. Punishing you would be futile, now wouldn't it?"
"I guess so Mrs Spicer. Thank you." She began sobbing again.
"Come on. Let's go and have a hamburger. I believe they have a McDonald's somewhere here in the terminal. My shout, okay?"
Jasmine nodded and smiled through her tears.
*
While at McDonalds, Karla received several calls but all except one were on unrelated items. The call from Vivian, though, had news to help Jasmine's situation.
"We'll meet her outside the domestic terminal in those drop off spaces in fifteen minutes." Karla glanced up at the still miserable looking Jasmine.
The girl looked up. "So we'll go back to school?" she asked.
"Not necessarily. I think we're getting things sorted. She'll be here in fifteen minutes."
"She? I thought you said your husband was coming."
"Yes, he'll be here soon too. Come on," Karla stood and led Jasmine outside beyond a line of taxies and to an area where cars were coming in, dropping people off and leaving. Wardens were on constant duty and waved on any car that waited too long. A modern grey car pulled in, a woman behind the wheel waved and a preschooler could also be seen also waving from the back seat.
"Oh my God, it's Emma!" Jasmine turned to Karla. "So you arranged for my aunt to come and get me?'
"Well, Mrs Derran in the office did. Your aunt said that you often stay at her place and she'd love to have you help look after her kids over the weekend. Now, you'd better get going or that officious warden will be shaking his finger at us."
Jasmine picked up her bag, tossed it in the back of her aunt's car and sat in the front. "Hi kids," she said as she glanced over to the back seat. She turned to look at Karla. "Thank you, Mrs Spicer, I'm okay now. See you at school."
"Tomorrow will do," Karla said and walked around to have a few words to Emma who, Vivian had informed her was Jasmine's mother's younger sister.
She waved as the car drove away and waited. Ten minutes later Ryan drove in and grinned as she jumped in the car. "So where's the runaway?" he asked.
"We contacted her aunt who picked her up." She sighed. "Let's get out of here, find a little coffee bar somewhere and I'll get you up to date on everything that has happened."
*
CHAPTER 5
Ryan's business, Spider's Revenge was going reasonably well but from a financial point of view he made less than half of Karla's salary with probably just as much effort. In some ways he missed the smaller country areas where he was directly involved in Karla's schools but did enjoy his work. When he became involved in computer programming, the hours just flew by from when he dropped the Alexis off at pre-school a little after eight until he picked her up at four in the afternoon.
He had closed the Wellington branch of the firm and concentrated on this new store but had resisted employing an assistant after coming to an arrangement with the two young women, his tenants who ran the hair dressing salon, Hair Smile, next door. When he was away from Spider's Revenge he had a sign in the window to ask any customers to leave a message with them.
His own little shop had few walk-in customers and the ones that did arrive were mainly looking for someone to repair their computers. He had considered employing a technician like he had in Wellington but decided the profit from making repairs was slim. Also, there were half a dozen computer repair shops in the three shopping centres close by. Overall though, Spider's Revenge was a great little place to work in with his office beside the tiny shop having room for all his computers all angled so they weren't directly affected by the sunlight that shone in for most of the day.
Through the door was their home that was on two levels with the living area looking out on a large, by city standards, back yard. There were stairs up to the bedrooms built above the two shops below. The whole p
roperty could do with an upgrade but was sound and comfortable for the three of them.
The research Karla had asked him to do about the guy who had almost abducted Jasmine Trustcot had become intriguing, especially the faked images signed enoon, the reversed of no one, in almost microscopic writing somewhere in the background. By enlarging the image, the word became visible. This was where Ryan began his search. He discovered that the tiny word was always printed the same way and had probably just been cut and pasted when the images were designed. By using Google image search of similar images by using a master image rather than just words and adding an enlarged copy of enoon, the result became interesting. After eliminating images from overseas that had also used the word, he found five images that came from local sources; in fact they all appeared to originate in Auckland itself. There were six authentic looking pictures of this Nick in various poses from strictly ordinary ones to phonographic images of a man in quite obscene positions. He noted where these images came from before checking more images. This was even more interesting for while 'Nick' was obviously European, the other images showed different cultures. One was a Maori youth, another Chinese, a third was a young Indian guy and the last had Hispanic appearance. It appeared that this Nick was picking an image to fit in with the girl he was in contact with.
With Karla's help who had in turn, asked her staff to help, he had the site names of twenty Year 9 and 10 students at JWJH who were most likely to be in contact with this Nick. Their passwords were easy to bypass and the result was interesting. Of the twenty websites he had accessed, six contained fake male images and all the images on the girl's web pages were directly related to their own ethnicity. Jasmine's friend Gwen had struck up a friendship with a Huan Young but it had fizzled out after a few weeks. His image, though show a smiling Chinese boy who supposedly lived in Wellington. The tree behind him had enoon pasted vertically in the bark.
This was becoming too big for Ryan to handle himself so he called the local police and told an inspector assigned to Jasmine's and similar cases what he had discovered. An hour after he made the call the detective arrived at Spider's Revenge. He introduced himself as Evan Vincent and listened intently as Ryan explained everything he had found out.
"There could be more than one person doing this," Ryan said. "The guy making up these images is pretty talented but is also arrogant. He could be selling these images online but that is just a guess. I haven't really got time to go any further than helping Karla's students at the junior high."
For the first time in the forty-five minutes that Evan was there, the man smiled. "This could be just what we need to break a ring of attacks on girls fooled into meeting guys only to find out the man is thirty or more."
"But wouldn't they just walk away when they realised it was a hoax."
"Some do but others are fooled by a story spun. One young lady was told by the guy meeting her at the airport that he was the boy's father who came to meet her because his son was in hospital after a motor accident. Once in his vehicle she was driven to a secluded spot attacked and raped. Jasmine from your wife's school was lucky that this didn't happen to her." Evan raised his eyebrows. "I've heard that your wife is very popular with both students and parents and is straightening the place out."
"She pretty conscientious," Ryan replied. "What happened to the guy the police apprehended near Jasmine at the airport anyway?"
Evan shrugged. "We had to let him go for there was no proof that he was there to abduct her. However, it is only a temporary setback and evidence such as yours is what we need to crack a whole paedophile ring." He glanced at Ryan. "Would you be interested in helping us?"
"Yes but it is pretty time consuming."
"We know all about what Karla and yourself did down south and..." Evan grinned. "Even though your hacking is not strictly legal, you can do things that we can't. How would you like a contract with us to carry on with this investigation? Between our resources and your ability we just might be able to crack the whole ring wide open."
"And get that guy who attempted to abduct Jasmine?"
"If we can prove he is responsible for those fake images, yes. He is well known and those other images you've shown me might be all we need."
Ryan nodded. Actually, he was looking for more contracts, having just completed the one for Massey University. "Normally I set up electronic systems for companies or design web pages. What would this contract entail?"
"You'd be employed on an hourly rate with a bonus if we make any successful convictions. From your side, you'd have to agree to work a set number of hours in a week for an initial three months. This could be extended to shortened if we get that break through."
"Sounds good," Ryan replied. "But what about the ethics? You already said that some of my computer hacking was borderline."
Evan smiled. "That's where you can do things we can't. Of course, you can't do things that a defence lawyer would deem inappropriate in any trial but our own lawyers will guide you on anything that the court, shall we say would frown on."
"Okay, but I'll have to get my own lawyer to peruse any agreement between us. The last thing I need is one of those ultra-liberals taking a civil suit against me."
"Fair enough. I'll get one of our legal team to come and discuss the details with you, we'll draw a contract up and at that point you can get your own lawyer to see that you're suitably protected." Evan stood and they shook hands. "Meanwhile, we'll follow up the information you have given us. Thanks, if we can crack this it won't only help the students at Joseph Ward Junior High but possibly dozens of other youngsters throughout the country."
Ryan smiled after Evan left and decided send Karla a text.
'Got a contract with the police. Could be just what we need for Spider's Revenge Tell you about it tonight. Love, Ryan.'
*
Karla was at a primary school North Shore principals' meeting at the Massey University campus when Ryan's text came through. The speaker was outlining the latest changes in the primary curriculum and at the moment was talking about younger children, those in Year 1 to 6. In the city, these age groups attended contributing schools that fed pupils into intermediate schools for Year 7 and 8 before moving onto secondary schools in Year 9. Karla's school was a new concept in New Zealand that combined the intermediates with the first two years of high school so in reality it was a hybrid of both systems. She however, found the primary service had more in common with her school than the secondary school meetings that tended to focus on older students and the various external examinations they participated in. Apart from a few of the brighter Year 10s at Joseph Ward Junior High who could sit NCEA Level 1, it was of no real interest to her. The curriculum for younger children than her own at the contributing schools was of interest though, for it gave her an idea what the children they received in Year 7 had been taught.
She discretely sent off a reply to Ryan and after several more texts, caught up with all his news. He hadn't said a lot but she knew that he was becoming worried about the lack of new contracts so this was good news. With the speech over, the thirty or more principals moved across to a cafeteria where coffee and light refreshments were provided for them. As it often happens with a group this size, everyone tended to gather in groups of three or four principals who knew each other or were friends. Karla didn't really know anyone but one of the principals of a nearby contributing school, Mary McKay made herself known and introduced her to three other principals who sent their pupils onto Joseph Ward. They were all women older than herself but were friendly and easy to relate to.
"Oh no," said Mary a few moments later. "Here comes Peter Niles."
The other women with them grinned in a knowing way.
"What about him?" Karla asked.
Mary grinned. "It's lucky we've got you here."
"Why?"
"You'll see," Alison, one of the other contributing school principals whispered for the man in question had arrived.
"Well, how are you girls?" Niles sai
d and without any invite, sat in the only vacant chair around their coffee table. "How're your schools going?"
The women all responded in a polite way but Karla said nothing. She reached for a muffin and sipped her coffee as the man soon dominated the conversation. She had met these extroverts before and found that his type were often the least efficient as principals. There was something familiar about him, though. Suddenly, it came to her. When she was originally interviewed for her position at JWJR, he was one of the other candidates. The board had provided refreshments and coffee for them after showing them as a group around the school. He came across as being what Ryan would call a loud mouth and spoke as if he had already won the position. He was one guy she had been glad to beat.
As he rambled on with his views of just about everything, it was obvious that he did not remember her from that interview day. Both Mary and Alison caught her eyes and grinned.
"So how many children at your school now, Alison?" Peter asked.
"Still going up. Three hundred and fifty or so. We'll need an extra classroom soon."
Peter nodded. "Same at my place. We're bulging at the seams. Over five hundred at Westview Intermediate now. Only had a little over three hundred when I arrived eight years back."
He glanced at Mary who was sitting beside Karla. "And your school, Mary. How big is it?"
Mary stared at him. "Does it matter, Peter?" she retorted.
"No of course not " He rattled on about everything he was doing at his school before concluding, "Us senior principals have so much more to contend with than you little gals, you know." He laughed at his own somewhat sarcastic and condescending remark.
Karla saw Mary bristle but it was Alison who spoke next.
"We are not all what you might call junior principals here, Peter." She turned and held her open hand out to Karla. "Have you met Karla Spicer?"
Peter held out his hand and squeezed her one far too tightly. "Can't say I have. And what school are you at, Karla?"
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