Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod!” Bonnie was holding the phone balanced on her open palm, away from her body as if it might bite.
“Holy shit,” Christine said, deadpan.
Rosa took the phone, tapped it and frowned at it. “Locked,” she said. “The good news is, he didn’t use a thumbprint or face recognition, just a code.”
“Why is that good news?” Bonnie asked.
Rosa shrugged. “We don’t have to dig him up?”
Diane said, “I don’t think we could if we tried. He’s under a concrete vault.” Then she frowned. “I wonder if he used the code because the police can’t make you unlock your phone without a warrant if you use one. They can if you use biometrics.”
“Why the hell do you know that?” Christine asked.
She shrugged and Bonnie said, “What difference does it make? We just have to take it back there and leave it, right?”
Rosa knew they couldn’t do that. She looked at Diane and Chrissy and knew they understood that, too. “We’re almost to Diane’s crossover,” she said. “Let’s talk it out there.”
They picked up the pace, and Rosa’s pain started to break through the padding provided by the narcotic she’d taken. But the diner came into sight, closed by then, and dark. They crossed the parking lot and got in, each taking her previous spot.
Diane started the vehicle, turned on the heat, then turned around to face Chrissy and Bonnie in the back. She said, “Camera Guy was watching remotely while Dead Guy did things to kids. Dead Guy had dozens of videos like that. Do you think this is some kind of…” She looked around as if for help.
“Pedo ring,” Christine said. “Our intrepid Bonnie went out to confront a pervert and wound up ridding the world of him, saving her student from being assaulted, and uncovering a nest of like-minded pedophiles”
“Two like-minded pedophiles,” Diane corrected.
“I doubt that,” Christine said. “They hang together, you know.”
“Why would I know that?” Diane asked. “Why would anybody know that?”
Christine shrugged. Diane backed out of the parking lot, then turned toward home.
“Christine’s right,” Rosa said. “Obviously, we’ll return the phone to get this guy off your case, Bonnie, but first we ought to get access to what’s on it. Otherwise, the camera-perv gets to keep hurting kids like your student, Sara.”
Bonnie closed her eyes slowly. “It’s the right thing to do. But…if he comes after me…”
“You’re staying with me until Sam arrives,” Christine said.
“Maybe I could put him off the trail to buy us some time,” Bonnie said. “I can even send him a photo of my phone and try and convince him that’s what he saw me picking up. It’s what I thought I was picking up.”
“Can’t hurt,” Rosa said. “Get your phone out.” She pulled out her own and opened the camera app to video. “Hold it up. I’ll record. Good, good, now turn it slowly around so he can see the front, and tell him that it’s your phone.”
Bonnie froze. “My background image is Sally and Sadie!”
“Well, change it then,” Rosa said.
So Bonnie fiddled with her phone and when she turned it again, it showed her text screen with the messages from the camera perv, which showed clearly that it was her phone, as the messages she’d sent were in green bubbles and those received in white.
Diane flipped on the interior lights as she drove.
Bonnie turned her phone in a slow circle while Rosa filmed it, aiming her camera from the front seat.
Then Rosa removed all identifying info and sent the 8-second clip to Bonnie.
Bonnie removed all info again and sent it to the menace who’d been texting her, with a note.
Bonnie: My phone, see? That’s the only thing I took.
They waited and waited. But he never replied.
Christine invited everyone back to her place for what remained of the night. She didn’t want Bonnie to be alone in her house until all this was behind them, or until her son the cop arrived, whichever came first.
Coming home to the lake house always felt like driving into a warm hug.
The wide blue waters of Otisco Lake lapping gently at the shore, were soothing as a lullaby.
And the glass-fronted house, with all the creature comforts anyone could ask for, always seemed like a hot massage at the end of a long, cold day.
She took a large, thick beach towel—white with blue stripes—from the bathroom and returning, spread it on the living room floor.
“All right, pour the evidence right here and let’s see what we’ve got,” she instructed.
Diane dumped the pillowcase, including the remains of the camera that had incurred Rosa’s wrath.
Then everyone shucked jackets and shoes, knelt around the towel, and examined their collection of evidence.
The camera parts were surrounded by a handful of mail and the mystery-keys Christine had found on a windowsill behind a curtain, easily missed.
Rosa picked out the small memory card. “Christine, do you have a camera this might fit?”
Christine shook her head. Then frowned, snapped her fingers and ran into her bedroom thinking, maybe she did. She rummaged on the top shelf of her bedroom closet, found what she sought and took it back triumphantly. The camcorder was in its cardboard box, still shrink-wrapped.
“Christmas gift from Jeff’s mother,” she said. “I intended to regift it, but I was too slow, and phones made it irrelevant.”
“It happened fast, didn’t it?” Bonnie asked.
Christine ripped off the plastic and opened the box. The camcorder was small and orange, probably the newest model at the time. She unwound a power cord from the box and plugged it into the back of the camera.
Rosa took the other end from her and inserted it into a nearby wall outlet, while Christine turned the camcorder around, and eventually located its memory card slot. She slid the little card in, and it fit. Then she powered the camera on.
Everyone scootched closer on the floor to look at the folded-out screen, but all it showed was a list of files: MP3s, which were audio files, MP4s, which were video files, and JPGs, which were image files.
“I’m afraid to click on them,” Christine said, and passed the device to Diane.
Diane said, “We have to look.” She clicked on a video file. The screen showed a freckle-faced girl with braces on her teeth and tears on her cheeks, taking off her blouse. Diane clicked away from it before it went any further.
“Same as on the computer hard drive, except there are only ten. I imagine they’re all the same. We can verify later, but let’s assume that for now and see what else is here. I’ll start on the audio files.” She clicked one of those.
The deep, distorted voice of a robot-demon said, “Take off the blouse. Do it slowly.” Diane stopped the playback.
“Holy fuck,” Christine said.
“It’s mechanically altered,” Bonnie said. “There are apps that can do that.”
“I wonder if there are apps that can undo it,” Diane asked.
“I bet Coy would know,” Bonnie said, and when everyone looked at her questioningly, she added, “my Lyft driver. Speaking of Coy, I’m going to get him to unlock that phone tomorrow after school.”
“Get him to make a copy of whatever’s on there, too,” Diane said.
“Without looking at any of it,” Rosa added.
“Then we return the phone,” Christine said. “End of transaction.”
Bonnie nodded. “I’ll wait till morning to text the camera-perv and tell him I found what he wants and can deliver it tomorrow night. I can’t do it sooner because of work.”
Everyone nodded.
Diane played another recording, then stopped it.
“I don’t think he has any idea what was on this camera or he wouldn’t have left it behind.
We’ve got some evidence, here.” She clicked on another audio file.
It was another voice, also disguised, but clearly different.
She tapped each of them but only played a few seconds of each of the degrading instructions.
In the final and most recent recording, however, the voice was not disguised, and that got her attention.
It was a man’s voice, with a slight twang Bonnie couldn’t place.
But it seemed like she ought to. He offered to double Mr. Terrence’s pay if he made Sara do everything exactly as she was told in the session.
He added that poor Sara wasn’t going to like it.
Bonnie met her friends’ eyes and saw naked fury in each set.
“We have that pig’s voice,” Christine said. “It’s the only one not disguised.”
“Idiot should’ve given more thought to leaving that camera behind,” Rosa added.
Christine looked at the images, bracing herself for nude children. But that wasn’t what she saw. “Holy shit. Look at this, look at this right here.”
“It’s a contract,” Diane said. She put on her bifocals, leaned closer and read aloud.
“‘This agreement is between BIG T ENTERTAINMENT LLC (vendor) and…’ The client’s name is blacked out.
‘Vendor agrees to provide client with ten entertainment sessions of at least thirty minutes each on or before April 15th. Details of each session will be specified and directed in real time by the client and or their representatives and must be followed precisely. Vendor agrees to provide the actors for such sessions. Any violation of the client’s instructions constitutes a breach.
Client agrees to pay ten thousand dollars per session for a total of one hundred thousand dollars in untraceable bitcoin upon completion of the final session.
’” There was more, but she stopped there, lowered her glasses and whispered, “A hundred thousand dollars.”
Diane replaced her glasses. “It says this will be a recurring order at the same rate, including bonuses. The pervert wanted to do this again.”
“How many fucking kids?” Rosa asked.
Bonnie said, “Mr. Terrence runs his math program at schools all over the state. He’s had access to so many students.”
“He won’t have access to any more, thanks to you,” Rosa said.
“We have to find out who this other one is, though.” Christine’s voice was an octave deeper than usual.