Finding Ford

chapter twenty four

James gives Jas an odd look, and I'm grateful to see the look of uncertainty in his eyes. Maybe Jas can act normal enough to convince him what happened early was just because she was in a crappy mood. James nods shortly. "Yeah, sure."

Jas hesitantly wraps her arms around him, as if apologizing. I turn my head away.

It's hard to watch.

x

"He erased the file," Jas voice resonates through my empty house, static on her side of the phone call making the whole sitting-alone-in-the-dark thing even more eerie. "He also changed his computer password, Ava. That's why he went home at lunch. He knows. The file is gone."

"How'd you get into his computer if he changed the password?"

"Logged in for me when I said I needed to do chemistry homework."

I sigh, leaning my elbows on my legs and my head in my hands. "Could you get into his email?" I ask.

"I didn't have much time," she says. "I tried, though. He deleted it."

"Did you check his trash?"

"Yeah. There's a 'delete forever' option, though, Ava."

I groan. God, nothing is going right. "We need that email, Jas. Is there anyway we can recover it?"

"I don't know how! I'm not a computer expert. Ugh, one second." There's some movement on Jas' side of the phone call, before she picks back up. "Honestly, the person I went to when it came to technology was James. He knows this stuff. That's probably how he was able to erase the security tapes."

"There's got to be someone else who's good at this stuff." I shake my head. "Think of nerds."

"So helpful," Jas says, and I swear, I can almost see her rolling her eyes. "Where did mom put all the spoons...?"

I raise an eyebrow, rolling back my shoulders and lifting my head. "What're you even doing?"

"Drowning my sorrows in ice cream. Anyway, you were saying. Nerds?" I let my silence be an answer. Jas hums. "Wait. What about Craig?"

"Craig from English? I'm pretty sure I've never said a word to him my entire life. I mean, I know he's good with computer stuff..."

Jas chuckles evilly. "Oh, Ava. I have my ways. He'll say yes."

Sure enough, the next day, we're standing in the computer lab with a compliant Craig-from-English. I don't exactly know how Jas did it, but knowing Jas' 'ways', I'm not sure I even want to know. Jas explains to Craig, "I need to you to hack into James' email. You're not going to tell anyone about this, you're not going to ask why, and you're sure as hell not mentioning this to James. Got it?"

Craig rolls his eyes. "What, did he cheat on you or something?"

"What happened to no questions?"

"Jesus, woman." He leans away from her. "How about some space? This will take a while."

"One more thing," I add, catching Craig's attention. "We need you to recover any emails he deleted."

"Do not open them," Jas adds, staring Craig down, seeming intimidating from their height different, with Craig sitting down. "Or my breathing on your neck will be the least of your worries."

"I'm not going to open them, I couldn't care less about your relationship drama," Craig scoffs. "I'll send you the recovered emails tonight. That good enough for you?"

"Perfect."

"And I want the other end of our deal emailed to me tonight, too."

I narrow my eyes in confusion, but Jas just rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Yeah, sure."

We leave Craig to be. I frown, "What did you promise him?'

"To do his English paper," Jas snorts.

"You're failing English, though."

Jas smirks. "He doesn't know that." I shake my head, but Jas stops us in the hallway, grabbing my shoulders to hold me in place. "Don't do that. Ava, by tonight, we could know everything."

"And then what?" I can't help but whisper. Jas frowns at my words, but I continue. "What're we supposed to do?"

My voice drops even more. "I saw it in his eyes, Jas. He's angry. He's a dangerous angry. He wouldn't hesitate to do anything to keep us quiet. He would kill us."

I sit by my phone all night. My nerves are on overdrive. I barely know what to do with myself. I pace the room, sit down to do homework, make myself cereal before realizing there's no way I can keep it down, and go back to pacing.

At seven thirty, I get a text.

Jas: Hey, Ava?

Ava: Yeah, I'm here. Did you get the emails?

Jas: Yeah...

Ava: WELL?

Jas: Quick question first...

Jas: Didn't people used to say that Mrs. Wilson slept around?

x

Long chapter c;;;; Cliffhanger c;;;; I love life 

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