Criminal Case: Grimsborough

Chapter 33: Killing Me Softly-Part 2

At Jones and Marie's desks, Alex approached Marie and told her he was about to hack into their victim's secret admirer's profile when someone counter-hacked him and deactivated his software. Alex then plopped into an empty desk chair by Marie's and said with a sigh, "I can't believe a hacker managed to block me! This has never happened before! And just when I was about to discover who your victim's secret admirer was too! I almost entered into their Friendnet profile!"

Marie looked at Alex in determination and said, "You've got to find a way Alex cause this secret admirer may be linked to Olly's death!"

Alex sat straight up and he also put a look of determination and told her, "I know and don't you worry about a thing Marie! The hacker may have blocked me, but I managed to track them down and right now I'm contacting them via a chat. They didn't even expect me to contact them! What do you want me to write Marie?"

Jones went cross and said, "Tell that hacker that we want to speak with them via video-chat! Come one Marie, let's tell them who they're messing with!"

After Alex connected them to the video-chat with a tablet, Marie saw the hacker on the screen and she saw that they were wearing a purple hooded sweatshirt and a tear-stained mask on their face. Jones the slid close to her, looked at the screen and asked, "Mr. Hacker, can you hear us?"

The hacker looked at them through the screen and said in a digital voice, "Yes I can. Your tech guy just explained the situation to me and I must remain anonymous, but you can call me the @rtist, ok?"

"Well, Mr. "The @rtist", we want to know why you blocked our friend while he was hacking. Cause you obviously detected the presence of our police software, so why did you interfere with a criminal investigation?" Marie asked.

Shocked by what he heard, the @rtist exclaimed, "Me interfere?! Hell no! I only wanted to get your attention so I could assist you! Your software is way too visible on the Friendnet servers."

Jones snatched the tablet out of Marie's hand and asked, "Assist us? So you have access to the Friendnet profile created by our victim's secret admirer?"

"Well, not yet. But I can tell you that that profile was last accessed from the comic book shop. The owner has a free access computer for his customers," the @rtist told them.

Marie took the tablet back from Jones and he leaned in close to her so he could hear and Marie said to the hacker, "That does sound like an interesting lead. But how do we know that you're telling us the truth?"

The @rtist winked through his mask and said, "I guess you don't! I'll contact your tech guy once I've cracked the profile password. Ok?" And soon the hacker logged out of the video chat.

After they were done talking to the @rtist, Jones looked at Marie and said, "Well partner, I'm not so sure if we can trust that cheeky little hacker, but a little comic book shopping would never hurt anyone right?"

Marie smiled and said, "I guess not." And Soon the two officers left the station and headed towards the comic book shop.

While Jones and Marie were heading towards the comic book shop, in the college dorms the @rtist removed his mask to reveal that he was actually a she and she happened to be Cathy King; Samuel King's other granddaughter. Cathy breathed a sigh of relief after she was done talking to Jones and Marie and she laid back in her chair and said to herself, "That talk was brutal, but it was also worth it. I guess grandpa was right when he said my sister was really pretty. And their tech guy is pretty cute too." And she smiled a little bit and giggled when she said that.