“Give me the bad news first,” I say.
“Kelli went ballistic,” Riley says.
“When you told her about the videos?”
“Yes.
“What did she do?”
“Kicked his door down and searched the room.”
“Were you with her?”
“I was, yes.”
“What’s the good news?”
“We found them.”
“The videos?”
“Yes. They’re on CDs.”
“Have you seen them?”
“No. I mean, we started watching one that showed Kelli getting dressed for school.”
“Well, that’s enough to put the bastard away right there.”
“Probably. But there’s more bad news.”
“What else could possibly go wrong?”
“Kelli’s mom has the CDs.”
“She—what? What does that mean?”
“She caught us in Mitch’s room, watching the video. When Kelli told her what happened, Lydia became furious. But she was furious with Kelli, not Mitch. They had a huge fight, and Lydia slapped her several times and grounded her. Then she started yelling at me, and said she was going to sue me.”
“She can’t sue you.”
“I know. But she’s really angry.”
“We need to get a court order to confiscate those CDs.”
“It’s too late. She put them in a plastic trash bag, put me in her car and cussed me out all the way home. Then she drove away with the bag full of CDs.”
“Damn it! Where was she going?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she say?”
“She was really upset. She kept crying and yelling. Said she came upstairs because she knew I was up to something. She accused me of trying to ruin her life.”
“What did she say about the CDs?”
“That she didn’t care what was on them, she was going to destroy the evidence. No one was going to accuse her of providing an unsafe atmosphere for children. She said if I ever tell anyone about the CDs she and Kelli would deny it, and they’d sue me for slander.”
“Have you spoken to Kelli since it happened?”
“Yes. And she’s upset, too.”
“What did she say?”
“She can’t believe her mom’s protecting Mitch after videotaping her, and seeing her naked all this time. She’s embarrassed, humiliated, and angry. She can’t believe her mom would take his side.”
“Would she testify against her mom?”
“I doubt it. They’re pretty close when they’re not fighting.”
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s see what we can salvage from this. Were you able to figure out what triggered the cameras?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did they run twenty-four hours a day, or just at certain times, or was there something specific that made them turn on and off?”
YOU ARE READING
Promise You Won't Tell?
Teen Fiction"I think something might have happened to me Saturday night. Something bad." Private Investigator Dani Ripper's client list is nuttier than the Looney Tunes conga line, but she diligently solves one crazy case after another, waiting for a game-chang...
