Blindspot

Chapter 35

Freen thought she wouldn't be able to sleep but when she opened her eyes, daylight had already spilled into Rebecca's bedroom. Freen woke up in a position she had never experienced before and for a few moments she was disorientated with the new sensation -- Freen was sleeping on her side hugging the edge of Rebecca's bed while Rebecca had snuggled behind Freen's back and snoring lightly against the back of Freen's neck. It was a weird sensation for Freen and she liked it-- it was nice to feel protected and surrounded by someone.

[Clang]

"Mmmhmm?" Rebecca stirred, "what is it?"
"I think someone is awake and in your kitchen." Freen replied to the half awake little one behind her.
"Oh... probably mom. What time is it?"

"A little past eight. We should get up."

"hmmmmm....no work today....sleep."

"Beccc, we have already slept in. Come on, sleepy head, let's get up and go downstairs for breakfast."

"umm...kay" Rebecca mumbled but she went back to sleep. Freen made a small laugh and lifted Rebecca's arm from her waist and got up to Rebecca's ensuite washroom. After 15 minutes, Freen gently shook Rebecca again to wake her up so that she could go to the washroom to freshen up before they head downstairs together. Freen still felt a bit awkward around Rebecca's family and was shy to venture outside of Rebecca's bedroom without Rebecca. As welcoming as the Armstrong family was, she still felt unsure what to say or how to act comfortably around their home-- she is still new to and a stranger to family life.

Another 20 minutes had passed before Rebecca was ready to venture out of the bedroom, they were greeted with a tired Ritchie when they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Yaawwwwn. Morning sis, Morning Freen." Ritchie's eyes had dark circles underneath and his hair was sticking up and out to the side like he had been pulling them.

"Did you find anything?" Freen asked immediately.

"Let's talk at the dining table. I'm famished!"

Ritchie worked on it through the night, and he didn't have much to report on the trace he started on the unknown number of the blackmailer. Rithie waited till the entire family sat down around the table before starting his speech.

"I have good news and bad news. Which one would you want to hear first?"

"Just tell her. It doesn't matter." Rebecca answered for Freen.

"Alright, the bad news is that your blackmailer was cautious and sent the text through a service which allows users to send their text unanimously, meaning that their numbers cannot be traced.

This service specializes in anonymity and tracing the original sender is next to impossible unless you can get into the backend of their service data. You would need a really really good hacker to be able take a look at the data and even if I could do that, I'm not sure if we can use it as evidence and bring the blackmailer to justice since we ourselves would be commiting a crime." Freen sighed dejectedly and Rebecca rubbed her back gently.

"That being said, I do have good news, which is that your blackmailer used a platform created by a friend of a friend of mine. We wouldn't need to hack at all and only need him to take a look at his backend data and let me put in a small bit of code in their system to trace our blackmailer as soon as he or she sends another request for anonymous text. I've already sent a DM to him and am just waiting for him to reply."

Freen eyes brighten in that small bit of hope.

"How can you guarantee that your friend will help? Wouldn't your friend also go against his company policy of anonymity?"