Risky Business: Part Two

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Spencer and Derek went to check out Ryan Krouse's house to get a feel of who he was before he died. He was the one who died in the hospital after being treated. Like with Trish, there were no secret hiding places or drug paraphernalia. There are pictures of Ryan and his girlfriend, Shaunna in his room that give off a look of happiness. According to his parents, Ryan never dated Trish or even knew of her. The only time they met was at the hospital.

Ryan got good grades and he got a recommendation letter from the football coach to play varsity next year. Derek wanted to take his laptop for evidence but Ryan didn't have one. His father didn't want him to be online without supervision, so Derek will settle for the network IP address instead. Penelope can get into it from where she is.

You get back to the station and meet up with everyone else. You hand Trish's laptop to Penelope who immediately goes through it. You stand off to the side and watch as everyone engages in the case. You'll help if needed but you don't have the energy to be as involved as they are. You're so lucky to have someone like Hotch. Anyone else would have suspended you.

"Hey, you ready to delve into Trish's online world?"

"If by ready you mean extremely capable and even more reluctant, then yes." she hacks into the computer. "That's weird. There's nothing here."

"Nothing useful?"

"Nothing at all. There's no root directory or operating system. The registry appears to be blank."

"Why would she have an empty computer set up?"

"I did not say empty, I said appears to be blank. I'm gonna need a little while." She does something different and immediately unlocks what is hidden. "I got it! It was just a basic Trojan Horse. It just hid the directories and didn't erase them. Oh, God."

"What is it?"

You look up and see Derek and Spencer walk into the police station. Penelope pulls up a website that she frequented a lot.

"She was on a choking game site the night she died. It looks like it's a game kids play where they choke themselves to get a buzz, to get high."

"They call it the good kids' high," Spencer says. "You get lightheaded and a sense of euphoria even though no actual drugs are involved. It's something kids in high school play."

"Did Ryan have a computer?"

"Not in his room."

"What about a gaming system?" Pen asks and Derek nods. "Teenagers will find a way to get online."

"I have the IP address."

Penelope uses it to get into the system where she finds the exact same website Trish went to.

"Bingo. Ryan was on the same site on the same night. I don't think it's suicide." She continues to type. "Hang on, this is a text-to-voice icon. Let's see what happens."

She clicks on it and a computer-animated voice starts to speak.

"Come on, try it. We all do it. I dare you."

"I dare you? Someone was orchestrating this, purposely getting the kids to choke themselves."

"Make sure you close the door. Tomorrow's the big night. We're all gonna play the game."

"There's a whole subculture around this game. They make up names for it and do it at parties. Someone is daring these kids in this area to play the game," Penelope says and looks into the website more. "It's a contest, and there are rules. 'Come on, Evans High, this is the big one. Garfield edged out Casper High last week. You gonna let them diss us?'"

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