Rizzles Story

Chapter 71

Upstairs in BRIC

Nina: She had a Facebook account, MySpace and Twitter.

Jane: Wow. This generation puts their whole lives online.

Frost: Yeah, pretty much. She had it set so that only her friends could see most of it, but there were still some public areas.

Jane: So anybody could get a look at her.

Nina: Afraid so.

Frankie: Got her phone records.

Dan walks in.

Dan: What are those? Are those social-network sites? I didn't agree to that.

Korsak: Dan, you can't be in here if you're gonna interfere.

Dan: I'm sorry. What do you have?

Frankie: Mandy's phone records.

Dan: Look, she gets out of school at 3:15, okay? She's supposed to pick Joey up and take him home.

Jane: He said that she told him to wait at the playground. Why?

Frost: Well, here's her last call.

Dan: Well, she texts nonstop. Where are the texts?

Frankie: Your wife said she, uh, got Mandy a new smartphone.

Jane: Keep going, Frankie.

Frankie: Well, it's actually good for us.
We got a whole series of I.M.s.

Dan: What's the difference?

Nina: Well, texts go through the phone system. We can get the phone numbers but not the content. Instant messages go across wireless Internet.

Jane: So Mandy was instant-messaging. Can you see what she was saying?

Nina: Yes, and we can track the messages back to phones and computers.

Frost: Here's every screen name she instant-messaged in the last week. We got a whole series of I.M.s between Mandy and "suprgurrl97."

Jane: Who's "suprgurrl"?

Frost: Chloe Cameron.

Dan: That's her best friend.

Jane: "Madmandy97: Where are you?" "Suprgurrl97: See you at park entrance.
Come on.

Dan: "See you at the park entrance? Why's she going to the park entrance?

Nina: That's the last message there.

Jane: But maybe that's why she left Joey. Only Chloe can tell us now.

Interview Room w/Chloe & Her Mom

Nina: Thank you for coming down right away.

Mom: It's okay. Anything we can do.

Chloe: Are you gonna find Mandy?

Nina: I hope so, Chloe.

Frost: Can you tell us why you were meeting her in the park this afternoon?

Chloe: I wasn't.

Mom: You're not in trouble, honey. But we have to do everything we can to find Mandy.

Nina: Why did Mandy leave Joey at school to come meet you?

Chloe: I don't know what you're talking about.

Frost: You were I.M.'ing with her right after school. We have the records.

Chloe: No. I-I wasn't.

Mom: Chloe, you two are texting all the time. Please, just tell the detectives.

Chloe: We don't text anymore, mom.
Mandy got a new phone so we could I.
M.

Frost: And what did you I.M.?

Chloe: I told you. I didn't. I had volleyball practice right after school -- no phones allowed.

Frost: Okay. Can you take a look at these messages between you and Mandy?

Chloe: That's not me. Look. There's a "u." I'm "suprgrrl." G-r-r. No "u."

They get up and walk out.

Frost: Someone was pretending to be Chloe.

Nina: To lure Mandy to the park. They knew her eye would skate right over that extra "u" while she was I.M.'ing her best friend, just like ours did. This whole thing has been a setup from start to finish.

Korsak: And I don't get all this texting and you-ing and I'm-ing and --

Frankie: I.M.'ing.

Korsak: Whatever. But I'll tell you one thing. That kid was stalked. Whoever took her knew everything about her, - right down to her best friend's handle.

Frankie: Screen name.

Korsak: Okay, will you stop correcting me and think about what it means?

Nina: It means she was targeted. I mean, they knew her schedule down to the very minute. They even got her to ditch her little brother so they could get her alone.

Frankie: Still might be better than a random snatch.

Nina: How? Random, they kill her. This kind? They use her, abuse her, like Jane Doe downstairs, then kill her.

Frankie: I'm just saying it buys us some time.

Korsak: God, I hope so.

Nina: Okay, we got a counterfeit screen name -- suprgurrl97.

Frost: Already trying to track it.

Maura walks in and to Jane's office. She knocks and goes in.

Maura: Jane, I want to show you something.

They walk out and down to the morgue.

In the Morgue

Maura: Blunt-force trauma to the right side of the body.

Jane: So her right side was facing her attacker.

Maura: Yes, but there's no bruising on her left side.

Jane: Why is that significant? So she was fighting like this.

Maura: She was left-handed, Jane.

Jane: Yeah. I'm left-handed. Why would I expose my weaker side, defend myself with my weaker right hand?

Maura: Exactly. You wouldn't. Unless you were holding something-

Jane: Or someone. The tears on the sweatshirt.

Maura: She might have been holding someone close with her stronger arm as she fought off her attacker.

Jane: It's Mandy. It -- it fits the timeline. Oh, God. She died trying to protect a complete stranger.

Maura: The DNA from the tears will tell us if it's Mandy.

Jane: Well, we don't have that kind of time. I mean, w-what about her other clothing? I mean, maybe there's something on that that connects this girl to Mandy.

Maura: Everyone is working all night on this.

Jane: I promised Dan that we'd find her. I know she's out there, okay? We can't let her end up like this girl. We just can't.

A lab tech walks in.

Tech: Got something, Dr.Isles. A positive match on the hair we found on the jeans.

Jane: Who does it match?

Tech: Amanda Mateo.

Jane: She's alive, Maura. I know she is.