Playing With Fire

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Even with all the info I nabbed from the counselor, I still only have one real suspect. My pick for crazy bitch is Bianca Peterson. According to her file, she has a history of behavior problems and had attempted suicide twice. Her parents thought she was acting out, desperate for attention. All signs point to her, like neon lights. So why is there something, nagging, in the pit of my stomach that's not convinced?

Proof. I need solid proof. And the sooner the better. If she is behind it, I can take the info to my dad. He'll be pissed I ignored his order to leave it alone, but I'll happily take that over something really bad happening. If this is about money, if she really is looking for someone to buy the code she created to screw with the planes, come hell or high water I'll stop her.

But, after jumping the gun one too many times before, I've also learned the value of patience, of knowing all the facts before ruining someone's life, especially when that life might be your own.

Sitting at my desk, I stare at Oliver's record. I'd managed not to open the digital file, but something about having the hard copy right here in front of me is like having an itch I can't quite scratch. Finally, I give in.

I need to be thorough, after all. I need to be positive.

Sure enough, everything Reid had told me was true. Oliver has been suspended six times in three years, all for fighting. There's one note in particular that really bothers me, a note from the school counselor saying that Oliver has violent and depressed moods and that he might be dangerous to himself and others. Then, something must have changed over last spring break, because the notes end abruptly, replaced by reports from his teachers saying how well he's doing in class. Taking a glance at his grades, I see he's gone from D's and F's, to straight A's in the last two years. A jaded, cynical part of me wonders if he's done it himself, or if being the star quarterback has more to do with it.

I close the folder. Maybe he had been taking drugs freshman year. If he managed to get himself clean, that would explain the miraculous change in personality. I tuck the file away, intending to have Reid return it to the school tomorrow. My computer dings, a reminder I've all but forgotten that I set.

Clicking it on I navigate back to the Omega Portal video stream where Oliver uploads his music. A new upload came in today, a slow, haunting rendition of The End of The World As We Know It by REM. The image flickers, and I frown. Pulling the file, I open the properties and find something else, a hidden stream of video behind the first. Carefully extracting it, I open it in a separate window.

It's just flashes, images and clips of video, no sound, but somehow that only makes it more disturbing. It's spliced images of people cutting themselves, women crying, flies on a child's body, an eerie white mask, dead trees—so much flying across the screen I can't catch half of it. But the end, the clip that drives the shiver of dread up my spine, is a single hand, reaching out from below the surface of dark, swirling water. Then, as suddenly as it began, the video vanished. It was once more just Oliver, playing his guitar. When I try to access the embedded footage again, it's gone. Vanished.

A glitch? Someone piggybacking the file for some other purpose? Or a onetime view and kill? I rub my cold fingertips across my lips once before closing the site.

I spent the better part of the next couple of days following Bianca around the school. I ask her about her project, even offering to help, but she rebuffs me.

"No thanks. I think I have what I need."

During class I sneak out, pick her lock and search her locker, hoping to find her laptop inside. My search turns up nothing but candy wrappers, books, and a picture of her with Cassy and some guy, his face burnt out. This girl clearly has issues, if nothing else. Delving into full research mode on her, I learn that her mother is an admin clerk in the parts department, that her dad is a manager at the commissary. According to her social media she'd come out as gay only six months ago, and the response had been mostly positive. There were, of course, a handful of guys offering to "change her mind" and one aunt who alternately told her she would pray for her, and then disowned her.