Caught Red Handed

1 Caught Red Handed

Chapter 1

Alyssa Petrelli

“Who the hell.”

“Oh, shit.” You know, these types of circumstances normally happen when you knock someone's drink over or… get caught in someone else’s room. This situation is slightly similar but a lot more serious, say, I don’t know, maybe breaking into someone else’s house, looking for some scandalous secrets to exploit. And here I am crawling out from beneath the bed, belonging to a billionaire businessman’s son, with a camera in hand.

Now, you’re probably wondering how on earth I got here. Let me explain. My name is Alyssa Petrelli. I’m sixteen years old. I’m also employed, although my job is not the usual gig you’d hear about. It’s actually the very reason I’m here. I work for an organization called the ‘United Rebellion’ (UR). They exploit the deepest, darkest, juiciest secrets being hidden from the public by our society’s elite and other exclusive associations through the use of our website, which broadcasts globally. You’d think that people would’ve shut us down by now but our technicians have configured a way to prevent others from hacking the website. Don’t ask me how. Anyways, in order to exploit these scandals, we shall obviously need proof. Sometimes we hack other sites to get the information needed, sometimes we run investigations and other times all you need is a little visual proof. That’s where I come in. I’m an undercover photographer, (however, I’m not a paparazzo. There’s a big difference,) the best in the occupation you’ll find within national radius, seeing, as I’ve never failed an assignment. Not to brag, of course. Though, it does help if your parents are the ones running the whole show. That’s right. So it’s no wonder I’ve already developed a reasonable career in this so-called ‘industry’. My parents, Kristine and Ezra Petrelli, are the founders of this shindig, well… technically my father was but my mother eventually married into it.

  

Now that you know the basics, let me start the actual story. I was called in a week ago. Requested by my father in order to investigate billionaire investor and businessman, Michael McCoy. The McCoy’s own a business called ‘MANE Enterprises’. The company owns a chain of hotels. They have almost twenty-five in Australia alone, about forty in the US and a large number in Europe and South America. The name is way too over-exaggerated if you ask me. I mean they’ve capitalized it and everything. The main managers of the business are the McCoy’s (who is the CEO of the company), the Erikson’s, the Anderson’s and the Newman’s - you can guess where the name came from, But they aren’t the interesting parties here.

Michael McCoy has so far been accused of fraud and embezzlement but has also been bailed out by his wife, Janet. The bail had cost over a million dollars, but the family being as extravagant as they are, managed to afford it. But why would they pay for it if they thought he were innocent? The media had only got half the story, the accusations. But why was he accused in the first place? Well, I was called in to find out just that. Plus there had been rumours flying around that he’d being cheating on his wife and is struggling with some alcoholic problems.

The rest of the week was spent preparing and working out how to break in and out of Michael’s mansion. So why do I do this? Well, I was born into the family business, and so I have to do it but its also got good pay so I guess it’s worth it. People will pay thousands of dollars to keep these things hidden and there are also people who pay to exploit it themselves.