A Silent Cry

Chapter Thirteen: Hacker

Russ pulled his jacket closer to his body as he stared up at the school. The sun was getting close to setting and it caused the air to chill. He walked up the steps to the front doors. It was dark inside; there was no one to be seen. Russ thought about knocking but felt that would be a waste of time. Who would hear him? He looked around, somewhat feeling like a criminal. As his back was turned, a knock came from the other side of the door. He jumped slightly before looking back. It was Minx. She opened the door and pulled Russ inside. The temperature inside was more comforting than outside and Russ was thankful for it. "So what's up?" Russ tried to ask as nonchalant as possible. It was a little hard considering the situation.

Minx rolled her eyes. "Follow me." She turned on her heel to walk down the hall.

She moved at an alarming pace, allowing Russ to struggle to keep up with her. "Can't you just tell me instead of being mysterious for once?" Russ begged. "It'll make things easier on the both of us. Besides, the school is giving me the creeps."

"It's not something that I can tell you." Minx stopped abruptly. "It's something you have to see." She opened the door to the computer lab.

All the lights in the room were turned on (which made it a little jarring to the eyes) but only one monitor was active. It was Minx's usual computer, as was expected, but someone else was sitting in her seat. "Russ," Minx began before Russ could question anything. "This is Gavin. He's your friendly neighborhood hacker and the reason I called you here." She closed the door when they both stepped inside. "He assists me on occasion when a case is out of my reach. And, as you know, this particular case is way out of my reach."

Russ remained silent.

"He got some valuable information on Keith that can help us out a lot," Minx explained. Russ furrowed his brows. "You just have to see it to believe it."

"Are you ready or do you want to explain every little thing first?" Gavin snapped. He had an accent to rival Minx's with an attitude to match. "I have important things to attend to, y'know."

Minx scoffed. "Show us then." She took a seat on one side of Gavin and Russ sat on the other.

Gavin clicked an icon and a bunch of different windows popped up. Something that caught Russ's attention was a picture of Cry, but before he could question it, Gavin organized all the windows. "I had to do a lot of digging on this subject. It was a hard case to crack -- almost everything was locked away or attempted to be erased. The first thing that might interest you is Keith's criminal record."

"Criminal record?" Russ finally spoke. He looked at Minx and Minx returned his hard stare.

"Yes," Gavin continued. He scrolled down the page, skimming through mug-shots and scanned files. "He's been arrested for little things like shoplifting and the like, but he has a few bigger stains on his record." He paused for a moment, almost as if hesitating to say his next words. "One of his biggest offenses was cruelty to an animal. I don't really want to go into details but a stray dog was involved."

"Are there any other things like that?" Russ hesitated to ask. This information alone was already beginning to overwhelm him.

"Nothing as big as the animal thing. Until Cry," Gavin added the last part under his breath. Everyone was silent for a moment before Gavin continued. He moved onto another page with different information. "This was a very interesting find; it's Keith's mental records."

"Mental records? Does that mean what I think it means?" Russ stared at the screen in shock.

"Depends on what you think it means. If you think it means he's a psychopath, you're not far from it," Gavin scrolled down to a scanned file. "This is the most recent document written by Keith's psychiatrist. But it was written four months ago. He hasn't been there since. According to previous files, Keith wasn't taking his medications... which were wrongly prescribed to him in the first place. He was misdiagnosed time and time again until someone finally settled on antisocial personality disorder -- fancy words for psychopath."

"What does the file say, then? The last one," Minx asked. "There have to be notes written down somewhere."

"Lemme check." Gavin clicked on the image to see it closer. Minx and Russ joined him in reading it. All their eyes scanned over the information without actually absorbing it.

"There." Minx pointed at the screen. At the end of the file was a messy jumble of curves and lines meant to be writing. "The writing seems a bit rushed, don't you think? I can hardly read it."

"Maybe it was urgent," Russ suggested.

"'Patient exhibits violent behavior. Needs immediate attention.' What does that mean?" Gavin mumbled. "Attention for what?"

"I couldn't possibly imagine," Minx grumbled in a harsh, sarcastic tone.

Gavin stayed silent for a moment. "Anyway." He closed that window and began on another. "Oh look. More criminal stuff. Great..." He rubbed his face and sighed. "Obviously can't get enough of that, can we?"

"Let me take the wheel on this one, Gav," Minx took the mouse and adjusted the monitor to face her more.

"Don't call me Gav," Gavin mumbled under his breath. It was almost impossible to hear.

Minx smirked. Russ felt like he was missing something. They sat in silence while Minx read what was on the page. Russ noticed that Gavin began dozing off with his head in his hand. Was he up all night getting this information?

"Oh my God," Minx whispered. She turned the monitor back to its original spot. "I think I found the reason Keith went off on Cry."

"Well don't just sit there, tell me," Russ demanded in a rather booming voice. It startled Gavin awake.

Minx glared for a moment before explaining. "This here has several accounts of Keith getting caught with various illegal substances -- but if you notice -- the list is a bit short." Minx scrolled down to reveal a much larger list. "This is all the substances Keith has actually owned at some point but was never caught for. Some of this stuff is super powerful -- dangerous, even. Not to mention more than a quarter of them are incredibly addictive and lead the user to do anything to get more. They also leave some nasty side-effects. Gavin, how did you find all this and not tell me?"

"I didn't read it," Gavin defended himself. "Do you know how much stuff there is on the guy? A lot. I just compiled everything I could."

"Can we, uh, backtrack for a moment?" Russ attempted to keep calm. "Minx, you think the reason Keith tortured Cry was because of drugs?"

"Oh, I fully believe that," Minx spoke with confidence. "He was taking several different types of drugs during the span of only one month. Imagine what that can do to a person -- not only physically but mentally as well."

"And Keith's already diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder," Gavin added.

"This self-destructive risk-taking matched with his mental disorder is a cause for disaster," Minx said. "Keith needs a lot more help than he needs justice. If we bring all this information to the police then maybe they can deal with Keith as they see fit. Maybe send him somewhere he can get help."

"Let's not go that far," Gavin chimed in again. "I may or may not have obtained this all legally --"

"Great! So you'll get it all printed out for us then," Minx responded with a smile. She stood up and motioned for Russ to follow. "Get it to me ASAP."

"Where the bloody hell are you two going?"

Minx stopped at the door. She turned and gave Gavin one of her mysterious looks that everyone who had ever met her knew too well. "We have some very important information for someone who needs it most."

A/N: Not sure if it all makes sense... if it doesn't I'll make it make sense somewhere down the line.