Trapped In The Rabbit Hole

Chapter 9: The Mortons

Heading back to my bedroom, I went on my laptop and typed in the numbers Cole whispered in my ear.

Meanwhile, my little brother takes out his phone from his pocket and touches the dark screen.

"35123478." I muttered, typing the number keys across the search box.

"35123478."

As I clicked ENTER, it brought me to a blank page.

Looking up from his phone, Seth ask me what I was doing.

"Cole gave me eight numbers that might lead me to the case." I explain.

"Could it be a password? A social security number?"

Seth shrugs his shoulders simply, as if he doesn't know what I am talking about.

But that's when I heard him sighing.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Well, there is something you want to know about the foster parents." he said.

"While I was hacking into their files, I came across their names: Shiela and Joseph Morton."

"What can you tell me about them?" I question.

"From the looks of their files, apparently they were  having a really bad marriage; the couple tries to conceive a child, but the baby died in the womb."

"So, they adopted Miles?" I ask.

"Kinda," he replied. "He wasn't the first kid to get adopted by the Mortons: there was Amy, Jacob, Justin, and some others."

I thought about it for a moment.

"What happened to them?" I ask.

"They split and went into different foster homes," Seth answered.

"I don't blame them, those kids deserve better than Mr. and Mrs. Snotnose."

"And Ms. Caroline," I agreed.

Ms. Caroline is our former social worker. After Mom and Dad died, she puts us in terrible foster homes: from abusive crack addicts to neglective alcoholics.

But since the Captured case came to an end, Ms. Caroline is fired from her job, while I received full custody of my brother.

"What happen to her anyway?" Seth ask.

"I don't know," I shrug. "Someplace far away where she will never hurt children."

That's when I began hacking into Joseph and Shiela's social media pages.

Based on his Twitter page, Joseph is a fan of the Steelers.

Steelers t-shirts, Steeler online friends, and surprisingly, he posts at least twenty-two autographs of his heroes.

I scroll down a bit to see photos of the guy in his military uniform.

Based on the dark suit, white hat, and the gold medals on his chest, he must be an experienced soldier.

What's strange is, this guy has been in the army for almost three years and never aged.

His brown hair is tucked in his hat, bluish green eyes stare blankly at me, and there was a possibility that his chin was cut by a razor.

It says here that he met Shiela in the marine corps.

She had ink black hair, brown oval shaped eyes, and wears a zebra printed pantsuit

"They seem to be an ordinary couple," I noted, exiting out of Joseph's webpage.

"I don't see any signs of violence on their bodies."

However, as I look through Sheila's Facebook page, my mind went blank; because she works as a popular charity organizer for seven years, she  has over three thousand followers.

Photo after photo is her, wearing a different dress, posed in a different social event, and taking selfies with her girlfriends.

Seeing these pictures makes me glad that I don't go out much.

Although she is popular, Maleficent made harsh comments about her former friends' baby showers.

"It was a great baby shower, Shiela."  I read. It was her friend's post, which was dated two weeks ago.

"I wish you were there."

And here is what Shiela replied: "That would be a waste of time."

"Check this out, Seth." I urge, spotting him still playing on his phone.

"What's up, Brosephine?" he said, walking up to me.

I let out an annoyed sigh, reminding him not to call me that.

In resppnse, he gives me an i-don't-give-a-crap look.

"What's up, Brosephine?" Seth repeated.

Sighing again, I showed him the recent posts The Wicked Witch of the West sent to her friends.

"What do you think?" I ask.

"That the hypocrite is involved in Miles' death." Seth grunts.

"And I have no doubt her husband knows-"

A small ring  interrupted my brother's train of thought.

It was traced into my jeans pocket, to which I picked it up and see who send me a text.

I peered at the white screen as a simple text message greeted me.

Hey, Sherlock.  said Cole, with a happy emoji at the end of the text.

Miss Marple, I responded back.

"How is everything?"

Cole then sent me an angry emoji.

I'm guessing that she's not having a fun time.

"Did you see their Twitter pages?"  she ask.

"Yeah,"  I answered. "They seem to be arrogant piece of crap."

"No duh, Arthur Doyle." Cole snorts.

"Did you look through the list I gave you?"

"Crud," I moaned.

I forgot the list, as well as the credit card statements.

"It's okay if you didn't," Cole insists. "I'm only reminding you."

"Thanks, Gorgeous."

She then sends me a wink for good luck, and said Goodbye.

As I shut off my phone, I repeated Seth what she said.

"So, she's right on our trail." he chuckled.

"Cole's one stubborn girl."

"I know," I agreed, clicking back to Google.

"But, she's a good person."

Afterwards, I closed the website, and shut the computer down.

"Let's take a look at those foster home records, shall we?" I ask.

Nodding, Seth took at least ten sheets of paper and inspected them closely.

The list was full of the names of parents we know: Mr. and Mrs. Davidson. They used to be wealthy socialites who adopted Seth three years ago, until they were arrested for embezzlement.

Mr. and Mrs. Ann were bankers who adopted an old friend, Emery Willcox, until neighbors reported that their bank accounts were stolen.

Most names on this list are either abusers, drunks, greedy morons, and sometimes, good Samaritans.

"I never knew Mr. Ivan adopted a kid," Seth mumbled.

"Wasn't he arrested for shipping drugs to Cuba?"

Come to think of it, that does seem a little bit strange.

"When did he get released?" I ask, scrunching my nose.

"Around September 22," Seth answered. "The same month Miles get killed."