HTH

Part Two - Chapter Ten

Bethesda, Maryland, 2019

Rain fell against the windows of the Bethesda Public Library early that morning. The dark storm clouds and bright white lights of the library made it feel like it was still night. The building was mostly empty, apart from a few college students and librarians.

Jay was sitting in a back corner, hiding among the bookshelves. He hadn't slept at all that night; he kept seeing the same thing every time he closed his eyes. So rather, he spent the night looking for closure. Reading every article he could, not knowing what he was looking for, just trying to come to terms with what had happened. He'd pretty much had read the same report over and over again. Every one considered what happened to be a cut-and-dry thing, the end of the story. So much so that Jay was starting to believe it.

Until one article, for some reason, lit up a bulb in his head.

It started out just like the others. Police had been chasing an arsonist when his car skidded on the wet road. It flipped over and hit a pedestrian. She died before she made it to the hospital. He already knew all of this. What interested him in this article was the arsonist. He didn't burn some abandoned building; this was an old brownstone that had recently become home to a tech startup. They had been in the news lately because they were filing a lawsuit with NyuTech for allegedly stealing code from their software.

Well that's rather convenient for NyuTech.

Very convenient.

Jay set off working to find some evidence. First, he hacked into the Bethesda Police Department servers and got the name of the arsonist. He found his bank account and looked for any large deposits. There was one, 75 thousand dollars, wired from an offshore bank account that bounced off of dozens of other accounts. There was no way Jay was going to be able to follow the money trail all the way to where it originated. He needed the transaction record from the source to prove anything.

His phone buzzed, and the message appeared on his chip. It was from Maddy, his best friend from Australia. Despite the time difference, he wasn't surprised to see her message at this hour; she was always one to burn the midnight oil.

Hey, haven't heard from you in a while. Everything OK?

Jay considered what he wanted to do, but eventually found himself typing back.

No not really.

What's wrong? :(

I feel like my world is collapsing.

He attached a link to one of the stories he'd been reading. There was a delay while Maddy read it, so Jay pulled up some building schematics on his computer.

Oh my gosh...I'm so sorry Jay.

I was right there...I just watched it happen.

You need to get help. Where are you? Do your parents know?

At the library. Idk. Haven't seen them since it happened.

Where did you go last night?

Spent the night with one of the guys in my hacker group.

So what have you been doing all this time?

Reading the reports on what happened. Trying to find out who's responsible for this.

So you've been alone going through a traumatic experience over and over again... that can't be healthy.

It's the only thing I can do now. I think I've found something. I need to bring him to justice.

You think? You're gonna go after someone off a hunch? That's crazy.