Chapter 3
“Claudia! Claudia!” Rider ran up to the holding cell she was in. She was sitting on the bed with her head in hands. The jail cell was grey and boring, with only a bed, a toilet and a plain metal sink. Claudia stood up and wiped her tears with the heel of her palm.
“Rider…” She couldn’t say any more without breaking down in tears. Rider ordered the door to be opened. She ran in for a hug and he just let her in for as long as she needed. But then she pulled away and tried talking again.
“Rider, what am I going to do? I’m being accused for murder! I didn’t do it! I didn’t kill anyone!” Claudia cried. She was hysterical now, her face was red and swollen and her eyes pleaded for a miracle. He looked into her eyes and
“I know, I know. I know you didn’t kill anyone.” But when he said this he looked away. Maybe, just maybe, how does he know she didn’t? She did admit to her hatred for the teacher, it was her car and… no! He pulled away from the thought and shook his head. No! He abandoned that thought and went back to helping Claudia.
“You stay here; I’ll go and talk to Adrian.” He said this as he placed her back in her cell and got her a cup of water. Rider walked away, he was ashamed at himself for thinking that thought, but still, the slightest part of him thought that Claudia might have done it.
He stormed into Adrian’s office where he was holding an ice pack to his head, probably where Rider smashed it into the wall.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Adrian said, almost spitting his name at him.
“Well, sir… I have come here to apologise” Rider sat down in the seat opposite his desk.
“You can start explaining what the hell you were doing in the interrogation room” He placed his hands in front of him.
“Um, sir, I know I was over reacting and I’m sorry for what I did. But you have wrongly accused-“
Adrian stood up and started to turn red; Rider knew this wasn’t going to be pretty.
“How dare you talk to me that way? I did what my job states, putting away dirty criminals! Like your pretty little girlfriend there!” He was now in a mimicking voice. Adrian was now red and very angry. But according to Rider he had just stepped over the line.
“My girlfriend is not a murderer! She isn’t even a criminal! So no! How dare you?” Rider was in big trouble now but he didn’t give a damn. He stormed out of the office in a rage. But before he was completely out of the door he turned around.
“I will find the real killer! To prove you wrong!” And that was it; Rider was gone.
…
Rider was determined to prove Claudia innocent before her first trial He started by looking at rental websites for anyone who had hired a Toyota Corolla in the past week. But his computer wouldn’t allow him on the site. He shut down his computer and restarted in. After a minute of whirring it was back up. Please work, he thought to himself. He tried again and no difference, the website was down. This is weird, Rider opened up some other websites and they all worked the way they were meant to. Something was wrong with this website, which was weird because it was the only one he needed.
Rider got up from his seat and went to Patrick, or Pat as everyone calls him.
“Hey Pat, how ya doing today?” Rider walked into the conference room where Pat was working.
“I’m good, thanks. What can I do for you?” As he said this Rider gestured to his computer across the precinct.
“There is this one website that is down and I need it really urgently. Could you try and bring it back up, do a little bit of your hacking action.” Rider did his little hacking dance.
