If Things Were Different

Chapter Four

Toby frowned as he looked through Matthews’ house, searching for any paper or digital document that the bastard had, perchance, left behind. So far, all he had found was a locked computer, and a quick text to Ben fixed that. Until Ben was finished, Toby was looking around to see if he had missed anything.

“Hey man,” a electronic-sounding voice spoke up. Toby turns and frowns at Ben. The drowned victim returns the frown, his red eyes glaring into Toby’s.

“Wh-what did you f-fi-find?” Ben turns to Matthews’ old computer, the screen flickering to life without Ben even touching it.

“Well, he deleted every trace of his files. Nothing was sent out through email, and nothing was delivered. It’s almost like he did this to throw us off,” he informs, staring intently at the screen. Multiple files are opened and closed; pictures, documents, websites, and .EXE files flashed across the screen, too quickly for Toby to completely see what they contained, but was slow enough for him to see what they were.

“Okay, an-and?” Toby snaps, growing impatient. If all of this had been for nothing, HE would be extremely pissed, and that’s not something he was too excited about.

“Before you get all pissed off,” Ben says, turning to deepen his frown at the Proxy, “I managed to find something. The file wasn’t very big, and at first, I thought it held no significance, but I was wrong.” Ben turns back to the computer, manually opening a file. Toby leans in and narrows his eyes from behind his goggles. Ben’s cursor was hovering over a file with a few pictures in it, titled ’Summer2017.

“Su-summ-mmer twe-twenty seven-t-teen,” Toby states, his frown turning into an annoyed grimace. Ben nods, glancing at him.

“I know. I didn’t think it would hold any useful information, either. When I opened it, sure, it had some pictures, but check this out.” Ben opens the file and scrolls through it. Toby, irritated beyond belief, decides to at least humor the hacker, leaning in to see what the fuck he was talking about. Ben stops at a strange document with what seemed to be a lock over it.

“What the-”

“I know,” Ben says. “It doesn’t look like it should’ve held anything of importance, but Matthews is, or more grammatically correct, was, pretty fucking crafty. I’m so glad I opened this file. Otherwise, I never would’ve found it.”

“A-Aren’t you go-going t-t-to open i-it?” the Proxy asks, an eyebrow raised.

“I tried. It may take me a while to open it, so give me a few hours to a few days. I’ll report my findings to HIM when I’m done,” Ben concludes, disappearing through the computer. Toby sighs and turns, glancing around once more.

“W-we’ll fi-find what y-y-you’re hiding, Matt-Matthews,” he grumbles, beginning to stalk towards the window he entered from.

“Tell me again why we decided to leave Matthews’ house to Toby of all people,” Masky grumbles, keeping an eye out for (BFF/N). Hoodie frowns as he turns the safe’s dial, saying nothing as he listens for a clicking noise. Masky continues to grumble quietly, but says nothing more to Hoodie.

“Got it,” Hoodie announces, opening the safe door. Masky glances out the room once more before making his way to his partner. Hoodie picks up a flashlight from the ground and points the beam to the insides of the safe, frowning under his mask. Papers, some yellowed with age and some looking brand new, were neatly stacked. The green-eyed Proxy supports the flashlight between his shoulder and cheek, reaching in and grabbing the stack of papers. Masky hovers over him, watching with little interest as his partner reads through them, one by one.