The Sleeping Beauty Killer

62

At the warehouse, Charlotte was pulling up the most recent printout from Ladyform’s Information Technology Department summarizing Internet usage on the company computers. The monthly list notified her of every single website accessed at Ladyform, ranked with the most commonly used sites first. As usual, Ladyform’s own website and social media platforms dominated the top of the list. She hit “Command-F” on her keyboard to access the find function. She typed in the word Chatter and hit enter.

She remembered Laurie complaining about the speed with which the Chatter blog had broken the news of Casey’s release-and in such a negative light.

Seventeen hits in the last month-all from one computer. The users were listed by computer numbers, rather than name.

She pulled out her cell phone to call the IT Department, but couldn’t get a signal. She finally found two signal-bars at the front of the warehouse, just inside the rolling steel door. It did not take long for Jamie in IT to confirm that the computer in question belonged to Angela. He also confirmed that she hadn’t merely read the blog. She had used her computer to submit comments on the page for “anonymous chatter.” Charlotte had a feeling that the time stamps for those entries would line up with the comments Laurie had been tracking.

She sent a quick text to Laurie: I think I know who’s behind those “And also” notes you were curious about. It’s complicated. Let’s talk tonight.

Laurie understandably wasn’t going to pull her show, but Charlotte might be able to convince her to leave Angela’s name out of it. Charlotte could only imagine what a difficult decision it had been for Angela. She loved her cousin, aunt, and uncle, but Casey was a murderer. Those Internet comments about Casey’s guilt must have been her way of trying to see that justice was served, without completely losing her only remaining family.

When Charlotte returned to the workout set, Angela was standing, hands on hips, next to the pile of exercise equipment she’d brought from the office. She picked up a pair of hot pink, three-pound hand weights and did a few curls, feigning fatigue. “What do you think? Set all this up in one station, or scatter it around the larger machines?”

“Great minds think alike,” Charlotte said, reaching for the two alternative sketches she’d been contemplating. “I couldn’t decide either. Maybe we should flip a coin. In the meantime, can we talk about something?”

“Sure.

“So this is awkward, but you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Of course. What’s up?”

“I know about The Chatter. And RIP_Hunter. I know it was your way of trying to tell the world Casey was guilty.”

“But how did you-”

“We monitor Internet use at the office. I noticed a pattern in the last month.” She saw no need to tell Angela that she’d specifically looked for one. “I’m just confused. You’ve always told me how close the two of you are. You said she was innocent.”

“I can explain, but, honestly, I was looking forward to finally getting my mind off Casey today. Let’s figure out this set first, and then I’ll tell you way more than you want to know about my cousin and me. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“Hand me that mat over there?”

Charlotte turned around and bent over to reach for a blue yoga mat. The thud of the three-pound hand weight against her head knocked her to the ground, where a blanket of darkness covered her.