Chapter 3 - RACHEL USED EMMA’S ACCOUNT
Emma had terrible password habits.
One password for everything important.
A variation for everything else.
Rachel knew the important one.
She had known it since they were teenagers sharing streaming accounts and school laptops.
After Emma disappeared, Rachel logged into her university account.
The first time was to look for clues.
The second was because she convinced herself the first had not been enough.
She searched mail.
Calendar.
Cloud files.
Drafts.
Nothing told her where Emma went.
There were messages with Vanessa.
Most hostile.
Emma:
You lied about the tunnel.
Vanessa:
You gave us the route.
Emma:
I gave you a draft map. I didn’t tell you to take twelve people underground.
Vanessa:
You knew we used it before.
Then one message Rachel could not stop thinking about.
Emma to Vanessa, three days before she disappeared:
If I get the original log, I’m done giving you chances.
Vanessa:
You promised Leah this wouldn’t turn into a circus.
Emma:
Correct your statement and it won’t.
That morning Rachel had watched Vanessa cross campus laughing with Brooke.
Eighteen days of anger boiled into one bad idea.
She logged into Emma’s account.
Typed:
You left something under West Walk. Noon.
Sent it to Vanessa.
Nothing else.
Or so Rachel thought.
Lieutenant Brooks read the IT report later that afternoon.
Campus information security had preserved account logs after Emma disappeared.
Rachel’s login came from her dorm network at 9:06 a.m.
Message sent 9:11.
Vanessa opened it at 9:14.
At 9:17 Vanessa sent a text from her personal phone to an unsaved number:
Carter is back. West Walk. Noon.
Brooks looked at Vanessa.
“Who received this?”
Vanessa asked for a lawyer.
That was sensible.
Rachel stared at the text.
“She told somebody Emma was back.”
Brooks corrected:
“She told somebody Carter was back.”
Rachel looked at her.
Brooks continued.
“Whoever was below may have assumed she meant Emma.”
The words from beneath the grate changed meaning.
You brought the wrong sister.
Rachel had not only provoked Vanessa.
She had caused Vanessa to alert someone connected to Emma.
Someone who had apparently entered the utility tunnel expecting Rachel’s missing sister.
Rachel felt sick.
Brooks asked:
“Why didn’t you tell us you impersonated Emma?”
“I didn’t think—”
Rachel stopped.
Bad sentence.
She tried again.
“I wanted Vanessa to react.”
“She did.”
“Yes.”
“And now an unknown person connected to an active missing-person investigation knows somebody has access to Emma’s account.”
Rachel looked down.
“Yes.”
Brooks did not lecture.
She did something worse.
Wrote it down.
Then university IT discovered another problem.
Emma’s account had been accessed twice after she disappeared.
One login was Rachel.
The other was not.
Timestamp:
11:58 p.m.
The night Emma vanished.
Location:
Student Center Event Operations terminal.
Rachel stared at the screen.
“Was Emma there?”
Brooks answered:
“Campus camera puts her at the central bus terminal at 11:41.”
Seventeen minutes earlier.
Five miles away.
“Could she get back?”
“No.”
“So somebody else used her account.”
“Possibly.”
“Who has access to the Event Operations terminal?”
Brooks looked at the request she had already sent.
“We’re finding out.”
Then she added:
“And before you ask—no, you are not logging into anything else.”
Rachel nodded.
Fair.
Her phone buzzed.
Brooke.
A message.
I have the video from the night Emma left. Vanessa doesn’t know I kept it.
Rachel read it once.
Then handed the phone directly to Brooks.
May you like
She was learning.
Slowly.
