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“Hi Beth,” Leo says. “Can you hear me alright? Is the volume okay?”
“It’s fine.” Her brown eyes crinkle. “Better than when these other guys try to set up the videoconferencing.”
Cole turns his chair to face Beth. “Thanks for joining us. And thank you for all your help. I know Leo could have explained everything, but since you made the discovery, I wanted Charlie to be able to meet you, so to speak.”
Beth scans the room, giving Leo and I little waves, before her gaze lands on Charlie. “Hi Charlie. I was really glad I could help with this.”
“Hi.” Charlie waves at Beth, a nervous smile twitching at her lips. She swallows hard before continuing, “Thank you. Although I’m not sure what to thank you for yet. But Cole said it’s not bad news, so…”
“It’s not.” Beth glances over at Leo, then back to Charlie. “Since Leo reached out to me about your case, I’ve been searching for a clue to help pinpoint where these videos are originating. It’s been a big job, unfortunately, due to the number of reposts and shares across social media. And with videos on the dark web—”
“The dark web?” Charlie interrupts, her voice going high. “There were videos of me on the dark web, too?” Her chin starts wobbling. “Isn’t that where people hire hitmen and sell drugs and”—her voice cracks—“my face was there, too?”
“Hey.” I turn Charlie’s chair so she’s facing me, putting my hands on her knees. “It’s okay. We’re going to find a way to get everything down.” I glance over between Beth and Leo. “Right?”
Beth is frowning, her expression apologetic. “Yes. I’m sorry, Charlie. I should have said it more gently. Sometimes I get focused on the technical part of the job. But yes, I’m working with Tex on developing a web crawler that will find all the photos and videos and scrub them from the internet.”
Leo jumps in, his tone gentle and reassuring. “They will all get taken down, Charlie. We’ll make sure of it.”
As we turn back to the table, I rub Charlie’s neck, massaging at the little knots of tension. “Maybe we could get to the good news?”
Beth nods sharply. “Yes. So, with all the original videos—the deepfakes—they were posted using multiple VPNs and proxies. And once the original had been shared, it was deleted. With the shared videos, all identifiable information had been scraped off them. But then we found a video that was overlooked. It still had the original IP address attached to it.”
“So from there,” Beth continues, “It was relatively simple. We traced the IP address to a specific location, cross-checked it by running through individuals in the area who have advanced IT knowledge, and once I had a small list of possible suspects, I hacked into their computers to find evidence of the deepfakes and your actual images.”
I glance around the table to see if anyone looks as lost as I feel. Leo is nodding in understanding, but Cole and Charlie both look perplexed. Charlie leans into me and whispers, “Did you follow that?”
“Not really,” I whisper back.
“Can you maybe make that a little simpler for us non-techies?” Cole asks.
“Beth.” Leo shakes his head at her, lightly scolding. “Maybe you should just skip to the end of it?”
“I thought they might want to know how I did it,” Beth retorts, making a face at Leo.
“We appreciate it, Beth,” Cole says, pacifying. “But I’m sure Charlie is eager to hear your news.”
“I found her.” There’s a sound of clicking from Beth’s end of the call, and a photo appears in the corner of the screen. “Her name is Morgan Ives. She’s a social media manager from Pittsburgh. She also contracts out on small hacking jobs through the dark web.”
Charlie stretches forward to look at the photo on the screen. “I’ve never heard of her. Or seen her. Why would a complete stranger do this to me?”
“We don’t know,” Leo answers. “But we’re collecting all the evidence and it will be turned over to the police.”
“And the FBI,” Cole adds, “I’m working with a friend of mine who’s in the FBI in Texas—he’s going to help grease the wheels here in New York, and in Pennsylvania. We’re going to make sure this woman is punished for what she’s done to you, Charlie.”
My jaw clenches, and I grit out, “And once they have her in custody, we’ll find out why she did this.”
Charlie’s quiet, the hope in her eyes dimmed by skepticism. After a long pause, she asks, “So it’s definitely her? Are you sure?”
Charlie’s hesitant to believe it, and I can’t really blame her. After everything, it’s almost anticlimactic. Just a stranger on a screen, this unknown person, responsible for turning Charlie’s life upside down.
“It’s definitely her,” Beth replies. “I’m a hundred percent certain.”
Charlie stares at Beth silently, lips trembling, her jaw clenching hard. Each time she tries to speak, her throat clicks, nothing coming out. Finally, she manages to squeeze out a small, “Oh…”
Her features twist as she tries to maintain control. “I don’t…” Tears are welling up in her eyes, and she looks at me desperately. “Ry—”
I know without her saying anything—she doesn’t want to cry in front of two people she’s only just met. “It’s okay, hun. You don’t have to say anything.”
