Page 35 of If She Sensed

“She done something awful?”he asked.

“We don’t know yet.But we’ve knocked several times and she’s not answering.”

“This is Ms.Calder.She… well, she seems sweet.”

“Do you know her well?”Kate asked.

“No, not really.But I’ve never had any trouble from her.”H then shrugged as if it really didn’t mater and started working his way through a series of keys on a big ring.

"This is going to be a whole thing, isn't it," he said.It was not really a question.

"We'll be as quick as we can," Kate said.

"That's what the last person said who woke me up at midnight.But a clogged toilet and eleven grand in ceiling repairs later, it was a different story."He found the key, unlocked the door, and pushed it open.He then stepped back to let them through."I'll wait out here, I guess."

"Please," Kate said."That would be helpful."

She stepped inside first, her hand at her hip, and reached for the light switch just inside the door.The overhead came on to reveal a small and well-kept apartment.The kitchen and living area were joined; the kitchen was featureless with just the basics, and in the living room a single couch faced a dark television.The kitchen was clean and orderly, one mug drying in the rack beside the sink.A small dining table sat against the window, and on it was a laptop, closed, its charging cable running to the baseboard outlet.

Kate crossed to the table and opened the laptop lid.The screen woke immediately to a login prompt.A gray coastal landscape filled the background behind the password field.She was not surprised to find it locked.

Sloane had already moved through the rest of the apartment.She came back from the bedroom in under thirty seconds."Clear.She packed something.Closet door's open, empty hangers on the floor."She nodded to the laptop and said, “Any luck with that?”

“Locked.We're not getting into that tonight," she said.

Sloane stopped to think about something.After a few seconds, her eyebrows raised and her expression shifted."You know… It’s actually not that big of a deal.We may not even need to get into it.If we’re just concerned with seeing when and how often she’s logged in within the past day or so, all platform logs session data server-side," she said."We don't need to get into the laptop if Dave can pull her activity directly from the backend."

She already had her phone out and was dialing before Kate could respond.The look on her face was trapped somewhere between amusement and embarrassment—as if she strongly felt she should have thought of this first.

"Hey, it's Sloane,” she said as Dave answered.“I need you back on Fresh Horizons."Kate could hear the eagerness in Dave’s response, even though the phone was not on speaker mode.“We need Ruth Calder's session data from the Fresh Horizons platform.Last login, last page viewed, duration.Her laptop is here but it's locked."

At this point, Sloane did place it on speaker mode so Kate could listen in.“…and it’s already in the backend," Dave was saying.The typing started immediately, a clicking clatter in the background.It took less than twenty seconds before Dave started speaking again."Okay so it looks like Calder logged in at 9:48 tonight, and she was on for fourteen minutes.And…let’s see here…looks like the last page she visited was a member profile.Diane Marsh."

Kate straightened."Can you see what she accessed within the profile?"

"Platform logs page visits, not specific field interactions,” he said.He recited it all off as if he was simply discussing a movie or a book he was currently reading.“She was on Marsh's profile for nine of those fourteen minutes, but I can't tell you which sections she was reading.I’m notthatmagical."He continued without being prompted."What I can tell you is what's visible on Marsh's profile to any registered member.Want me to pull it?"

"Yes."

As they listened to more typing, Kate noticed the building manager peeking in through the door.

"Marsh filled out most of the optional intake fields," Dave finally answered."Display name, bio, general neighborhood listed as Carytown.And she put her cross-street in the community matching section; that’s apparently an optional field, meant to help the program pair members geographically.Jesus… whatever happened to privacy?"

“Can you give us that location?”Kate asked.

“Sure thing.”He read it off."Looks like it’s near the intersection of Ellwood and Auburn.Cross that with a basic people-search and you'd have a specific address in under two minutes."He said it without editorializing, which somehow made it worse.

"She has the address," Kate muttered.

"Or close enough that it wouldn't matter," Sloane said.

"I want to go on record as saying that optional field should not exist," Dave said with a bit of humor in his tone.“It’s like these people arelookingfor trouble.”

“No, they’re just desperate and hoping to start over,” Kate said again reminded of how closely she had identified with Carol Paige when this had all started.

"When exactly did her session end?"Sloane asked.

"10:32.She was Marsh's profile from 10:21 to 10:30.The session closed two minutes after that."