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Ajax:Then everything is a secret. For now. I promise this protects us both. You have to agree to do everything I ask.
Kayleigh:Fine. I promise.
Ajax:All of our communication should be here, on SJ. No texts or calls or emails or social media or anything like that. Just here. Do you promise?
Kayleigh:Promise. When can I see you?
Another meeting was set up. Kayleigh was to meet him on a city street after one of her shifts. Most of the messages after that were about stories. Every so often, Kayleigh would message something like, “last night was amazing,” but Ajax would turn the conversation back to something she’d written. There was a spat once she changed her username. He was afraid people would ask questions, but Kayleigh insisted that no one who knew her even knew she was active on the app. There were messages setting up meetings and dates and late-night trysts. Then more exchanges about her stories. Ajax started editing them for her and Kayleigh began writing less about sex and more about other things, culminating in a short story called “Bumper Cars,” which, based on Ajax’s notes, was about two sisters on a family vacation where one got left behind at the bumper cars. Later, she began dabbling in fantasy stories, writing a story about two sisters poised to inherit a magical kingdom from their parents.
“They’re talking here about the story Felicia took,” Josie said. “Based on these exchanges, I’d say that Kayleigh did write it.”
Reading along with her, Noah said, “Yeah, these are intense editing notes.”
“This doesn’t help us, though.” Josie kept going until she found the messages where Kayleigh told Ajax about the plagiarism, including the drama that had taken place in school, and the fact that Kayleigh’s parents didn’t believe her and never even considered that she could have written something good enough to earn a spot at a writing program. Ajax was supportive and consoling and offered several lessons on copyright law until Kayleigh said she was going to use their messages and her upload history on StoryJot to prove that she had written the story.
Ajax turned downright mean at that point.You cannot use these messages or anything from StoryJot. You cannot show them to your parents or anyone else. If you do, it’s over between us.
Kayleigh:Are you serious? I thought you were on my side. It’s literally the only way that I can prove that I’m telling the truth and that Felicia stole my story!
Ajax:If you show anyone your account on this app, we are over. If anyone comes asking me about it, or your story, I will tell them I don’t know you.
Kayleigh:Who even are you right now? Why are you acting like this? You’re the one who told me all that stuff about copyrights. It’s my story! I can prove it! You can help me prove it!
Ajax:At what cost? Let’s be frank. If people found out about us, I could get in serious trouble. You know that. You’ve always known that. That’s why I didn’t want to be together in the first place.
Kayleigh:That’s not what you said. You said we were too different.
Ajax:I was right. We must be too different if you can’t understand where I am coming from with this. You’re talking about one story. I’m talking about my life.
Kayleigh:I’m talking about my life, too. That award and the summer program could change my life.
Ajax:You can always write more stories. You can go to college. This one thing isn’t going to change anything for you but if you expose me, my life is completely over. If you really love me, you can sacrifice this one story for me. There are other ways to make Felicia pay.
Like what?Kayleigh had written.What other ways?Wait, I know!What if I wrote a story so good and so big that it went viral? Then she couldn’t steal it from me.
Don’t be a child,Ajax had responded.That’s not even possible. There are other ways.
“Here we go,” Noah said, an edge of excitement to his voice.
But Ajax never offered any other ways. He didn’t threaten Felicia or say he would kill her. He didn’t say anything at all. “He’s too smart,” Josie said. “He’d never make threats in writing. Not after going to so much trouble to keep his relationship with Kayleigh secret.”
“Then we’ve got to find this guy and talk to him. Let’s prepare a warrant for StoryJot and see if we can get user information or an IP address over the phone.”
“That could take forever,” Josie said. “If we can get the IP address right away, we could probably track him down, as long as he’s not using any sophisticated program to block or hide it.”
“Even if we have to wait, it could still help us find this guy. What if the DNA from Felicia’s body comes back and it’s not Henry Thomas?” Noah said. “What if we’re wrong about him, and this Ajax is the person we need to be looking for? We’ll already have this in the works.”
Josie explored the app. “True. I’m just saying with some of these online outfits, trying to get any human on the line is frustrating. This one is popular but it’s not that popular. Remember when we tried to get information out of that review website on the Collins case? It was almost impossible.”
“That was a website,” Noah pointed out. “This is an app with tens of thousands of users. Someone out there is running it. They’ve got to have a legal department. We just have to find it.”
“They don’t even have a customer service number. They want you to fill out this ‘contact us’ form and wait five to seven days for an answer, even for legal inquiries!”
Noah stood and wheeled his chair back to his own desk to write the warrant. Josie looked up to see him grinning at her. “What?” she said.
“You always find ways around that sort of thing. Just do what you do.”
FORTY
