Pen & Camera [TASM Peter X OC]

Chapter 6

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Ella put her gloves on before silently stepping out of her room. The doors of the apartment were always creaking, giving away the secrecy. Ella didn't want to risk being caught or her dad would definitely give her one hell of a lecture. And possibly prohibited her from using her phone or going anywhere. She wouldn't really blame him as she was very much aware that was she was going to do was illegal. Even though it was her dad's and that she doubted he would denounce her, it wouldn't mean that he wouldn't be mad.

Shaking the rising misgiving inside her, Ella tip-toed her way to the office of her dad. She took out pins from her hoodie and proceeded to pick the lock.

"Perfect," she cheered as she heard the "click" indicating the door was open.

Slowly, she opened the door and stepped into the office. Ella made her way toward the desk where she sat at. She opened the laptop and turned it on. It was the one given by the police station, where he could have access to the police's data from home. So Ella was sure to find what she was looking for inside.

She took out a small pot of black power. Thanks to the moonlight, there was no need to turn on the light which would have given away her position as well. Not wasting more time, Elle unrolled the cap of the pot and blew some of the powder on the laptop. She blew again to remove the excess residue and smiled as fingerprints appeared on a bunch of letters and numbers, the ones that were the most used.

"Okay... Hope it will work," she told herself as she stared deeply at the letters. "Dad always uses sentences as passwords,"

She tried a bunch of different sentences in her head but either a letter was missing or there was one extra. She reviewed the different sentences her father would always say in her head but none were matching as well. Besides, some letters could be used multiple times. And there were also the numbers. She had to figure out where to place them in the sentence and their order-

"Hold on a minute," she muttered then she silently gasped. "My birthday... Then it might be about me...,"

Again, Ella analyzed the letters. Two words stood out: "reporter" and "amazing". Those were the two words she was sure about.

"Maybe...,"

In a sudden impulse, Ella sat up better on the chair and put the powder pot back in her hoodie. She readjusted her gloves before typing: "MyDaughterIsAnAmazingReporter090195". Mr. Cadogan had always told Ella to use capital letters for each word she would use in her passwords. He wouldn't give her such advice if he wouldn't be using it for himself. And her guess was right. Ella had to stop herself from gasping as the laptop unlocked.

With a victorious smile, she wasted no more seconds before entering the system of the NYPD. She entered the description needed for research and waited for the program to find him. But as expected, the description was way too vague. A bunch of men with medium blond hair in their late thirty were shown. But Ella knew she couldn't ask for more as she did not know much about the murderer of Ben Parker.