The Face Behind The Mask

15

In the conference room, Peyton shared her screen with the team. "It's too much copy. Nobody's gonna read all this," she said.

Skyden nodded in agreement and sipped her coffee.

Lori said, "I thought we already had this discussion with Tony."

Peyton shrugged. "I get the SEO issue but really."

Josh added, "There's too much text. It's gonna be a UX nightmare. I can't do anything if they're not going to chop at least half of this."

Skyden's watch vibrated. She was about to let it go to VM when she noticed the incoming caller was Pittsburgh Police.

"Excuse me," she said, rising from her chair. "I need to take this." By the time she walked back toward her desk, the call ended. She read the message and then dialed her husband.

"Hey, Sky," said Cameron. "I just dropped off the kids at school. What's up?"

"Are you available?"

"When? Now?"

Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the police station where they were escorted to an office on the second floor.

Detective Patrice Orion, a short stocky Black woman greeted them. "Won't you have a seat, Mr. and Ms. McKenzie?" She gestured to two metal-framed plastic chairs and then sat behind a hulking wooden desk that must have weighed as much as an old Chevy.

The office was what you'd expect of a city police department. Utilitarian. Faded gray walls, peel-and-stick floor tiles, and dented metal file cabinets.

"I read the incident report," the detective said. "I thought we should talk. Can I get you some coffee or water?" She had a sweetness in her face and in her warm brown eyes like she'd never seen violence.

"No, thanks," said Skyden.

Orion folded her hands on her desk. They seemed out of proportion with broad wrists and thick fingers. "I'm about to ask you a dumb question, but please humor me."

Skyden didn't know what to expect.

"Do you have any recent pictures of your daughter? Kelsey?"

Skyden and Cam both went into their phones and began scrolling.

"Here's one," said Skyden, then cut herself off. "Here's a better one." She showed her phone to the detective. Cam offered his phone. "That's a nice photo," said the detective. He smiled. "She's a very pretty young lady," Orion said.

Skyden beamed.

"She looks like her mom." The detective opened the folder on her desk. "I've been brought into a missing persons investigation. Girls about the same age as your Kelsey."

She removed two photos from the folder and placed them on the desk facing the McKenzies. Pictured were two blonde teens who resembled one another. "These girls are from Ohio." She added a third photo of another blonde girl. "This one is from Western Pennsylvania."

Skyden and Cam studied the photos.

"Each of these victims was abducted near or in her home when they were alone. This is no coincidence. These girls were being watched. And so were you by your online stalker."

"We don't know that it's an online stalker, do we?" said Skyden, fear flickering in her eyes.

"Back in high school," said Orion, sliding the photos back into the folder. "Did you ever play Google Fight?"

"Doesn't sound familiar," said Cameron.

"You'd enter your name and you'd play against someone else to see who's more popular."

"Yeah, I think I do remember kids playing that," said Skyden.

The detective swiveled her computer screen toward the McKenzies. "Here's a site that does pretty much the same thing. I type in my name..." She typed Patrice Orion. "And now you." She typed in Skyden McKenzie.

The search for Patrice Orion produced 437 results. The search for Skyden McKenzie showed 76,522.

"There are probably more than a few Patrice Orions, but how many Skyden McKenzies do you think there are?" The detective didn't expect a verbal response. "Seventy-six thousand hits. I'd say that qualifies him as a stalker."

Cameron leaned forward in his chair. "Do you think it's the same person that tried to break in?"

"I do."

"Can't you trace her Facebook posts? Find out who she is?"

"Your stalker used and is probably still using an IP address blocker."

"Is she some kind of techie or something?"

"Anybody can do it with free software. It's simple." Orion looked into Skyden's eyes. "Your stalker posed as your friend but trust me, it's not a woman."

Cameron exhaled his frustration.

"Online trolls and stalkers are cowards. They use the anonymity of the internet to hide. This particular guy did a lot of digging to find you and to use the identity of your friend from high school."

"Why me?" said Skyden. "I don't get it."

Orion fixed her in a calm gaze. "Sometimes being an attractive woman draws the wrong kind of attention. Maybe he saw your picture somewhere and started down that rabbit hole."

She looked from Skyden to Cameron and back again.

"Catfishing happens hundreds of times a day. It's usually kids. Someone who's bored and has a lot of time on their hands. Like making prank phone calls the way we did when we were kids. Just kids being dumb kids." She tapped the folder with her index finger. "But this guy has me concerned. Obviously, he's not a kid. Someone who abducts children right out of their homes in broad daylight. This is a different animal we're dealing with."

Tension banged around inside Skyden's chest, rattled up her spine, and set off a crushing headache. When she clenched her eyes she felt her husband take her hand.

"You sure I can't get you a glass of water, Ms. McKenzie?" Orion said.

Skyden shook her head 'no.'

Orion's partner, Detective William Lloyd, knocked on her office door and pushed it open. "Whoops. Didn't know you were–"

"We're just wrapping things up," said Orion. Then back to Skyden, she said, "I hope you're off the social media sites."

Skyden answered with a vigorous nod.

"Don't let Kelsey go anywhere by herself. Change up your routines. Don't make yourselves predictable. Leave and come home at different times. Drive different routes. If you see a stranger hanging around your neighborhood or at Kelsey's school, reach out to me right away. There's a good chance he's been scared off what with the police showing up at your home. He'll probably move on to the next one. But don't let your guard down."

Getting out of his chair, Cameron said, "I think I'd better cancel my out-of-town trips." He ushered his wife out of the office, past the husky detective.

"You folks have a good day," said Lloyd as they squeezed by. He watched Skyden and Cameron move down the hall toward the exit like the building was on fire.

He entered Orion's office shaking his head. "A stalker used to have to work his tail off, crawling through dumpsters, stealing mail, sitting in trees with binoculars. Now you got these social media addicts volunteering every piece of personal information to the whole world, down to the location of the moles on their asses."

Patrice narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm just sayin'."