Elemental Thief

Chapter 12

Though it was a Saturday, Ridley woke early the following morning. Dad was heading to the other side of the city to purchase a clock on behalf of his new client from someone who needed the cash more than he needed his collection of pre-Cataclysm collectibles. So Ridley had offered to man the store for the morning, which, sadly, meant she only had about ten minutes left to lie in bed.

She rolled over and squinted at the dull morning light seeping through her curtains, anger resurfacing as the previous night's conversation with Lilah washed over her again. She and Meera had left soon after that, and Ridley had told Meera not to despair. "I'll come up with something, don't worry." Then she'd sat with her laptop and followed Ezra's instructions to locate the live feed of the listening device she'd hid in Lawrence's bedroom, but it appeared the recording had ended several hours after it began. And prior to that, the only things recorded were footsteps, the shuffling of something that might have been paper, and then some loud rustling sounds before the recording abruptly cut off. Which probably meant that stupid, paranoid Lawrence Madson had discovered the darn thing.

And that left Ridley back at square one. So she had no idea what this 'something' would be that she'd promised Meera she would come up with. Hopefully by the time she saw Meera at the Wallace dinner tonight, a brilliant idea would have presented itself.

Wallace Academy kicked off every year with a social dinner for each class—a pointless event, in Ridley's opinion—and tonight was the seniors' turn. Yippee, she thought dully. Pulling out her fingernails seemed more appealing at this point.

She reached for her commscreen to check the time and was about to turn over for another three minutes when a message appeared on the screen.

Unknown: I found the footage. You were right. Your friend wasn't there. LM was.

Ridley sat up quickly, her heart pounding. "Lilah?" she murmured. It had to be. She raised her commscreen closer to her mouth and watched her words transcribe across the screen as she spoke. "You changed your mind."

Unknown: I needed to know the truth. If the video had shown something else, I wouldn't have told you about it.

Of course, Ridley thought as she sighed. She wouldn't have expected anything else of Lilah. Besides, if Ridley were in the same position, could she be so sure she'd do the right thing? If she found proof that her own father had committed murder, would she be able to turn him over to the cops? She pushed the thought aside, grateful she didn't need to have that moral debate with herself.

Ridley: You're going to do the right thing, I hope? Send it to the cops?

Unknown: No.

Ridley bit down her anger before replying; her commscreen found it hard to understand her when she spoke too quickly.

Ridley: Then why bother telling me what you discovered?

Unknown: I can't send it to the authorities. You know they're all in the mayor's pocket. He won't want anyone knowing his son was present at the scene of a murder. That video will never see the light of day if I send it to the police.

Ridley frowned at her commscreen. Lilah was probably right.

Ridley: Then what do we do?

Unknown: Look outside your window.

Ridley scrambled across her bed and pulled the curtain aside. On the windowsill sat a small plain envelope inside a clear plastic bag. She pushed the window up and grabbed the bag. Kneeling on the bed, she removed the envelope and tore the top open. Inside was a flash drive half the size of her thumb. She sat and reached back for her commscreen.