Chapter 8 - DIANE'S LOGIN
Diane’s booster account had broad access.
Too broad.
Years earlier, the school allowed booster officers access to:
fundraising files,
team rosters,
travel documents,
shared event templates.
No one had removed outdated permissions.
Diane could open cheer archives.
She insisted she never created Maya’s forms.
IT found her credentials saved on a laptop used at the booster concession stand.
Dozens of volunteers had access.
Again, not proof.
Then one detail changed the direction.
The searches occurred at 8:14 p.m. from Diane’s home IP.
Diane looked stunned.
“Were you home?” Harris asked.
“Yes. So were my husband and Brooke.”
Everyone looked at Brooke.
Then Diane remembered something.
Brooke had used her laptop that evening to print booster forms.
Brooke started crying.
“I searched the signature thing.”
“Why?” Harris asked.
“To make the self-report look real.”
Maya’s stomach dropped.
So Brooke admitted forging the anxiety self-report.
She copied Maya’s signature from a team travel form.
She altered the wellness page.
She created the withdrawal draft.
Why?
“I wanted Coach to think Maya was already halfway out.”
Claire stared at her.
“How did you think this ends?”
Brooke wiped her face.
“She’d get moved to alternate. I’d get the recommendation. The team would calm down.”
“You locked her in a closet.”
“I didn’t.”
“Your friends did it for you.”
Brooke looked away.
Then she admitted telling Kayla:
Keep Maya away from Coach until I get the papers back.
Not:
lock her in.
But enough to start the chain.
Then Harris asked about the second tablet.
Brooke said she did not know.
She used it at practice sometimes.
Did she put it in the blue duffel?
“Yes.”
Two tablets.
She confirmed Maya’s memory.
So one tablet disappeared after Grant took the bag.
Grant denied taking it.
Who else entered the athletics cage after him?
Access log showed no second badge.
But the cage door could be propped open.
Security camera in gym showed Grant exiting with the blue duffel at 3:54.
At 3:57, another person entered the gym-side storage area.
No badge because door had not fully latched.
Person wore:
black booster jacket,
baseball cap.
Face obscured.
Diane owned a black booster jacket.
So did eight other parents.
Then the footage showed the person carrying a small tablet out under the jacket.
The person walked toward the parking lot.
Car camera later captured a partial license plate.
Diane looked at it.
Her face changed.
“That’s my husband’s car.”
Brooke whispered:
“Dad?”
May you like
Diane’s husband, Michael Ellis, had never been mentioned in the investigation.
Yet his car had left campus with the missing tablet.
