Chapter 4 - THE GROUP CHAT
The group chat was called:
NORTH HALL.
Six students.
Ryan.
Tyler.
Mason Bell.
Luke Evans.
Cole Harper.
And one anonymous account.
Then came Tyler.
Tyler wanted out.
He wrote:
Stop posting Ava.
This is getting weird.
Ava Miller was a fourteen-year-old student with a speech disorder.
The anonymous account had begun posting edited audio clips of her presentations.
Ryan replied:
Relax. It’s jokes.
Tyler:
She’s crying.
Ryan:
Then stop sending clips.
The anonymous user:
Too late.
After that, Tyler left the chat.
Three days later, the school received screenshots.
Ryan became the obvious target because he had created NORTH HALL.
He was suspended.
But Claire noticed something.
The most vicious posts came from the anonymous account.
Ryan’s messages were bad.
The anonymous account escalated them.
Then Claire found a message from Ryan to the anonymous user.
Who are you?
No response.
Later:
Stop using my name.
The anonymous account had posted a fundraiser link labeled:
RYAN’S PRIVATE SALES PAGE.
Same link that later redirected the $3,840.
Claire stared.
“Ryan, did you create this?”
“No.”
“Why didn’t you tell the school?”
“I did.”
“They didn’t believe you.”
“They said the account came from my activity group.”
Then Ms. Parker joined a school meeting.
She was not Ryan’s teacher, but she had heard parts of the case because Emma’s tablet contained the chat cache.
The school’s IT team had already found that some anonymous posts were created from:
school Wi-Fi,
public library Wi-Fi,
and a residential network.
Claire asked which residence.
The administrator hesitated.
Privacy rules.
Ongoing investigation.
Then he said:
“It matched an address associated with one of the students.”
“Which?”
“We can’t tell you yet.”
Then IT found the recovery email used to reset Ryan’s fundraiser password.
It was not Claire’s.
Not Ryan’s.
It belonged to:
Mason Bell’s mother.
Ryan’s face went white.
“Mason?”
Then he shook his head.
“No.”
“What?”
“Mason’s mom died last year.”
May you like
Claire stared.
The recovery email belonged to a dead woman.
