Chapter 6 - The Staff Network
The district locked down access to its internal network before the final bell.
Rumors spread faster than facts.
A teacher had helped Madison.
The principal was resigning.
Police were searching classrooms.
None of it was true.
Not yet.
What district IT actually knew was narrower: the edited cafeteria video had been uploaded through an internet connection reserved for staff devices.
That could mean a teacher.
Or it could mean someone who had gained access to a staff password.
Detective Vega warned Emma not to make assumptions.
“Evidence tells us what happened,” she said. “Not what we’re afraid happened.”
Emma liked her for that.
By afternoon, school technicians discovered the device.
A Chromebook assigned to Vice Principal Grant Vance.
Vance insisted it had been stolen from his office during lunch.
Security footage showed the office door standing open for eleven minutes.
No camera covered the interior.
Madison had been in the principal’s conference room during most of that period.
Tessa had been with her father.
Brooke had already left campus.
That seemed to clear them.
Until Zoe pointed out something nobody else had considered.
“Kyle Benton.”
Emma turned.
They were sitting in Ms. Alvarez’s office with Detective Vega.
“The boy filming me?”
“Madison trusts him.”
“How would he get Vance’s laptop?”
“He works in the athletic office during fifth period.”
Detective Vega wrote down the name.
“Do you know his schedule?”
“No. But everybody knows he helps Coach Vance.”
Howard grimaced at the use of the word Coach.
Vance had coached varsity soccer before becoming assistant principal. Madison was team captain.
Another connection.
Vega asked Emma, “Did Kyle leave the cafeteria?”
Emma replayed the scene.
“He was there when Madison called Lucy a liar.”
“After that?”
“I don’t know.”
Zoe did.
“He left right before the officers came.”
Detective Vega stepped into the hall and called Officer Ruiz.
Twenty minutes later, Kyle was brought to the office.
He wasn’t arrested.
He wasn’t handcuffed.
But his bravado disappeared when his father arrived and Detective Vega explained that investigators were preserving digital evidence connected to possible harassment and extortion.
Kyle denied everything.
Then Vance’s Chromebook was found inside his backpack.
His father stared at him.
“Kyle.”
“I didn’t steal it.”
“How did it get there?”
“Madison told me where the spare key was.”
The room went silent.
Detective Vega didn’t react.
“When did she tell you?”
“Last month.”
“Why?”
Kyle looked at his father.
His father said, “Answer her.”
“Sometimes we used the office.”
“For what?”
“Nothing.”
“Kyle.”
“Editing.”
“Editing what?”
He looked at Emma.
She understood before he said it.
“Scoreboard videos.”
Emma felt her stomach turn.
Vance had denied knowing the group existed.
Yet students had been using his office to edit its content.
“Did Mr. Vance know?” Vega asked.
Kyle shook his head fast.
“No.”
“Did he ever see you in there?”
“No.”
“Did he give Madison permission?”
“No.”
“Why use his office?”
“Because there weren’t cameras inside.”
Howard’s jaw tightened.
“Who told you that?”
Kyle didn’t answer.
Vega waited.
Finally he whispered, “Madison.”
“Did she tell you to upload the edited cafeteria video today?”
Kyle nodded.
His father covered his face.
“Why?”
“She said Emma was trying to ruin her life.”
Emma almost spoke.
Vega raised a hand gently, reminding her to stay quiet.
“What did Madison tell you to do?”
“Make it look like Emma started it.”
“Did you know what happened to Lucy Parker?”
“No.”
“Did you know about Scoreboard payments?”
Kyle stared at the floor.
“That’s not my thing.”
“What does that mean?”
“I edited videos.”
“For free?”
He hesitated.
“Mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Madison gave me money sometimes.”
“How much?”
“Twenty bucks. Fifty.”
“From where?”
“I don’t know.”
Zoe whispered, “Gift cards.”
Kyle looked at her.
That look was enough.
Detective Vega saw it too.
She shifted direction.
“Who created Scoreboard?”
“I don’t know.”
“Who runs it now?”
Kyle swallowed.
“Madison.”
“Who else has administrator access?”
“I did.”
“Anyone else?”
Silence.
“Kyle?”
He looked terrified.
“One person.”
“Name.”
“I can’t.”
His father slammed a palm on the table.
“You absolutely can.”
Kyle flinched.
“It wasn’t supposed to get this serious.”
Emma’s anger boiled over.
“My sister was locked in a cage.”
“I didn’t know!”
“You helped them post videos.”
“I just edited them!”
“And that makes it okay?”
“No!”
The answer came out as a shout.
Kyle’s eyes filled unexpectedly.
“I thought it was jokes.”
Zoe laughed bitterly.
“It stopped being jokes when people started paying.”
Kyle looked at her.
“I know.”
Emma caught the word.
“You know?”
He went still.
“How?”
Kyle said nothing.
Detective Vega repeated the question.
“How do you know?”
Kyle’s face crumpled.
“Because I saw the spreadsheet.”
Emma leaned forward.
“What spreadsheet?”
Madison had kept records.
Names.
Amounts.
Dates.
Victims.
Kyle said he had seen it open on Vance’s office computer three weeks earlier.
Not on the Chromebook.
On the administrator desktop.
Howard stared at him.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Whose account was logged in?”
Kyle shook his head.
“I didn’t check.”
“Where was Madison?”
“Standing beside me.”
“And Vance?”
“Not there.”
Detective Vega asked the obvious question.
“Did Madison have the password?”
Kyle answered quietly.
“Yes.”
Howard’s face hardened.
“How?”
Kyle hesitated.
Then he said, “Her mother gave it to her.”
No one moved.
Emma thought of Dana Reed walking into the conference room, demanding that nobody listen to the recording until she arrived.
The school board committee chair.
The fundraiser.
The woman who had told Howard to remember last semester.
Detective Vega’s voice became very calm.
“How would Dana Reed know Vice Principal Vance’s password?”
Kyle looked sick.
“Because I heard Madison say they used the same one for the fundraising account.”
And suddenly what had begun as school bullying was no longer only about teenagers humiliating other teenagers.
There was money.
There was an administrative account.
May you like
And Dana Reed’s name had just entered the evidence chain.
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