Missing and Endangered (Joanna Brady #19)(72)

“We’ve been examining that. So far we’re unable to find any record of those early interactions,” Agent Norris said.

“They’re gone?” Beth asked.

Agent Norris nodded. “So what can you tell us about them?”

“We mostly just texted back and forth—getting-to-know-you kind of stuff,” Beth replied. “Nothing important.”

“Wait,” Jenny said. “Don’t you remember? To begin with you were using my phone because you didn’t have one yet.”

“Are any of those communications still there?” Agent Norris asked.

“Maybe,” Jenny said. “Let me check.”

There are plenty of people in the world who routinely delete their text conversations, but Jenny wasn’t one of them. So while the questioning continued, she began scrolling back through months’ worth of texting history before eventually finding what she wanted—a series of banal texts, one of which included Ron’s photo from his profile. When Beth had shown the picture to Jenny, she’d been impressed by how good-looking he was and thought Beth lucky to have found him.

“Here’s a photo of Ron,” Jenny said, holding up her phone so Agent Norris could see the screen. “At least this is the one that was on his profile.”

Agent Norris took the phone and studied it for a moment. “Do you mind if we borrow this?”

“Not at all,” Jenny said.

Agent Norris handed the phone to her partner, who immediately left the room.

Now that Jenny was focused less on searching her phone and more on the interview itself, she found herself admiring the way Agent Norris went about it. Her questions were methodical, but not abrasive or threatening. One step at a time, she demonstrated how, by pretending to be interested in everything about Beth, Ron Cameron had gradually sussed out all the mundane details of her life, including several items that had provided him with the correct answers to various security questions on Beth’s various media platforms.

“No doubt that’s how Mr. Cameron managed to install the keylogging software on both your phone and your computer.”

“A keylogger?” Beth asked. “What’s that?”

Agent Norris explained. “It was a way for him to have access to everything you did on your computer—every word you typed, every Web site you visited, every text or e-mail you sent.”

“You mean he’s been spying on me?”

Agent Norris nodded. “And not just with the keylogger either,” she added. “He had set the camera app on your computer so that if you happened to leave the lid open while it was on your desk, he could observe everything that happened in the room, even when the computer wasn’t actively in use.”

“So he was spying on both of us—on me and on Jenny?” Beth demanded.

“That would appear to be true.”

That revelation left Jenny feeling shocked and violated. How many times had she undressed in front of that computer without having any idea that someone else—a stranger, really—was watching her and maybe recording her as well? Jenny wished she could simply sink into the floor. But when she looked in Beth’s direction, she realized that something totally unexpected had happened.

All through the interview, as Agent Norris had laid bare Ron’s whole grooming process, Beth’s answers had been tentative and sometimes almost inaudible. As they came closer to the time of the photo shoot and the breakup that followed, Jenny feared that Beth would break down completely and bolt from the room.

But for Beth the revelation about Ron’s Web-based spying was evidently the last straw. From that point on, she was finally angry enough to be willing to fight back. Her answers went from tentative to firm. When it came time to discuss the photos and the breakup, Beth related what had happened without a hint of hesitation.

“So on the night of the photos, everything was going well?” Agent Norris asked.

Beth nodded.

“But the very next day it all went bad. How did that happen?”

Instead of answering Agent Norris directly, Beth turned to look at Jenny. “It happened that night, as soon as you knocked on the door,” she said. “I told Ron that I had to go because you needed to use the bathroom. When I hung up, I didn’t think it was that big a deal. I still thought Ron and I were okay, but it turned out we weren’t. The next time I talked to him, he was raving mad. He told me I had to stop being roommates with you and that I shouldn’t go to Bisbee to spend Christmas with your family either.”

“Then what happened?” Agent Norris asked.

“I got mad, too, and we ended up having a big fight,” Beth said, “the first one ever. I told him that Jenny was my friend and I was keeping it that way. I told him he didn’t get to boss me around like that.”

“You see,” Agent Norris explained, “that was the first chink in Ron’s armor. For people like that, it’s essential to maintain absolute control in any given relationship. Their whole game plan is to isolate their victims from friends and relations so they can dominate their lives completely. When you refused to abandon your friendship, Ron most likely felt disrespected because you’d chosen Jenny over him. As far as he was concerned, that was unforgivable, and from that moment on there was no going back.”

“And that’s why he sent out the pictures—to humiliate me because I stood up to him?”