The Babysitter Murders - By Janet Ruth Young Page 0,57
spoiled son of a rich lawyer in town is looking pretty mopey, and the sicko’s sidekick is sobbing on a certain same-sex shoulder.
It’s not exactly Girls Gone Wild, but if the sight of four tanned legs and four perky breasts united in budding more-than-friendship turns you on, you may want to check it out.
JANET RUTH YOUNG
“How are they getting all this information?” Dani asks Beth.
“They don’t even know me.”
“Stop reading that stuff,” Beth says. “Stop looking at that stuff and just ignore them.”
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Channel 5 News
Consumer Corner
Anchor: Parents are asking, How do I know if my babysitter is safe? Now a New Bedford high-tech company specializing in surveillance equipment is helping parents in crisis. Call it . . . the babysitter trap.
Michael Soares of HomeSpy Technologies has developed a fascinating tool for keeping our loved ones secure.
Michael?
Guest: Meredith, HomeSpy has created a brand-new product called the Dani Cam for parents who want to keep their kids safe.
Anchor: How does it work, Michael?
Guest: The Dani Cam is more than just a hidden surveillance camera. It’s a proprietary, fully custom-izable suite of cameras, sensors, and computers. It uses state-of-the-art image processing technology to recognize you, your children, and the babysitter.
When either a child or the babysitter behaves in a way that’s out of the ordinary, it will send an alarm to both the police and your cell phone.
Anchor: What red flags trigger an alarm?
JANET RUTH YOUNG
Guest: On the babysitter’s part, the presence of a gun or knife, or violent behavior such as striking, shaking, or strangling. We also provide these wired T-shirts for your kids to wear anytime the babysitter is in the house. The shirts alert you to any abnormal body signs such as slowed breathing or a decrease in body temperature. Of course, the system isn’t going to wait for a red flag before it starts talking to you. It learns all your daily routines and will signal when the child has been put to bed too late or too early or if the babysitter has brought unauthor-ized friends or visitors into the home. The Dani Cam is unquestionably the next generation in protection against your babysitter.
Anchor: Sounds like just what parents need in these uncertain times.
Guest: That’s the world we live in, Meredith.
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Dani turns off the television. She pokes around the Beacon-Times site to see what’s been going on at school. She reads the 177
comments on the article “Solomon ‘Gone,’” including this one: Rowdie: Do not allow the constraints of “law” to tie your hands when it comes to your children’s safety.
Rowdie has posted a link to the POK website, and Dani follows it.
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On the POK website are photos of people accused of crimes against children. Each person holds a sign saying protect our kids . Across each photo is the word Exterminated, Detained, or Modified.
Another group of pictures is labeled At Large. Her tennis photo from the Beacon-Times is one of them. Each page of the site has a PayPal widget so people can give donations. When she shows Beth the website, Beth calls their lawyer to try to have the photo removed.
Dani texts Gordy:
“It’s good to be out of Hawthorne. Thanks for helping me.
Miss you. Still can’t tell you where I am.”
Gordy replies:
“As long as I know you’re safe.”
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Shelley finds a note in her locker:
I’m really glad we’re hanging out together. A lot of bad stuff has happened lately. But without the bad stuff happening, some of the good stuff would not have happened, like us getting to be such good friends.
Hanging from the coat hook is a soft, pale blue bear with a ribbon around his neck.
Shelley thinks, It’s just like my parents always say. When God closes a door, He opens a window.
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“Let’s talk some more about Alex,” Dr. Mandel suggests.
Dani clasps her hands.
“What kinds of thoughts did you have about Alex?”
“I don’t like talking about it. He’s only a little kid. I hate talking about what happened with him.”
“Close your eyes and tell me. Take some deep breaths.”
Dani tells the doctor about how trusting Alex is, how much he looks up to her, how sometimes he even said that he liked her more than his own mother. She tells about the thoughts of going up to his room with a knife and parts of him that should be inside showing on the outside. But the worst part is the look in his eyes when he sees her, when the bad stuff is about to happen, and how he realizes that she is not the person