Before She Was Found - Heather Gudenkauf Page 0,64
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OFFICER WILSON: Just being thorough. Where did you work before coming to Pitch?
JOHN DOVER: At the high school in Willow Creek. But I don’t understand why you’re asking me this.
OFFICER WILSON: Why did you leave?
JOHN DOVER: I just... I wanted to move closer to where I grew up, to my parents.
OFFICER WILSON: So you left Willow Creek on good terms.
JOHN DOVER: As far as I’m concerned, we did.
OFFICER WILSON: So, I’ll take that as a no.
JOHN DOVER: You can take it however you want.
OFFICER WILSON: Rumor has it that you had an inappropriate relationship with a student.
JOHN DOVER: Not true.
OFFICER WILSON: You know I’m going to call Willow Creek, don’t you?
JOHN DOVER: Go for it. There’s nothing there.
OFFICER WILSON: Then you have nothing to worry about, do you? What happened?
JOHN DOVER: One of my students had a crush on me. Read into things that absolutely weren’t there. She sent me some texts. Parents saw them and freaked out.
OFFICER WILSON: How’d your student get your cell phone number?
JOHN DOVER: I gave it to all my students. I wanted to be accessible to them. Big mistake.
OFFICER WILSON: But you left Willow Creek. Why would you leave if you did nothing wrong?
JOHN DOVER: The girl’s mom was on the school board, that’s why. Didn’t matter that I had absolutely zero inappropriate contact with that girl, people looked at me differently. But for the record, the Board of Educational Examiners found that I did nothing wrong. Nothing.
OFFICER WILSON: How about your students here? Did you give them your cell phone number?
JOHN DOVER: No way. I learned my lesson. Causes nothing but trouble.
Case #92-10945
Direct Message dated December 10, 2017,
via DarkestDoor
JW44:
SO, DO YOU FINALLY BELIEVE ME ABOUT RACHEL?
Corareef12:
I guess so.
JW44:
ARE YOU GOING TO PUT IT IN YOUR REPORT?
Corareef12:
I don’t know.
JW44:
WHAT’S THE MATTER? YOU DON’T SEEM LIKE YOURSELF.
Corareef12:
I did something I shouldn’t have.
JW44:
WHAT DID YOU DO?
Corareef12:
I don’t want to tell you. You’ll think I’m a terrible person.
JW44:
I COULD NEVER THINK THAT. WHAT DID YOU DO?
Corareef12:
I borrowed Violet’s cell phone without asking her.
JW44:
I’M SURE SHE DOESN’T MIND. YOU’RE FRIENDS, RIGHT?
Corareef12:
I mean, I took her cell phone. I brought it home without telling her. Our computer wasn’t working. Violet accidentally left her phone behind in the lunchroom. I picked it up and was going to give it back to her, but then I thought I’d just take it home for one night. Just one and then bring it back to her tomorrow. I told you it was bad.
JW44:
YOU STOLE HER PHONE?
Corareef12:
I’m sorry. I’ll bring it back tomorrow. I feel sick.
JW44:
YOU TOOK HER PHONE SO YOU COULD TALK TO ME? I THINK I LOVE YOU, CORAREEF12!
Case #92-10945
Excerpt from the journal of Cora E. Landry
Dec. 11, 2017
I kept trying to find the right time to return Violet’s cell phone to her but there was no way to do it without being totally obvious. She had let me use her phone before. She even let me take it home overnight once but her mom found out and was super pissed. Violet said she couldn’t let me borrow it overnight again.
I was desperate. Our computer has been broken for days and my dad kept saying he was going to take it in to be fixed but didn’t. I was afraid Joseph was going to be mad at me for not emailing him and Violet’s phone was right there. I can’t believe I did it. I’ve never stolen anything before in my life but I felt like if I didn’t talk to Wither everything would be ruined.
I feel terrible.
And Violet was really worried about it. She kept saying how her mom was going to kill her for losing it. I tried to make her feel better by telling her I’d help her look for it and saying that it would show up.
We went to the library again after school and we finally figured out exactly what we were going to do for our final presentation. A movie. At first we were just going to write a report and make a poster for our project—Violet’s a really good artist—but then we heard that Gabe’s group was going to present their project about the Bermuda Triangle through a fake newscast and Katie’s group was making a board game called Roswell with little plastic alien game pieces made from a 3D printer. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. We spent the last two days in class on the script and wanted to get it finished so we could start filming.