Chapter 39: The Women’s Bathroom

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Just tell me what you’re planning."

"No, it’s more interesting if it’s a surprise," Alan smiled. "But don’t worry, we will end this asshole’s life." His eyes became dangerously cold for a second once again. "But first, we have some time before class, so why don’t you show me around?"

Arthur let out a sigh, not liking the innuendo from his friend about the possibility of breaking the law. He also didn’t like the fact that Alan was planning to leave him in the dark about his plans.

"Do you even have a plan?" he asked, sounding skeptical. "Or are you just trying to sound cool?"

"I would never say something just to sound cool!" Alan said, trying to sound offended.

Arthur simply raised a questioning eyebrow, and Alan’s conviction crumbled.

"Okay, maybe I would do it..." he admitted. "But I do have a few ideas about what we can do moving forward. To begin with, I did find out about something important... Or at least, I have a suspicion about it."

After hyping it up a little more, Alan finally told Arthur about the possible camera. Of course, he had no way of knowing for sure without checking, but he was confident it was there.

"If he actually has a camera, can’t you just hack into it?" Arthur asked as the two of them began walking away from the office. Arthur started showing his friend around campus, even though he barely knew the place himself.

"It’s not that simple," Alan grimaced.

"Oh, come on. Weren’t you bragging an hour ago about hacking your apartment’s camera?" Arthur grinned, needling him. "Shouldn’t this be easy for the great hacker?"

"That was for safety. And I was not bragging, it’s just funny that they never changed the password. Actual hacking is a different beast." Alan raised a finger, suddenly serious. "First: the camera might not even be connected to the internet. If it exists but isn’t remotely linked, then there’s no way in for me. None."

Arthur deflated a little. "So that’s it, then?"

"Not quite." Alan tapped the table thoughtfully. "Even if the camera records straight to its own hard drive, Gerald still has to keep those files somewhere."

With that in mind, if Alan’s read on him was right, Gerald was exactly the type of young man who would preserve his collection of trophies. So the information was definitely saved somewhere.

"We don’t need to think about how to get into the camera; we need to find the videos. So I’m not saying I won’t be able to hack into his system and get us the information, I may even be able to access the camera."

Alan then let out a sigh, not wanting to get his friend’s hopes too high before he had even started working on the problem.

"But if he was careful, it may be impossible. As long as he only saves the information on physical storage and doesn’t leave it connected to the internet, there’s little I can do."

Arthur nodded. What his friend said made sense. But he still thought trying was worth it.

"But there’s another problem," Alan sighed. "Have you ever heard of the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine?"

"No." Arthur frowned, trying to remember if he’d heard the term somewhere before.

"Basically, evidence obtained illegally can be excluded from court, especially when it’s obtained by the government in violation of someone’s constitutional rights," Alan explained. "Besides, if we wanted to give the videos to the police, we’d have to admit that we obtained them illegally."

"That doesn’t necessarily mean the police couldn’t investigate, though, right?"

"Not necessarily. If the videos gave them enough reason to investigate, they could potentially gather their own evidence legally. But we’d still be putting ourselves at risk by hacking into his system in the first place."

Alan sighed before continuing.

"The other option would be to publish the videos anonymously. The scandal alone could be enough to get Gerald removed from his position, and eventually, people would probably start investigating."

"But that would expose several of the girls..." Arthur clenched his fist, thinking about the problem with that.

"Yeah, I don’t think you’d like that solution. And anyway, it’s not like I have the files yet. So let’s leave that as our plan B. We could even try sending the evidence to the police anonymously first, once we get it. What do you think?"

Arthur nodded in agreement. There was no point spending hours planning around something they didn’t even have yet.

"In my opinion, we should move forward with two objectives in mind."

Alan raised two fingers, sat on the back of a bench, and smiled dramatically as the light coming through the window highlighted his shadowy expression.

If he could see himself, he would have been proud of how perfectly dramatic he had managed to look this time.

"First, we need to stop him from hurting any more girls." He lowered one finger. "And we need to investigate further, because he’s probably not the only one involved."

Arthur nodded, thinking that these had already been his objectives before he had even called his best friend. But at least with Alan around, they now had some direction regarding what to investigate and how to proceed.

"Now, weren’t you supposed to show me around?" he asked.

"Yes," Arthur nodded. "Is there any place in particular you want to know?"

Alan nodded immediately. "Where is the most secluded place on this campus?"

Arthur didn’t know the place well, so his first instinct was to say he didn’t know. However, a memory flashed through his mind, and he remembered touching his teacher’s boobs, and the place she had taken him to.

His cheeks flushed just enough for Alan to notice.

"So Iris has shown you the best place already," Alan smiled, correctly guessing what was going through his friend’s mind.

"It’s not like that... I..."

"There is no point in lying, I can read you like a book," Alan smiled. "And there is nothing to be ashamed of, on the contrary, it’s quite the achievement."

"Okay, whatever, Iris did show me an abandoned area of the college," he finally admitted, still a bit embarrassed. "But why do you even want to go there?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Just thinking about where I will eat lunch," he commented, but Arthur could tell his friend was hiding something.

"Let’s go, then," Arthur let out a sigh.

Arthur walked in front, and Alan followed him like a shadow as they entered the busier corridors of campus. Students streamed past them in clusters, the noise of conversation and slamming lockers swallowing their footsteps.

After crossing basically the whole campus, they finally arrived at the abandoned wing, an impressive and unfinished building that was practically empty.

As they entered, Alan stepped ahead, taking the lead and observing the place with curious eyes.

He quickly noticed the place was not completely abandoned, but most of the rooms were closed and locked, as he found out after checking. The doors generally had yellow signs warning people not to enter the rooms, because of construction leftovers that could be dangerous.

Still, he did see at least one functioning room that was actually being used by a guy working on something at his computer. The room in question appeared to be a computer science lab, or something similar.

"I love this cozy place," Alan commented, breathing easier now that there was no one around. Then he made a frame with his fingers, framing the corridor ahead. "Seriously, this place is one chainsaw away from a horror movie," he said, and Arthur had to admit the comparison wasn’t unfair.

Then Alan stopped.

Arthur turned back and found him staring at a door halfway down the corridor. A sign beside it read: Women’s Bathroom.

The genius was thinking: an almost abandoned bathroom, far from everything, in the one wing nobody bothered to visit. If a girl wanted to sneak away with her boyfriend without being seen, this was exactly the kind of place she’d pick.

So such a bathroom would be the perfect one to put a hidden camera in. The odds were slim. But if Gerald had installed a secret camera anywhere on campus, it would be here.

And Arthur’s instincts screamed when he saw the scheming smile on his friend’s face. He was probably thinking of something problematic.

"I’m going to check something," Alan said, already pushing the door open. "Stand guard. Make sure no girls come in."

Arthur didn’t even have time to respond. He could only blink in shock, his mouth opening and closing without producing a single word.

Less than ten seconds later, Arthur heard the sound of high heels clicking against the floor. Getting closer.

A blond girl showed up at the end of the corridor, cutting off any chance Arthur had to enter the bathroom and drag his friend back out by the collar. The sound froze him in place.

And as she got closer, he recognized her face. Of all the people on this entire campus, the worst possible one to run into at that exact moment:

Kat.