Page 69 of The Other Side
25
Over the next few days, I learned a lot of things about Daniel Graham.
Some good.
Some bad.
And some awkward.
I knew what books he read, who his favorite artists were, and what sites he frequented. Thankfully he kept most of his porn watching in a private browser (I assumed), as I only spotted two accidental slips in his internet history, and that was two too many.
Daniel and Claire had been dating for most of the last school year. Their instant messaging back and forth was cute, but very much between teenagers. It felt inappropriate to laugh at their banter, but I couldn’t help myself from cringing occasionally. Often I found myself wanting to share something with Chance, but refrained.
Daniel had already been prepping his college applications for quite a few prestigious schools, wanting to pursue a career in investigative journalism.
“Columbia was his top choice,” Chance shared with me. “Dad wasn’t happy, but Mom told me she’d make sure wherever he wanted to go, his tuition would be taken care of.”
There were certain sections of his computer files that were very organized, like his class work, but other folders, like his personal documents, and most of his journalistic research, that was a jumble of discombobulated fragments all jammed into a single folder with no naming conventions. I didn’t know how he could keep any of it straight, and I had a hard time categorizing things in my mind as I went.
It would have been too much to ask for him to have kept a digital journal, but his email did have a calendar feature that had some appointments listed, unfortunately none of interest, unless he was using an incredibly advanced coding system to make it look like a dentist appointment was something else, despite Chance’s parents having received the bill for the cleaning.
“We’re going to be at this for days.” Chance groaned, stretching his thick arms over his head, then settling them across the back of the couch.
We had the week of Thanksgiving break to really dig into everything before we’d be inundated with end-of-semester teacherly duties that would surely sabotage our fieldwork.
“Have you found anything of note?”
“I’m not sure that Ken can be one hundred percent ruled out,” Chance offered, regarding his counterpart in the English department.
“Oh?”
“They argued back and forth about all of the articles. The last one about the drugs—Daniel threatened to go to the ACLU to help him argue for his First Amendment right of free speech if he wouldn’t publish it,” Chance revealed.
“I didn’t know that.” I turned to him. “Banks did a good job of positioning himself as a champion of free speech when heallowed the article to be published, knowing that however upset the board and donors would be, they would have a hard time working around the optics to punish him or Daniel.”
Kenneth Banks had sometimes struck me as an opportunist; he’d sway wherever the wind was blowing. “Were their exchanges enough to escalate to something in person?” I asked.
Chance scratched the back of his neck, “I don’t know Ken well enough. I don’t think he’d have the guts to hurt someone, but I still can’t help but wonder if whatever happened to Daniel was maybe an accident—something that got pushed too far.”
“Maybe,” I offered. “Everyone at Montgomery is so worried about their reputation inside and outside of these walls, that could be a reasonable motive for hurting someone, but it also could be motive to let things go, so they wouldn’t make themselves or their families look bad.”
“Exactly. Right back at square one.” He sighed. “There were a few emails from some of his classmates after the last article was published. They weren’t happy with him and didn’t hold back, but it all felt very juvenile, internet troll kind of junk, not real threats.”
“What about Winston?”
“Nothing yet. You?”
“There were a few stories he was working on, but the folders aren’t as full as the others. I don’t know if they were newer, although the documents in them aren’t. Or maybe his research isn’t on here.” I frowned.
“It’s possible he has another computer.”
“Maybe on the cloud somewhere or an external drive?” I guessed.
Chance shrugged. We were grasping at straws.
“I think I’m going to call it a night. I’m going cross-eyed.” I felt guilty leaving, but was surprised when Chance agreed with me.
“We’ll have fresh eyes in the morning.” He closed the laptop. “Remind me again what we’re supposed to do for food while the school is closed down for break?”
