206 Tyler

The night was spent going to the rooms of each of the 6 suspects to check whether they were in.

Liz's main objective was to isolate at least one of two of them, so that she could identify something or the other about their personal habits that might help her in cracking them.

Right now, her plan was simple: she wanted to find some avenue with which to crack one of them, using which she would get the identity of the main culprit.

She had gathered one thing from the way that woman had spoken after hearing it repeatedly: her tone was of someone with authority, so it made sense that she must have a bargaining chip with which she was keeping the 6 in line.

So, her goal was to find some way which would surpass that.

Regretfully, all 6 of them were in their rooms, and she wasn't yet desperate enough to find a way to enter their rooms.

So, Liz went back to her room with a frown on her face, intending to go through their files again.

She did that till 3 in the morning, after which she went to sleep with an unsatisfied feeling filling her mind.

The next morning, Liz found to her delight that Will had cleared her schedule, so she was completely free to do everything she wanted.

Ordering breakfast to her room, Liz decided that it was time to call in backup.

"Luke, you remember that kid hacker who took money to find the secrets of peoples' lovers?"

"Yeah…Liz, why are you asking about him now?"

"Track him down and send me his details, I know that you must be busy with Keren, but I need this."

"I-I'm definitely not that busy. I'll get on it right now. Keren! I need to go out!"

Hmm?

Liz found this quite weird, as it almost sounded like Luke was glad that he had an excuse to go out.

Definitely very strange.

Yet, Liz was too focused on the task at hand, so she just put it to the side before focussing on what she was doing it again.

A few minutes later, she got the details, and she immediately placed the call.

"Yes? You've reached the Campbell family."

"Hi, I'm a friend of Tyler's. Can he come to the phone?"

"Oh? A friend from where, might I ask?"

Hearing this, Liz had to think hard, but she answered, "I'm Liz, Miss. Campbell. Do you remember me? We used to live on the same street."

"Oh, Elizabeth! It's so nice to hear from you after so long! What did you need Tyler for? I'm sorry I'm being so snoopy, but recent…events have given us cause for caution."

Huh. It seemed that good old Tyler was up to the same activities for which he had been busted by Liz and Luke before.

Thinking on her feet, Liz said, "I just needed some information about this old place that we went to, together."

"Oh yes, I remember that you three used to go out! I saw Luke on the TV the other day, I'm so proud that-"

"Yes, Mrs. Campbell, me, too. I'm kind of in a hurry, so if you don't mind…"

"Of course! TYLER! SOMEONE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU!"

The woman suddenly screamed on the phone, which led to Liz having to keep her hand away.

A little while later, a muffled voice shouted something back, after which the person she was speaking to changed.

A weak, innocent voice spoke through the phone, but Liz knew that the source of that voice was anything but.

"Hi, Sis Liz! How's Derek?"

"Tyler, I don't have time for games. I need you to-"

"Yes, I understand. I heard mom. The place we used to go to was called Jackson's shack- it's just off the corner of the 86th street. All right, it was nice talking to you, bye!"

Hearing this, Liz looked at the phone with a puzzled expression on her face, as she had just heard the flat tone which meant that Tyler had cut the call.

She was just about to place a call again, but the phone suddenly rang, with the caller masked.

With a sigh and a frown of realization, Liz picked up and said, "Tyler, I see you're still in the business."

That same innocent voice spoke again, but this time, it was so much more confident.

"Of course, Sis. I've been clean, though, but I just needed to take precautions due to the feds tapping the line. Anyway, what do you need? Always happy to help my sis who helped me out of that tough spot."

This made Liz smile. This was the beauty of going out of one's way to help someone: you can never know when you might need to call in a favor.

"I need your special package on 6 people. And it's urgent. Can you do a rush job for me?"

After a few moments of silence, the voice spoke again.

"I stopped doing that because it was too risky, Sis."

With an admonishing tone, Liz said, "Tyler, I knew you breath out loudly before lying, so tell me the truth."

"All right, fine! I made everyone think I stopped, but the program still works. It's just dangerous, though, if I use it too many times. 6 should be just fine. Give me the details."

"I'll mail them to you-"

"No, tell me on the phone, sis. Mails can be tracked. This line is secure. How's Argentine, by the way?"

That was the good old Tyler. A 15-year old genius hacker whom Liz had helped out in a tough situation that might have gotten him arrested, even though he did nothing wrong.

"Balmy. These are the details…"

A few minutes later, Liz was downloading a special app on her tablet, on which she received the information she was looking for.

Each of the 6 individuals' social media activity, personal details, habits, preferences, google searches- their whole life, basically, was on display, all for Liz to go through.

This was going to take a long time, but Liz knew that she would definitely find something here.

So, she got started.