Mom got a sad look on her face “Of course Matthew you know you don’t need to ask.” I nodded my thanks and went back to eating. The conversation went back to normal around me but my mind was full of her.
When dinner was over I excused myself and headed for the privacy of my room to read the report her father had given me. Tommy Bruno was a middle-aged businessman who had fixated on Kadyn when she was a child of fourteen. He’d moved into the neighborhood where she and her mother lived and had struck up a friendship. According to the report everything had seemed on the up and up in the beginning just a friendly guy seeing a single mother on her own and offering his services. He would cut their lawn on the weekends and even pick up their mail when they travelled out of town. Things took a turn when the mother Simone noticed the unusual interest in her underage daughter and what she deemed inappropriate touching. The young introverted girl hadn’t noticed anything different or hadn’t known any better until her mother warned her and forbid her from being alone with the over friendly neighbor who she had seen as just a friendly uncle.
After heeding her mother’s warning the gifts started. Bruno would hide and sneak the young girl gifts of stuffed toys and chocolates, which he cautioned her never to tell her mother about. When it was brought to Simone’s attention that the older man had kept up contact after she’d warned him off she had confronted him to no avail.
Things got worst when the young Kadyn caught Bruno peeping in her bedroom window in the early morning as she got dressed for school. A subsequent trip to the local police station had garnered no help as there was no hard evidence against the perpetrator and when questioned Bruno had stated that he was just passing on the walkway between the houses on the way to his shed.
Then followed four years of what is now known as stalking. He followed the young girl everywhere including to and from school, on outings with friends and even the local grocery store. With no help from the law the mother had done everything she could to safeguard her daughter, putting bars on the windows, changing her work hours so that her child was never home alone in the evenings. They became hostages in their own home because of one man’s obsession.
Things came to a head when him or someone sent pictures to Kadyn of her asleep in her bed. From the angle it was evident that the person had been standing over her when the picture was taken. The cops couldn’t prove that it was him because he’d been careful enough to cover his tracks.
Simone finally realizing that she couldn’t protect her daughter had called in the father who had taken his daughter out of the situation. She was basically living like a fugitive while her tormentor was walking freely. The state was now making steps to update their stalking laws but it was too late for Kadyn, her life had already been disrupted.
Josh came into my room just as I was finished reading. “Well?” I didn’t have to ask what he was talking about I just threw the papers at him and waited while he read it.
“I want to hurt him. This shit just got as real as it gets. I want to find him and make him pay for every second of fear.” I pounded my fist against the mattress in frustration.
“We need a plan.”
“I already know what I want to do to him I’m going to need you to show me how to do that computer thing. How to hack into his system.” The little fucker cracked his knuckles and grinned; I never knew until just here lately just how much of a delinquent my brother is. He thrives on shit like this.
“I want to do it myself so just get me in don’t go doing anything, this is my fight remember.”
“Damn that’s no fun, can I at least watch?”
“Sure Joshua.” He did some shit with my computer again mumbling the whole time as I watched trying to figure out what he was doing but I hadn’t a clue. Funny thing is I want to study engineering but when it came to this hacking shit I was at a total lost.
“What the fuck is all that?”
“His bank statements, 401K, trust, the whole works.” The screen was covered with an excel spreadsheet with rows and rows of numbers. Shit was scary how easily he did that. “What about his social security number and pins and stuff like that?”
“That’s next.” He went back to work getting me the information I needed while I paced and thought. This was all about getting her her freedom back somehow, more so than seeking revenge on this asshole, though that would be an added bonus. I’d had a few moments of doubts when I wondered if this guy was mentally ill, it wouldn’t be fair to go after someone who had no control over his actions because of a mental issue, but from what I’ve seen he wasn’t ill, just evil.