Epilogue P.3 (The Betrayal)

Marci sat in her room typing on her computer. She hadn’t expected the knock on the door and quickly minimized the screen she’d been typing on. Turning quickly she saw Nicole pop her head into the room.

“Hey Marci. Mind if I come in?” Her best friend asked.

“Yeah of course. What’s up?”

“I was hoping we could talk.” Her friend seemed off. Especially as she gestured to ask if they could sit on her bed. Marci obliged and joined her friend seated on the edge of her bed.

“What’s wrong? What do you want to talk about?” Marci was worried about the look on her friend’s face.

“I don’t know Marci. They just asked me to come in here and make sure you weren’t sitting behind your computer.” Her friend took her hands in hers. Marci was very confused. Till her door opened again.

This time a man in a finely tailored dark suit walked into the room. Followed by several other people in suits and a uniformed campus police officer.

“Marsha Henderson? I’m Agent Bullard with the FBI. We have a warrant to search this room and to seize your computer.” The agent was tall, broad shouldered and bald.

Marci immediately was gripped with panic. Her friend’s comforting voice not even registering in her ears.

*****

There was no way Marci was the blackmailer, Nicole thought to herself as she stood comforting her best friend in the entryway of their sorority house. This search would prove that and then they could go out and find the real culprit and stop wasting time.

Agent Bullard defended the stairs carrying a box marked evidence in his hands. Nicole felt Marci tense under her comforting arm. She was sure this would all be over soon and her friend would be able to grab a drink with her and they could both decompress from this odd ordeal.

“Nicole can you come here a second?” She nodded and walked forward. “Do you recognize any of the contents of this box?”

Nicole looked into the box. Inside were 7 evidence bags. Each containing a different pair of underwear.

“Are you kidding me? What kind of pervs are you taking her underwear…” The blonde trailed off as her anger turned to puzzlement. She pulled out a bag with a small green thong.

“Wait… this is… this is the thing I put in the library book… and this here… this is Amelia’s G-String she put in…” Nicole looked at her friend. “Marci how do you have these?”

Marci didn’t say anything. She couldn’t even look Nicole in the eye. Agent Bullard gave a fellow agent a nod and he produced a pair of handcuffs. Handcuffs he put on Marci’s wrists.

“I… I don’t understand.” Nicole said as she watched her best friend perp walked down the front lawn and placed in the back of the squad car.

“I’m sorry Nicole. I’m sure this is all quite shocking.” Agent Bullard said. His voice was cool and monotone.

“We took the flash drives that both you and Amelia were supposed to find at the finish line. While they didn’t actually contain a dossier of your photos like promised we were able to figure out what computer formatted them the first time. It was Marci’s campus work station. From there we did some more digging and found other evidence in her online profiles that was enough to get a warrant. I have no doubt that with her unlocked computer we will find all of the evidence we need. The fact that she decided to keep the underwear as trophy’s is merely a smoking gun so to speak.”

“Why?” Was all Nicole could ask. Her eyes were welling with tears as she watched the patrol car drive off. How could her best friend have done this to her and the other Sorority presidents.

“How would you describe your relationship with Marci?” Agent Bullard asked.

“We were best friends.” The first wave of tears was chocked back by Nicole.

“Did you ever engage in sexual activity?” Bullard asked point blank.

“I mean… we hooked up a couple times when drunk. It was no big deal. Just college experimenting!”

“Marci didn’t see it that way Nicole. We found several online forums where she posted about falling in love with a friend who wouldn’t love her back. Eventually she decided that she wanted **** for that unrequited love. And **** on the society she thought was preventing it.”

“But… but…” Nicole couldn’t finish the sentence. She simply burst into tears. Bullard attempted to comfort her put his cool demeanor only made Nicole pull away.