Waking up early

I woke up rather early, like on my usual workday, but this time I had to visit my mother. I gave Amber a kiss, but she was still sleeping soundly. And honestly, she better be, she deserves the rest. I got dressed, grabbed my things, and left.

It felt like I forgot something. Hm, I had my keys and wallets, so I can travel back if I need to. I also had keys to mom's place now, which is good. Ah, I noticed. My phone. I had frantically googled the bank account number at home in the hopes of finding that the account my father sent 40k to, every month for the past few years, was publicly known, but to no avail. Maybe I was still hopeful, but now I knew that it wasn't a public charity that received these 40k.

I probably didn't need my phone while I'm at my mom's place for a bit, so it should be fine. Only the train ride was extremely boring, considering that I had no one to talk to and my phone couldn't distract me. It felt like a month ago, again. Back when I was the lonely, closed off journalist that never dreamed big out of the simple fear of being disappointed.

When I entered my mom's house, she was just waking up. I screamed a hearty 'Good morning, mom' through the house and heard a grumbling upstairs. I entered the office room, which was right next to her bedroom, and turned on the PC again. It was creepy, I could see the view of the camera from the corner I had thrown it in. It was a tiny camera, too.

I began searching for files related to the construction of the home that I lived in, and it had some glaring omissions, all pertaining to the bedroom or the walls. Seems like he scraped the records, too.

My mom entered the room, in a simple bathrobe. "James, the investigators will arrive in half an hour. I'll get ready, and you maybe try to find something." "Sure, mom."

I didn't want to admit it, but she did look good wearing so little. I don't think I should be having these thoughts about my own mother, but... there probably was a reason she showed up in the app. I think the app knows what I enjoy quite well sometimes. But that was for future James to decide. I tried to search for any information on the 40k payments, but to no avail.

The inspectors were here, mainly from a department for sexual crimes. They were just as shocked as we were when we first discovered it, we mainly talked about how everything unfolded from our perspective to get them into the loop. One of the officers introduced herself to me: "Good morning, my name is Officer Jane Miller. I am Head of the Sexual Crimes Department and I'll be leading the investigation and I will remain in contact with you throughout the investigation. I think we need to discuss a few things." "Sure, Officer Miller, what do you want to talk about?" Suddenly, I was reminded of the app, Jane -97SP appeared in the background. I think she might be suspicious of me.

"Well, for starters, we will have to take the computer of your father and potentially some of the files here. At the moment, we are skimming through the files in order to find which ones are relevant, and which ones aren't."

"Would it be possible for the Police Department to copy the files on the computer? As you've probably heard, I've been appointed very recently, and so I have no idea which files are where."

She wasn't very happy, but she said: "We can do that for you, yes." Jane +7SP (-90SP) I probably have a right to the copy, in all honesty.

"Another thing is that this is now technically a crime scene and thus we require near constant access and security to ensure the crime scene is not tampered with."

"That's honestly not great. I'll have to talk with mother about where she wants to stay in the meantime."

"And lastly, I want to discuss with you the question of how the company plans to handle these revelations. Do you have any plans yet?"

"Not really, no. As we've said, we only discovered this yesterday night, so we have no idea of the scale and extent of everything. My most immediate concern is notifying the affected tenants, getting the cameras removed, and after that we'll see. I have to speak with the tenants and probably former affected tenants about how to handle the situation. I'll have to check how much compensation this company can afford and how we'd have to balance the books if it strains us too much."

"That is a good first step, Mr. Goodman. I'm glad you've decided on that."

"Officer Miller, as this is a widely known company and I will have to get in touch with those affected, how much of the investigation can I discuss with these people?"

Boy, she wasn't very happy about that, I could feel it. But she knew as well as I did, that I would have to let people know, before I could barge into their homes with a wall repair crew. "You may disclose everything you know so far." Jane +6SP (-84SP)

"If there is anything else regarding the investigation, please tell me, Officer Miller. I will gladly assist you." She mumbled and went away.

After a bit, I turned to mom. "Hey, has Officer Miller told you yet that they're planning to stick around?" "Yeah, it really sucks. I don't want so many people in my home, you know?" "I understand that, mom. Would you like to stay at my home during the investigation? I still have free rooms. All you need is a mattress for now."

She looked at me for a while, clearly conflicted about what I suggested. Eventually, she simply said a faint "Fine" and began packing, as Officer Miller approached me again. Isabella +17SP (+53SP)

"Mr. Goodman, I would like to see the camera in your house. Please cooperate and join me and the evidence photographer on our way to your home."

"Sure, Ms. Miller, can my mom accompany us? She has decided to move in my home for the duration of the investigation, and it would save us a trip."

I know she was in the high negatives, but she clearly didn't like me personally, either. But she also seemed aware of why my mother would do this. "Ugh, fine, now come with us, we don't wanna lose time." Jane +10SP (-74SP) I helped my mom carry her mattress, and shoved it into the rather spacious police car, as we made our way home.