He nodded his head and dragged his aching feet to the sofa.He used one of the blankets he was wrapped in earlier as a pillow and the other to cover his body.Helen returned to the chair, watching, her mind filled with questions.
She'd seen this before but in reverse.A former Army buddy of Cherry's had shown up on their doorstep in the middle of the night.She was running from an ex who didn't want to be an ex and continuously interjected himself into the woman's life.She eventually got orders for Europe, getting her away from Japan, but the man had followed her to Germany.The last Helen had heard, the soldier had taken an assignment in Guam on a secure base to get away from the lovesick pursuer.
Helen felt this might be a similar situation.She left the man on the couch to retrieve her Technician laptop.Thus far, she's only used it a few times.She booted up and entered her username and password.The prompt asked her what she needed.
She entered the name Donovan Liam Turnbull, Amarillo, Texas, born in Pueblo, Colorado and pressed enter.The same information Mustang had provided her was the exact information it returned, providing childhood photos of his graduation, parents, and a couple videos of childhood vacations.Helen wanted to know more.
This time she requested dating information for Mr.Turnbull.A list of names came back, stopping at nine months prior at Aspasia Wellington Wells, of Lubbock, Texas, a social media influencer.Helen typed in the woman's name and the computer screen lit up.
“She has nearly ten million followers,” she whispered, watching the sheer number of reels.Then she noticed the woman's eyes.She spotted the rage.She felt the anger.Helen noticed the images in the background of Aspasia's postings.There were photos of Mr.Turnbull.
With ear plugs neatly wedged in her ears, Helen listened to the woman talk about relationships.Aspasia plugged products for spicy date nights, saying the things her man enjoyed.To Helen's shock, there was a video of an intimate moment between her and Mr.Turnbull, who appeared shocked to find Aspasia had been recording them in the act, only for the woman to roll over and plug the product with which she’d coated little Mr.Turnbull to make the soldier overperform.
“That's fucking disturbing,” Helen whispered.
From there, the postings took an ominous turn.The image of Mr.Turnbull in the rear of the postings now had a bullseye on it.The anger in Aspasia's eyes appeared to be nothing but unadulterated hate.Helen watched a little while longer, afraid to see much more.It appeared as if the woman had weaponized her social media followers against Mr.Turnbull.
Sour Grapes appeared at the entryway of the living room and stood looking at Helen.In her hand, she held a tablet, having found the same pattern and information Helen had discovered.Slowly, Helen got to her feet and met Tiffany in the kitchen at the counter.
“Ten million people she turned on him,” Tiffany said.
“It would appear, based on the reels, that after his shock at her recording them having hot and nasty, he broke up with her,” Helen said.
“Or at least tried to, and she didn't seem to want to accept no for an answer,” Tiffany commented.“Hell, the way he was putting it down in that clip, I wouldn't want to let him go either.If he wasn't so traumatized, I would put in a request for next.”
“Good grief, woman,” Helen remarked.“The better question is how did that unassuming banker find you...the Technician?He didn't leave his car in Minneapolis and Uber his way to White Whoville and walk in a white out snowstorm, showing up at your door, near blind, to talk to a fucking anthropologist.”
“He's a banker, Helen.He followed my money,” she said.
“What?How the hell can he do that?”
Donovan was on his feet entering the kitchen.“It wasn't easy,” he offered, coming to the table.
“But you did it,” Tiffany replied.“Why and what do you want from me?”
“I want you to shut her, and people like her, down,” he said.“I can pay you.I will sell my house, if need be, to put a stop to her and other cyber bullies who ruin people's lives.”
Tiffany didn't like it, but she admired his spunk.“How do you know you have the right person?You took a major risk coming from Amarillo to Minnesota in February of all months.Again, how do you know you have the right person?”
“I followed your money,” he stated.“The activity on the dark web, major hacks, and attacks.Usually twenty-four hours or less, there is a generous sum of cash deposited in an account.I tracked the accounts, kept watch for three months, correlated the simple hacks with major impacts and watched the accounts where funds were being deposited.”
“And you found me?”Tiffany said.
“No, I found dead ends.Dead ends, roadblocks, and offshore accounts which made no sense,” he said.“I looked at Shell Companies and Organizations which held dark money and found Bella Enterprises in St.Paul, Minnesota.I kept watch on Bella for another two months, which coincided with hacks, outages, and exposure of fraud-related enterprises.”
Tiffany said nothing but watched his face.He continued, “I am actually a nice guy.A nice guy, who comes from a nice family.I used a dating app and met her and even drove to Lubbock for our first date.No, I didn't stay over, spend the night, or sex her on the first date.It was going well, but her relationship was with her smart device.I began to back off.”
“And when you backed off?”
“She began to sic her dogs on me.At the gym, at my office, people I didn't know were coming up to me,” he said.“Women intentionally flirting with me to see if I would respond while their friends were hiding to record my interaction for that woman!”
Helen leaned forward at the table.“I saw some of the reels she posted.I assume the lovemaking recording is what made you end it?”
“That, along with me heading home to my parents for the holiday weekend and people showing up at my folks house, recording, looking for signs of me cheating,” he said.“I took my cousin Lila to dinner, and some lady tried to fight Lila, even pulled her hair and accused her of trying to steal that woman's man.It was insane.”
Tiffany said, “You refer to her as that woman.”
“I refuse to say her name as if putting it into the universe sends signals as to where I am,” he said.“I can't get away from her.She hacked the GPS in my vehicle.I went and got my dad's older vehicle and found an Airpod on it, which is why I left it in Minneapolis.My car is in Pueblo.I am sick of this.There were random people showing up on my job, sitting and watching me.Everywhere I went, people were watching me.”
