Just as the Givens and Officer Sterling were leaving Judge Reardon’s chambers, they get a breaking news alert on their cellphones. When Gloria looks at her cellphone, a local newscaster is talking about Piper.

“How in the hell did the local news agency find out about Piper?” Gloria looked toward Sterling as she asked.

“I don’t know.” Lupe doesn’t know how the news got wind that Piper was a female staying at a boys’ group home.

“Let me see that image.” Russell holds his hand out for the cellphone.

Gloria hands her husband the cellphone. She watches as he enlarges the image on the screen. She could tell he was examining it closely. She knew he normally spotted things she missed.

Russell looks at the picture, enlarges it even more on the phone, and spots that the images came from inside Piper’s hospital room. Just from the angle of the shot, it had to be from the collection of plushies people have been sending her. He looks at his wife and Lupe. “Someone snuck a camera into Piper’s hospital room.”

“How can you tell, sweety?” Gloria knew her husband was good at reading people and spotting things she missed.

“The angle of the picture. It’s from the area where Piper keeps all the plushies she has been getting.” Russell has memorized the dimensions of
Piper’s hospital room.

“I wonder who would do such a thing and why?” Gloria found this whole thing a puzzle.

First, someone tried to kill Piper. Now they are broadcasting everything about Piper on television and on social media pages, including the high school website Piper goes to. She pulls her husband’s cellphone from his pocket and dials the number for her company's headquarters.

Russell and Lupe listen as Gloria starts talking to the person on the other end of the line. She asks to be transferred to the cyber-division. Gloria looks at both of them. “I’m going to have a friend in the cyber-division trace where the feed is coming from.”

“Oh! So, that’s what you are doing.” Lupe was being sarcastic towards her friend.

Gloria ignores her best friend’s comment. A few minutes later, Cypher answers the call. “Hey, Gloria, what can I do for you?”

“I need you to do your magic and find out who is transmitting a video from a hospital room.” Gloria knew that if anyone could locate someone on the web, it was Cypher.

“Where are you, Gloria?” Cypher needed Gloria’s current location.

“I’m at…” Gloria gives her location.

“Alright, let me bring up information about the person. Who am I looking for?”

“Information about a girl my husband and I are in the process of adopting. Her name is Piper Welch.” Gloria wanted to know who the person was making Piper’s life hard.

“Okay, this person is in First Health Montgomery Memorial Hospital, hospital room 3B. I’ve tapped into the hospital Wi-Fi, and I’m detecting a secondary signal coming from a cell phone.”

“Where’s the signal going to?” Cipher triangulates and locates the signal being broadcast in the parking lot.

“Got it, the signal is being broadcast to the parking lot. The signal is linked to one of those pay-as-you-go plans.”

“Can you tell me who the plan belongs to?” Gloria looks at her husband.

“Let me see if I can access their database.” Cypher does her magic, and after ten minutes, she gets an answer.

“You’re not going to like this, Gloria. The phones are pay-as-you-go.”

“Can you access the camera on them?” Gloria knew Cypher was a genius hacker when it came to cellphones.

“Your wish is my command.” Cypher taps into the cellphone command chip and turns on the camera.

Russell and Lupe gather next to see who is on the other end. At first, none of them recognizes the young man. Then, Lupe recognizes who the boy was: “I know this boy. His name is Mike Basknight, and he goes to the same high school as Piper. He was one of the guys who attacked her the first time.”

Russell looks at Lupe when she says, “Why?”

“He has a reputation of being a bully. His father is a card-carrying member of the local white supremacist group called The Liberators.” Lupe knew who Mike’s father was and the organization that he belonged to.

Recently, they have been having marches and carrying weapons, with their faces covered by masks. Mike was the son of David Basknight, the group's leader.

“Do you think he was the one responsible for shooting her?” Russell looked at Lupe when he asked that question.

“It’s possible, but without concrete proof.”

“It’s just a theory.” Gloria knew that without hard evidence, they couldn’t prove anything.

“Cypher, are you still online with me?”

“Yep, what do you need me to do?” Cypher sat in her chair, spinning around.

“Stop the feed from the camera and alert the police.” Gloria figured they could at least stop the feed.

“Gotcha!” Cypher stopped the feed from the hidden camera.

Hospital Parking Lot:
Mike enjoyed the news coverage and the media attention the hospital was getting. He spotted several news vans outside of the hospital. He watched Piper in her hospital room as the nurses cared for her. He had already seen her naked a few times since sending the arrangements and broadcasting the video on the internet.

As Mike is watching the feed, the spy-camera suddenly shuts off. There was static on the screen. He hears police sirens approaching his location.

Mike decides that he wasn’t going to stick around. He grabs his bag of goodies and leaves his truck. The plates on the truck were stolen off a truck in the junkyard, so he didn’t have to worry about it being traced back to him.

By the time the police arrived on the scene, Gloria, her husband Russell, and Officer Sterling arrived at the hospital—the reports of Piper being part male and part female had gotten out.