chapter forty two
ctrl:a
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Spencer, Aria and Josie were waiting out in the hallway after one of Emily's swim meets. "Where are they?" Spencer asked. "I told my mom we'd be studying at the library, so that's covered." Aria replied. "Good." Josie said with a nod, but Aria and Josie both noticed Spencer's nervousness. "You sure you wanna do this tonight?" Aria asked, making Spencer turn to look at her. "Yeah, you kidding? We have to find out what this guy knows about Ali." Spencer said. "And why his number was in Ali's... Vivian's coat." Aria said, correcting herself. "And we finally got this meeting set, so it's gotta be tonight." Spencer said.

Josie looked at Aria closely, noticing how uneasy she looked. She sighed, "Look, we're gonna have your back tonight, the whole time." Josie said, trying to assure Aria. "I know." Aria nodded with a smile. After a moment of silence, Aria spoke again. "So my mom talked to your mom," Aria said, making Spencer sigh as Josie looked over at them for a split second before looking back at her phone, texting Richie, who wasn't there today. "It was just one sleepover. Spencer, it's been a whole week." Aria said softly. "My mom just wants to know why you're not going home." Aria finished, which caused Spencer to give her a deadpanned look. "I just... I can't deal with my family right now," Spencer said, making Josie sigh and rub her arm in comfort. "Can we help?" Josie asked, meaning her and Aria.

But Spencer didn't get a chance to reply when cheers sounded throughout the room, meaning the swimmers had entered, also meaning Emily. Spencer, Aria and Josie cheered along, clapping for Emily and the swim team before they moved through the crowd, getting to Emily, who was talking to Maya, who was holding up a sign for Emily. "Way to go, champ!" Spencer said, hugging Emily. "Congrats Em!" Josie said giving Emily a hug after Spencer as Hanna walked up to them. "Em, my mom said that we could have the team party at my house." Hanna said, making Emily smile. "That's great!" she cheered, smiling.

But Josie noticed Spencer and Aria's faces, following their line of sight, she frowned as well, seeing cops walking into the building, which was Garret, and as they passed the girls shared looks of confusion as they watched where the cops were going. Hanna followed them. "Caleb Rivers, I got a court order here to impound your laptop," Garret said, pulling the court order out of his jacket.

"What for?" Caleb questions. "Someone's been hacking into secure school files, I traced them back to your IP address." Garret answered. Caleb scoffed. "You think if I did something like that I'd be stupid enough to leave a trail?" Caleb asked as he took the paper from Garret into his hands. "We'll find out. Come on. Hand it over." he commanded, causing Caleb to roll his eyes before handing over his computer to Garret, which was then put into an evidence bag.

"Any passwords we're gonna need?" Garret asked, turning back to Caleb, making him stand up, looking Garret in the eye. "Court order says you can take the machine, it doesn't say anything about what's in my head." he said and it was tense silence for a moment before Garret walked away and Hanna walked up to him and they exchanged a few words before Hanna walked back over to them. "What just happened?" Spencer asked. "Garret took Caleb's computer." Hanna answered. "Court order." she added and not even a second later, all of their phone's went off, making them reach for them.

UNKNOWN ID

Now it's Caleb's turn.

⎯ A

The girls all shared identical looks for dread, knowing that the police cannot find what's on that laptop.

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After school Josie had gone over to Riches. "So the police have his computer, what are they hoping to find on it?" he asked as he sat on his couch, watching his girlfriend pace in his living room. "I think you mean what Garret is hoping to find." she corrected before she stopped pacing, running a hand through her hair, that she had taken out of the ponytail, it was giving her a headache. "And to answer your question, any evidence he was near Alison the night she died, maybe." she said sarcastically as she moved and sat next to Richie, causing him to pull her into his side, as she let out a sigh.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Richie said. "I know it's just— I worry, he's my brother, even if he doesn't know," she said sadly. "Maybe you should tell him." Richie suggested but Josie shook her head. "I don't need to give 'A' another reason to go after him, because right now I have a feeling this person doesn't know he's my brother, and that's good until we find out who 'A' is." she said, resting her head on his shoulder, resting her eyes as Richie kissed the crown of her head. He hated how all this was happening to her and the girls, they've all been though enough.

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Later that day, Emily, Hanna, Spencer and Josie were sat inside a diner, Spencer and Emily across from Hanna and Josie while Aria sat behind them at a different table, waiting for whoever the number in Alison/Vivans' coat belonged to. It was silent between the friends, none of them spoke, too anxious until they heard someone talk. "So you're a friend of Vivian's?" he asked, making Aria jump as the other four listened. "Yeah." Aria said, before she heard them sit down. "How much money does she owe you?" he asked, making Josie tilt her head. Owe money? She thought.

"Vivian owes you money?" Aria asked, and they could tell she was shocked. Emily pulled out a mini mirror and handed it to Hanna and Josie to look at the guy through, since they were facing back to him. "She owes me a job and she almost owes she a girlfriend thanks to you calling that number." the guys said as Hanna opens the mirror and Josie moves closer to Hanna to see, but not so much it's suspicious. Aria laughs nervously. "You said that she cost you a job. What did she do?" Aria asked and they heard him take a deep breath before answering. "I worked at Allegheny Cellular. Human Resources." he said. "Your friend came in asking for a job,." he added as Hanna and Josie watched him talk through the mirror. "But she didn't want a job, she wanted information and she said she'd pay for it." he continued.

"What kind of information?" Aria asked and suddenly he laughed lowly. "I get it, you're Alison." he said, making the four girls share a look and their conversation was silent for a moment as Aria obviously tried to think of something to say. "Vivian told you about Alison?" she eventually asked. "She said she had a friend named Alison who was getting texts from somebody." he explained. "The number was blocked and she wanted to know where they were coming from. She'd pay to find out." he said. "Did you find out?" Aria asked. "Yeah, I found out, then I made the mistake of telling your pal before I had the money in my hand," he said as Josie twisted her ring around her finger. "She dropped off the map and I got fired for accessing restricted information." he finished.

"What did you find out about the person who was sending those texts?" Aria asked. "Are you listening? I did not get paid. I want what she owes me." he said. "How much does she owe you?" Aria asked and there was the sound of Aria going through her bag for her wallet to pay him but Josie had a feeling she wouldn't be able to pay so simply. "Two thousand," he said. "Two thousand dollars?" Aria asked, shocked, which caused the girls to share a look as Hanna closed the mirror.

"That's the price today." the guy said. "But it could go up, depending on market conditions, " he added before pulling out a pen from his pocket and writing something down on a piece of paper. "Don't ever use that number again." he said, looking at Aria. "If you wanna do business, call me here." he said, handing Aria the piece of paper, with a number on it before getting up but before he could leave Aria stopped him. "Oh." she said. "Who do I ask for when I call?" she asked. "Tell 'em you wanna talk to Jonah." he said before walking away

Soon enough Aria squeezed into the space next to Josie after she and Hanna had moved down as far as they could so she didn't have to pull up a chair next to the table. "He thought I was Ali. That means he doesn't know she's dead and if he finds out, there won't be enough money in the world to make him talk." Aria said. "If this Nonah had real information Ali might've known who 'A' was and that's why she was killed." Emily said. "Yeah, we have to find out what he told her about those messages." Spencer said.

"What are we supposed to do? Throw a bikini car wash? Even if we talked prudence finn into a tube top, we wouldn't raise enough money" Hanna asked sarcastically. "Spencer?" Aria asked, making Spencer look up, confused, before noticing everyone looking at her."My account's been on lock down since we were arrested." Spencer said, "So where are we gonna get the money from?" Josie asked, looking at her friends, who had no idea how they were going to come up with two thousand dollars.

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The next night, Josie and Richie were at Hanna's for the swim team party. They were on the stairs when Hanna and her Mom entered through the front door, they stood up. Ashley sighed before turning to Hanna, "I'm going upstairs, trusting you to keep an eye on everything down here." she said to Hanna. "Okay." Hanna breathed out as her mother walked up the stairs to her room. "Hey Han." Josie said, making Hanna smile at them. "Hey Jo, Richie," she said as Spencer and Emily walked up to them. 

"Hey, what's going on with Caleb?" Spencer asked. "I don't know." Hanna said as she briefly looked up the stairs before looking back at her friends. "That's not why we were called down there." she said, making her friends confused. "Wilden's back." she said. "He still thinks that we had something to do with Ali's murder." she said, making Josie frown.

"Look there's a photo of the four of us outside the coroner's office looking for page five." Hanna said. "'A' was following us?" Emily asked but Hanna shook her head. "No. Security Cameras." Hanna answered. "There's an investigation going on, he said copies of that page are missing." Hanna informed them. "Copies? As in every copy?." Emily asked. "Well, if the cops don't have it then it had to have been an inside job." Spencer said. "Garret." Josie said, leaning to Richie, who was just listening. "Office two-face is gonna open that laptop, I mean, what if Clabe goes to jail?" Hanna asked, worried. "It's gonna be all my fault." she added as Spencer moved to open the closet near them. "It's not gonna happen, Emily tried to assure her."

"What is she doing?" Richie asked, making Josie shrug. "No idea." she said. Spencer ended up taking her jacket out of the closet. "Jonah could help us really figure out what really happened to Alison," she said. "And Wildon is just gonna keep coming after us." she said as she walked towards the front door. "So we need to find out who killed Alison, so we can prove it wasn't us." she said while pulling the rest of her jacket on. "Okay, unless you found two thousand dollars while I was out," Hanna spoke sarcastically. "W-where are you going?" Emily asked, causing Spencer to stop half-way out the door to look at her friends. "Home." she said before leaving and shutting the door.

Later, Spencer was still out but everyone crowded around Emily at the Marin kitchen island while everyone watched a video of the swim meet. "I hope your mom got Paige coming off the platform, she was like a rocket." Emily said to Hanna, making Josie and Richie share a look. "Em," Hanna said, gaining her attention as she nudged her and nodded towards the stairs. Following the line of sight, they spotted Maya sitting on the stairs, clearly not enjoying the party, Emily quickly left to speak to her, leaving Josie, Hanna and Richie with everyone else.

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Josie had met Hanna in her room, leaving Richie downstairs talking to a few other friends of his. "Hanna we'll figure this out, Caleb will be fine." Josie said as she sat on the daybed next to Hanna's desk when suddenly there was a knock at her door, making Hanna get and open it, revealing Spencer. "Hey, I got your SOS. what's wrong?" Spencer said as she walked into Hanna's bedroom. "Please tell me you know how to hack into computers, because Josie doesn't." Hanna said, making Josie roll her eyes, hacking isn't a normal hobby hanna she thought. "Uh, no. That's what Caleb was for." she replied, dumbfounded by the question.

"Well, Caleb is at the police station right now cooperating with this whole investigation." Hanna said as she walked back to her desk and sat down. "Unless we figure out how to hack into his hard drive and delete all the files 'A' planted, he's screwed." Hanna ranted. Spencer froze for a moment not knowing what to do. "Uh, okay." she said before she walked towards the computer. "Do you know his password?" Spencer asked, making Hanna sigh. "I did." she said.

Moments later, Spencer sat down next to Hanna as Josie stood up behind them and paced, worriedly. "Okay, it's the first initials of every city he's ever lived in," Hanna said. "Seattle, Wilmette, Salt Lake, Denver, Allentown, Rosewood." Hanna explained as Spencer wrote it all down. "In that order?" Spencer asked and Hanna nodded. "Oh, and he alternates between capitals and lower case letters." she added.

"Almost as complicated as Spencer's password." Josie said, making Spencer send her a look. "Any punctuation?" Spencer asked. "Yes!" Hanna said with a nod. "Uh, an exclamation point after the last four numbers." she said slowly. "Last four numbers? There are four more numbers?" Josie said as she looked at Hanna. "Okay, what are they?" Spencer asked but when Hanna didn't answer, Spencer looked towards her, as she stayed silent.

"What else could it be?" Josie asked. "I don't know!" she exclaimed. "We only have one more try until we're locked out of the system." she continued, "Just think Hanna!" Spencer said. "I am thinking! This is me thinking and molting." she shot back as she pulled a piece of her hair out as Josie sighed. "You said. One-one, something, five," Spencer said. "One-one, something, five, One-one, something—" Josie said but Hanna cut her off. "That is not helping." Hanna snapped.

"Look, is it a-a code? Is it a date? Or, a part of a phone number? Is-is it a birthday? Is it an anniversary? Or..." Spencer trailed off as she saw the look on Hanna's face before she sat down again and began typing something on the computer before clicking enter and a few seconds later, they were in and they gasped, Josie leaning between Spencer and Hanna's head, looking at the computer.

"Oh, my god! We're in!" Hanna cheered as she stood up in excitement. "We did it." she said, a smile still on her face. "Hanna?" Spencer said. "Yes?" she answered, looking at Spencer. "What do we do now?" she asked, panicked. The three girls were looking through the files on his computer. "There are a million files on here." she said. "It's like looking inside of his brain." Spencer said with shock. 

"Which one is it?" Josie asked. "It's gotta be Hefty." Hanna said, making Spencer sigh. "That bitch." Hanna uttered before clicking on it and opening it. "That's it." Josie said. "Social security numbers, credit card information—" Hanna started but Spencer interrupted her. "Student records." she said. "Spence, how much is on here?" Hanna asked. "Somebody who really wants Caleb out of their way." she replied.

"We're talking too long Hanna, just control A." Josie said. "I'm going as fast as I can!" Hanna shot back. "It's not fast enough, Hanna! Just control A!" Spencer exclaimed but Hanna wasn't listening. "Control A!" she screamed. "What the hell do you think i'm trying to do?" Hanna exclaimed, clearly frustrated. "Spence means hit control A on the keyboard Han." Josie shouted over them two, making Hanna finally understand and she hit control A on the computer's keyboard and everything disappeared, making them all sigh in relief.

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"So you Spencer and Hanna hacked into Caleb's computer?" Richie asked as he and Josie entered her house, after the whole hacking thing Josie just wanted to go home, she wasn't in the party mood anymore. "Yeah, we did." she said as she walked into her kitchen and pulled a can of coke from her fridge. "Well aren't you guys very tech savvy." he joked, making her laugh as she turned to him. "I know." she responded. "So.. movie?" she asked as she walked towards her living room, Richie following. "Yes, but this time, I pick." he said. "Fine, if you have to," she said, sitting down on her couch, just watching Richie go through her horror movie collection, hoping that they'd figure this whole thing out soon, she just wanted things to go back to normal. 

⎯ AUTHORS NOTE
new chapters !! countdown till season three: five chapters