Read Online Now You See Me... by Rochelle Krich - Free Book Online Page B

me. He made her promise, because what they had was private.” Something flickered across the teenager’s face.
    Envy? Resentment at being shut out of her best friend’s life? I could relate to both.
    “Dassie said he really
listens
to her,” Sara said. “And a couple of times he knew what she was thinking. Like one time, he said she’d make a great lawyer. That’s
before
he knew she was planning to go to law school. And he guessed her favorite color, green. And her favorite music, and things like that. Dassie said that showed they had a bond. Like some married couples who finish each other’s sentences? My mom and dad do that.”
    Mine, too. “So Dassie was serious about him?”
    “I didn’t think so when they started IM’ing. I thought it was just fun, you know? Talking to a guy, flirting, pretending he’s your boyfriend? There’s no harm in that, because he doesn’t know your real name, or where you live or anything.”
    I had the feeling, again, that Sara was talking about herself. “What about teachers? Is Dassie close to any of them?”
    “Not really. Well, her history teacher, but that was last year. I think she had a crush on him. She was hoping to have him for AP European History. He makes his students work like crazy, but almost all of them pass the AP test. She was upset when he left like that.”
    An odd choice of words, I thought. “Like that?”
    “In the second week of September? Without telling anyone he was leaving? Dassie’s father said the teacher had to quit because of a family emergency.”
    Something Rabbi Bailor hadn’t mentioned. I wondered why. “You said Dassie’s at your house all the time. Did she ever use your computer to visit J Spot?”
    From the way Sara shifted her eyes I suspected that she had, and that she was struggling with what to tell me.
    “A couple of times,” she admitted.
    “And you’ve been there yourself, right?” I said, stating my guess as fact.
    She clutched the pillow to her chest as if it were a security blanket and slid down on the cushion. “Please don’t tell my parents.”
    I promised I wouldn’t and wondered how many more secrets I’d be asked to keep before the night was over. “Can you take me to the chat room?”
    “Now?”
    Sara’s bedroom had pale yellow walls and a white daybed covered with a yellow lace coverlet. I stood a few feet from her desk while she logged onto the Internet.
    “Okay,” she said less than a minute later.
    I moved closer and glanced at the screen.
    Birch2 has entered the room.
    I scanned the names in the chat room. Seven, including Sara’s. “What’s Dassie’s screen name? You want to find her, right?” I said, toughening my tone when she didn’t answer. “You want her safe, back home?”
    “ST613.”
    ST. Estie. Esther is another name for Hadassah. 613 is the number of
mitzvot
in the Torah. “Is there a moderator in this chat room?”
    Sara shook her head. “There’s a
frum
website with a moderator, but it’s not a live chat. You can talk about stuff that bothers you. J Spot is just for getting together with other Jewish kids.”
    “So how many times have you been to J Spot, Sara? The truth—I won’t tell.”
    “Maybe six or seven.”
    I mentally multiplied that by ten. “So you could have been in the room with this guy.”
    “Maybe.” The thought clearly troubled and intrigued her. “But I don’t know his screen name. Honest.”
    “When were you in the chat room last?”
    “Monday night. I just lurked. I don’t even know why I went. It’s not like Dassie or this guy would be there.”
    I pulled out my notepad and wrote down the URL for the chat room. “You said Dassie heard about this site from kids at Torat Tzion. Can you give me some names?”
    She licked her lips. “Are you going to talk to them? Mrs. Bailor said no one’s supposed to know about Dassie.”
    “I’m telling people that I’m writing an article about Jewish chat rooms, or the school. The names?” I