Criminal Continuum: Teen Criminal Investigation Unit - Ch 1

Bits & Bytes

“What’s all the commotion about?” Robert asked his sister as they arrived on campus to begin their day at school.

“I don’t know,” Rebecca replied.

As Rebecca and Robert neared the entrance hall, Rebecca’s friend, Caroline, ran out to greet them. Caroline was a tall, thin girl who tended to get excited over things very easily and thoroughly enjoyed telling her friends about all of the latest happenings whenever she had the chance.

“Have you heard?” Caroline exclaimed to Rebecca.

“Slow down a bit, I just got here,” Rebecca said, “fill me in on our way to class.”

After combing his wavy black hair, Robert bid farewell to Rebecca and Caroline and rushed off to his locker. He never particularly enjoyed ‘girl talk’, but he was slightly anxious to find out what had happened so early this Monday morning.

Caroline gained her composure and started explaining, “Someone broke into the school over the weekend and stole six computers from the computer lab class.”

“You’re kidding!”

Caroline explained, “No. The police are coming to check things out and the Principal has closed the classroom until they’re done with their investigation.”

As they walked through the halls toward their lockers, they could see that the whole school was talking about the thefts. Some kids were even coming up with lists of suspects.

I wonder what we will do instead of computer lab now, Rebecca thought to herself, probably just go to study hall again and work on homework.

Caroline and Rebecca arrived at their first period class and took their seats just as the final bell rang.

Miss Yonkers, the first period English Literature teacher with short black hair, was fully aware that this incident may be a distraction for her students. She quickly addressed her class, “Students, as you are all aware of by now we have had a crime committed involving our computer lab’s classroom computers. Once we have gone over your homework and read the first section of chapter three in your textbooks, we will have a brief discussion about the theft.”

The students seemed relieved that they would actually be able to talk about what happened over the weekend and about the missing computers. Some teachers ignored things like this, but Miss Yonkers knew that it was much better to address problems than to avoid them. That was her style of teaching. She dove right into things and showed her students how to analyze literature and understand many of its hidden meanings, analogies, metaphors, similes, satires, and everything else associated within the literary realm.

Near the end of class Miss Yonkers allowed the students to talk about their feelings regarding the computer lab theft. By this time the students had calmed down and spoke rationally about the incident.

“It’s just horrible,” stated Caroline. “Why do people have to take things and mess it up for everyone else?”

Miss Yonkers responded, “Yes, that is the perplexing part about crime. It seems that many people just do not have a conscience when it comes to how their actions will affect others. They just do things without a thought of what the consequences might be.”

After a few minutes of discussion, the class bell rang and the students scurried off to get to their second period classes.

“Look,” exclaimed Caroline, as she and Rebecca passed by the computer lab door, “the police are inside the room checking things out.

“I sure hope they can get a lead on this,” responded Rebecca, “We need our computers back so we can continue with our studies.”

“And the free time we have to play some of the games on the computers, of course,” Caroline said with a smile.

While dressing after first period P. E., Robert and a couple of his friends, Phil and Gerry, discussed the theft among themselves.

“So, Robert,” Phil said, “what do you think about all of this?”

“It seems crime is on the rise and like a hot summer day… no place can avoid the heat.”

“Sounds like some kind of riddle to me,” responded Gerry.

“Crime is the riddle and clues are the keys to solving it,” Robert remarked in poetical fashion.

 The boys laughed.

Gerry commented, “We should do something to help solve this crime. Maybe we can gather some information from our teachers and the police during lunch later.”

“And maybe, Robert, your dad will have some additional information to share with you and your sister,” suggested Phil.

“I sure hope so, but he works in San Francisco in homicide, so….” replied Robert.

“They were killer computers,” Phil joked.

The boys laughed.

  The first four periods passed by quickly and lunchtime arrived like a warm fire on a windy winter day. The three boys met up with Caroline and Robert’s twin sister Rebecca. They all sat on the fresh mown grass near enough to the computer lab window to notice that the police appeared to be finished with their work inside the computer room and were leaving.

“Robert,” Rebecca addressed her brother, “do you know if the police have checked outside of the classroom window for footprints, or other tracks?”

“They have,” interrupted Gerry, “I saw them there on my way to third period.”

“Great,” Robert stated with a smirk on his face, “but could we expect any less from our officers in uniform?”

Robert really had a great respect for law enforcement and all of its related branches, but he loves to poke a little fun once in a while since his dad is a homicide detective.

“They will have checked for foot and other tracks outside of the window, any scratches or marks on the window frame, analyzed the broken door locks and have collected any fingerprints they may have found,” asserted Robert.

Just as the group finished with their lunches they noticed a police cadet approaching. The local police sometimes brought cadet trainees to some of the non-violent crime scenes.

“Hi,” Rebecca greeted the cadet with a smile, flipping her long black hair with her hand.

“Good day, young lady,” the future officer replied.

“Do you think you guys will find out who did this and get our computers back?” inquired Rebecca.

Caroline added, “And will it take a long time?”

“Well, in cases like this we need to gather all of the information we can and hope for a break. You know… something to fit all of the puzzle clues together so we can have a clear path to follow in our search for the perps of the crime. A ‘perp’ is short for ‘alleged perpetrator’…  the one or ones who have committed the crime,” the cadet proudly stated.

Everyone knows what a perp is, the group of youths all thought to themselves.

The cadet continued, “Sometimes it is easy to identify the unsub and at other times they seem to elude detection. ‘Unsub’ is a law enforcement term for the ‘unknown subject’ that has committed a crime.”

Gerry wondered, What’s with this guy?

Phil questioned the cadet, “Who all did you guys question today during your investigation? It sounds so exciting! You must enjoy this kind of detective work a lot.” Phil knew this will boost the cadet’s ego and maybe he would give up a little more information.

“We’ve interviewed everyone who was here over the weekend who is working today. Not too many were here. The day janitor was on site until 5 p.m. last Friday, but he did not see anyone. We are getting ready to question the evening janitorial team, but it appears that they finished their work around midnight on Friday and locked the school up when they departed.”

“Don’t we have an alarm system installed here,” asked Caroline.

“Yes, but for some reason it was not activated when the cleaning workers left Friday evening,” replied the cadet, “It appears the alarm was only activated in the sports equipment room areas.”

“I bet someone did that intentionally,” speculated Gerry.

The cadet replied, “We will certainly check that out during our investigation.”

The cadet was of normal height and quite a good looking young man, but there was something peculiar about his mannerisms.

Rebecca interjected, “What about the lawn?”

“The lawn?” questioned the cadet.

“Yeah, it was cut over the weekend. I remember that on Friday it was long because it was still a bit damp at lunch, so we couldn’t sit on it… and now it is cut.”

“Thanks,” responded the cadet with great interest, “I’ll bring that up to the investigating officer in charge. Well, I better run and get back to work.”

 “Hey,” Rebecca shouted to the cadet as he started to leave, “What’s your name?”

“Jim, Jim Connors.”

After the cadet departed and the final ‘lunch over’ bell rang, the schoolmates hurried off to their fifth period classes.

Once the school day ended the twins rushed home, eager to share the news about the theft at their school with their little sister.

“Sis, Kell,” Rebecca cried out, “are you home?”

“I’m in here,” Kelly replied from the kitchen.

Robert was first to speak, “Guess what happened over the weekend at our school.”

“Someone broke in and stole six computers from your computer lab classroom,” stated Kelly.

“How did you find out already?” asked Rebecca.

“My friend, Mary, called and told me all about it just two minutes before you two arrived home. Her brother told her.”

“We talked to a police cadet who was there, but we didn’t get a lot of info from him. He sort of only told us what we assumed would be happening with an investigation like this,” Robert said.

“I figure the police have checked the area in and outside of the classroom as well as the area outside the windows,” conjectured Kelly, “I am sure they will be questioning a lot of people who were there working and anyone else who may have known where the computers were located; delivery personnel, recent guests, special visitors, etc.”

“Yeah,” Rebecca agreed, “I am sure they will be busy researching this--”

“Kell,” Robert interrupted Rebecca, “can you think of anything we can do to help?”

“We can check the newspaper sale ads, visit some local flea-markets if we get the time, and we can even check out some internet sale and auction sites, but it may take some time for the computers to appear at any of these places. If the perps are smart, they will wait for a while before they attempt to get rid of them, if getting rid of the computers is part of their plan.”

Kelly gets excited about these types of events and loves to analyze things and examine them with a bit of a different eye than the average person. She is a short girl with very curly and frizzy golden sand colored hair.

“Most of these types of crimes are done by students, employees, or people who are in a hurry for some quick cash,” continued Kelly, “Of course… word-of-mouth is a very effective way to get information from friends and any other people who may have a clue about the crime.”

“What do you mean?” asked Rebecca.

“Well, if students did this, they will probably have a hard time not bragging about it to their friends. Sometimes friends blab what they know to other friends, don’t they?”

Robert remarked, “So, we all need to keep our ears and eyes open.”

“We met a police cadet named Jim Connors today who was helping with the investigation,” commented Rebecca. “He seemed real nice.”

“Connors,” replied Kelly. “There is a new girl in my school and my ballet class named Lindsey Connors. I wonder if they are related.”

“Maybe,” answered Rebecca. “We only talked with him for a short time.”

“Homework,” the three siblings reminded themselves.

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Next Chapter
Chapter Two: An Aunt in the Kitchen