Summary: A tabloid starts showing pictures of Michelle and Mark sleeping together. The rest of the team attempt to prove the pictures are doctored and uncover the source of the pictures.
Previously on Croonford Detectives:
Just as they both sang along to another hit, ‘Little L,’ Chelle’s shoulder straps fell. What the couple didn’t know was they were being photographed far away.
“What happened?!” Lin exclaimed to her classmate over English breakfast.
“It was an accidental wardrobe malfunction, ok? It just took some sewing to get the zip fixed.”
“Oooh, what colour undies were you in?”
“Lin…”
and
“Mark, don’t go out in such weather. Are you tired?” He explained he had a strenuous rugby game yesterday and his back was aching a bit. He started to sit down but she told him to lie down on her bed. He indeed did and she started massaging his back. More than 30 minutes later, Chelle had turned face-to-face and they were locked in a passionate embrace deeply kissing each other on their lips. They stay like this for the rest of the late evening but what the pair did not suspect what their actions were photographed by a long-range camera.
The printing press and online news at the Croonford Daily Mail was always working in the early morning. The Chief Editor had added the usual British and International stories but a particular one with several pictures was placed on the front page. I’m sure it’ll be a hit for the whole town and the wider region, he smiled then went to grab an early morning coffee.
Later that morning, Chelle and Lin were taking the usual school bus together. They used to talk softly but today fell quiet as they were now in Year 11 and some mock exams were on today Their silence was suddenly broken as their classmate Hattie handed Chelle her mobile phone. Chelle’s eyes widened as she saw the Mail’s front page, ‘Famous local girl detective having underaged sex with her star rugby boyfriend.’
“That’s a..” She nearly completed the sentence then remembered no one was allowed to talk loudly in the bus. Minutes later, she passed through the school gates and usually students were focused on last-minute revision. Now a bunch surrounded her and peppered her with questions regarding the news article. Some immediately asked if the article was true and Chelle immediately denied it. Others, especial boys, asked how was the sex, how long was it and used dirty terms and whistled how cute she was banging a rugby star or how daring it was. Statements like ‘screwing him, ‘how was the foreplay’, ‘was it just normal sex’ or ‘any bun in the oven’ were asked or rather shouted at her.
Chelle ran away but the other students still called out those questions and it took Lin much loud retorting and almost physical pushing before that crowd dispersed. Chelle thankfully found herself quickly amongst female group. Even then, Bethan and Heather did ask her how truthful the news article was. They quickly accepted her answer and Julia and Hattie comforted her, with the former suggesting they focus on their upcoming English mock exam paper. Chelle did but part of the way, she pulled out her mobile phone and despite the low battery, she logged onto the school Wi-Fi and read that news article. From the two pictures with her and Mark at her home, they managed to write nearly two thousand words out of it. She constantly cursed silently until the morning bell rang.
Following her classmates, Chelle was lost in thought, troubled by this fictious article. More questions rang out from both her male and female classmates and even with Lin physical and verbal shielding, Chelle’s ears still heard a cacophony of questions regarding sex with her boyfriend. Not listen of comprehend what the students were saying, their teacher Mr Lambeth informed them loudly that their mock GCSE English paper. “Remember to leave your mobile phones in your locker and definitely no hidden pieces of paper or notes on your skin. Of course, a single bottle of water. Good luck.”
Minutes later, after all students locked up their phones, Chelle’s class joined with Jenn’s class in this mock exam paper. Chelle could tackle the first few questions fast then encountered several medium and long essay questions. She tried to answer them, however, she could only write half the questions length of the A4 paper then her mind wondered to the tabloid article and how much it would affect her and Mark. Unable to concentrate, she raised hand and soon locked herself in toilet stall. Her mind was full of the fake news though finally relieved herself. Back at her assigned desk, Chelle wrote more lines for the essay questions though her mind was still filled with the fake news article, particularly the photos. Why? Who was trying trouble me in my GCSE Year? Me and my dear Mark.
With the cry of ‘pens down’, Chelle’s answers were collected with her mind still on the fake news. Knowing that classmates and students would surround her and blast her with questions and sex-related comments, she dashed to the hideout she found several years ago – an unused room close to the rooftops. Sitting on the only chair there and without any electronic devices, she just stared at the walls, then the floor particularly her school shoes then closed her eyes. Her mind was again full of the article until she heard a voice.
“Chelle, Chelle, I know you’re in there, open up,” Lin called. One second later, she did and questioned how her close classmate and fellow teen detective knew she hid here. “I’ve always seen you run up here and a checked out the place myself,” Lin grinned. “Come on, our Maths mock paper will be starting soon and it’s chilly here.” Lin also gave her friend an energy booster bar and plain water. Chelle liked maths since Year 9 and managed to answer many questions until she saw those on trigonometry. Instead of asking for a toilet break again, she just kept looking at the questions. Initially, the article still was on her mind until she managed to write an answer to one question. This trend of new article and looking at questions continued until Chelle wrote answers to the questions, though didn’t check her work before it was collected.
“Thanks, Hattie, I’ll return your charger quickly,” Chelle told her classmate.
“Anything, for a girl detective.”
It was lunch break and Lin suggested the teen detectives meet in one of the gardens far away from any other students. Everyone came except Mark was there which further depressed Chelle. Lin had to call Chelle’s name before she could focus. “Reinhard only focused on the images…”
“And looking at the first,” he continued his girlfriend’s sentence. “There are small, no, minute streaks here. You weren’t going to…?” He didn’t want to say she was taking of her bra.
“No, my dress fell down suddenly, that’s it.”
“What I’m saying is that this photoshopped.” There was a silence. “The second one,” he enlarged the photo as large as he could, “doesn’t appear so. I need my personal laptop which has Photoshop and I can check both.”
“The article, really is poorly written,” Jenn spoke up. “Using present tense, short sentences, poor adjectives until you reach the, well, sexually-suggestive parts. I know it’s the Daily Mail but it’s also like written by a poor English writer.” Jenn ended that taking a scoop of Scotch Broth. There was nothing further, so the sixteen-year-olds finished their lunch in silence and returned to their classes. It was revision classes but Chelle just half-looked at her notes and books, spent the rest of her time thinking about Mark.
The last bell rang and she ran through the student crowd, with many yelling questions about the tabloid article. Suddenly she collided into her own boyfriend.
“Mark, where on earth were you?”
He drew her to the nearest corner and explained he was harassed and bullied much in between his English, Maths and Physical Education mock exams. “My classmates and rugby mates said really dirty words especially regarding my.” he said several slangs regarding his private part. “It’s worse than horrible, Chelle, how could the media write this nonsense?”
She told him that Reinhard highly suspected the images were photoshopped and Jenn noted it was poorly written. Both agreed that they were trapped and went their ways. Just as Chelle step outside, she saw a crowd of reporters and cameramen surrounding the gates. Knowing why they were there, she rushed back inside and exited via the eastern side gate, hailed a taxi, and slouched. As she alighted, she saw her mum chasing away reporters and yelling at camerawomen. As they were gone, she called her older daughter in.
“Michelle,” Chelle immediately noted that her mother rarely called her by her full first name. “Can you explain this?”
Her mother had paper copies of the mail and other newspapers that had the same story.
“Mum, these photos are clearly fake. the…”
“Who is person appearing in both pictures?” Maggie Summers pointed at the pictures.
“He’s…my boyfriend, Mark.”
“Boyfriend?!” Chelle summarised how she met Mark at school, found much in common with him, dated and he has been a terrific assistant for the detective group.
“How come I’ve never met him?”
“I was planning to…”
Her mum held up her hand and picked up the Mail article. “What exactly where were you two doing here?”
Chelle again explained she and Mark were dancing to music and suddenly her dress slipped and fell. “You know, the one I had you repair the zip.” She vehement asserted she was not taking off her bra as depicted.
“And this one?”
She explained due to the weather she told Mark to stay at her place. They were cuddling and hugging. “Nothing else occurred not what is written.”
She also had to answer what age she was in the images.
“Michelle, photoshopped or not, the damage is severe. Photoshopped or not, you two will likely be investigated for underage sex. I want you to cease seeing Mark after school and stop all your detectives’ activities; it’s your mock exam period.”
Chelle started to shiver from this announcement and that she might be investigated for underage sex. “Go to your room to clean up,” her mother suggested. Nearly slamming her door and not responding to her sister’s call, ‘I baked a fruit cake’, she threw herself on her bed and for the first time in years, Michelle Sarah Summers cried.
Reinhard decided to work at Lin’s house as he knew his father would bring his rowdy drinking buddies around. He did take his time and while Lin also knew how to use Photoshop, she considered him the expert. After forty-five minutes, he took drink of Jasmine tea then announced, “They both are most certainly photoshopped. The first shows Chelle arms bent at her back, except they aren’t her arms. Someone ‘cut away’ her real arms and inserted someone else’s, the shades and lines are a giveaway. For the second, it’s trickier. They are of cuddling but Mark’s hand which is reaching for his belt again isn’t his. This one is a little smaller that his hand around Chelle’s. I’ve managed actually reverse them to the original.”
Lin kissed him and declared that they should go to the Croonford Mail to present this. Contacting the others, Jenn said she was heading for a short law internship and Richard would cover for her.
“Wow, I expected an army of police or lawyers, not teenagers from the local detective group,” The Chief Editor, Jonas Gabriels, puffing out cigar smoke which the teens hated. “What ya have?”
Lin presented the different images and together with her boyfriend, they strongly asserted that the images were manipulated with and therefore fake. “Yea, yea, I’ve heard this line before. We can use any image we get for articles.”
“Who gave you those photos? Who?” Lin raised her voice and asked this twice.
“Calm down. Don’t you know the media, journalists never disclose their sources.”
“Your staffers write with poor grammar and poor spelling?” Richard showed a tablet copy with all the mistakes underlined in red.
“We might write too fast but the message is clear. Now anything more, I prefer proper professionals.”
Jenn was walking up the lane leading to the law office when she heard a muffled cry and angry shouts. Searching the nearby hedges, she finally found a young pre-teen lying flat on the ground with duct tape wrapped all over her. A tattooed and bearded man towered over her and noticed Jenn.
“Release the young girl!” Jenn cried.
The man leaped over the hedge and drew out a knife. “You going to make me girlie?”
Jenn knew she couldn’t physically tackle a knife-wielding thung so turn a special dial in her watch. A shrieking anti-rape alarm sounded and seconds later, sirens blared and two Constables rushed over. With one arresting the thug, the other questioned Jenn and she headed to the law offices, happy that matter was resolved.
Lin was fuming after not able to resolve the fake news at the Mail headquarters. After the boys managed to calm her down, Richard spoke up.
“Did you see the other person besides Gabriels in the room? Far left corner, he kept looking up every now and then. Yeah, it was his office, but there was someone else.”
Reinhard thought for a while then agreed that was a black hair person, almost hidden.
“Fine,” Lin declared. “We’ll trace him and see what his job scope is.”
To be continued.
Michelle, Lin Ling, Jennifer, Mark, Reinhard and Richard will return in ‘Framed Part 2.’
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