From last Friday

That evening, Danny skyped Prawn. It was the only way to have a conversation with him – Prawn had stopped coming to school half way through the previous year, and visitors were not encouraged.

“Someone found locker 1542,” Danny said quietly.

A few kilometres away, Prawn's pinkish eyes bulged, the effect magnified by the angle of his web-cam. “It's not even supposed to belong to you.”

“Can we check out the cameras?”

“I can access the footage easily enough, if that's what you mean.” A scornful look crossed his translucent face. “They store it on the external server; two weeks worth. Barely any security worth mentioning. But it won't help. That place is a madhouse.”

“She must have left some kind of a trace.” Despite himself, Danny could feel his frustration rising like bile. He wasn't used to being beaten at his own game. And the knowledge that he was speaking to Prawn only to confirm what he already knew just made matters worse.

“Are you working physical evidence?”

“Teach your grandmother, Prawn.”

“How about tracing the back story?”

“Asanda's on it.”

“Okay, so back to my first thought then. How the hell did she find you?”

Danny paused. “Accessing the locker allocations wouldn't have helped her. Those have all been

tweaked. No trace of our business left there.”

“Plus I added a few anti-hacker titbits of my own,” Prawn reminded him smugly. “Any unauthorised entry would have set off alarm bells all over my system. And I'm assuming this isn't an official investigation.”

“Which means...”

“The easiest way to find it without risking detection would have been physical observation.”

His face cleared. Here was something concrete. “Following one or more of us. Getting the general location.  Narrowing down the field. Hanging around during busy times. Keeping an eye on things. Maybe making friends with a few bona fide locker holders so she's got an excuse to chill there.”

“Not impossible. How long do you reckon this chick's been planning the set up?”

“We'll have to wait for Asanda on that one.”  

***

I promise I'm back on the challenge now...