Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

Author:Naomi Kritzer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

* * *

Back at Rachel’s house, her mother’s in the studio and her father is working late again. Rachel makes us macaroni and cheese while I copy the pictures over to my computer so we can see them on a larger screen. I’m pretty sure I smell like mouse droppings, but Rachel’s house has its own dusty smell thanks to all the birds, so I try not to worry about it too much.

I take out the clipping I retrieved from my mother’s car this morning and pull up the Los Angeles Times website. “What’s that?” Rachel asks.

“It’s the clipping from earlier. The one about my dad, with the fake names. I’m just wondering whether it’s at least based on something real.”

She nods and watches over my shoulder as I pull up the archive to search. I use full-text searching and type in one of the sentences—“more passionate than threatening.” It doesn’t have the name Taylor in it, anyway. I have to watch four ads before I can see my results, so I start them playing and go to the bathroom.

When I come back, CheshireCat has also sent me a message:

“I think I might have found your father. He lives in Milpitas, California. He’s been looking up plane flights to Boston, Minneapolis, Durham, and Portland, Maine.”

Boston is near Firestar; Portland is near Hermione; Durham is near Marvin; and Minneapolis is the biggest airport near New Coburg.

“Is he in the Clowder?” I write.

“No, absolutely not. No. I think he has his website set up to capture IP addresses, so when everyone went to look, he could see everyone’s approximate location. Except for yours—yours is hidden because your mother’s always used a VPN—but Rachel’s isn’t.”

“But maybe he’s not evil?” I write. “Maybe my mother kidnapped me, and my father’s actually the victim here?”

“I’m sorry to say I don’t think that’s it.”

But the newspaper clipping was full of lies. Or at least fake names. I go to the other window to see what’s turned up from the Los Angeles Times archive now that all the ads are done playing.

Order of Protection Granted to Former Kidnapping Victim

Laura Packet, 34, has sought an Order of Protection from her husband, Michael Quinn, briefly a suspect when her five-day kidnapping gripped Silicon Valley last year. Their former business partner, Rajiv Patil, killed himself while awaiting trial for the crime. Quinn, who was at an information security conference when Packet was taken from the home they shared, was questioned repeatedly by the police, but Patil was identified by a conspirator, and evidence of the conspiracy was found on his computer.

Packet declined to speak to the press. Quinn’s lawyer released a statement saying that Packet had been left extremely traumatized by the period when she was kidnapped, which included the forcible amputation of one of her fingers, and suggested that she blamed Quinn for not having been present to protect her. Packet presented evidence of stalking in court; Quinn’s lawyer said the messages sent were “more passionate than threatening” and “should not be read literally.

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