Michaels, Skye - Mikaela's Debut [The Black Dahlia Hotel 1] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) by Skye Michaels

been hanging around Sexton’s Brooklyn neighborhood, trying not to look suspicious. It would take a lot to look suspicious around here—but nonetheless.
    Finally, in the late afternoon she saw Maggie leave the building with a handbag and a clear plastic tote. It looked like she might be going to her job at Macy’s. This should be a good opportunity to slip into the apartment. Cassandra waited another half hour just in case Maggie had forgotten something and decided to come back. When the coast was clear, she entered the building. No buzzer to gain admittance. Good.
    Cassandra felt sorry for Mikaela Sexton. She had taken a few minutes to watch the YouTube video that had already been posted. John and Morgan Court told her that there might be another one showing the woman’s face. Not only was the woman at risk, but her boyfriend was running for Congress in a special election, and a sex scandal would likely sink his campaign.
    Cassandra walked up the three flights of stairs to Maggie Sexton’s apartment. She carried a grocery bag which contained a set of lockpicks and some other equipment she might need. There was no one in the hallway. She walked casually to the door and made quick work of the locks. Geez, in this neighborhood she could see why there were three of them. Once she was inside, she took a quick look around to orient herself and also to be sure she was actually alone. Coast clear. She had donned silicone gloves when she was on the landing of the third floor and had also pushed her long hair up into a baseball cap. She didn’t want to leave any forensic evidence behind even in this apartment building.
    Cassandra began a systematic and neat search of the apartment. She didn’t want it to be apparent that someone had been there. When she got to the small kitchen, she saw the laptop on the kitchen table. She opened it and booted up. She quickly found the directory with the video and some drafts of the blackmail texts. The browser history showed where the contents of the DVD had been uploaded to YouTube. Stupid, stupid girl. She downloaded the contents of the computer and forwarded it to the IT department at Court Industries. She uploaded the virus that would wipe the computer cleaner than a freshly diapered baby’s butt. Then she proceeded to search the rest of the apartment. In the small bedroom she found a box in the closet that contained an old-style video cassette and a shiny, new DVD—both marked simply “Mikaela New Year’s Eve 1999.” She slipped them into her bag. These were going out of here with her. She carefully searched the rest of the apartment in case there were duplicates hidden elsewhere. She didn’t think this Maggie person was sophisticated enough for such elaborate countermeasures, but you never knew. She was vicious enough to try to blackmail her cousin.
    When Cassandra was sure she had found all there was to be found, she quietly exited the apartment and relocked the doors. Maggie would wonder what the hell had happened to her laptop. Hopefully she would think it was a power surge or something. If she wasn’t too technologically savvy, that might be the case. With any luck Maggie wouldn’t look for the video cassette and the DVD any time soon. It would be better if she didn’t find them missing until after the mysterious crash of her computer was not so fresh in her memory. Hopefully the two events would not be connected. In any case, she hoped she had put a serious stick in the spokes of Maggie’s wheels. She headed back to the Court Industries offices on Madison Avenue.
    Cassandra knocked on the doorframe of John McGregor’s office, and when he looked up and nodded she went in. She put the video cassette and DVD down on John’s desk. He immediately picked up the DVD and put it into his laptop. There were two files. One was the video that had already been put up on YouTube. The other was indeed a video that showed Mikaela Sexton’s face. She looked younger and less mature than