| Detective :Stalker2 |
July 15, 2017
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| Two weeks had past. The detective had a vague idea about who the stalker was, or more precisely, who were stalkers were. But, he didn't exactly know how to pinpoint them from a large group of people. Actually, he could target somebody. But, this was very risky. Probably, they were mainly students. And, students have parents. Their parents would be furious if he said that their children were committing a crime. They might say that they would sue him. If his guess about the person was incorrect, it would be possible that his license would be canceled. On this day, he was still hesitant about his plan. It was Sunday and he had asked the young woman to walk in a busy sidewalk in the downtown area. He also asked her to look around while walking, and not to stop. There were many kids who were strolling around looking at their smartphones, they were playing Pokemon Go. He only targeted boys who were coming from the opposite direction from her. He had decided to stay very close to her on this day. Usually detectives don't get too close to their subjects unless they are protecting them. This was irregular. One kid who was watching his smartphone was approaching from the opposite direction. The boy looked nervous. When  the young woman stepped to look at a shop, the boy swiftly aimed his smartphone at her, and then he returned it to the original position. There was no shutter sound that was heard, so he couldn't say whether the boy took a picture or not. But he decided to confront the kid. The detective walked in front of the boy and stopped. The boy raised his head from his phone. He looked to be a junior high senior or a high school freshman. The boy's face was more nervous than blank or irritated, so he thought that he was right. The detective said, "Hey. Do you know about 'portrait rights'?" The boy said nothing, and continued to stare at him. He said, "You know, everyone has portrait rights. For that woman, too." He saw the young woman leaving, not noticing the situation. The boy said something in a small voice. The detective couldn't understand what he said. The detective thought that it was lucky for him that the boy didn't try to escape or demand to call his parents. The boy might have expected this situation, he thought. The detective calmly said, "I have no intention to accuse you. I just need your help." The boy had a surprised expression. The detective asked the boy to go to the nearest coffee shop with him. The boy nodded. In the shop, the detective ordered a coke for the kid and a coffee for himself. He asked the boy to show him her picture. The boy took out his smartphone and showed him a picture of her upper body. The detective asked him why he took this photo, and the boy started to tell him in a small voice. Two weeks after the incident with the boy, the woman came to the detective's office. She said, "I was amazed that you were able to find what even the big company couldn't find. They promised to refund my money." He said, "I was so lucky that I was able to have a cooperative kid and his parents. I didn't have any confidence if it would work or not." The stalker wasn't one person. They were a group of people, but they didn't know each other. And they didn't even know who she was. She was called by her code name. It was a game, like Pokemon Go. In Pokemon Go, the gamers gather as many Pocket Monsters as they can. One bad guy thought if he could use people instead of the Pocket Monsters, he wouldn't have any costs to create characters or set them in various places. People exist and move within the limits of their usual life. So he produced a new game and sold the application to smartphones. The 'characters' were gathered from the Internet from his computer automatically. The computer found pictures which included single persons and their surroundings. If the gamers were familiar to the surroundings, they could go there and could look for the target. As 'characters', the computer chose pretty girls and handsome boys because it would give more incentive for the gamers. The computer also gave each character a cord name and a rank according to its calculation. In the game, if the gamers took a picture of the character, it would be checked and a certain amount of points would be added. Unfortunately, the young woman's picture was on the Internet with her surroundings. Her code name was 'Queen' and it was ranked the highest. So, many gamers, especially young boys, came to her and took her picture secretly. The detective went to the boy's house and explained about the game and his client's concerns. The parents had common sense. They knew that this was a crime and going to the police was the best solution for their kid. They went to the police together. The police moved fast. They investigated it and arrested the maker of the game, who was a worker at a big game company and who wanted some extra money. Soon the game app disappeared. The police said that this game had been getting popular among young people who were shy and couldn't talk to girls and or boys. She said, "It's terrible that bad people could use people's pictures from the Internet for money." The detective and the retired guy agreed. The detective said, "We can't see the whole world of the Internet, so we can't easily imagine about the dangers of the Internet." The other two nodded. She said, "But I still have a strange feeling because I was called 'Queen' and was in high rank." The retired guy said, "You are attractive." She said, "I don't think so. But if they think so, they could have come up to me and asked me to take a photo with them. This is healthy." They nodded. Suddenly, the retired guy said, "I got an idea. May I take a picture with you, ma'am?" She immediately said, "No!" "Why not?" "You are not a boy." "Come on!" "No, thank you." "Please!" c Their talking and the detective's laughing voice echoed throughout the office. |
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*confront :Ξ·ιAΞΚ·ι
*cooperative :¦ΝI