AfterNet 01 - Good Cop Dead Cop

funny there almost 50 now
    Munroe had difficulty deciphering what she wrote at times. He bet it took more effort for her to come up with her abbreviations than to type out a complete sentence. He was wrong, of course, she was forever 21 and knew when something was hip or passé , further surprising him by using passé . She eventually gave in to his requests and began using fewer abbreviations and he had a long conversation with her. He was fascinated by how she’d spent all those years alone without going mad, and he realized that her frozen state of maturity was her defense.
    He added Melissa’s name to his buddy list and she said she’d do the same, but he had few hopes. I feel even more like a dirty old man than I do with Linda, he thought.
    Linda finally woke up again about eight and unlocked the door. She stumbled through the house like a zombie and other than a few incoherent ramblings didn’t speak except to say, “Good night, Alex,” after which she went back to bed.
    The taxi arrived fifteen minutes later, the driver relocking the door behind him, and took Munroe to the Cherry Creek Mall. A lot of disembodied gathered at the mall Sunday mornings, using the public terminals throughout as ad hoc chat rooms. The elderly mall walkers, who enjoyed the peace and quiet of the mall before it opened for regular business, often joined them. The living were understandably curious about what awaited them and the disembodied, many of whom had no living relatives and were unable to contact their relatives on the AfterNet, viewed the elderly as an extended family waiting to happen. Most of the disembodied who attended the coffee klatch were themselves older when they died. Munroe perversely enjoyed being one of the younger ones.
    The rest of the day he spent at the Denver Public Library, then the Tattered Cover bookstore and finally back to the station. He did get an email from Yamaguchi earlier in the day saying that she was alive. Back at the station, he also got an email from Yamaguchi’s mother (addressed to him through his AfterNet address), asking him whether he knew why she hadn’t returned her messages.
    How the hell did she get my email address? he wondered, then realized she probably just looked it up from his postings. I really shouldn’t post my address everywhere. I hope I don’t have to change it. He sent her back a message saying that Linda was sick and that he was sure she’d return her email messages once she felt better.
    And he got back a real response from AfterNet security.
From: (Steve Howland) [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Missing persons inquiry 20041219-0324
Date: December 19, 2004 5:34 p.m. MST
Dear Officer Munroe,
I’m sorry about the delay in getting back to you regarding your inquiry about Brian Thompson (minerofLove). We always want to work with the police, but your situation made it difficult because we can’t normally initiate a trace based on an email request, but my supervisor said to go ahead because it’s you.
Mr. Thompson last logged in to denver.theAfterNet.net at 3:35 p.m. MST December 11 from the downtown branch of the Denver Public Library. He used a public terminal, stayed on 23 minutes and went to the entertainment forum. He didn’t leave any messages. He doesn’t use the AfterNet as his email server, so we don’t know when he last checked his mail, but his address is [email protected], so I’m afraid you’ll need to get any other email information from Microsoft.
If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me again, or if I’m off duty, just tell anyone at [email protected] that your case number is 20041219-0324 and they can look up this incident.
Thanks,
Steve Howland
AfterNet security
    Munroe sent a quick email to Brian’s mother, quoting the message from AfterNet security and also asking whether she’d heard from Brian. Then he opened a browser and went to the Denver subdomain of the AfterNet and the entertainment forum. He did a search and looked for all the messages that were posted in the forum from Dec. 5 through Dec. 11. Most of the messages were mundane: some Christmas party invitations (including a Christmas Eve get together at the downtown Tattered Cover sponsored by the AfterNet — I should remember that ), a poetry reading by a disembodied author ( I won’t remember that ) and a plug for the Christmas lights at the Denver Botanic Garden.
    So far, Munroe didn’t see anything