"Is the door locked?" Janelle asked for what felt like the hundredth time. 

"Yes, Janelle" Gabriella tried to reply calmly, but the irritation was visible in her tone. 

"We can't have people walking in on us, you know," Janelle said. 

"Yes, yes I know" She replied impatiently. "Is the phone charged?" 

"No, but it just switched on," Janelle said. "Pull up a chair" 

Gabriella did as Janelle said, she couldn't wait another minute to get inside Renee's phone. Janelle switched it on and to their disappointment, it had a password on it.

"It's alright," Gabriella sighed. "We expected this" 

"It's a setback, but nothing we can't fix" Janelle agreed. 

Janelle raised the phone a little higher and moved it around. 

"What are you trying?" Gabriella asked.

"I'm trying to see if there are any fingerprint marks Renee left behind" She replied. 

"Did you find anything?" 

"No," Janelle sighed. 

"Give me the phone," Gabriella said. "I happen to know a little hacking" 

"How long would it take?" Janelle asked. 

"It depends on the phone model," Gabriella said as she checked the phone model. "With this one, probably three hours" 

"That long?" She sighed. 

"Yeah," Gabriella replied. "Till then, you can read through the diary. Tell me if you find something important" 

"All right," She said as she walked away with the diary. 

About three hours later, Janelle entered the meeting room and locked the door behind her. 

"Is it done?" She asked impatiently. 

"Almost," She said. "And... Done!" 

"Great!" Janelle said as she rushed towards Gabriella and saw the phone unlocked. 

"How'd you do it?" 

"I learnt it during one of the military training programs," She replied. "Were you not there?"

"I think I remember it. Vaguely." Janelle shrugged. 

"Her wallpaper is a bunch of trees," Gabriella said snarkily. 

"Anything important?" Janelle asked, ignoring her comment. 

"Let's go to her chats. If she was messaging Arthur, it should show up here" Gabriella said and opened her messages. 

"Unsaved number... unsaved number... Evans... unsaved number..." Gabriella muttered as she scrolled through the chats.

"Don't scroll through the unsaved numbers, one of them could be Arthurs. Maybe even all of them. He obviously has burner phones" Janelle said.

"Good point," Gabriella replied and opened the chat window of the latest unsaved number. 

"The unknown number says 'Running away won't change that this started because of you'" Gabriella read out. Janelle's head perked up, intrigued. She motioned for her to keep reading.

"'It was your plan' Renee replies," She continued. "'But who agreed to it?' The chat ends here. Renee blocked the number after that" 

"What are they talking about?" Janelle asked. 

"I have no idea," She said, equally confused. "I'll keep reading the other chats" 

"This one's a reminder to pay her phone bill... Ah, here's another" 

"Another unknown number says 'Carnell's losing it, don't ghost us' a day later, 'Seriously, where are you?' and within a few hours, 'Wtf are you doing? Do you not understand the seriousness of the situation?'" Gabriella read out the texts. 

"Wait... Carnell as in Arthur Carnell?" Janelle asked. 

"Possibly. I don't know any other Carnells. Also, it makes sense why Renee and Arthur always seemed at odds with each other" Gabriella agreed.

"Keep reading" Janelle prompted. "There might be messages with more context" 

"This one's by someone saved 'Evans'. He has a profile picture" Gabriella stated. Janelle leaned in closer as Gabriella clicked on the profile to see a man who appeared to be in his late 40s in a white coat. 

"He's a doctor?" 

"Maybe" 

"Anyway, this chat's pretty huge... Dating back to... Never mind, it's too long" Gabriella said. 

"Use the 'jump to beginning' option" Janelle suggested. 

"Alright," Gabriella said after scrolling to the top. "The first message was sent three years ago. Renee says 'Hello, this is Dr Hayes. It's a pleasure to meet you' Evans replies with 'Did Officer Carnell give you my contact' after that Renee replies 'Yes, he told me to schedule the meeting with you' Evans then says 'How does tomorrow at 5 PM sound?' then Renee sends a thumbs up" 

"Dr Hayes?" Janelle questioned. "I thought she was some unemployed person" 

"You're missing what's important here. 'Officer Carnell' gave Renee the contact to this random guy and told them to schedule some meeting together" Gabriella pointed out. 

"If Arthur gave her this contact, she must have some chat with him," Janelle said. "Keep going" 

"Ok, I think this is it," She said. 

"It says, 'Good Evening Dr Hayes! I am pleased to welcome you to our team! Below is the contact of Dr Evans, your partner. Contact him and schedule your first meeting as soon as possible.'"

"Oh god, Arthur sounds so fake" Janelle rolled her eyes.

"Again, you're missing what's important here" Gabriella sighed. "What team did Renee join? It's nothing military related or we'd know since we work with Arthur as well. And they're referring to each other as doctors? What did he need doctors for?" 

"Maybe he was an organ thief" Janelle suggested. 

"It is possible" Gabriella agreed. "But then what did he need them to schedule a meeting for?" 

"For the first surgery?" Janelle suggested. 

"It is possible. But we need more evidence" Gabriella sighed. 

"Oh, there's another chat with an unsaved number" Janelle pointed. "Read it" 

"Ok, Renee says 'When can I sign the contract?' to which the unknown replies 'Anytime next week works. But it has to be in the lab' and then Renee replies with 'Next Wednesday afternoon? We can sign the contract and you can introduce me to the others'"  

"Hmm, this could be one of Arthur's numbers. As you said, he obviously has burner phones and he probably discarded them after sending these" Gabriella suggested.

"But then why does Renee still have them? Wouldn't she use burner phones as well, or at least delete the conversations" Janelle countered.

"I'm not sure," Gabriella said as she placed her hands above her head. "And the chat history ends here"

"Wait, you said the chat with Evans was longer, what else was there?" Janelle asked.

"I checked. It was just them discussing the time and the other replying with a thumbs-up. Nothing important" She replied.

"Well, this confirms that Arthur isn't innocent. Quick, take screenshots of all the important ones and send them to either yourself or me. In case we lose this phone, we need the evidence with us"

"All right, I'm done," She said after a few minutes.

"Well, what now?" Janelle asked. "We got a lot of not-so-nice information and I have no idea what to do" 

"We know he was in some weird group and he seems to be the leader and he needed some work to be done by these doctors," Gabriella said. 

"What made them agree to this?" Janelle asked. After a second she continued,  "Money probably, but how did he hide it for so long? I know he's been in the military for longer than three years. How did he balance them both?" 

"I guess that's where he always went under the pretence of being 'busy'" Gabriella sighed. They both sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to make sense of what they'd learned.

"Oh, and, I almost forgot," Janelle said. "I found this in Renee's diary," She said as she handed the diary to Gabriella.

"It seems to be a diary at least three years old," Janelle continued.

"What makes you sure?" Gabriella asked.

"She quoted a dialogue from a movie popular in 2019" Janelle explained.

"So what did you want to show me?" She asked as she flipped through the pages.

"Right there," Janelle pointed to the bookmark. 

Gabriella flipped to the bookmarked page and stared at it in shock with widened pupils. 

"What in tarnation is this?"