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all of this with a growing sense of dread. Sometimes, if the girl was so far gone that he didn’t have to bother hiding it, he made Shalene run the camera. Sometimes he did the filming and demanded that she get involved, which was the worst.
    She started researching the most painless way to kill herself. Almost anything was preferable to a life like this or the one that was waiting for her back on the reserve.
    And then the reporter showed up.
    He had heard about the sex clip that had been circulated through her class and the fact that the department head had done nothing about it. Somehow he’d managed to track her down and asked if she wanted to tell her side of the story. No one else seemed to want to listen, so that was exactly what she did.

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    O f course, the story never saw the light of day.
    Shalene had told Colin everything. She showed him Devane’s hidden video camera setup, provided him with a link to the website, and even showed off her so-called boyfriend’s secret stash of Rohypnol and other “encounter enhancers”. Colin had managed to track down three of Devane’s other victims, but none of them wanted to talk. Most of them preferred to pretend that the whole thing had never happened. Why was he writing a story about it? In their opinion, that would just draw attention to the whole sick affair. It was none of his business. One of them even threatened to sue if he used her name.
    Thanks to Shalene, however, he had everything he needed to write it up.
    Don’t worry
, he had even promised at the time.
This guy’s Larry Flynt days are done. Once this story hits the front page, he’ll have bigger things to worry about.
    Except the story never made it that far.
    Watterson had stepped in and pulled it. His excuse was a flimsy legal one: the police were supposedly getting involved and Colin’s story might be prejudicial to the investigation. It was all bullshit, of course. The bottom line was that the story would be horrendously embarrassing to the school and Devries had leaned on Watterson to make sure that it didn’t get out.
    The cop who investigated was a fat moron named Betts, who Colin knew was an old friend of Ludnick’s from the days before the school’s security chief had “retired” from active police duty. Colin hounded Betts for days on the status of the case. Betts informed him that none of the other women wanted to talk. The hidden camera setup and drug stash had mysteriously vanished. The plug was temporarily pulled on the website. Colin showed him the photos of Devane’s hidden camera setup and drug stash, but Betts said they were inadmissible because they had been obtained without a warrant.
    Worst of all, he didn’t think Shalene was a credible witness. She was, as far as Betts was concerned, “just another dumb squaw who’d be better off going back to her tepee and sticking her head in a glue bag.” Colin had recorded that comment so he could reference it later.
    The investigation was shut down and no charges were filed. The only punishment Devane received was to be kicked out of the automotive program, which he’d never bothered going to anyway. It only took him 24 hours to get his website back up and running and a new girl into his basement.
    Shalene disappeared. Colin spent a lot of time trying to track her down, without success. There were rumours that she had been spotted at one of the drop-in centres downtown, but the general consensus was that she had probably gone back to the reserve. Betts just laughed when Colin suggested that the police should be looking for her. She had never been reported missing, so as far as Betts was concerned, there was nothing to investigate.
    Three days after Colin’s conversation with Betts, Devries had parked his car in a loading zone and Colin had snapped. People like Devries just floated above it all with no idea how much misery they caused for everyone else, and Colin had thought it was about time that elitist asshole got a taste of