Chapter 168

Zane POV

“You want to use the internet because it’s unreliable?” I asked.

Travis, Whitfield, and Lainey Wilson all nodded. I very much wished Sarah were there, but she was with the girls for their riding lessons. I’d give her a recap of the meeting later, I decided, if this odd taskforce that had gathered around my family could convince me their idea wasn’t insane.

“It’s a generally accepted rule about social media that while it can be manipulated and exploited, it cannot be controlled, even by supposed experts,” Wilson said.

“All right.”

“Take one example from thousands. Burger King decided to celebrate Women’s Day with a little clickbait humor and posted that ‘women belong in the kitchen.’ The idea was that then people should read on to the next post and learn about a program they had to give female chefs scholarships. However, that particular platform only offers one post at a time, so there was nothing to ‘read on’ to, just the offensive comment.”

“Humor’s always a gamble in marketing,” Whitfield agreed. “Rarely pays off, and it’s terrible for branding.”

“Another example is Adidas promoting its running shoes by asking people if they survived the Boston Marathon, somehow forgetting the bomb that had actually killed people at the event just a few years prior,” Wilson said.

“I’m sure there’s a point to all this.”

“Well, jokes that don’t land are a great way to show when you’re using social media wrong, and they almost always involve a top-down approach. The corporation is trying to get a point across to ordinary people, which means your power dynamic is off from the beginning.”

Whitfield nodded as she continued. “Now, look at successful social media use: the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, BringBackOurGirls, MeToo. Rather than offering up a statement and demanding a specific reponse, such as brand loyalty, they began with a challenge, a call for help or for justice.

“If we go online and say, ‘Alpha Zane needs you to provide he’s innocent,” or if we otherwise call on pack loyalty to do our bidding, we’re wasting our time.” Lainey smiled, and I knew she was finishing her pitch.

“But if we have people go online, perhaps starting with Melissa Thibodeax, and ask for people to share what they know, what information might be helpful in finding the truth and protecting the Pack Alpha and his family—”

“You’ll open the floodgates,” Travis objected, looking horrified. “The crank posts, the false leads—”

“But we’re in a position to know pretty clearly what most of those false leads will be,” Lainey insisted. “We’re familiar with the current conspiracy theories, and we’ll be able to spot the new ones quickly. But someone posts about where they’ve seen that video that’s supposedly of Zane chasing a wolf into traffic, if they say they know anything about Kim’s life in that cottage—”

“Look it’s not like we haven’t used social media for years now in our investigations. Facebook pages can tell us more than neighborhood canvases in a fraction of the time. We have tip lines on all the major platforms, and we’ve sent out requests for information.

“But these have been very narrow requests with very specific types of people we’re trying to reach. What you’re talking about—we just don’t have the manpower to shift through all that data,” Travis told her.

“Then we recruit manpower. Sarah has raised an incredible amount of goodwill. After the mine and the schoolboard reform, people are making fan clubs and calling on Alpha Zane to add her to his government.”

“They are?” I asked.

She turned to me. “They are, and that’s what I’m getting at. We’re getting so much online resentment and anti-human backlash from her detractors, and it’s been working against us, even distracting us. This would be a way to harness her supporters instead.”

“Alpha Zane,” Whitfield said, “when she first brought me this idea, I too I was skeptical, but I’ve been thinking about similar online movements in the past, and they have brought impressive results when handled correctly.”

“’Handled’ is just another word for ‘controlled,’ and you said you couldn’t do that,” Travis muttered.

“Speaking of things people have said,” I told him, “you said this isn’t the work of just one or two people.”

“You did?” Wilson asked, looking irritated at not being told before now.

Travis scowled. “There are too many operating parts here, too many people paid off or killed. I’m not saying it’s some great conspiracy, but yes, there have to be many people involved here, people who used Kim and then had him killed, people who have to have arranged for Alpha Zane and his household to be at that charity ball—”

“What?” Whitfield said.

“It’s too much coincidence, too many crimes. It has to be at least a few criminals here, people who have, yes, conspired to bring all this about.”

“So, if we’re up against multiple criminals, we need all the help we can get,” Wilson said.

“You think it’s worth a try, then?” I asked, holding up my hand slightly when Travis looked ready to object again.

“I think Ms. Wilson and I should sit down and put a plan together,” Whitfield said. “We would then present you both with something planned out, and yes, ‘managed.’”

“I’m still not seeing what we could get out of this,” Travis said, but I could tell he was weakening.

“Witnesses to one of those hit-and-runs we keep hearing about,” Lainey said. “Hell, the whole thing would be worth it if we could just find out who ‘S’ is.”

“S?” Travis asked.

“S is all over the place on Instagram and TikTok,” Whitfield said. “They might be a person or a group, but they often have information they really shouldn’t. Sometimes they staunchly defend Sarah, and sometimes they imply she needs to leave your household and marry them.”

Travis looked at me with some apprehension. “Is S Scott?”

Quickly, I filled Whitfield and Wilson in on the notification I had gotten from S on the night of the slave auction as well as Scott’s interest in Sarah.

“That’s helpful information to know,” Wilson said, “which is my point.”

“It’s just more data on top of data,” Travis said, “which is mine.”

“Christine Tedley,” Whitfield said.

“Oh, now there’s an idea,” Wilson said.

“Who is that?” I asked.

Before they could answer, I heard the girls coming in with Sarah. I could hear them going directly into the kitchen, laughing and calling for me.

“How soon can you put a real plan together?” I asked, standing up from my desk chair.

“Give us a couple days,” Wilson said.

“Two days,” I said, looking at the three people whose help I needed to protect everything I loved. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’m expected to drink some tea and eat ridiculously sized sandwiches.”

They nodded, and got to my door before I turned to look back at them.

“Do you want to join us?”

The looks on their faces showed I’d made the right call. They were all personally invested now. That was good.