STALEMATE [MAFIA] [MXM] ✓

29: PROOF

Salem's apartment is as he left it, something that is actually a relief. He'd half expected Black Cross to have ransacked the place, so it's definitely one of the better scenarios.

Salem doesn't waste any time, not wanting to be out on his own for any longer than necessary. He firmly believes that he can protect himself just fine, but he doesn't want to have to. He'd also like to give Atlas some peace of mind.

Salem walks directly to his computer and turns it on, logging into it as soon as the screen pops up. He spends the next several minutes exiting out of all the pop ups. There are a lot of them, due to his absence. Eventually he gives up, realizing that he's about to completely wipe this thing anyway. This better be worth it.

Salem plugs the device into the computer, something that actually does take a minute. Wow, Donny wasn't kidding when he said it was difficult to find where to plug this thing in. Salem had to remove a little cover to find the port at all.

When he does, the screen goes black, a familiar skull on it. Back at the station was the first time it was used, so it immediately got to downloading everything it could. This time, it gives him a choice whether he wants to upload or download. He chooses the upload option, and the colors invert.

Salem watches as another loading bar pops up, and he's about be mad. Seriously, is he going to have to wait all day for it to upload? He does not have time to do that-he's in a hurry!

Thankfully it doesn't take nearly as long, which might be because his computer doesn't already have a lot of stuff on it. It wouldn't have had to wipe much for the replacement. Pretty soon the download bar is reaching 100%, and it's opening up to black screen, filled completely with applications. Salem is starting to wonder if it maybe downloaded more than Catrine's things.

That's when the police database is popping up, and on top of that, one specific report. It doesn't take him long to figure out that this is the case on the Wellbridge teacher that assaulted Ruby. He realizes that that must've been the last case reported before he took everything.

Salem wants to exit out of it, but he can't help his morbid curiosity. He wants to know what exactly Stella did to the guy, especially since he definitely deserved all of it. So, Salem can't keep himself from scrolling down.

Salem doesn't last long. As soon as he lays his eyes on the words skinned alive and set on fire he decides that he should probably just leave this whole thing alone.

Salem exits out of the report, a chill running down his spine, and gets started on his actual purpose: finding proof on Catrine. He decides to stay in the database, and searches up his father's case from years ago.

He doesn't find anything.

Salem isn't sure what he expected, but it makes sense. What happened to Jack was clearly very high profile and top secret, they likely wouldn't want to immortalize anything about it. Salem just sighs, deciding instead to go through the files.

He's pretty sure this thing downloaded more than Catrine's stuff, if he's honest. The fact that his computer is glitching like crazy is part of that, but what really gives it away is the amount of files on this thing.

It's going to take a long time to go through.

Salem tries searching up certain keywords, like Jack's name and the Di Angelo's, as well as anything he can think of in relation. All he does is find a lot of investigative shit, but he doesn't care about the Di Angelo investigation anymore. They're off the record now. Also... he just doesn't care as much anymore.

They're good to him, it doesn't matter what else they've done.

After about an hour of this, he gives up. There's so much on here, he probably didn't even look through half of it, but whatever. It doesn't change the fact that he feels like he's wasting his time. He eventually opens up the browser, which is when he gets the idea to go through her email.