He suddenly felt sorry for the girl, imagining what it must have felt like to be on the receiving end of those messages. The way they must have made her feel.

Yet, he also knew he couldn’t totally blame the people sending them.

He imagined most of them had probably forgotten about the whole thing by now, though. An internet drama that was over before it had even really begun, but felt like the end of the world at the time. People move on quickly, on to the next drama in their lives.

Most were probably embarrassed and wanted to forget.

For Emily, it would have been different, Mark thought. This would have been her life.

The last message had been sent around a week earlier. Then, nothing. As if it had been wiped clean, or she had suddenly stopped.

He flicked the screen to Emily’s Twitter page, but her direct messages – private and unseen from anyone without access to her account – were much the same. Here, the angry messages were few and far between and the oldest a few weeks past.

Then Mark started looking for a link to Joanna Carter. Placing the names together, running through all the messages looking for Joanna’s name; everything he could think of, he tried.

Nothing.

Gaining access to all the other accounts Emily had set up on social media would take a long time, and he probably wouldn’t get help. He looked at the list of possible login details – all the various email addresses Emily had used over the past year –and wondered where to start.

Well, he knew how to start.

Gaining entry into someone’s Facebook account is quite simple when you know how. It didn’t matter how many security measures were put up, there was usually a way around them. For this, he just needed to note one of the email addresses that had been used to set up the various Facebook accounts and gain access to that first. He went on the first email provider’s website and typed in an email address on his list. Then, he went to Forgot Password and had a new password set up and sent to the recovery address for that email.

Within seconds, a new email pinged into Emily’s main email inbox, setting up a new password for that email address.

It was easy from there.

Within ten minutes, Mark was able to log into a Facebook account for an Isabel Thomas, an account which seemed to have been active for a year or so, then abandoned. It only contained a few photos and from a quick glance, they all seemed to be of the same young woman. A tanned brunette, with athletic legs and a penchant for doing the splits in photographs. Mark didn’t expect the girl in the photos to have any knowledge that Emily had done this.