There was this nasty character that lived up the road from me. A walking asshole is how I tended to think of him. He had a top of the line PC system, though, and he did recognise talent when he came across it. That's why he used to have me do any repairs he needed to his system. The only catch was that I had to go to his place to do the repairs and he would sit by my shoulder the entire time I was there, making sure I didn't snoop in his files. I suspected that he had a pile of porn he didn't want me stumbling across.
This guy finished up dead in a car accident and, in my opinion, his going left the world a better place. His widow promptly started flogging off his stuff and I picked up his PC system dead cheap. Mind you, the way PCs depreciate, dead cheap was still a fair price.
Just as a matter of curiosity I went fishing through his directories before doing a big clean up. Normally when I get hold of a complete system I just wipe everything but the basic software, though I do retain the licences and activation keys for any software, if possible. I can always resell the packages.
I found pretty much standard porn and I just scrubbed that. There was nothing particularly exotic or artistic about it; just run of the mill junk. Then I came across this hidden folder. It also had some porn in it.
I flicked through the stuff, wondering why he'd had this porn in this special folder. It was all pretty amateurish stuff, not worth putting on the net in the first place. What was so interesting that he required a special folder for it? The answer lay in a little spreadsheet in the folder.
It identified the people, what their secret was, and how much he reckoned he could blackmail them for. About this time it occurred to me that maybe his car accident wasn't an accident, in which case I hoped the cops never resolved the case. Then I set to work to delete that stash of blackmail material. He had a dual backup system on two external hard drives and I wiped those suckers and then reformatted them. A final defrag of the main drive and that blackmail data was irrecoverable.
One little thing I did do. I took a copy of the spreadsheet, making a note of names and numbers. I figured a series of anonymous phone-calls would leave a number of people very relieved.
After I'd finished my good deeds I forgot about it. Then I had this knock on the door. There were a couple of very polite gentlemen there. Sorry to intrude and all that, but they were of the understanding that I'd bought Joe's computer system. He'd been a dear friend of theirs and they'd like to purchase his system. I politely explained that while I was quite willing to sell them the system, at a slight profit, of course, it was only fair to let them know I'd deleted any excess software. That was OK, by them. How did ten grand for the lot sound?
Ten grand sounded fine by me. I took the money, in cash, oddly enough, and delivered them the entire system. If by some chance they couldn't find what they wanted, they'd been warned. Then I went to the bank and deposited the money, just in case they changed their minds.
I did hear from them after a couple of days. They called to say they couldn't find some documents they needed. Did I have any backups of Joe's stuff? I humbly apologised. The two backup hard drives were with the things I'd sold them, I assured them, but I had also cleaned those out of extraneous crap so that they had a system that was just like new. I was quite eloquent on what a superb system they now had, almost factory fresh. I heard some rather sulphurous cursing before they hung up.
That was it for the gentlemen who purchased the PC. I'd sent off messages informing certain people that photos of them had accidentally been destroyed and that they would need to sit for new ones. I also suggested that any ongoing payments in regard to photos should be held in abeyance until the company were able to prove they still had a copy. The only messages I got in return were thank you for the information but they didn't think they would choose to re-sit for those photos.
I then forgot about the matter. The forces of evil had been smitten on the nose and all that crap. Life went on as normal.
A few weeks later I was strolling through the local mall when I saw this pretty young thing. She looked familiar but I couldn't quite place her. She went into Gloria Jeans for some coffee, so I decided to join her.
I got a cup of coffee and wandered over to the table where she was sitting and sat opposite her. She promptly gave me the cold shoulder.
"Do you mind? This is my table and I'm expecting company."
"And now you have it," I said. "Me. I'm not trying to pick you up but I'm sure that I've seen you somewhere recently and that I know you rather well. I'm just trying to figure out who you are. I thought talking to you might jog my memory."
"Well, I don't know you and I'm not really interested in getting to know you. Goodbye."
She lifted he hand and gave me a goodbye wave, indicating my absence was preferable to my presence. When she did that I spotted a butterfly tattoo on her wrist. Memory kicked in.
"Got it," I said triumphantly. "I saw a photo of you recently. That's why you looked familiar. Your butterfly tattoo reminded me."
I smiled and got up to depart. I'd also recalled just where I'd seen her photo. She chipped in before I could leave.
"I don't do photos. You must have me mistaken with someone else."
I shouldn't have succumbed to that evil streak but I couldn't resist.
"Oh, it was you alright. I remembered because of the butterfly. You have a matching one on another part of your anatomy. Well, can't stay. It's been nice meeting you."
She'd gone slightly pale. The matching butterfly was on her mons. Not one that I should ever have seen. I walked off, leaving her there.
I was in my workroom a couple of hours later when the doorbell rang. I answered and my little butterfly was there. She promptly pushed past me and into the house, where she proceeded to say a few rude things about my character and ancestry. When she finally drew breath, I chipped in.
"Ah, is there something I can help you with?"
"You've got my photo. I want it. I want it deleted and I want it done now. Otherwise I'm calling the police."
"I doubt you'll call the police," I said calmly. "Too much publicity. I'll tell you what. You take your clothes off so I can be sure you're the right woman and I'll make sure your photo is deleted."
I received a few more rude descriptions, but no threats about the police. I just politely waited for her to run down. She finally did and stood there glaring at me.
"Right," she said, and proceeded to strip, glaring daggers at me the entire time.
She had a lovely figure, far better in person than the rather crappy photo that had been on Joe's computer.
"All right, now I want those photos removed," she demanded and soon as she had finished stripping.
"If you'll just turn right round so I can be absolutely sure," I murmured, twirling a finger.
She did so, muttering nasty threats under her breath.
"OK," I said. "I would have to say that yes, you were one of the people on Joe's computer when I bought it. You'll be happy to know that all the photos have been deleted already and all the backups wiped. Not a photo remains."
She took a moment to digest this.
"They've already been deleted?"
"Uh-huh. Joe died a few weeks back and I purchased his system. I found his little cache of naughty people and cleaned it out quite thoroughly. I even notified those people where possible. If I remember correctly there was a man's name associated with your photo. He was notified and acknowledged the message."
She was even angrier at that.
"That son of a bitch knew the photos were gone? The bastard didn't say a word to me about it."
Then she seemed to recall that she was standing there nude.
"If there are no photos, why did I have to take my clothes off," she shrieked.
"Um, you didn't. I was quite surprised that you did so. Normally when I ask a woman to take off her clothes I just get laughed at. I must admit you made an interesting change."
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. She did this several times. It appeared she couldn't think of anything nasty enough to say to me.
"Look at it this way," I told her. "I am now one hundred percent satisfied that you are the girl I remembered from the photo, so you can be sure it's gone. Also, it was a terrible photo. You are much lovelier in the flesh. And your little butterfly is quite charming."
I reached down and stoked her butterfly. She yelped and jumped back.
"Don't you touch me," she snapped, a hint of panic in her voice. "I'm getting dressed and then I'm out of here."