by Jack Parker
"The log book? Yeah, like none of us have looked at that yet."
"You never know. I might find something in it that your guys missed."
"You never know. Maybe you're too optimistic for your own good."
Ouch.
"All right…you're only allowed to touch THIS stuff, got it?" Teneire clarified as he pointed at the small pile of evidence that was collected and stored in the drawer.
"Don't worry. There won't be a paper out of place when I'm done here."
"Good. Now make this fast."
Chapter 11
Return of the Boss
"All right," Collin said softly as he started digging through the pieces of evidence very carefully. "Aha! The log book!"
The log book had the same plain black cover that the one he saw Nick writing in just before he left his shift. Near the top of the front cover was a piece of tape that read: APRIL 17- JULY 29.
Hmmmm…so the day Scott got killed was the last time this thing was used?, he deduced as he jumped right to the back of the book, only to be met with several blank pages. Wha?...guess the police must've confiscated this before anyone could finish filling this out entirely.
When he was about three-quarters of the way to the end of the book, he found something unusual. There was a piece of paper taped onto one of the pages and it had a brief paragraph typed out on it. Without even thinking for a moment about whether or not he should, Collin started reading the paper.
JULY 27th, 1:32 A.M.- Camper in space 21C complains of loud thumping noise a few feet from her cabin. I will investigate this myself soon and try to figure out what it is. I'll report back when I have found the source.
"…that's it?!" Collin exclaimed, his disappointment very clear that he had fought his way with Teneire merely to let him see a few sentences. "Ugh…"
He started skimming through the short entry over and over, hoping that there could possibly be something in it that he overlooked. After several seconds, a thought finally occurred to him. Wait a minute…why's this thing typed, anyway?
Collin took the log book and quickly ran out of the evidence room to find Teneire standing there with his arms crossed, almost like he was waiting for Collin to come out.
"Finished so soon?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you about something…have you looked through this log book yet?"
Teneire sighed. "What kind of stupid question is that? Of course we looked through it!"
"Hey, easy!" Collin yelled back. "Sorry, I was just asking."
"Well, what do you want me to say?! Don't you think we would've spent a bit of time looking at that?"
"That's why I asked. Do you have any idea why this thing was printed off a computer and taped into the book instead of just being written."
"I think they said they didn't have any pens handy. Why?"
"Well, if this was really put in on the morning Scott got killed, then that means someone was working there at the time. Someone was on the night shift!"
Teneire looked a bit dull. "No offense, Collin, but that's kind of obvious."
"Well, someone had to have taped this in, right? So couldn't you just do a fingerprint analysis on the tape and see whose prints they are?"
"Nope."
"What!? Why not?"
"The prints were too smudged for analysis. If we could've, we would've done it a long time ago."
"Oh…right."
There was a short silence before the gleam returned to Collin's eyes and he started clutching the book tightly in his hands. "Wait a minute! I think I know who put this in here!"
Teneire didn't look impressed. "Really. Then who was it."
"If you think about it, it had to have been Scott!" Collin forcefully deduced. "I mean, think about it! Scott died early in the morning, right? If someone else was there when Scott died, then they would've written it down in the log book, right?! But there wasn't anything else written down…you get what I'm saying?"
"Yes, I do. You're saying that someone would've mentioned Scott dying in the log book, but since nobody else did, then you're saying Scott was the only one there. You're saying he went to see what that tapping sound was, and that's when he got killed, right? Is that your theory?"
When he noticed that Teneire didn't seem shocked at all, Collin realized that he could've said something completely wrong. Still, he insisted on going along with what he thought was the only logical conclusion. "Yeah. That's right."
Teneire sighed. "I can't even begin to count the number of problems with your little theory," he coldly said.
"What?!"
"Collin, listen to me. First of all, Scott's body was first discovered a few hours later, so it would make perfect sense that no one would've logged it in that book if no one knew about it until a few hours after it happened. Second, if you're still trying to pin the blame on one of the other campground workers, then there wouldn't be anything else written down, because if someone else saw that they were there when Scott died, then they'd be considered suspicious. Oh yeah, one more thing…did you take a look at the work records in the evidence room for that night?"
Collin was deflated enough that Teneire had already punched two holes in his theory without any trouble, but he still felt that it wasn't over. "No…why?"
Teneire's mouth compressed into one tight line while he pointed back into the evidence room. "Go take a look at it. It'll be right where you found the log book."
Without saying a word, Collin awkwardly turned around and started walking back into the room. When he found the work records that Teneire was referring to, he looked at them very closely. As he figured out what Teneire was talking about, his jaw dropped.
"They're blank!" Collin yelled.
He continued staring at the paper he was holding. It had the same series of black splotches all over it with the date JULY 27 written in bold print at the top. Right below it read NIGHT SHIFT, and the box directly beneath it was completely blank- the only thing in it was a square bright white patch.
"You see now?" Teneire asked.
"But…that doesn't make any sense! The log book said someone was writing an entry down at one in the morning!"
"Yup. But the records say no one was there that night," Teneire finished, sounding like there wasn't anything strange about it.
"…how is that possible?!" Collin yelled. "You can't be someplace while NOT being there at the same time! It's…"
"Have you finally figured everything out by now, Collin?"
"Huh?"
"Now do you see why I can't really let this case go on any longer? You've hit the same brick wall we have. We've talked to everyone. No one says that someone was working the night shift that night."
"But they've gotta be lying! Obviously someone was there if there was a journal entry!"
"I told you; we talked to everyone. No one says anyone was working. Ian, Jess, Nick, Lisa, Randy…they all said the same thing."
"Maybe someone got the time wrong?" Collin asked.
Teneire gave a dull look. "You mean whoever wrote down that entry in the log book?"
"Yeah!"
"Collin, really…how many times have you said it was 1:30 in the morning when it really wasn't? Hmmmm?"
"But what if Scott was the worker?"
"I just finished explaining to you why it wasn't Scott! Don't you pay attention?!"
"Grrrr…fine! I'm sorry. I just thought…"
"Collin, 'just thinking' isn't enough around here. If you want to figure something out, you're going to need hard proof, got it? Making little theories from seeing one or two pieces of evidence isn't going to get you anywhere."
Collin was silent for a while, but the spark suddenly returned to his eyes and looked at Teneire with just as much determination as always. "Don't worry. I'll figure this out."
"What?!"
"I'll take everything you've told me and I'm gonna figure this out. When you think about it, I've never been this close."
"Heh. Good luck," Teneire coldly shrugge
d.
I know, I'll probably need it…Collin thought to himself. But…now that I think about it…something about those work records…seemed odd…why?
* * *
Collin was sitting in his room later that night, once again at his computer. He checked his NetPub account as usual and sent a few of his friends messages. The icon in the top corner of the screen had Collin's goofy profile picture with the words, Hello, Collin still written next to it, just like always on every single page on the website.
Ever since he had found out that Nick from work also had one, he wanted to send a friend request, but he didn't think Nick would accept it, considering the way he always acted. Besides, he didn't even think he and Nick were actually friends. He didn't see the point in it.
After a few minutes, Collin turned away from the computer and turned to a notepad in his lap where he had written down everything he knew.
"Okay…" he thought out loud, "The log book says someone was there around the time Scott died…but the work records say no one was there. Grr…Scott would've signed in, right? He would've signed in on the work records, so…uggggh!"
* * *
The next day Collin returned for work. His mind was still swimming with theories about what could've happened and why the log book and the work records were inconsistent. And there was still something really strange about it all, but he couldn't quite figure out what it was about those records that wasn't settling with him.
After getting to headquarters, Collin saw Lisa was standing there, almost like she was waiting for him to get there.
"Hey, Lisa," he greeted in hopes to start the day on a positive note.
"Hi," she bluntly responded.
"Something wrong?"
She sighed. "Yes. This whole thing is wrong. Now that the police know about the relationships I've had here, they're never gonna leave me alone about it."
She turned back to him. "And if you didn't start trying to do the police's job for them, then no one would have ever found out."
"Uh…sorry, I guess." At least I was able to learn ONE new thing that the police didn't, I guess.
Lisa sighed again, which was accompanied by an awkward silence between the two. But this silence was soon shattered by the sound of a car approaching. At first, Collin didn't think much of it and assumed it was just another camper who was coming to register, but when he saw the look on Lisa's face and saw that hers was one of astonishment, he got a sinking feeling that it wasn't any regular car.
The car was a small dusty black one that seemed fairly inexpensive. It parked in front of the headquarters building, and out popped a man who seemed middle aged. He had messy red hair that was a touch on the long side and an equally messy beard to go with it. He looked a bit pudgy, and Collin could almost tell from his presence that he probably wasn't a generally nice person.
The man looked at Collin in a dirty way before he turned to Lisa; as this happened, his cold glare seemed to turn a bit more gentle.
"Hey," he said in a surprisingly soothing voice.
"What are you doing here?" Lisa demanded.
"I've come here to get everything straightened out," he said, now sounding annoyed again.
"Straighten everything out?"
Before the man could explain what he meant by that, Collin interrupted. "Uh, Lisa…who is this?"
Lisa sighed. "Collin, meet Randy."
"R…Randy?!"
"Oh, so you're Collin, huh?" Randy said as he stared down at the teenager. "Lisa's mentioned you almost every time we've talked on the phone the past few weeks. She says you're being a nuisance."
Collin gasped quietly and looked up at Lisa, who gave him the same glare Randy was. "Well, you have been. Anyway, Randy…what do you want?"
"I told you. I'm straightening everything out. I'm getting my name cleared. I've had enough."
"You're taking this too seriously. I told you, no one thinks you…"
"I don't care what anyone thinks. I've been getting bugged about this every day for the past few weeks, and I'm gonna prove that I've gotten nothing to do with Scott's death. And once I prove that, I'm gonna rub it in the police's fat faces all the way back to Marvelton."
Lisa DATED this guy? Collin thought to himself, already getting a bad first impression.
"Randy, everything's going to be fine."
"I know everything's gonna be fine. That's why I'm here-so I can get these stupid police out of my hair."
Randy started walking loudly into headquarters without even looking at either of them. As he slammed the door behind him, Lisa sighed, exasperated, and walked in after him. Collin, not knowing what else to do, decided to enter as well.
As he walked in, he saw Randy staring at the place with his hands on his hips and taking a good look around the entire room.
"Haven't changed this place a bit, huh, Lees?" he asked rhetorically. "You coulda put pictures up or something."
Lisa didn't say anything to respond to that. Instead, she just sighed and walked out of the room. Just as she opened up the door, Randy turned to her and called, "Hey!"
She stopped and turned her attention back to him.
"Hey, I know it seems weird to be asking this now, but…you and me…you think there's any way we could…"
"No, Randy," she quickly said. "I'm sorry, but we're over and done with. I mean it."
Without even saying another word, she turned back around and walked out of the building, leaving Randy and Collin alone together.
Collin could tell just from Randy's face that he was furious, and he decided against going up to Randy and asking him questions about what he knew about the murder right away. Instead, he just turned around and simply walked out of headquarters as well.
"Sheesh, that guy didn't sound very friendly," he said to himself as he started marching back to his post.
* * *
Collin continued doing his maintenance work during the day, from picking up trash to talking to campers who were busy annoying others. But the entire time he did this, he was preoccupied. Now that he had someone new to talk to, all he could think about were the questions he would ask Randy and how he would go about asking those. As he bounced ideas back and forth in his head, he became all the more serious about confronting him.
Finally, when a few hours passed and Collin saw Randy sitting with Lisa in the break room, he took a deep breath and began approaching. When he made it to the room, he nervously walked in but refused to stop making eye contact with Randy the whole time.
"Uh…hi," he timidly said.
Lisa must have already figured out what Collin was going to do, because she nervously looked at Randy and excused herself from the room, only to walk out of the room in a hurry.
"What do you want, Connor?"
"Uh…my name's Collin."
"Just tell me what the hell you want so I can get back to doing important stuff."
Oh, like trying to get Lisa to hook back up with you? "Actually, I wanted to ask you a few things about Scott and how he died."
"No."
"Why not?"
"You're a kid! I don't have to answer to you! Listen, I only waste my time and breath with the guys in law enforcement, all right? So turn around and get outta my face."
Collin clenched his fists but tried to remain cool. In a snobby way, he smiled and reached into his pocket and pulled out the police badge that Teneire had given him-the same one that had helped him gain access to the evidence room.
"Oh yeah? What do you call this?"
Randy stared dumbfounded at the badge for several seconds before he demanded, "Gimme that!"
Still keeping the snide look on his face, Collin handed the badge over to Randy and watched him examine it very closely to make sure it was authentic. After several seconds, he scowled and handed the badge back.
"Well, maybe you got a badge, but you're still a kid, and I don't have to tell you nothing."
"Want me to get the other police down here? I'm sure they'll REALLY leave you
alone if they found out you were being difficult with one of their workers."
Now looking even more infuriated, Randy slammed both his hands down on the table and looked directly at Collin. "Fine. Ask me whatever you want. But make it snappy!"
Wow…I am GOOD!, Collin praised himself. He couldn't help but grin over his small victory over Randy. "All right. Uh…would you happen to remember off the top of your head who was working on the night Scott died?"
"No one," he instantly answered.
"Huh? No one?"
"That's right. Absolutely no one was working that night. Work records even say so. Check'em if you don't believe me."
"Uh…I've already seen them, actually."
Randy slammed his hands down on the table again, this time louder than before. "Then what the hell are ya asking me for?!"
"Because!...well, the log book says someone put in an entry a short while before Scott got killed. And the entry was typed, so we couldn't do a handwriting analysis to figure out who it was…"
"Heh. I don't know what to tell ya."
"Huh?"
"The records don't lie. No one was there that night, all right? No one!"
"But…then who could've…"
"I don't know! I guess it musta been a camper. Heh. Good luck finding out which one it was. Tell the fuzz to have fun looking through all the records here and seeing which campers were here then, 'cause those are the only guys I think it coulda been. I just don't care."
That last sentence triggered a response in Collin. "What do you mean, 'you don't care'? I thought you said you wanted this thing to get solved so everyone'll leave you alone about it."
"Yeah, I want that, but I don't care really."
Do you care or NOT?! "I'm confused."
"Look, having peace of mind is great and all, but I really don't care if no one ever finds out who killed Scott. I really don't."
Collin was taken aback by that. "You don't care?!"
"What are ya, a parrot?"
"That's pretty cold blooded of you to say, sir."
"Oh, so you want me to lie and say, 'Oh, I hope we find whoever killed poor Scotty! Let's make him feel really bad about it and see him break down in court and listen to him say how sorry he is even though he doesn't give a shit!"