by Diana X Dunn
“I believe I said it before, but I’ll say it again. Jake is an excellent teacher when he wants to be. Robert has to find a way to make him want to work, though.”
“Maybe he needs to hire a friend for Jake.”
“A young and attractive female friend would keep him happy and busy,” Ethel sighed. “What a hideous thought.”
“And on that note, I need to go and write a full report about my day for Robert. He’s going to get tired of hearing from me.”
“Not at all. He wants to know what’s going on here. He’s just very busy at the moment. There was an issue with one of his larger accounts and he’s busy fighting that particular fire at the moment.”
“I hope it isn’t anything serious,” Sara said, making a mental note to find out exactly what had happened.
“Someone broke into a building that was meant to be secure, one for which Robert had personally installed the security. At first glance, nothing of value was taken, but Robert had to go out and assist with a full inventory. He should be back now, though, so you should expect replies to your messages before the end of the day.”
Sara nodded. “I should let you go, then. I’m going to take some tablets for my headache and have an early night.”
“I suggest, if anyone knocks on your door tonight, that you ring security rather than opening it.”
“That’s good advice.”
“What do you have planned for tomorrow for the students?”
“We were going to have another day at the range, but until the weapon situation is sorted, there seems little point. With what’s actually available, I can take students up there on an individual basis for personalized training, rather than trying to take the whole class at once.”
“That will probably work better anyway, as everyone has such varied previous experience.”
“Yes, there is that. It’s just difficult finding the time for each student on top of the number of classes I’m teaching, that’s all, especially as we’re working seven days a week at the moment.”
Ethel pulled out her M-ped and flipped through a few screens. “If you’d like, I can teach an extended class on Monday. I have more than enough work to keep them all busy for the entire day, actually. You could have forty minutes with each student, starting at nine and working hourly through the list.”
Sara looked at her own device. “Are you sure? Forty minutes with each of them individually would be a great start.”
“Of course I’m sure. Once you’ve spent time with them individually, you’ll be able to split them into training groups by ability and experience.”
“I could probably do that now, based on what I already know.”
“But you’ll do a better job of it after Monday’s sessions. It will be helpful for me, too. I can spend the morning on codes and the afternoon on financial records. Everyone will be happy to get an hour on the weapons range if my classes are the alternative.”
Sara laughed. “I’m sure your classes are very interesting, but mine are a lot more hands on, which I know most of the students appreciate. Tomorrow we’re going to start working on becoming hyper aware of our senses.”
“Does that mean you’re going to lock them in the maze?” Ethel asked with a wicked grin.
“Among other things. There’s nothing like being in total darkness to help you focus on your other senses.”
“I understand the maze is state-of-the-art training technology.”
“It was, when it was new, anyway. The entire building is laid out with four-foot long panels in a grid pattern. Every panel can be adjusted to be at any height from ground level to the ceiling. I’m told there are millions of possible ways to set the maze, with varying degrees of difficulty.”
“I’m almost tempted to try it myself. I never did much field work.”
Sara’s mind flashed back to a huge warehouse in San Francisco. Rows and rows of boxes had turned the space into a huge maze. It had been a maze that had had a man with a laser pistol at its center and an escape route that no one knew about. In the end, walking into that maze had cost her her job and the only life she’d ever known.
“Are you okay?” Ethel asked, staring at her.
“I’m fine, just wool gathering,” she replied. “Thank you for your time. I’m feeling better now.”
“Good, I’m glad I could help. Please come to me any time you have concerns. I’m always happy to listen, and be assured that I will discuss your issues with Robert, as well.”
Several hours later, Sara finally heard back from Robert. She read the message twice.
I’ve spoken to Dr. Freeman. He won’t be bothering you further. I’ve also spoken to Jake about his behavior. I was unaware of any issues with the weapons. I’ve called a specialist in the area and he will be arriving one day next week to attempt to repair as much as he can. I understand that you will be spending Monday on the range with the students on an individual basis. That seems like a sound idea. Thank you for all of your hard work so far. R.
So Dr. Freeman wouldn’t be bothering her again, but she’d received no such assurances about Jake. For a moment she was tempted to add a second breadcrumb to her profile in an attempt to help Rex find her more quickly. This job was completely unlike anything she’d done before and she’d never felt quite so frustrated and annoyed with her life.
“Tomorrow is another day,” she told her reflection in mirror before she went to bed.
“The maze is a unique and interesting challenge,” Sara told her class the next morning. “I’m going to set it on one of the easier settings. For the first test, all you need to do is find your way out. I’m going to send you in, one at a time, and time your progress. Students who have completed the challenge will be able to watch the others. For the first test, you’ll start in total darkness, but the lights will come up, ten percent at a time, in five-minute intervals. Is that clear?”
“I’m afraid of the dark,” Tamara said. “Can I have Luke with me for protection?”
“That isn’t how these things work,” Sara told her. She looked down at the computer monitor in front of her. “Let me set things up, then,” she said. She tapped in the code for the simplest of the preset mazes. After a minute, they could all hear the various panels sliding up and down in the room just beyond the small entryway where they were standing. A moment later, something began to buzz on the control panel.
“System error,” the screen read. “Panel 293 at ground level and is unable to be raised.”
Sara sighed and looked at the maze’s configuration. Of course, panel 293 was critical to the design. If it was down, the entire maze would be considerably easier. The easiest thing to do would be to choose a different configuration.
She flipped through a few options, finally finding one where the broken panel was meant to be at ground level. As the panels began to slide and clunk into place again, the same buzzer sounded.
“System error,” the screen read. “Panel 294 at ground level and is unable to be raised.”
“It sounds as if a whole section might be broken,” Mark said.
“Maybe one of the panels fell over and is blocking a bunch of the others,” Donna suggested.
“I’ll go and see,” Sara said. “You can all wait here.”
She crossed to the door marked “in” and pushed it open. After two steps, the lights suddenly went out. “Not funny,” she shouted as she turned around and reached for the door. It was completely smooth on the inside. Try as she might, she couldn’t find a way to open it. She pounded on it a few times before she remembered that the entire maze was meant to be soundproof. That allowed instructors to introduce sounds into the maze as part of training exercises.
“It figures that the only thing that actually works around here is the soundproofing when I’m trapped in the stupid maze,” she muttered to herself as she turned back around. In the dark, she wasn’t sure where the broken panels were. The best thing to do would be to make her way to the exit and then reset everything with the lights on full.
Mazes like this one had been part of Sara’s training from the beginning. She was making good progress toward the exit when she tripped over something that was lying in the middle of a corridor. A quick feel around on the ground had her back on her feet and rushing to find the way out. She burst back into the entryway less than a minute later.
“I guess that’s set the standard then,” Mark laughed. “Sorry about that, but we couldn’t resist seeing you work.”
Sara ignored him. She’d deal with him later. At the console, she switched on all of the lights in the maze and then turned on the cameras that provided a live video feed of the maze onto a huge screen on the wall. It only took her a few seconds to zoom in on what she’d found.
“What the hell is that?” Lloyd asked.
“It’s what’s keeping some of the panels from going up properly,” Sara told him. “It used to be Jake Brown. He’s dead, and from the looks of it, he was murdered.”
Chapter 6
“We won’t be calling anyone,” Robert told her a short while later. “The school is on private property, my private property. I’m responsible for policing what happens here.”
“The man was murdered,” Sara replied.
“We don’t know that yet,” he shot back.
Sara raised an eyebrow. “He had a knife stuck in his back. I’m not sure how you’d call that anything other than murder.”
“Dr. Freeman will be making that call.”
“Dr. Freeman is a psychologist, not a coroner.”
“He’s a trained physician with a specialty in psychology. He’s legally qualified to determine the cause of death.”
Sara shook her head. “If he says it was anything other than murder, there will be problems.”
“There have been nothing but problems with you,” Robert shot back. “You seem to struggle to get along with the other members of staff. You don’t like the facilities or the students and now you’re questioning not only my authority, but my integrity, as well.”
“I think that’s enough,” Ethel said from the doorway. She walked into the room and looked from Robert to Sara and back again. “Everyone is understandably upset. Whatever happened to Jake was tragic and unfortunate. We must band together and get through this difficult time as a team.”
“Someone murdered the man,” Sara pointed out.
“It was probably someone from his past. He had a lot of enemies,” Ethel replied with a wave of her hand.
“We’re in the middle of nowhere surrounded by some of the best security money can buy,” Sara said.
“Any security can be breached. Sorry, Robert,” Ethel added when Robert appeared to want to argue. “Let’s wait to see what Dr. Freeman has to say before we start talking about murder. If Jake was murdered, we do have several police officers here to help conduct a proper investigation.”
“Police officers who are also suspects,” Sara said.
“I suppose we’re all suspects,” Ethel replied. “What an interesting notion. I’ve never been suspected of murder before. I’m not sure what my motive would have been, but I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something, given some time.”
“Robert? Could I have a word, please?” Dr. Freeman asked from the doorway. Robert left the room.
“My dear, I know you’re upset, but our first priority has to be the students,” Ethel said after a moment. “We don’t want to upset them.”
“I would imagine they’re already quite concerned. They all saw the body and the knife.”
“That’s unfortunate, but can’t be helped at this point. We need to focus on minimizing the disruption to the course.”
“We need to focus on finding out who killed Jake.”
Ethel shrugged. “Robert will, of course, conduct a thorough investigation. He was with the police, after all. We need to remember that we’re not trained police detectives. We’re here as instructors and we need to keep instructing.”
“Jake was murdered.”
“Actually, I don’t believe he was,” Dr. Freeman said as he walked back into the room with Robert on his heels.
“Are you suggesting that he managed to stab himself in the back?” Sara asked incredulously.
“Not at all. I believe Robert stabbed him in the back, didn’t you?” Dr. Freeman replied.
Sara gasped as Robert chuckled. “That’s right, I’m guilty.”
“You’re guilty?” Sara echoed.
“I suppose I owe you an apology,” Robert told her. “We truly didn’t mean to cause all of this upset. It was all Jake’s idea.”
Sara frowned. “Getting murdered was Jake’s idea?”
“He wasn’t murdered,” Robert said. “Jake thought a murder investigation would be an interesting challenge for the class. He talked to me about it last night and I agreed that he could set up a murder scene in the maze for your class to find this morning.”
“That doesn’t explain why Jake is dead,” Sara argued.
“I met him here very early, in case you came in to check the set up before the students were expected. We made our way into the maze and set the scene. Jake spread himself out on the ground and I stuck the knife in his back. Of course, the knife was a dummy knife, the sort used for self-defense training. I covered the entire scene with fake blood and then left Jake, chuckling softly to himself, and went to my office.”
“So someone else found him and stabbed him after you left?” Sara asked.
“Sadly, it appears that Jake suffered a massive heart attack some time after Robert left and before you arrived,” Dr. Freeman interjected. “The man died of natural causes.”
Sara was silent and she remembered feeling the hard, cold steel in the dark. The knife had been real and she was certain that blood had been, too. No doubt all traces of the real blood were now long gone, along with the real knife that had been used to murder Jake Brown. Either Robert had killed Jake himself or he was covering for the killer.
“You’re certain?” Ethel asked Dr. Freeman.
“As certain as I can be at this point. I’m sending a bunch of samples out to a lab for analysis,” Dr. Freeman replied. “I’ll be conducting a full autopsy, as well. Until that’s done and I get the lab results, I’m not prepared to make a formal determination on the cause of death.”
“We’ll be telling the students that it was a heart attack, anyway,” Robert announced. “There’s no point in worrying them unnecessarily. If it turns out to have been something else, we can always explain later. For now, my main concern is keeping the school running.”
“Jake was your friend,” Sara said in a low voice. “I would have thought that finding out what happened to him would be important to you.”
“It is, of course, which is why Dr. Freeman is going to go and get started on the autopsy right now,” Robert replied. “The students are all being kept together in one of the classrooms. I’d like both you and Ethel to come with me to speak to them.”
“Of course,” Ethel said.
Sara shrugged.
“I’m going to cancel classes for the rest of today, but I expect things to carry on as normal again starting tomorrow,” Robert added as he ushered Sara and Ethel out of the room. He looked at Sara. “I believe you’re doing one-on-one weapons training tomorrow.”
“That was the plan,” she replied.
“As I said, we’ll carry on as normal. Ethel, you’ll be teaching everyone who isn’t with Sara, correct.”
“Yes, I’m doing code breaking in the morning and financial record keeping in the afternoon. Those sorts of activities should give the students a nice break from shooting things.”
“I don’t have my schedule to hand. Jake wasn’t scheduled to teach tomorrow, then?”
“Jake was setting his own agenda,” Ethel said sharply. “He didn’t consult Sara or I about his plans.”
“I see. I’m sure talking to him about that was on my list of jobs for today,” Robert sighed. They’d walked to the door of the classroom where the students w
ere waiting. He hesitated. “I’d like to see both of you in my office at four. I’ll be taking over Jake’s teaching responsibilities. We need to work together to fit those classes into the overall schedule.”
As Sara nodded, Robert took a deep breath and then made a face. “This is awful,” he muttered as he squared his shoulders and pushed open the classroom door. The low hum of quiet conversation stopped as the three walked into the room. Someone started to shout out a question, but Robert held up his hand.
“Please, give me a minute. This has been one of the most difficult mornings of my life,” he said, passing a hand over his eyes.
Sara frowned. Robert’s sudden grief over the loss of his friend seemed anything but genuine.
“Jake Brown and I were partners in the Chicago Police Department for years,” Robert said after a long pause. “Those of you who were similarly employed will understand what that means. Partners rely on one another for so many things. Trust is established and after time, your partner becomes more important to you than your family.”
Sara glanced at Luke. His former partner had been killed in the line of duty, and she knew that they’d been partners both professionally and personally. His face was grim as he stared at Robert.
“There are a lot of risks in policing. Jake and I were always grateful that we’d managed to do our jobs successfully and safely for many years. I left first, eager to find a different way to make a living. Nothing made me happier than eventually being able to offer Jake a job here. I thought…” he stopped and swallowed hard.
Ethel dug in her handbag and then handed Robert a tissue. As he wiped his eyes, Sara studied the students, wondering what they were thinking about Robert’s performance. When her eyes met Luke’s, he raised an eyebrow.
Robert cleared his throat. “Last night, Jake suggested to me that it would be useful to give you a crime scene to investigate. He had everything planned and I didn’t see any reason not to go along with his idea. We met at the maze very early this morning to set up the scene. Dr. Freeman’s initial exam suggests that my friend had a heart attack some time after I left him.”