by Diana X Dunn
“Jake was murdered,” Jeff replied. “We all wanted him dead. It was hardly surprising that someone actually killed him. Robert was very clever to come up with the whole fake murder scene story once the body was discovered, but I don’t buy it.”
“There was a considerable amount of fake blood on my clothes after I found the body,” Sara told him.
“Any real blood?” he shot back.
“If you think Mark was murdered, how do you think the killer managed to get him into the gator pond?” Sara changed the subject.
“Perhaps they knocked him out and then simply threw him over the wall,” Jeff replied.
“He was some considerable distance from the walls when he was found,” Sara pointed out.
“Maybe a gator dragged him over to the pond,” Jeff shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter. I won’t believe it was an accident, no matter what story Dr. Freeman comes up with.”
“So why are you still here?” Donna demanded.
“As I said, I’m curious to hear what Dr. Freeman and Robert invent. I can only learn that from the inside, as it were.”
Sara studied him. When she’d first seen his profile, she’d wondered if he’d been sent by some agency to monitor what Robert was doing. His current behavior seemed to suggest that she was correct. He wasn’t at the school to learn espionage techniques. He was spying on Robert.
“Those of you who returned to the bus, what did you do there?” Sara changed the subject.
“Mostly we sat around and watched the dots on the screen,” Tamara replied with a shrug. “I went and got some food. There was a place right across the road that did great sandwiches.”
“Was there?” Sara asked.
“Yeah, I think we all went over, in ones or twos, to get lunch,” Lloyd said.
“I wish I’d been found, then,” Luke laughed. “I was starving by the time we got back here yesterday.”
“Did everyone get lunch aside from me and Luke, then?” Sara asked, trying to keep the conversation light.
“Probably,” Jeff replied. “If you’re trying to work out who had an opportunity to go back into the zoo and murder Mark, none of us can be ruled out. Besides lunch, there weren’t any bathrooms on the bus. I think we all took turns going to the nearest ones to wash our faces and change our clothes.”
“What about Candie and Ethel?” Luke asked.
“Candie left with Robert for a few minutes at one point. I don’t really know how long they were gone. Ethel went for a sandwich not long after I got back to the bus,” Donna said.
Sara nodded. “You all knew what Mark had done to disguise his appearance. Did any of you see him inside the zoo during the exercise?”
A few people shook their heads.
“I was trying not to look at anyone, in case I accidently looked right at you,” Lloyd said.
“It sounds to me like you think Mark was murdered,” Jeff said.
Sara shrugged. “I’m just curious about what happened, that’s all.”
“Curiosity killed the cat,” a voice said from the back of the classroom.
“Robert, hello,” Sara said as she turned around. “We’re just going over the video from yesterday.”
“I see that. And discussing Mark’s tragic accident, as well.”
“You can’t be surprised that it came up.”
“No, I’m not, but I am surprised that one of my staff seems to be seriously entertaining the idea that Mark was murdered. It’s inappropriate.”
“Sorry,” Sara said. She knew she didn’t sound the least bit sorry, but she didn’t care.
Robert frowned. “I want to see you in my office when this class finishes, which should be in ten minutes or so, correct?”
“Yes, about that,” Sara agreed.
“I’ll see you in my office in fifteen minutes,” he said sharply before he turned and left the room.
“I think you’re in trouble,” Bill said with a nervous giggle.
“He can’t fire you. You’re the only instructor left,” Lacey added.
“I’m sure it will be fine. I think studying Mark’s death as a possible murder would be an excellent training tool for all of you. We should do the same with Jake’s really,” Sara replied.
“That’s very clever,” Jeff said. “Well done.”
Sara nodded and then wrapped up the class as quickly as she could. As she made her away to Robert’s office, she wondered whether she’d be happier if he fired her or not.
Chapter 14
“I appreciate that your background makes you suspicious of everything,” Robert said after Sara had taken a seat in his office. “I worked hard during my years with the police to fight that attitude. Regardless of your personal feelings, though, as an instructor in my school, I expect you to trust me. Part of that trust includes not talking about certain matters behind my back.”
“The students brought up Mark’s death and also Jake’s. Jeff is convinced that both men were murdered. I thought it would be a useful exercise for the class to discuss the cases as if we were conducting a murder investigation.”
Robert frowned at her. “I might normally agree with you, but not this time. Under the circumstances, treating the deaths of our valuable colleagues as some sort of training exercise is, well, inappropriate. Dr. Freeman is a trained medical doctor. He has determined that Jake had a heart attack. I’m not sure why you don’t believe him.”
“I think it would have been smarter for you to have someone outside of the school conduct the autopsy. For a start, just about everyone here had a reason for wanting the Jake gone. Also, I don’t think anyone here likes or trusts Dr. Freeman.”
Robert sighed deeply. “I believe I already mentioned that Dr. Freeman hasn’t quite been the valuable addition to our team that I was hoping he would be. He did some preliminary testing on the students and I wanted them to continue working with him during their training, but they’ve been reluctant to follow through with him.”
“Considering how ill-suited some of the students seem to be to the program, I’m not sure I’d consider the preliminary testing very successful, either.”
“There is that,” Robert agreed, “but his inadequacies as a psychologist don’t disqualify him as a doctor. I suppose it’s silly and sentimental of me, but I wanted Jake to be examined by someone who knew him. I hated the idea of my closest friend being cut apart by a stranger.”
Sara didn’t bother to argue. “I’m sorry if I went too far. I’ll make sure the students understand that Jake’s death was due to natural causes,” she lied.
“Excellent. As for Mark, we’ve no reason to believe his death was anything other than a tragic accident. The zoo is going through their security footage now. If they see anything at all suspicious, Jacob will let me know.”
“I hope their cameras caught Mark climbing that tree,” Sara said. “I think we’ll all feel better if we know for sure that he did that of his own accord.”
“You aren’t suggesting that someone forced him to climb the tree, are you?”
“No, but someone suggested that he might have simply been drugged and thrown over the wall.”
“The wall was several feet away from where the body was first spotted.”
Sara shrugged. She wasn’t going to bother discussing the matter with the man. Whatever he knew, Robert would never admit that Mark’s death was anything but an accident.
“I hope we understand each other now, then,” Robert said. “I want no more discussion about murder with the students.”
“Yes, sir,” Sara said, feeling the words stick in her throat.
“We need to look at rewriting the entire curriculum. I don’t believe that Ethel will be back, at least not for some time. Replacing Jake is also proving difficult. I know you have been trained in every possible area. We need to find a way for you to share everything you can with the students over the next five or so months.”
“I can’t teach for three people.”
“No, of course not. As I
said, we’ll rework the curriculum. We’ll take the most important things that each instructor was going to share and incorporate those things into one new unified course of instruction. I’m going to try to get some guest lecturers to come in and speak about any areas that need extra coverage.”
“I can’t imagine the students are going to be happy with only having a single instructor.”
“I didn’t advertise a set number of instructors for the course. They’ll still be learning everything they signed up to learn. We were going to discuss doing some different things for different students, as well. I’m afraid that will have to wait for another day, but I think it’s a sound idea. If we can cut some of the coursework out for some of the students, that will lighten your workload considerably.”
“I thought you were going to teach Jake’s classes.”
“I’m afraid my other business is taking a lot more of my time than I’d anticipated. I’ll teach what I can, obviously, but it may not be much. When I first started planning for the school, I hired an assistant who was going to take over the day-to-day operations of the security firm so that I could be here. Unfortunately, he’s not proving to be up to the challenge. I’m actively looking to replace him, but for now I’m spending a lot of time fighting fires on that front due to his inadequacy.”
“Maybe you should consider giving up on the school for now and try again in six months, once you have a better assistant in place.”
“Are you trying to talk yourself out of a job?” Robert chuckled. “The school is my baby. It was always my dream, having this school. I’d rather lose the security business than give up on the school. At this point, though, I’m starting to feel as if I’m in danger of losing both.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to bore you with my problems. I don’t really have time to complain, anyway. I’m due in Dallas in a few hours to meet with a customer there. Remember what I said, though, no more murder talk. The deaths are both sad and unfortunate, but neither was murder.”
Sara nodded and got to her feet. “We need to meet soon to discuss those individual plans for the students.”
“Yes, I’ll have Candie arrange something as soon as she knows when I’ll be back. In the meantime, you can start working on the revised curriculum. Message me your thoughts as you go along.” Robert stood up and then took a step around his desk. “Oh, and one more thing,” he said.
“Yes?”
“I’m sure it was just an accident, but for some reason the sound was turned off in your classroom today. I wanted to see how the students were doing, evaluating their performance, but when I pulled the live feed up on my screen here, there wasn’t any sound. The same thing happened on the weapons range the other day when you were out there.”
Sara looked shocked. “I wonder if someone has been disconnecting the sound cables deliberately,” she said. “I’d hate to think that was happening. Maybe Mr. or Mrs. Henderson have been disconnecting things accidentally?”
Robert shrugged. “Whatever, I want you to make a point of checking that things are properly connected each time you use a classroom. We’re recording all of the classes for security reasons and also for future reference. It’s vital that we have complete records.”
“Of course,” Sara said. She was sure Robert suspected her of disconnecting the cables, but at least he hadn’t accused her outright.
“And now I must go and pack,” he sighed. He moved to the door and held it open for her. “I hope things go well while I’m gone.”
“I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Sara took a few steps and then stopped. “Where did you say Ethel is? I really should pay her a visit. I’m worried about her. I’d like to think we were becoming friends.”
“She’s at the local hospital, but sadly she isn’t allowed visitors at the moment. I’ll have Candie let you know if they lift the restriction.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
He nodded and then pushed the door shut in her face. That’s told me, she thought grimly as she turned and made her way back out of the building.
“Hey, we’re all going down to Michael’s,” Lloyd said as he passed her on the walk back to the residential building. “We’re going to get dinner there since all they have up here is FADS.”
“I could use a drink,” Sara sighed.
“Were you in lots of trouble?” he asked.
“No, not at all, but I’m going to be doing a lot more teaching.”
“That’s cool. You’re everyone’s favorite, anyway.”
Sara flushed. “I’m flattered, but you’ll be missing out on Ethel’s expertise and Jake’s experience.”
Lloyd shrugged. “At this point, I’m starting to think we’ll all be lucky to get out of here alive.” He laughed, but Sara could hear the tension in his voice.
She knew she was supposed to argue, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so. “What time are we going to Michael’s?”
“As soon as we’re all together,” was the welcome reply.
Sara stopped in her room to change into more comfortable clothes and then joined the others in the building’s lobby.
“Yay, Sara’s coming,” Lacey said.
Luke smiled at her, but didn’t speak. Over the next several minutes, even though they were both busy chatting with other people, they managed to make their way toward one another until they were standing together holding hands.
“The bus is here,” Candie announced a moment later. “I wish I could go with you, but I have a lot of work to do.” She gave Sara a look that suggested that she thought Sara should also be working. Sara just smiled brightly at her and then walked away.
“Were you told not to discuss the murders, then?” Jeff asked as he slid into the seat behind Sara and Luke.
“They weren’t murders,” Sara replied levelly.
“How much is he paying you to say that?” Jeff challenged.
Sara sighed and glanced at the driver. They were at the back of the bus and it was unlikely that he could hear her. A quick look around revealed at least three cameras on board, though. She shook her head. “It isn’t like that,” she said tilting her head toward the camera.
Jeff looked up and then nodded slowly. “You truly believe Jake had a heart attack?”
“I can’t imagine any reason why Dr. Freeman would be willing to risk his medical license by falsifying autopsy results,” she replied. “I understand he had some issues in his last position. I’m sure he’s being extra careful now.”
Jeff nodded. “And Mark?”
“Robert is getting the footage from the cameras at the zoo. I’m reserving judgment on that one until I see exactly what happened.”
“Let’s hope the cameras were in the right place to show us what we need to see,” Luke said.
Sara just nodded. A moment later, they arrived at the bar. Pitchers of beer were ordered along with several plates of food to share. Sara let herself relax as they all drank and ate together. Several hours later, she slipped a neutralizer into her last sip of beer and then stood up and stretched.
“I think I’m going to walk home,” she announced. “It’s a lovely night for a long walk.”
“It’s too dark,” Tamara told her. “It’s dangerous out there. Someone told me there are wolves in the woods around the compound.”
“I don’t think there are any wolves left in the wild,” Sara replied. “Anyway, I can take care of myself.”
“I’ll walk back with you,” Luke interjected. “I haven’t been getting nearly enough exercise since I’ve been here.”
“We really need to start an exercise program,” Sara said. “I don’t have time to run that, too, though.”
“That would be good,” Jeff agreed. “I haven’t been getting enough exercise, either. I think I’ll walk back with you guys, if you don’t mind.”
“The more the merrier,” Sara said brightly, squeezing Luke’s hand under the table. He frowned at her, clearly disappointed t
hat Jeff was joining them.
“Not me,” Tamara laughed. “I hate exercise, although I may have to start doing something soon if we keep gong out for drinks every night. At home I tend to stick to FADS and low calorie wine. I’m sure I’ve put on ten pounds since I’ve been here.”
“I’ve been gaining too,” Donna said. “But I’ve decided not to care. I’ll worry about it when I get back home after the course is finished.”
Sara studied the other woman for a moment, wondering if she could hide her pregnancy as weight gain for another five or six months. She’d noted that Donna had only taken a few very small sips of her beer, even while she’d pretended to be keeping up with the others.
“Right, let’s get on the bus, then,” Tamara said. “Those of us who are taking it, anyway.”
A few minutes later the bar was nearly empty. Sara, Jeff, and Luke were alone with the two regulars who were on their bar stools. The bartender came over and began to collect glasses.
“Everything okay tonight?” he asked.
“It was great,” Luke said. “We just need the bill.”
“Oh, Tamara got it,” the bartender replied.
“She wasn’t supposed to do that anymore,” Luke frowned.
“She can afford it,” Jeff said, “and then some.” He paused for a moment, appearing to contemplate something before speaking again. “If you’d rather, I can walk back by myself, but I was hoping to have a chat with both of you,” he added, nodding at Sara.
She smiled and looked pointedly at the men sitting at the bar. “Let’s go then. We can chat on our way home.”
A few minutes later the trio was strolling along the side of the road. The moon and stars gave them just enough light to guide their way.
“So what do you really think happened to Jake?” Jeff asked.
“I really don’t know,” Sara replied, “but Luke and I have been discussing it as if it might have been murder, as an academic exercise only, of course.”
Jeff laughed and then shook his head. “That’s a very careful and clever answer. You don’t trust me.”
“I don’t know you. Your background is almost a complete blank. You have skills that far exceed the material being covered on this course. I don’t know why you’re here or who you really are.”