Funnily enough Thrillkill was actually glad to see them. He listened carefully to their story and then said simply, “Yes. That tallies with what we know.”
“You knew about this?” said Amanda.
“Of course. You don’t think we’re unaware of what’s going on around here, do you?”
Amanda wanted to scream. If they were so aware, how had they let this happen? Unless they were all in on it. Now she started to think Amphora might be right. Maybe they should find a way to leave.
Surely the alumni wouldn’t let a bunch of criminals take over the school. Amanda’s mind was running away with her. She’d been through so much in the last few weeks she was becoming completely paranoid. She didn’t trust anyone anymore, even herself. Well, maybe Nigel. That was about it, although if Ivy had been turned, you couldn’t even trust him.
Who could have killed the doctor? Maybe it was the same person who had killed the cook. Whoever it was, they were ruthless. Who around here qualified?
Truth be told, just about everyone. You had to be pretty hard-edged to teach here in the first place. The same was true for the staff. For the first time, Amanda realized that being a detective was an extremely dangerous occupation and only the strongest made it. Perhaps the explosion had been a way of winnowing out the weak students, the ones who wouldn’t succeed. It sure was a weird way of doing that, though.
If everyone was ruthless, how could she tell who had killed the doctor? Assuming that the person’s motivation was money, as it seemed to be or why be part of a crime syndicate—serial killers would work alone or in pairs, and they wouldn’t steal sugar—then how could you tell one suspect from another? Who needed money more than the rest? Maybe that was the direction her investigation should take.
As she was thinking about that, it hit her again that Thrillkill had said nothing about her father. It had been two days since he’d been taken and there had been no news whatsoever. Was it possible that the culprit was Thrillkill himself? That would explain a lot. First of all, it would account for his silence on the matter of the kidnapping. Second, he had better access to everything at the school than anyone else and was taken completely for granted. He could be seen anywhere and no one would question him.
Of course, the same could be said for the teachers. With the exception of male teachers in the girls’ dorm and vice versa, none of them would look out of place anywhere on the campus. So she had to look deeper.
What did she know about the teachers? Some of what she knew was from her own experience and some of it was hearsay. A small portion came from the school’s catalogue, which was not accessible on the Internet for security reasons. She’d go back to her room and compile a dossier on each teacher and then see what she could tell. It might be a good idea to do the same with the staff and the rest of the students. That was a huge task, though. The school hosted two hundred detectives in training!
Thrillkill thanked them and sent them away. He told them once again that if there was any news, he would text everyone. As if, thought Amanda. He had yet to keep that promise.
Amanda Lester and the Pink Sugar Conspiracy Page 71