“You?” said Katy, arching an eyebrow.
“How dare you?” said Martha, spinning around to face my friend. “That poor woman’s dead and you’re accusing me of such a heinous thing. I gave her a job, and I gave her a place to stay. What more did you want me to do?”
“Is there anyone in this school who had a grudge against Cathy, Sam and Jayden?” I said, trying to deflect her away from Katy. “Someone who benefits from all three of them being eliminated?”
“Eliminated? What a ghastly word,” spluttered Martha. She waved her arms hysterically. “Are you saying all three were murdered in cold blood? In my school?”
I wondered how much of this was an act. Martha May was an intelligent woman, one who held sway over her students, her staff and maybe even the entire town.
“We’ve been trying to tell you this all along,” snapped Katy, unable to hide her feelings any longer. “We don’t think Cathy’s death had anything to do with the chowder either.”
Martha stared at her unblinkingly, a horrified expression on her face, like the gravitas of the situation had just sunk in.
“How? It’s not possible…. But why? Why would anyone do that?”
“Martha,” I said, watching her closely. “Can you tell us what happened to Clara Smith?”
The headmistress jerked her head back.
“Clara?” she spluttered. “Why in good god’s name are you dredging her up now?”
Dredging? Was that a Freudian slip?
The more I learned, I was sure that incident was the linchpin to everything going on in this school.
“We think the way she disappeared was remarkably similar to how Brianna vanished,” said Katy.
“What do you know about that incident?” I said, trying again.
“I, er… she was just an orphan. Came on a scholarship. These kids are used to running away. Foster kids aren’t the most mentally stable.”
Next to her, Katy flinched.
“Everyone said she ran away,” continued the principal, oblivious to the effect her words had on my friend. “She was an unhappy girl. It was horrible PR for the school. I stopped the scholarship program after that.”
“Did they find her in the end?” I asked, ignoring her blatant disregard for the child’s life.
Martha’s eyes narrowed, and her jaw tightened. She raised her hands as if she wanted to choke someone. She was visibly shaking again.
“Why are we talking about Clara? That was ten years ago. We have more urgent issues on our hands!”
I nodded. “We’ll need an autopsy for all three deaths. Sam, Jayden, and Cathy.”
“Autopsy?”
“Leave it to us,” I said. “We’ll talk to the emergency services when they get here.”
“But how in heaven’s sake do you expect emergency services to come inside the school?” she said, her face turning purple. “How are you going to make that happen, huh?”
“What do you mean?” I said, suddenly sensing there was more to her agitation than I realized.
“You’re the detectives. Why don’t you tell me why the gates are locked in the middle of the day like this?”
“Locked?” echoed Katy in shock.
“Like I needed a computer malfunction today, of all days.”
“Have you rebooted the computer?” said Katy. “Turn it off—”
“I tried everything!” shouted Martha, flailing her arms. “The entire damned system has gone down.”
“Is the electric wire enabled too?” I asked.
“The whole system’s gone haywire. The program thinks it’s nighttime and I can’t override it.”
It was our turn to stare at her in shock.
“So, we’re locked in,” I said.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you!”
Chapter Fifty
The sirens were getting louder. They were almost at the gates.
Martha jerked up, like she’d just heard them.
Pushing Katy and me aside with a scowl, she stomped toward the main entrance, muttering angrily to herself.
My phone vibrated in my pocket. I pulled it out and clicked on the button.
It had been vibrating off and on for five minutes now. I knew it had to be Win. I had ignored it knowing she would either leave a message or call back.
My attention had been on Martha May whom I still wasn’t sure was the mastermind behind all this—whatever all this was about.
“Hey,” came Win’s voice, breathless like she’d been running. “You’ve no idea what I found—”
“Hang on,” I said, glancing around quickly.
There was no one in the corridor, but Martha was shouting something incomprehensible at the old guard in front. Voices came from the kitchen too, enough that I wondered if the staff had returned.
Either way, we were in a very public place.
“Let’s go to our room,” I said to Katy.
“Win,” I said, turning my mouth to the phone. “I’ll call you in five.”
As soon as I hung up, Katy and I slipped up the staircase.
Tom White was pacing the second-floor landing like a trapped animal, clenching and unclenching his hands.
He jumped toward us as we came up, barring our way.
“What’s going on down there?” he demanded.
“Get out of the way, Tom,” I growled.
He put his hands together, a pleading expression on his face. “Please tell me. I’m going crazy up here.”
“There’s been an incident in the kitchen,” I replied, giving him a steely look.
“An incident?” He pointed to the window overlooking the front yard. “Is that why the paramedics are here? What are they doing at the gate?”
“Didn’t the principal tell you?” I asked, avoiding his question, realizing this would be a good opportunity to dig for information. Win could wait another five minutes.
“Ms. May marched up here an hour ago and told us we were on lockdown again,” he replied. “We’re supposed to keep the girls in class, and under no circumstances go downstairs. This is insane.”
“Can you account for all the teachers?”
Tom gave me a startled look.
“Why, yes, of course. We started the second period an hour ago. We were told to stay in our classes, except for me. She put me on guard dog duty so the students can’t sneak down.”
“Where were you this past hour?” I asked.
Tom’s eyes widened.
“M… me?” he stammered, pointing a finger at his chest. “I was in my class. What are you saying?”
“Can the students give you an alibi?”
He stared at me, looking much less like a superstar of the silver screen, and more like an unnerved middle-aged man thrust into a crisis he had no control over. What those girls saw in him, I couldn’t imagine.
“My god.” Tom’s voice rose several notches. “Of course, they can give me an alibi.”
“What about Isabella?” asked Katy.
He gave her another startled look.
“Is she in class?”
“Of course, she should be. We take roll call at the beginning of every period.” He paused. “Wait. Why are you asking all these questions? Who are you? The FBI?”
“Close but not quite,” I said.
He threw his arms in the air, like he’d given up. “What a nightmare. Why I ever signed this contract, I don’t know. What a messed-up hole!”
A police siren blared loudly from the outside, making him jump. Below us, we heard someone running along the corridor toward the main entrance.
I glanced out the window to see blue and red lights flashing on the other side of the gates, in the direction Martha was marching.
The front doors banged open and Nick scurried down the driveway, following his boss, toward the emergency vehicles congregating outside.
“What the hell is happening?” cried Tom.
I turned my attention back to him.
“Which is Isabella’s c
lassroom?” I asked.
After staring at me wordlessly for a second, he pointed at the closest room on the right-hand side.
I stepped up to the door and knocked.
Ruby opened the door and glowered at me.
“Why are we still stuck—”
“Ruby, did Isabella come to class today?” I said.
She opened her mouth and closed it.
Without waiting for her to answer, I brushed past her, stepped inside, and scanned the room. Twenty girls were sitting in small groups, but Isabella wasn’t one of them.
I stepped back out, closed the door, and turned to Ruby and Tom.
“Where’s Isabella?” I asked.
“She had a… a headache,” replied Ruby, in a slightly subdued tone. “I told her to go lie down.”
“She never came back?”
“No. Don’t tell the principal. The girl needed a break. But why are you asking all these questions?”
“It’s Cathy,” I said, watching them closely for their reactions.
“What about her?” asked Tom.
“She passed away an hour ago.”
“Passed away?” spluttered Ruby, taking a step back in shock. “Like died?”
“Yes, died,” replied Katy in a sober voice.
They both looked shaken. This seemed like news to them, but I didn’t trust these two one bit.
“The first floor is a crime scene now, so you’ll be here for a while,” I said. “Stay put exactly as Martha May told you to.”
Ruby and Tom’s jaws dropped.
“You can’t expect us to—” began Ruby.
“I’m sure Ms. May will fill you on the details,” I said, as I turned around and walked over to the staircase.
I wasn’t about to give them any solace. Tom was the despicable man who’d taken advantage of these girls. Ruby was a self-centered woman with zero scruples who had no qualms in corrupting her young students.
I wanted to stomp up to them and slap them both upside down. It took all my energy to stop myself from committing another crime on the second floor.
Let them stew.
“Come on, Katy. Let’s go.”
“Maybe that shadow I spotted in the woods was Isabella,” whispered Katy as we climbed to the third floor. “Maybe she was following us.”
“Did it look like a girl in a uniform?”
She shook her head. “I saw a shadow move, and I panicked. I couldn’t tell if it was a man or woman.”
We stepped into our room and locked the door behind us.
I pulled my mobile out, dialed Win’s work number and put the phone on speaker mode.
“Hey,” came Win’s voice, her earlier bubbly excitement replaced with guarded concern. “Everything okay? Should I tell Tetyana and David?”
“Tell them to be on standby,” I said. “We just had a new development.”
“Anything to do with Nick Davies?” asked Win.
Chapter Fifty-one
Katy and I exchanged a curious glance.
Why did she bring Nick up?
“It was the head chef, Cathy, who just died. Supposedly from a heart attack or a seafood allergy, but I think that’s hogwash,” I said.
“And the main school gates are locked from a computer malfunction,” added Katy.
“You guys are locked in?” asked Win.
“That’s what the principal is telling us,” I said, “but frankly, I don’t trust her.”
“Looks like the emergency vehicles can’t get in and no one can get out. It’s getting bizarre over here,” said Katy.
“Is there any way you can access the system remotely and see what’s going on?” I asked.
“Can try,” said Win. “I have the network info from last night, so I can give it a shot.”
We heard Win take a long breath in and exhale slowly.
“There’s something else you guys need to know,” she said. “About Nick Davies.”
On the other end, we could hear the clatter of Win’s fingers moving quickly across her keyboard.
“What about him?” I asked, a sinking feeling coming in my stomach.
Had I misjudged that man?
“I looked over those records you sent me from the principal’s office,” said Win. “I cross-referenced them against external databases, like records in other schools, addresses, traffic violations, and stuff.”
“What did you find?” asked Katy.
“One interesting tidbit. I think you’re going to like this,” Win replied, still clicking. “Let me pull it up for you.”
I increased the volume on the speakerphone and laid the phone gently on my bed. I put my head in my hands. I wasn’t so sure I was going to like anything she’d discovered.
“Shoot,” I said. “Tell us what you found.”
“This assistant guy has a real long record,” said Win.
“Criminal record?” said Katy.
“He’s been charged with theft in Utah, Alabama, and Washington state. All small towns.”
I raised my eyebrows. “He gets around.”
“Thing is,” said Win. “He gets charged by the local police, but the charges get dropped quickly. There’s one grainy mugshot of him, but little detail. He must have a good attorney.”
“In all those states?” I said.
“Yup.”
“What does he steal?” asked Katy.
“High-end heirloom jewelry.”
We fell silent as we digested this news.
“What do sapphire pendants and diamond earrings have to do with Sam, Cathy, and Jayden’s deaths and Brianna’s disappearance?” asked Katy finally.
“I was wondering that too,” said Win. “It’s a stretch to go from a jewelry thief to a kidnapper to a serial killer, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“Thank you, Win. Every bit helps,” I said. “Did you find anything unusual about Martha May?”
“Nope. Her reputation as the girls’ boarding school headmistress is squeaky clean.”
“Nick could be a red herring,” said Katy, turning to me. “Maybe these jewelry pieces have nothing to do with the murders.”
“One thing I do know,” I said, taking my Glock out and reaching for the door, “is that people have been killed for less.”
We peeked inside Nick Davies’ office.
It was empty.
On our way down, we had spotted Martha May’s silhouette near the school gates at the bottom of the driveway.
She was talking across the fence to a man in a uniform. If I had to guess, that was the police chief.
Parked on the other side were a squad car and an ambulance. A handful of uniformed people milled around the vehicles, hands in their pockets, listening to the conversation between the chief and the principal.
Martha’s jerky arm gestures told me she was doing most of the talking and she wasn’t in a good mood.
Nick was nowhere to be seen.
I crossed my fingers, hoping the chief would keep Martha occupied for another fifteen minutes at least. That was all the time Win said she needed.
Nick’s desk looked like it had been hit by a tsunami. Open files were all over the place. The cabinet drawers had been pulled out, and a box of pens had fallen on its side, scattering its contents on the floor.
We slipped inside and closed the glass doors behind us.
My eyes swept over the desk. “I wonder if someone else was looking for something here.”
I walked over and shook the mouse to see if Nick’s computer was on.
“What if he comes in?” whispered Katy.
“He won’t protest much when we tell him we know about his side business.” I looked at my friend. “Can you keep watch, anyway?”
Katy positioned herself by the door.
“We can always pretend to be looking for Martha if anyone comes this way,” she said.
I nodded and shifted my attention back to the computer.
“Okay, Win,” I said, bringing the phone to my mouth. “Tell me
what to do.”
It took Win five minutes to access Nick’s computer over the network again, and that was mostly because I clicked on the wrong things twice. But she was in now and all she needed to do was figure out if she could open that gate remotely.
I disconnected my phone.
“Done?” whispered Katy. “Let’s go.”
“One last thing,” I said as I clicked on Nick’s email.
“They could come back any moment,” said Katy in a hoarse whisper.
“Won’t take a minute,” I said as I opened Nick’s deleted email folder.
When I went through his computer the night before, I had done a cursory check of his emails. They had looked legitimate. I’d found meeting agendas, invoices, financial sheets, meeting notes, and routine administrative work, but I had felt like I had overlooked something.
“I knew it,” I said, as I scrolled through his deleted folder.
“What is it?” hissed Katy from the door, half turned my way.
“An email from the mayor.”
“For another appointment with the principal?”
“This doesn’t have anything to do with Martha.”
I looked up at Katy, who was gesturing me to hurry up.
“He’s asking when he will get to see the girl.”
Katy stopped and stared.
“The girl?”
“He’s talking about cabins. Is the girl in the cabins yet?” I frowned. “Did you see any cabins anywhere on the grounds?”
“Other than the rowing shed? But we were just there.”
I scanned the note again.
“This email was sent last Sunday, the day after Brianna disappeared, so I’d bet they’re talking about her.” My stomach turned. “I don’t even want to think what that man wants from her.”
“Do you think the mayor is the mastermind here?” asked Katy, her foot tapping impatiently on the floor. I knew she was dying to read the emails herself but couldn’t abandon her guard post.
“Hard to say. I bet you there were more from him but they’ve been purged.”
I turned back to the screen to see if I could find more deleted messages.
Merciless Crimes: A Thrilling Closed Circle Mystery Series (Merciless Murder Mystery Thriller) Page 21