The Night Shift (29 page)

"How many times do I have to answer this stupid question?! I thought you said you'd be done! No, for the zillionth time, Scott dying had nothing to do with me."

"All right, that's all I wanted to know. But now I think it's time you also confessed."

Randy's face turned sour, angry, and even a slight shade of crimson. "
Confess
?! To
what
?! You said…"

"I know what I said. I'm not talking about confessing to killing Scott, all right? I meant confessing to whiting out Scott's name on the work records."

Randy's eyes widened and he looked like he lost his breath for a split second. "What?!"

"I think you erased Scott's name from the work records the morning after he got killed. So…am I right, or am I wrong?"

"You stupid twerp! You said this would make me
less
suspicious! If I admit to that, then you'll think I…"

"Randy, you're going to have to trust him on this one," Lisa sternly said. "If you erased Scott's name, then this might be your last chance to admit to it without being considered a prime suspect."

Now it seemed as if Randy was torn between what to say…between what he thought would be best to say and what it would be smartest to say.

"I can tell from that look on your face that you did," Collin said in a low, almost hateful tone. "Just admit it so you can actually see what I'm driving at."

"I…" Randy choked, now looking down at the floor with both of his clenched fists resting on the counter. "I did it. I erased Scott's name from the records, just like you said."

Collin's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open; Lisa looked equally shocked as she slowly covered her mouth with her hand.

"Everyone knew I hated Scott. Heh…it wouldn't even surprise me if everyone knew about what was going on between me and him after you dumped me," he said coldly as he turned his attention to Lisa. (
who
seemed unaffected and lacked any sense of guilt) "If people saw that Scott was working here when he died and I was the first one to show up, I thought they'd suspect me for sure. So…I just erased his name from the records. That way, it would've been like Scott was never there and I had nothing to do with it. I thought no one would suspect me if they didn't know Scott was there."

"Heh. I see that worked out well," Collin sarcastically added.

"Yeah, no kidding. Those morons at the precinct still tried to get a confession out of me."

Another awkward silence filled the room before Randy finally asked, "So, let's see you keep
your
end of the bargain now."

"Who, me?" Collin asked.

"Yeah, you. You promised me that people would finally leave me alone if I admitted to erasing Scott's name from the records. Now, let's see you do it."

"All right. I'm a man of my word, after all. You know, you've actually proven my theory right…and my theory involved proving
Nick
was the one who killed Scott."

"
Nick
?!"

"Yeah. But before I get into that, I want you to answer one more thing: last year, do you remember having an argument with Scott where you told Lisa to leave? And Scott gave you something in an envelope?"

"Uh…vaguely. Why?"

"I take it you never saw what was in that envelope, did you?"

"Yeah, it was…wait! Wait, I don't think I opened it."

Collin smiled and crossed his arms. "You have no idea how much you're helping me and yourself here."

"What are you talking about?"

"I take it you never thought for a second what was
in
that envelope, did you?"

"No. I thought it would just be something stupid that Scott was giving me just to piss me off or something."

"Actually, it was something you probably would've liked to see."

Randy's eyes narrowed. "Did you see what was in it?"

"Yup. And it wasn't a letter directed to you or anything like that."

Randy slammed his fist down on the table. "Stop dragging this stupid conversation out and just tell me where you're going with this!"

"All right, fine."

For several minutes, Collin explained the photo in the envelope, how Scott was able to find it, and how it led to Nick's plan to make himself look innocent and everything else that had just been pieced together in just a matter of minutes. The result was all three of them staring at each other in complete quiet, each unsure of what to say.

Finally, Collin broke the silence. "I'm, uh…gonna go talk to Teneire about everything. We'll see what he has to say."

"Wait, Collin, what are you hoping is going to happen?"

"What else? I'm taking that theory to Teneire and I'm gonna wait and see what he thinks of it. With any luck, this will be the big break I've been waiting over a year for. Maybe this'll finally convince Teneire that it was a good idea to let me help out with this investigation after all."

"Collin, are you sure you want to do that?" Lisa inquired with a lot of uncertainty making itself present in her voice. "You realize that pretty much everything you've concluded has been complete guessing, right? Teneire won't like it if you don't have anything to back up what you're saying."

"It's okay. I got the picture, I got everything Randy said…I think I'm all set."

Lisa looked really uneasy. "I don't know, Collin."

"You'll have to trust me on this one, Lees. Don't worry; I'll still keep working at it if Teneire doesn't like it."

Lisa took a deep breath. "All right, Collin. If you really want to give it a shot, then I'm not gonna stop you."

"Thanks. Well…I'll be catching you guys later."

*  *  *

"Collin, I can't believe you're actually expecting me to just take a story like that and expect me to think it actually happened," Teneire said as he slumped back into the chair behind his desk.

"I know I don't have much scientific stuff to back it up with now, but…can you just look into it with some of your forensics guys and all that and see if anything matches up?"

"What do you want me to do?!" Teneire yelled. "Use forensic evidence for what?! Yeah, we know the blood on Jess's knife is Scott's, but that's about it. There's nothing else that we could use for stuff like that. I'm sorry, Collin, but there's nothing I can do. Unless you get a confession or something like that out of Nick, then I can't really do much to arrest him."

"Come on!" Collin yelled furiously as he banged his hands on the table. "I've done SO much! You can't just do one little thing to see if I'm right?!"

"That 'one little thing' is expensive. I can't just call a bunch of forensic experts together and have them do tests on everything for free, you know. And besides, what if we're wrong about Nick? He could sue the station for false arrest. So
no
, I can't do 'one little thing'."

"Sir, please…"

"I'm sorry, Collin. If you really want a different answer, you're going to have to go investigate some more to get some hard evidence. Because right now, all you've brought me are theories. And you know what? That's not gonna do anything in court."

"But…"

"I'm done, Collin. I've got a meeting to go to. Keep working at it and maybe you'll find something else."

Teneire aggressively rose from his seat and walked out the door, leaving Collin standing there, completely helpless.

Collin stared off for several seconds before he looked down at the ground and slowly made his way out of the office and out the front door. He dragged his feet through the parking lot until he finally got to his car. Gloomily, he started it up and drove home.

*  *  *

And that was pretty much it. I continued my summer work at Arbur Winslow for about another seven or eight weeks. Then the end of August came and I had to get ready for college. I made my last goodbyes to everyone at Arbur Winslow and thanked them for everything. I tried to leave the park for one last time with a smile and positive thoughts.

But I couldn't. I never figured it out. After all that hope, after all that work I put into it…I came up empty. Like Teneire said, there's a reason this case has gone unsolved for over a year. I guess I must've been pretty stupid to think that I could just solve it on my own.

Anyway, Nick never confessed to anything. And I didn't learn or find anything new that would've given me an edge. I busted my you-know-what off looking for something, but nothing turned up. Everything came to a dead end, just like it had a year before.

A week after I left Arbur Winslow after covering my final shift, I started school at Ad Libitum Academy. I had a very sick feeling that, once I got there, Teneire, Lisa, Randy, and everyone else who was part of that case would just forget about me. And if they did remember me, would they remember me as a helpful and determined kid, or just a complete weirdo who thought he could do anything and had to learn the hard way that he just couldn't?

That question still bugs me to this day.

Chapter 17
 

One Last Shocker

Collin was sitting in his dorm room at Ad Libitum University; it had been about four weeks since he began his college education there. It looked pretty typical with a bed on the floor, surrounded by posters plastered all over the walls that promoted singers and movies he had come to respect. He was lying on his bed reading a book for his British Literature class while his roommate, A.J., (an abbreviation for Anthony Jurris) was busy typing away on the keyboard, working on a paper.

As Collin forced himself to read the book, A.J. turned away from the computer and put a hand through his short, spiky brown hair. "Hey, Collin."

"What's up, A.J.?"

"Wanna hit up the buffet tonight? I'm starving!"

"Sorry, dude," Collin glumly answered. "I already got plans."

"Aw, that stinks. With who?"

"Neh…just some buddies from high school. You wouldn't know'em."

A.J. simply nodded his head and turned back to the computer. When his full attention was directed back at the computer, Collin added on, "I'll be expecting a call from them pretty soon."

A.J. only nodded his head as he continued typing his paper.

Just as predicted, Collin's cell phone rang a few seconds later; he quickly picked it out of his pocket and opened it in one swift motion. "Hey, Hunter."

There was an awkward silence before the person on the other end said, "Hunter
? Have you forgotten my last name already?"

Collin's eyes widened and his fingers clasped around the cell phone from anxiety. "Teneire?! Er…I mean, Teneire sir?!"

The shout was loud enough to shock A.J. and force him to turn around. "Whoa ho ho, Collin. You forgot the name of one of your friends? Ha. Better stop those plans right then and there, buddy."

"Sorry, sir," Collin apologized. "I just thought it was one of my friends from high school. I'm so sorry!" Even though he sounded desperate, he was actually smiling widely from the conversation.