Drop of Doubt (3 page)

Karen waved goodbye. I forced myself to push my concerns about a school thief to the back of my mind. I had to deal with Hendricks right now. I followed the sound of talking voices toward the front hallway.

A plethora of teachers, students and a couple of police officers surrounded the front office hallways. I weaved my way through all of them to reach the main office door.

The waiting room was just as crowded. I dropped my hand toward my breast, meaning to pick out my cell phone and alert Mr. Blackbourne that I was headed to Mr. Hendricks’ office. My fingers touched the cup of my bra and felt only the clothing material.

I’d forgotten to get my phone back from Kota. All the disruptions, left me scatterbrained. I should have gotten it back when he was right in front of me.

I knew my phone held a listening device and it was activated when they needed it. Mr. Hendricks’ office was also wired. Did they know I was heading in?

I didn’t want to risk going in alone without warning Mr. Blackbourne. I paused in the waiting room, but turned down a different hallway, away from the Principal’s office. I followed the corridor, seeking out an unmarked door.

I knocked softly.

The door opened. Dr. Green popped his head out. His sandy brown hair was mussed on the side as if he’d been napping or leaning on his hand. He wore a deep green collared shirt, no tie, and tan slacks. His smile lit up when he spotted me. “Miss Sang? It’s lovely to see you, but aren’t you supposed to be heading to class?”

Did they not hear announcements from the hallways back here? “I was called into the principal’s office, but I don’t have my phone with me.”

“Ah,” he said. His head tilted slightly and he opened the door further. “Mr. Blackbourne is out interviewing a few students. I guess it’s just you and me this time.”

My cheeks heated. I entered the room, passing by him closely when he didn’t step back. My arm brushed his, and despite my nervousness, I was drawn to remain close. “I don’t have my phone. Will you be able to hear?”

He fished his cell phone out of his back pocket. He had a similar iPhone in a purple case. “Carry this in with you. His office is wired, but I want to be able to listen closer to you. Don’t worry. When you’re done talking to him, come find me.” I took his phone from him, fingering it nervously. His hand captured my chin, his light eyes focusing on mine. “I’m right behind you, Miss Sang. You’ll be fine.”

His kind words were as soothing as his eyes. He made for a perfect doctor. He could be about to cut me open for surgery from head to toe and I’d trust his promises.

He released me. “Hurry so you can get back,” he said. “If I had to face off with Mr. Hendricks, I’d want to be done with it as quickly as possible, too.”

I reshuffled my book bag on my shoulders and stumbled off back down the hallway.

––––––––

“N
o book bags or cell phones down this hallway,” the secretary at the waiting room desk barked at me. She snapped her fingers and pointed to my bag and Dr. Green’s phone in my hands.

I rocked back on my feet, surprised by the new protocol. Was it because of the bomb threat? My heart pounded, uncomfortable with leaving Dr. Green’s cell phone behind. Should I give it back to him? “Mr. Hendricks called me down,” I said, as if that might gain some special permission.

The lady shook her head. “Students aren’t allowed to carry anything down these hallways.”

I gazed around the waiting room. It was crowded. How could I leave my things here? The current theft problem had me paranoid to leave anything, especially a phone that didn’t belong to me.

“Leave them in one of the empty chairs and go see the Principal,” she said.

I spotted a familiar face. He wore glasses and had his nose buried in a book. He sat off to the side from the others. I’d once sat next to him in the courtyard and then had seen him again later at a football game. I’d wondered what happened to him. Was he in trouble?

“Pardon me,” I whispered.

His eyes slid up, and his glasses slipped down his nose a little. They were a little crooked on one side, like the frame was bent. It was the first time I noticed the smattering of freckles across his cheeks. His brows lifted in surprise. I could imagine he wasn’t expecting anyone to notice him.

“Can I leave this here with you?” I asked, motioning with my bag to the empty chair beside him.

His cheeks tinted. He nodded. His lips parted, as if wanting to say something, but nothing came out.

I spoke his language; I was fluent in shy. “Thank you.” I said softly. “I hope I won’t be long.”

After showing I wasn’t carrying anything, the secretary let me into the principal’s hallway. I hoped Dr. Green would still be able to hear me. I tried to remember to speak louder so wherever his wires were, he’d be able to hear. Maybe he’d been listening and already knew my things and his phone were in the front lobby and he’d collect them.

Mr. Hendricks opened his door at the first knock. “Miss Sorenson,” he said. He towered over me with his hulking figure. His cleanly-shaved head gleamed under the lights of his office. He widened the opening, stepping aside. “Good morning. Please come in, won’t you?”

I resisted a cringe as I crossed in front of him toward the orange cloth chair. The idea that the chair was becoming familiar to me set a dead weight in my gut.

Mr. Hendricks hit the lock on his door. “I’m sorry to call on you, but as you can imagine, there’s a lot going on right now.”

I wasn’t sure if he was honest about being sorry. He could have sent a quiet note to my next class or even just directed a specific call to the classroom. Instead he notified nearly the entire school that he wanted me. No, he’d done it on purpose. The question was why. “How can I help you?” I asked. I wanted to get to the bottom of this.

His eyebrows shot up. “You’re very eager today. Any particular reason?”

I didn’t like the way he was trying to pry information out of me. “What happened? I imagine with the fire alarm and the police being here, that’s why you’ve called me here.”

“Oh, that?” He crossed the room and collapsed into his oversized office chair. His hands steepled under his chin as he leaned forward. “It’s a problem, but you really don’t need to worry about it. Students call bomb threats in throughout the year. There’s never a bomb, but there’s a protocol and the police get called in. It’s a waste of time. With the disposable cell phones the kids carry, someone can easily use one and call it in, preventing us getting to any real culprit.. It’s a nuisance.”

The way he said it made it sound like it happened every week. My old school never had a bomb threat. I didn’t think the kids there would have ever dreamed of doing it. He passed it off like a prank call. What kind of kids would do such a thing? I bit back a retort stating as much, but perked up to appear interested.

Mr. Hendricks brushed a palm over the side of his stern face. “When your Academy friends joined us,” he said, “there were a lot of promises that they would help deal with inner security issues until we could put together a more reasonable solution. We can’t afford to hire security guards like other schools. We can barely afford what we have now. So far, their team has done nothing but get in the way. I’ve tolerated them but I think this little game has gone on long enough.”

Tolerated was an out and out lie. “What do you mean?” I leaned forward, eager to hear. If this was a new plan to get rid of my friends, I wanted to be sure to catch his every syllable. I hoped Dr. Green would, too.

“Mr. McCoy has been missing for too long,” he said. “The school board has been talking about a replacement. Mr. Blackbourne has asked for access to the position until a suitable replacement has been voted in by the school board. That could take months or as long as a year.”

My heart stopped. “Mr. Blackbourne wants to be the vice principal?”

“Current active vice principal.” He frowned. “You didn’t know?”

I shook my head. How could I have known? For some reason, I guess I was surprised I didn’t. But then I supposed that was what Mr. Blackbourne wanted. If he kept me in the dark about certain things, I couldn't be expected to answer Mr. Hendricks when he questioned me about it. “Is he in charge now?”

“He’s already insisted on getting the keys to Mr. McCoy’s office and to be allowed access to his computer files. It’s unusual that the board wouldn’t insist on someone who already has a school administrator certification. They’re going to put him through a quick course and they’ll expedite his certificate. I told them it’s ridiculous. He’s nowhere near qualified. Right now, I’ve put him in charge of the bomb threats. It’ll give him something useless to do. In the meantime, I want you to help me.”

“Help with what?”

“I suspect Mr. Blackbourne knows more about what happened to Mr. McCoy than he lets on,” he said. He dipped his steepled hands, talking over them. “I suspect he set this whole thing up so he could take over the job, and then come after mine.”

That couldn’t be true. He was an Academy professor. Sort of. I supposed. The Academy was different, I knew. I still didn’t know much about it, but my initial idea of it being a traditional school had vanished, and there was nothing to replace it with. What would Mr. Blackbourne do as a principal or vice principal of a high school? “You think he’s interested in taking your job?”

“I don’t know and I don’t really care what he’s interested in. I need him gone, not in line for my job.”

I bit back my frustration. It seemed like a futile pursuit. Finding a new job wasn’t why Mr. Blackbourne was here. “What do you want from me?”

“I want to know where Mr. McCoy is. I want you to look for him.”

My lips parted, eyebrows shooting up. “How?”

“Keep your ears open when you’re around Mr. Blackbourne. He might have him at this Academy that we can’t find. Mr. McCoy wouldn’t have left here willingly. He was forced out. I want to know why.”

He had to be crazy. But then he wouldn’t know why I would never try to look for Mr. McCoy. To appear noncommittal, I tapped my fingers against the wood of the armrest, sitting back. “What would you expect me to do? I’m not the police. I can’t investigate this kind of thing.”

“You’re going to, and not just because I tell you to. You would have done it anyway, I bet. You’re nosy. But now you get an advantage. Now I’m going to help you.”

I blew out a perplexed sigh. “Why? Why are you asking me?”

Mr. Hendricks squeezed his lips together briefly. “Because I’ve already taken on another busload of students, some of the most dangerous threats from surrounding school districts. I need my vice principal and not some pansy prep school teacher.”

My heart leapt into my throat. I sat forward again, positive what I’d just heard was a trick on my ears or a joke. “What do you mean, you took on more students? This place is already overcrowded.”

“What is it that you think I do?” Mr. Hendricks leaned forward, planting his palms flat on the desk. “But my decisions aren’t yours to question. What you should be more concerned about is finding Mr. McCoy.”

“Is this why Greg is back?”

“Who?”

“The ... guy I sent to the hospital.” Admitting it was difficult, but I didn’t know Greg’s last name.

“Oh. He’d already been sent in from another school. We’re the last place left. The state has a legal obligation to provide a school for all these kids. Most major cities usually have an alternative school of some kind for criminals. We can’t afford it. When they get kicked out of other schools, they come here. It’s either the streets, or we babysit them here. Mr. McCoy has the training and the experience to handle it. Mr. Blackbourne doesn’t have a clue.”

It didn’t sound like a good thing. When there wasn’t enough money for security, why bring in more bad students? Wasn’t he looking for ways to get them out before? Why would he bring more in when it was two months into the semester? “I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know anything about how to look for a missing person.”

“You can do it,. You
will
do it,” he said, his voice dripping with threats. “You’ll follow Mr. Blackbourne until he leads you to him.”

“What makes you think Mr. Blackbourne will just stumble across him? Or that he’d let me know if he did have him?”

Mr. Hendricks locked eyes with me. “You’re clever. You’re ambitious. You want in the Academy, don’t you? Well, here’s your opportunity. They don’t need to be here. Find out where Mr. McCoy is, and we’ll get the whole group kicked out. Once they leave, they may just take you with them. They seem to like you.”

I pursed my lips tightly, not wanting to relate how I felt about this. I didn’t care for Hendricks or the school. I hated that what he dangled in front of me was what I dreamed about. I wanted to escape to the Academy, only it wasn’t that easy to get in. Kota didn’t want me to go, anyway. I wasn’t sure how the others felt. At any rate, he had no idea how they worked and I knew they wouldn’t simply give up on this assignment.

“I’m not asking you for much,” he said. “I just want to talk to him. One conversation with Mr. McCoy. If he’s still out there somewhere.”

“You think talking to him will help you find a way to kick them out,” I said.

He tilted his head. “It benefits you, so I don’t see why you mind.” He pushed himself up to standing. “Find out what that Mr. Blackbourne is up to, and you’ve got a chance to go to the Academy early. I’ll write up a glowing review of your character if you need it. You’ve got a job to do. I expect it to be done soon.” He motioned to the door and went to it as if to open it for me.

I stood and walked across the room to leave. My mind was wild. What would Dr. Green say to this?

Mr. Hendricks reached around me to release the lock. I stepped out into the hallway.

“I don’t need to tell you what to expect if you don’t cooperate,” he said, and shut the door behind me.

♥♥♥

T
he boy was still reading his book when I returned to the waiting room. I could tell from the way he gazed at the page that he wasn’t really reading. He was focusing to avoid eye contact. With the chatter in the waiting room, it was too distracting to read.