Drop of Doubt (37 page)

My fingers inched forward. Maybe I should have thought about how I was stealing a camera from the principal, but my mind was foggy from lack of sleep. All I knew was he was interested in it. Anything he was interested in, I was interested in.

My fingers curled around the cord. I lifted it, testing a gentle tug. His pocket was wide open. It’d only take a moment.

A soft clearing of a throat emanated from the hallway, distracting me from my mad mission. I released the cord, turning around just as Mr. Hendricks hung up the phone.

Karen stood in the doorway. Her eyes focused on Mr. Hendricks as he turned around. “I’m sorry to pop in,” she said in a soft voice.

My cheeks radiated, and my heart pounded. Did she see what I was doing? I wanted to press my hand over my heart to control the pounding. What was I just about to do? That was a crazy move. Where was my brain today?

Mr. Hendricks waved his hand in the air. “Not now, Miss Karen. You’ll have to go back to class. I’ve got other students to deal with.” He turned, looking at me as if he’d forgotten why I was there. “You’re dismissed,” he said.

I nodded, stepping back. He went for the door, angling around Karen and out into the hallway.

Karen quickly blocked the door the moment the principal stepped out. She kept her hands behind her back. “What are you doing?” she asked me in a stage whisper. “Are you crazy?”

She did see. I had no excuse for myself. “I ... he ...” It was horrible. She probably thought I was the thief now.

She sliced her hand through the air over her throat. “Not now,” she said. She lunged after me, taking my hand and yanked me out of the office.

I was stunned. My immediate urge was to pull my hand back. She hung on to me, darting down the hallway, dragging me back to the lobby. She slowed just before the lobby and turned on me.

“Don’t do things like that in his office,” she said. “He’s watching.”

I blinked after her. “What do you mean he’s watching?”

“You don’t think he’d leave his door open like that if he wasn’t exactly sure who was coming in and out, do you?”

This stunned me. Not too long ago, I took things from his desk, and snapped pictures of his office. I knew Mr. Blackbourne was watching. Did Hendricks also have hidden cameras?

“Besides, you were doing it wrong.” She patted herself on the hip, close to her back pocket. “If you’re going to pull something out of a pocket, you have to ... I don’t know. You have to make it feel like you just bumped into him. Like swing your hip into his on accident. You were making it way too obvious.” She waved her hand through the air. “Don’t try it. You’re not a thief, anyway.”

“I didn’t mean to. I’m just really tired of this.”

Karen pressed a palm to her forehead. “I know the feeling. We should get to class. I can fill you in later.”

“I have to go ... um,” I said.

Karen squinted her eyes at me but seemed to understand that I needed to go in another direction. “Uh huh,” she said. “Good luck with it.” She darted into the lobby.

I waited until she had enough time to leave and then made my way into the lobby, intending to collect my book bag. There were more students than before. I kept my head down, hoping Greg was still preoccupied. I wanted to collect my things and get back to North. I was tempted to tell him I wanted to go home. Now that I’d talked with Mr. Hendricks, I thought maybe I could get away without being noticed. I felt guilty about taking another day off school, but homework and tests just seemed too far out of reach for my tired brain.

Surprise filled me when I spotted Wil sitting next to my book bag. He had his head tucked into a book. I supposed when I had left my bag with Karen, I’d expected the seat to be empty when I returned.

“Wil?” I said quietly.

He looked up, his glasses sliding along his thin nose. He blinked at me. “Sang?” he asked in surprise.

I blushed. “Everything okay?” I was surprised to see him in the office again. Was Hendricks making him a lackey, too? Did he call in everyone?

Wil tilted his head. “Shouldn’t I ask you that? You come in here a lot.”

I blushed, not realizing that he’d noticed. I didn’t share a class with him. And hadn’t he been here a few days ago? Did he have to check in with the front office? I couldn’t imagine he was in trouble. “I try not to,” I said.

I reached for my bag, picking up the straps and pulling it up to hang from my shoulder. Paper fluttered to the floor, scattering around the tile They must have been sitting under my book bag.

“You dropped something,” Wil said. He knelt down, sliding the papers together to try to pick them up.

“They’re not mine,” I said softly, but knelt down with him, wanting to do the right thing and at least pick up the mess for whoever it belonged to. Did Karen distract me so badly that I sat my book bag down on someone else’s stuff?

When I was on my knees, collecting the papers, I realized they were photos.

Wil flipped them over, and stopped, gazing. “Are ... what?” he said, mumbling between his words.

I flipped over the set in my hands and gasped, nearly dropping them again.

The pictures were of me. Me, in Nathan’s bathroom, as I was getting dressed that morning in the same jeans and T-shirt I was wearing now. I leaned over, checking the ones in Wil’s hands. Those were taken earlier, and in some I was mostly naked after my bath.

There was the same permanent marker scrawled over my face.

Come out, come out, wherever you are.

––––––––

I
snatched the rest of the photos from Wil, and without a word, lunged down the other hallway, seeking out refuge.

North had the door open waiting for me. He closed it after I nearly shoved him out of the way. I leaned against the wall, needing something solid behind me to hold me up.

Knowing something was wrong, North’s eyes were wide, his brows furrowed in question. But the moment my eyes met his, his face changed. He slammed the office door shut behind him and came toward me. He slapped his palms on the wall, one on either side of my head, hovering over me. “What happened?”

I still clutched the photos to my chest, only now that I was there, I was terrified. Had I lost any in the hallway? Did one flutter under a chair in the lobby that I didn’t see? Did Wil see who left them?

North dropped his hands, capturing my shoulders. “Don’t just look at me like that. What’s going on?”

I drew the photos away from my body, showing him the images. I held my breath.

North pulled the pictures from my hands and flicked through them.

And the way his eyes darkened had me shivering down to my bones.

“Where did you get these?” he asked, his voice low and cold.

“They were underneath my book bag when I went back for it.”

He lifted his head, meeting my face. “Who was sitting next to your bag? The one you were talking to?”

“Karen,” I said. “And Wil when I came back. He helped me pick up the photos.”

He dropped the photos on Dr. Green’s desk and turned to me, capturing my arms and holding me up slightly. “Listen, Baby, stay in this room. Don’t move.”

“Wait,” I said. I clutched at his arm. “We have to ...”

“This is close enough,” he said. “This is as far as it goes. Taking photos while you’re in school, that was fucked up, but in Nathan’s house?” His hands surrounded my arms, tightening. “One of those assholes out there saw who did this. This is ending now. If that Wil kid did it ...”

“It wasn’t Wil,” I said. “It can’t be him. He was working the day of the spa photos.”

North jerked his head up. “What spa photos?”

My mouth dropped open. Did I not tell them? “When I was at the spa with Victor, there was another stack of photos; they were left on his car.”

North rocked his head back. His eyes darted back and forth over my face, as if creating a plan. “Fucking shit, this no phone thing is going to kill us all.” He released me, turning and snagging the landline phone from Dr. Green’s desk.

“What are you doing?”

“Hang on.” He waited through a couple of rings. I heard the click of the phone and a muffled voice but I couldn’t pick out who it was. “Could I talk to Victor?” His eyes narrowed at a point in the wall. “Is he there? No, listen. If Victor’s there, I need to talk to him. It’s an emergency.” After another moment, North reeled his head back, slamming the phone down on the cradle. “God damn that new maid.”

“What’s going on?”

North swung around. He gazed at the photos again, studying them. Moments passed. I shivered, knowing I was nude in a lot of them. I didn’t think this was what he was studying. He wasn’t even looking directly at my images in the pictures. It was triggering his thoughts.

In a flash of rage, his eyes widened as something finally settled. It was like his brain finally clicked with answers. “Listen to me, Sang. Stay here. I’m going to go find Victor.”

Part of me was happy someone was finally looking into Victor’s whereabouts. “I could go with you,” I said.

“No.” He turned from me, heading to the door. “You’re going to lock yourself into this room. There’s a reason why Victor has himself holed up at home and won’t answer the phone. You’re going to wait here until one of the others comes to get you to take you to a random, secure location.”

“You can’t just lock me up in a bubble.”

“Like hell I can’t,” he said. His eyes told me there wouldn’t be an argument about this. He collected half of the stack of photos, shoving them into his back pocket. He went to the door. “Stay here, lock up. Don’t move. I don’t want to have to chase your ass around town if fuck-face shows up.” He slammed the door behind himself.

I recoiled, dropping back into Dr. Green’s chair, afraid to move, afraid to disobey.

♥♥♥

I
might have been willing to stay in the office, but I wasn’t willing to stay down and quiet. I worked through what to do, and picked up the phone, using the instructions to dial the front desk.

“What can I do for you?” asked one of the secretaries in a syrupy voice.

“Could you please call Mr. Blackbourne on the intercom? I think he’s in Music Room B,” I said to her, checking the time on the phone.

“Who is this?” she called at me.

“This is ... his assistant,” I said, lying, but if she couldn’t see me, would she know? “It’s kind of an emergency. Could you have him come to his office?”

She sighed into the phone. “I’ll call him down.”

I wondered if I should unlock the door, but I didn’t want to risk disobeying North. Also, I was creeped out, too. Whoever had taken and left the photos had gotten really close. I couldn’t believe Wil or Karen would leave them. I wished the cameras recorded all the time. It would have been easier to catch whoever it was. Maybe I could talk to Karen or Wil later and ask if they saw someone around.

It took only five minutes before there was a rattling at the doorknob. It was followed by keys tumbling the lock. Mr. Blackbourne poked his head in. “Miss Sorenson?” he asked, his voice dripping with surprise.

“Mr. Blackbourne, I got called into Mr. Hendricks’s office,” I started. I knew he would ask about it and I wanted to get to the real point quickly. “When I came back, there were pictures under my book bag in the lobby. North saw them and he left and he...”

“Wait, wait.” He held up his hand. He closed the office door behind himself, throwing the lock. “Where’s North now?”

“He’s heading out to find Victor.”

“Where?”

“North called Victor’s house. The maid said he was there but won’t come to the phone. North is finding out why he’s hiding. There’s something he knows and ...”

“If Victor’s securing himself in his house, there’s a reason. North shouldn’t interfere.”

“But there were pictures.”

Mr. Blackbourne’s steel eyes zeroed in on my face. “What pictures? The ones from your phone?”

I stepped back, picking up the photos sitting on Dr. Green’s desk. “They were left under my book bag when I had to keep it in the lobby to go see the principal.”

He took the photos from my hands. Another wave of feeling awkward swept through me. My cheeks heated but I felt I couldn’t focus on being modest when something more important was going on.

“There was another set on Victor’s car when we left the spa,” I said. “He was going to investigate and promised to take someone with him. But...”

Mr. Blackbourne looked up. “There’s more?”

“Someone followed us when we went to the spa. They took photos while we were there and managed to leave them on his car before we left. They had a message, too. Someone was following us. Volto, I guess. The guy with the mask.”

He frowned. His eyes shifting to the photos. “Miss Sorenson. I need you to wait here for me.”

“But...” I said, feeling the urge to ask him not to put me in a bubble, either. I had called him in because I thought he’d let me go with him after North.

Mr. Blackbourne closed the distance between us. He captured my chin between his fingers, focusing on my face. “Right now, I need you here,” he said in his commanding voice, but a couple of notches softer. “I’m going to call Nathan down to stay with you through the rest of fourth period. You’re to go to lunch, and attend all your classes. I need you to appear as normal as possible. Please.”

His gray eyes told me much more than he was saying. There was something in the works, something I wasn’t seeing. This plan required that I do exactly as he asked, to appear normal to other people.

I thought he was asking me to do the impossible, but I relented. “As you wish.”

The corner of his mouth rose a millimeter. “You’re getting the hang of this.” He released me and turned to the door.

“Wait,” I said.

He faced me again. “Miss Sorenson?”

“It’s Mr. Morris. Mr. Hendricks told him to follow you.”

He nodded and the look on his face told me he wasn’t too surprised. “I’ll be careful.”

I listened as his footsteps disappeared down the hallway. I sank into Dr. Green’s office chair, curling into myself. Mr. Blackbourne knew. That’s what we needed right now.

––––––––

W
hen another knock at the office door sounded, I had been dazed out wondering what Mr. Blackbourne knew about.