by Reid, Terri
Maggie stuck her legs straight out so her swing slowly lost altitude. “Maybe stuff changes when people get married. My parents aren’t all goofy and lovey-dovey like Mary and Bradley.”
“Maybe. And maybe if they weren’t married any more he wouldn’t want to abandon me,” Clarissa said. “Maybe he’s just tired of Mary.”
Shrugging, Maggie hopped off the swing as the end-of-recess bell rang. “I don’t think so, besides there’s nothing you can do about that,” she said.
Clarissa took her time sliding off the swing, a contemplative look on her face. “Well, maybe there is,” she whispered to herself.
Chapter Twenty
Bradley hurried down the hall to the board room at the school district building. The walls filled with art from students throughout Freeport, were incongruous with the thoughts racing through his mind. Each of the children recorded in the FBI reports had been students in the Freeport School District, even though they had been from not only the city of Freeport, but also the surrounding small towns. And, except for Courtney Rasmussen, all of the children were also reported absent on the day of their disappearance. Although that could just point to a kidnapper who snatched children on their way to school, he had to wonder if it didn’t have something to do with the school district itself.
The board room door was slightly ajar and Bradley entered without knocking. He had always felt that during an investigation he needed to place himself in a position of power and then watch the reaction of the people in the room. He noted, however, that the superintendent had the same idea about power, as the chair at the head of the table was filled by the superintendent and the one to his right, the subordinate seat, was left for Bradley.
Well, hell, Bradley thought, good move, Nick, but I don’t really need a seat.
Striding to the front of the room and stopping in front of the large whiteboard, Bradley nodded to the eight people around the table. “Thank you all for being so prompt,” he began. “Let’s begin this meeting without delay.”
Everyone but Nick Sears, the superintendent, had a good view of Bradley and the whiteboard, but Nick had to crane his neck in order to see.
“Nick, why don’t you take the chair next to you, so you can get a better view of the whiteboard,” Bradley suggested, biting back a smile.
Slightly disgruntled, Nick moved to the subordinate seat, sending Bradley a look of impatience. “Well, Alden, we don’t have all day,” he snapped. “Would you like to tell us why you’ve pulled us all together?”
“Julie, would you close the door?” Bradley asked.
Julie Quinn, the head of human resources, jumped up and closed the door.
“Thanks,” Bradley said. “The information I share with you today is confidential and normally I wouldn’t be speaking with such a large group, but it is essential that we work together. As you know, another child was kidnapped yesterday. A child from the Freeport School District.”
“Well, yes, but really the school district has nothing to do with the kidnapping,” Nick said, dismissing Bradley’s comment.
“Actually, Nick, it does,” Bradley said. “And I’ll explain that correlation in a moment.”
He paused, trying to decide how he was going to share information with the group without giving away too much. He suddenly realized that the kidnapper might be one of the people sitting in the meeting.
“But, before I go any further, I’d like each of you to introduce yourselves and tell me how you interact with the attendance records for the district,” he said. “Let’s start with you, Nick.”
“Actually, it’s Dr. Sears,” he began. “I have a PhD in school administration.”
What a jerk, Bradley thought.
“My apologies, Dr. Sears,” Bradley said, emphasizing the word doctor. “Please continue.”
“I actually have nothing to do with the attendance records,” Nick said. “I leave those kinds of details to my subordinates.”
“Well, actually,” Julie Quinn, a middle-aged woman with graying hair, interjected, “you do see the attendance records, Dr. Sears. We put a report on your desk by ten o’clock every morning.”
“Who else gets that report, Julie?” Bradley asked, cutting Nick off before he could argue.
Julie smiled at Bradley. “Well, actually, everyone at this table,” she said. “Most of us get it as a hard copy, but Ray and Mark get it emailed to them.”
“Ray?” Bradley asked, looking around the table.
An older man nodded and raised his hand; he had salt-and-pepper hair and an easy smile. “That’s me, Ray Giles,” he said. “I’m the truancy officer for the district. I get the reports every morning, although, for the most part I work off another report that lists the number of unexcused contiguous absences. I don’t do much with that first report because the parents can call and excuse their child up to forty-eight hours after an absence.”
“Who runs the other report?” Bradley asked.
“That would be me,” a young man with shaggy hair raised his hand. “I’m Mark.”
Mark was the only person in the room not dressed in business clothing. His Metallica t-shirt was faded and stretched out and he looked like he had just rolled out of bed to attend the meeting.
“Mark,” Bradley repeated. “What is your position?”
Shrugging, Mark leaned back in his chair and yawned. “Sorry,” he apologized quickly. “I’m a computer consultant for the district. I work from my home office. Jules sends me the data and I run a bunch of reports, mostly for the state, you know, to get their funding. But I run other stuff too.”
“Okay, thank you,” Bradley said, turning to a young black woman dressed in a professional suit sitting next to Julie. “And what do you do?”
“I’m Angela Norris,” she said, her voice clear and eloquent. “And I’m the Director of Equity. I collect, analyze and report data on equity programs and student performance.”
“Do you receive the same reports as the others?” Bradley asked.
“I receive those reports and I also have Mark run reports for me that also focus on the students of color throughout the district,” she said. “That would be the only report that would be different than the other people of the administrative team.”
“Thank you, Angela,” Bradley said.
“I’m Kelly, Kelly Sellers,” said a young blonde woman wearing a low cut blouse, seated across from Nick. “I’m Nick…I mean, the superintendent’s secretary.”
Bradley bit back a smile. Yes, I bet you are.
“Thank you, Kelly,” Bradley said. “And are your reports any different from the others at the table?”
“How do you mean different?” she asked, confused.
He paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. “Other than the attendance report that Julie sends you, do you receive any other reports from Mark?”
She turned to Mark. “Do I receive any other reports from you?”
He shook his head. “No, sweetheart, just the attendance reports.”
She smiled up at Bradley. “No, just the attendance reports.”
“Thank you, Kelly,” he said, trying to ignore the rolling eyes of most of the others at the meeting.
He did notice, however, that Nick didn’t seem to be bothered by her responses. Of course, he also noted that Nick’s eyes never traveled up further that Kelly’s neckline.
There were two final people he hadn’t met yet, one man and one woman. He started to turn to the woman, when the man interjected. “Excuse me, I don’t mean to be rude,” he said. “But I have to file my report with the state in thirty minutes. Do you think we are going to be much longer?”
“And you are?” Bradley asked.
“Ken Cannon,” he replied, “I work in the Business Office. I’m a CPA.”
“Ken, I will try to wrap this up quickly,” he said. “Which reports do you receive?”
“Only attendance,” he said. “And my report doesn’t have any personal information in it. I just need t
he numbers of students absent and from which school. Then I can send the information to the state and run my numbers to make sure we are keeping close to budget.”
“Budget?” Bradley asked.
“The state only pays us for the number of students per day,” he said. “I try and estimate what our attendance will be and we build our budget on that. But, for example, if we get a bad case of flu and we have a lot of students missing school, I have to readjust the budget.”
“Okay, thank you,” he said, turning to the only person who hadn’t introduced herself. “Hi, if you could…”
“I don’t have to answer any of your questions,” she blurted out. “My husband is a lawyer and he told me I didn’t have to say anything to you.”
“I’m sorry…” Bradley paused and waited.
“Kimberly…Kimberly Shelby,” she replied.
He nodded and smiled at her. “Kimberly,” he said. “I understand your apprehension, but this meeting is only informational. It might not lead to anything, but I need to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s. Does that make sense?”
She nodded slowly. “So, you really are just looking into the disappearance of the little girl,” she said, “not investigating any budgetary issues?”
Bradley saw Ken raise his eyebrow and look in Kimberly’s direction. “Just the little girl,” he said, wondering what in the world she was covering up.
“Okay, I get the reports every morning and I highlight them for any students under my area,” she said. “Then, because my students are in special education classes, I make phone calls right away to be sure there isn’t a problem.”
“And that’s all you do with the attendance report?” he asked.
Shrugging, she glanced around the room and bit her lower lip. “I also hand it out for scratch paper for some of the classes to use,” she said.
“But that’s confidential information,” Julie exclaimed. “You should be shredding it.”
“Well, I don’t think that’s very green,” Kimberly argued. “Besides, I only let the younger classes use it, they can’t even read.”
“But their parents can, if they bring their work home,” Bradley stated. “How soon after a report is given to you, do you give the paper away?”
“I collect the reports from the week before and give it to them on Monday,” she said. “So it’s old by then.”
Bradley took a deep breath. “Okay, one more question. Does anyone else share the reports with anyone else?”
Mark hesitantly raised his hand. “I’ve got a couple of interns who do work for me,” he said. “Sometimes they look through the report. They know some of the kids from the school.”
“How soon after you get the data do they see it?”
“Could be right away,” he said. “We’re networked together, so they know when it’s in the file.”
Julie shook her head. “Well, maybe we should just publish it in the paper.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Julie,” Nick inserted pompously. “We really don’t have the budget to do that.”
“I was being facetious, Dr. Sears,” she said.
“Oh, of course you were,” he stammered. “Me too.”
Most of these people are too stupid to be kidnappers, Bradley thought.
“Okay, thanks for your time,” he said. “Julie, if I could ask you a couple of questions about the reports, I’d appreciate it.”
“Sure Bradley,” she replied. “Why don’t you come down to my office?”
Bradley nodded to her, and then turned to Nick. “Thank you, Dr. Sears, for setting the time aside for your staff to meet with me,” he said.
“Well, yes, of course,” he blustered, getting out of his chair and walking over to Bradley. “We need to watch out for all of those little girls, don’t we?”
Bradley looked down at the man who only reached halfway up his chest and nodded.
“Yes, we do,” Bradley agreed. “Yes, we do.”
Chapter Twenty-one
During the drive from the School District building back to City Hall, Bradley tried to put together all of the pieces of the puzzle. Julie had been able to track back and get attendance data on all of the missing children. Most of them had a long history of absences, so perhaps it had nothing to do with the reports. The superintendent rubbed him the wrong way, but that was mostly because the guy was a pompous ass. However, he did remember a Canadian study that suggested that short men were more likely to be sexual predators than their taller counterparts. He’d run a check on the doctor, as well as the programmer, the truancy officer and the accountant. With only girls missing, he had to believe they were looking for a man.
Looking down at the manila folder next to him, he was once again grateful for Julie. He knew she was bending the rules, but she copied the personnel records of all of the people in the meeting and sent it along with him. Just in case you need it, she had said when she handed it to him. He noticed she even included her own information. Shaking his head, he wondered how soon people would realize that she was the brains behind the school district and get rid of the pretender in the superintendent’s office.
Pulling into his parking spot at City Hall, he noticed the Roadster parked across the street and groaned. “Crap, I forgot to call Mary this morning,” he muttered.
Hurrying up the stairs, he stopped when he saw the door to the computer lab was open. Entering the room, he saw Mary and another woman working together at one of the older computer stations. He smiled proudly as he watched Mary focus entirely on what was in front of her. Whatever she was looking for; he knew she’d find it. He decided not to disturb their work and was stepping back when Mary turned and saw him.
“Oh, hello, Chief Alden,” she said coolly. “I didn’t see you. Of course, there’s a lot of that happening lately.”
She must be acting like she doesn’t know me very well for the woman’s sake, he thought.
“Mary,” he said, with a smile. “I hope you’re finding whatever you’re looking for.”
Mary’s smile was slightly brittle. “I’m sure we will manage on our own,” she replied. “I am really getting used to managing on my own.”
Bradley cocked his head and met her eyes. Yeah, this has nothing to do with anyone else. For some reason, Mary’s upset. I wonder if something happened at the house.
Entering the room, against his better judgment, he walked over to the two of them. “Hello, I’m Chief Alden,” he said to the other woman.
Mary sighed. “I’m sorry, that was so rude of me,” she apologized. “Celia, this is my husband, Bradley Alden.”
Well, at least she’s still acknowledging me as her husband.
“Bradley, this is Celia Rasmussen,” Mary continued. “I’m working on a case with her.”
“Rasmussen,” Bradley mused. “Why does your name seem familiar?”
“My daughter, Courtney, was kidnapped eight years ago,” she replied.
Bradley’s heart dropped. Of course, he thought, I was just reading the file this morning.
“I’m so sorry about your daughter,” he said. “I understand how it feels to have a loved one who’s missing.”
Celia looked up at his face and realized he did indeed seem to understand. “Thank you.”
“Um, Mary, I was wondering if you had a moment or two?” he asked. “I wanted to speak with you privately.”
Smiling politely, she shook her head. “Oh, sorry, I can’t,” she replied. “I’m sure you understand how work needs to take precedence over anything else. Perhaps you could email me.”
He stared at her for a moment, trying hard to read her thoughts, but it was useless. “Yeah, of course, I’ll send you an email,” he said.
“Thanks,” she said, turning back to the computer screen.
“Um, okay then,” Bradley said, knowing he was just dismissed. “I’ll just do that.”
He backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.
As soon as she heard the click of th
e door, Mary exhaled sharply.
“So, you’re pretty pissed off, huh?” Celia asked, biting back a smile.
“Was I that obvious?” she asked. “Sorry.”
“So how long have you two been married?” she asked. “And what did he do?”
Mary chuckled. “Well, to answer your first question, we’ve been married nearly three weeks. And to answer your second question, he missed dinner last night, came home after I had gone to bed, fell asleep on the couch and then got up and left before we had a chance to speak this morning.”
“Did it have anything to do with the missing girl?” Celia asked.
“What missing girl?”
“It was all over Facebook last night,” Celia said. “A young girl, I think she was twelve years old, is missing. There’s an Amber Alert out for her.”
Mary felt like an idiot. “When was she reported missing?” she asked.
“Toward the end of the school day,” Celia replied. “I understand they were searching for her until midnight, and then they started early this morning. I read the FBI came in early this morning to help with the search.”
Mary pushed back her chair. “Would you excuse me for a few minutes? I’ve got to apologize to someone.”
Nodding, Celia smiled. “Sure,” she replied. “Take your time. I’ll keep going through the files.”
Chapter Twenty-two
The knock on his office door was tentative, unlike Dorothy’s sharp and demanding one. “Come in,” he called, looking up from the pile of paperwork before him.
Mary slipped just inside the office and closed the door. “Do you have a minute?” she asked quietly.
He stood, trying to read the new look on her face, and approached her tentatively. “Of course, but before you say anything, can I ask what you and Mrs. Rasmussen are working on?”
“Sure,” she replied. “She hired me to help her find her daughter.”
“Why?” he asked. “And I mean that in the nicest, most respectful way.”
Mary smiled. “She read about me and she thinks she has seen her daughter,” she said.
