“Let’s split these lists up, and then we can all plan on meeting somewhere to go over them and figure out the rest of our project,” Ollie suggested, handing one to each person.
Taking my list, I quickly scanned the questions. Interviewing the Mayor! Great! The Mayor and my dad haven’t gotten along in years.
They both have been members of the Pine Hill Country Club for decades. Somehow, they had a falling out and have been enemies ever since. I don’t think Mayor Greenly is going to be very open to my interview. It was just a guess though.
“Does anyone what to switch with me? Ollie? Charlotte?” I asked looking around.
To my surprise everyone had already walked away, busy filling out his or her own sheets.
“Don’t worry about it, I’ll talk to the one man who hates my family,” I mumbled crossly under my breath.
“Eh, Em,” came an amused voice clearing his throat.
Not again, I thought closing my eyes. Why me? Why do I continually make a fool of myself in front of Jed? Of course he walks in at the perfect time to catch me talking to myself. He must think I am a nut.
Opening one eye, I looked in the direction of his voice, hoping that he wouldn’t actually be there. No such luck. There he stood, all six feet two inches all well muscled, wide shouldered and good looking. Once again he had an amused look on his face.
“Glad I’m here to amuse you,” I glared at him. I could feel heat radiating off my face
“Not looking forward to talking with the mayor, eh?” he asked.
“He’s not my favorite person, no. He and my dad had a falling out many years ago, and our families have not been friends since.”
“Really,” Jed said interested, “From what I hear, Mayor Greenly is a pretty popular guy. His family has been prominent in Pine Hill for a few generations.”
“Yes, well, I don’t know exactly what happened, but whatever it was must have been something big, because they refuse to occupy the same room if they can help it.”
“Why don’t I go with you? It can’t be that bad. He agreed to answer questions for our class field trip. It would look pretty bad, especially during an election year, if he refused to answer them because he didn’t like the student’s family.”
“Let me go ask the secretary where we can find him.” Walking over to her desk, I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. I was afraid that just knowing he was watching me was enough to make me trip over my own feet. I had just met the guy. What’s the big deal, I tried to tell myself. Being near Tyler, who I thought I had a huge crush on, never made me feel this way. Even though Jed was a senior like me, he seemed much older and more mature. Definitely out of my league. I just needed to remember that and not get any other ideas.
Stopping in front of the secretary, who was answering questions from Kent and Charlotte, I waited for an opening and then asked, “Um, excuse me, but can you tell me where I can find the mayor? I have a few questions to ask him for our project.”
A definite look of annoyance flashed across the secretary’s face for just a quick moment. It was almost so quick; I thought I had imagined it.
“Why of course, he’s in his office, why don’t you go on ahead and I will let him know you are coming,” she said with a gracious smile.
Giving Charlotte a glance, I looked over to see if she noticed the secretary’s annoyed look.
Charlotte shrugged one shoulder faintly, with a look that said she noticed too.
Thanking the secretary, I left Charlotte and Kent to finish interviewing her and walked back to Jed.
“He’s in his office, let’s go,” I said striding towards the door with purposeful strides. If I had to do this I wanted to get it over as soon as possible.
“Hold up there babe, where’s the fire.”
“Don’t call me babe,” I said over my shoulder, “I am not your babe.” And I don’t plan on being your anything, I told myself. Liar, liar pants on fire.
Behind me Jed mumbled something under his breath.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothin’… keep walking”
Jed inhaled quickly, glad Nora didn’t hear his mumbled, “…A guy can hope,” he didn’t know where that came from. It would not be good for his future in the special undercover unit, if he had a relationship with one of the students. He was drawn to Nora and her charming personality. She made him laugh, he realized. He has laughed more with her in the few hours he’s known her than he has in a long time.
He knew she wasn’t the type of girl you called babe if you didn’t mean it. He hadn’t been thinking when he said it.
“Here it is,” Nora said, knocking on the door.
“Thank you for your time, Ms. Avery,” Charlotte said kindly, tucking the notes she had made into her handbag.
“You’re welcome, good luck on your project,” she said turning back to her desk.
Moving away towards the lobby, Charlotte touched Kent’s arm. “Do you mind if we go back and look at the conference rooms a minute?”
“Sure, was there something you forgot?”
“Something just didn’t seem right when I asked the secretary about the public conference rooms. She mentioned that there were only three that the public could rent out, and that the doors were always open for people to just walk in and use. The others are kept locked for the mayor and town council members use.”
“So you think room 35 could be one of the locked rooms?”
“I just think it’s worth checking out that’s all.”
“You're right, but let’s make it quick. We have to meet back at the bus in 15 minutes.”
Walking towards the hallway with the conference rooms, they met Ollie coming from the opposite direction. Explaining what they were looking into, Ollie joined them saying, “I have just toured the whole Mayor’s building. Nothing unusual about it, it seems like a typical office building. The history is pretty interesting though, it’s the only thing worth mentioning.”
“We didn’t learn anything from the secretary, Ms. Avery that was interesting either, just typical day-to-day stuff. I am sure it will be great for our project and just what the teacher is looking for, though,” Kent told Ollie.
Coming around the corner, they saw a police officer coming out of room 35.
“At least they are looking into it,” Charlotte said.
“Yeah, but it looks like room 35 is on the locked side of the hallway,” Ollie mused.
There were three open conference room doors along the right side of the spacious hallway. On the left side was a row of three doors with room 35 in the middle. The other two doors on each side of room 35 were shut tight.
We were silent as we walked back towards the bus, taking in what the locked conference room meant.
Someone in the Mayor’s office had to have let those men in, or else they had a key.
“Mayor Greenly, we would like to ask you a few questions for our school project if we could,” Jed asked politely, walking into the room when the Mayor answered the door.
“Come in, come in,” he said, standing to greet us.
Offering his hand to the Mayor, Jed said, “Jed Greyson sir, nice to meet you,” Jed was glad that he hadn’t run into the mayor in uniform. Since he had been there, the Mayor hadn’t ventured into the police station.
Turning to me, a frown replaced the welcoming smile he had given Jed, as the mayor recognized me.
“Miss Barton,” he said coldly, sitting back down. I could tell he was staring at my black eye.
Glancing at Jed, I felt my face turn red again at the obvious dismissal.
Stepping up quickly, Jed took over interviewing the Mayor. Asking the various questions Ollie had written on the sheet.
Grateful to Jed for taking the lead, I sat quietly and wrote down the answers in my notebook.
Finishing the questions, Jed said, “That’s the last one, sir.”
Standing, we thanked the Mayor, and got ready to leave. Turning back, Jed said, “One m
ore thing, do you have any idea who was meeting in room 35 about an hour ago?”
The Mayor looked startled for a minute, and then quickly regaining his composure, he said, “I am not sure, it could have been anyone. Those rooms are left open for the public to use anytime they want. Why? Is there a problem?”
Following his gut reaction, Jed decided not to tell the mayor what they had seen.
“No, no problem, just wondering,” Jed said vaguely.
Wondering why Jed didn’t elaborate, I blurted out, “Some man was...” Noticing Jed giving me the eye, I realized he didn’t want me to say anything more. “What I mean was, I thought I saw someone I knew.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Jed inwardly cringing.
Desperate to get out of there, I said quickly, “No big deal, thanks again.”
We turned, and I quickly started walking away, I knew we didn’t have much time before we had to meet Ms. Morley at the bus.
As soon as we were out of earshot, I asked Jed, “Why didn’t you want to tell Mayor Greenly about what we had seen?”
“Something felt off about his reaction to my question. I don’t know why, I just went with instinct,” Jed explained.
Oh, I thought nodding, that was very perceptive.
“The police are looking into it,” Jed continued, “Let’s get back and see if anyone else found out anything unusual.”
Charlotte, Kent and Ollie were standing under a small maple tree near the sidewalk when we walked out. I noticed that Kent was gazing at Charlotte with a look I could tell meant he was interested in her. She is not his usual type. He usually went out with popular cheerleader types. Being the star quarterback for the team, plus very handsome gave him no shortage of girls wanting to go out with him. Throw in that he is a gentleman with a kind heart and he is practically irresistible.
Charlotte is a soft-spoken very nice girl. I thought she looked very pretty, standing under the tree, with the breeze blowing her long hair around her shoulders. Kent obviously did too. I was glad; Charlotte seemed like someone who would be good for him, someone who would like him for himself, and not because he was popular and being with him would increase their status.
Just as we walked up, Ms. Morley called Jed over. Excusing himself, he walked over to see what Ms. Morley needed.
She was holding a note someone must have given her. Taking the note from her, Jed read it, and then said something to her briefly. Glancing over at us apologetically, he turned, and with long purposeful strides, walked back into the building.
“Everyone is here, so please get back on the bus,” Ms. Morley said. “You can finish talking on the way back to school.”
“What about Jed?” I asked Ms. Morley, as I walked past her to the bus steps.
“He will catch up with us later; he got a message and had to go back inside.”
He will catch up with us later? What could he possibly have to do in there that would allow him to miss the bus back to school? I was dying of curiosity.
I slid in next to Charlotte. Kent and Ollie sat directly behind us.
“Did you find out anything interesting?” I asked Charlotte.
“We found out that room 35 is only used by the Mayor or someone on his staff. It’s kept locked, except when in use. The three rooms across from it are open to the public to use.”
My jaw fell open.
“The Mayor lied!” I announced. I couldn’t believe it. I explained what he had said when Jed asked him about the conference room and Jed’s reaction.
“Do you think it was on accident?” Charlotte asked, giving the mayor the benefit of the doubt.
“According to the secretary he has been the mayor for three years. You would think in that amount of time, he would know which rooms were used by the public and which by his staff,” Kent said, “I think he lied deliberately.”
Ollie nodded, “I think something fishy is going on my dear Watson,” he said with a bad English accent.
Grinning, I said, “So what are we going to do about it?”
“There’s nothing we can do,” Kent said, “We have nothing else to go on, for all we really know, the kid is fine, the mayor was mistaken, and the paper could have been dropped by the cleaning lady.”
“We need to meet any way to go over our project. Does anyone have any ideas where we could meet?” I asked.
Charlotte looked at Ollie questioningly. Ollie nodded. So Charlotte suggested, “We could meet tomorrow in the Science Club room. It should be empty because most of the guys have sports on Saturdays still. The room is available to us whenever we want to use it. There is an outside door that each of us has a key to. We can’t get into the school, just into the club. Mr. Cotter has us each sign a user agreement when we join. As long as we follow the rules and take care of the equipment, we can use it.”
“That sounds great,” I said. “Why don’t we plan on meeting tomorrow at noon? We can bring some pizza or something. Are you free Kent?”
Glancing discreetly at Charlotte, he said quickly, “Sure, I don’t have any plans that can’t be broken. Count me in. Nora and I will bring the pizza.”
“I can bring some pop,” Charlotte said brightly.
“Someone needs to let Jed know,” I reminded them.
“I will,” Ollie said, “There’s something I need to ask him anyway.”
Disappointed I wouldn’t have an excuse to talk to him again until tomorrow; I sat back and closed my eyes until we got back to school. He wasn’t even on the bus, so who knew if he would be coming back today. But as the bus pulled up to the school, I found myself excited about the prospect of seeing him again today.
Chapter 5
Walking back through the main entrance, Jed quickly walked towards the police station, before anyone from Pine Hill High School saw him. Rounding the corner that led through the double doors, Jed couldn’t help wondering why the Lieutenant had summoned him back so quickly, instead of waiting until Jed got out of school. He was going to miss his ride back to school on the bus. Kids were really going to talk now.
It must be really important. The other officers were all pretending to look busy, but their eyes kept going back to the closed door at the back of room. Jed walked past one officer who openly glared at him. Jed got the feeling that some were jealous of him, because he was a rookie from another department, and was given a special assignment before they were. The Lieutenant and Sheriff Miller thought it would be a good idea to keep this undercover unit quiet, so many officers didn’t know the details. They didn’t understand why Jed and Mike were singled out and they weren’t.
Knowing the Lieutenant was expecting him right away; he walked straight to Lieutenant Davis’s office and knocked on the door. At the quick reply, he opened the solid door and shut it quickly behind him. Looking around at the four men sitting around the Lieutenant’s office; he was surprised to see his boss, Sheriff Miller, Mike Parker, as well as a detective he had just met this morning
“Deputy Greyson, please have a seat and we’ll bring you up to speed,” Lieutenant Davis said, gesturing to the vacant seat by Mike.
Mike nodded hello to Jed and said, “Sounds like you may have gotten a break in the case.”
Jed sent Mike a questioning look as the Lieutenant opened a manila folder containing photographs. Picking out one, he passed it to Jed. “This boy was reported missing last night. His parents told us they thought he was at the library doing homework. He never came home.”
Taking the picture from the Lieutenant, Jed immediately recognized the boy from this morning. “This is the boy from earlier. The one I saw getting beat up by two men.”
Surprised by Jed’s quick ID, he said, “You’re sure?”
“Yes, not two hours ago, he was in this building, being threatened by two men because he didn’t have something they wanted.”
Sheriff Miller slapped the desk and stood up putting another piece of cinnamon gum in his mouth. “This is the third disappearance in my county this month. We have go
t to start getting answers.”
“We’re working on it,” the Lieutenant said. “We have our lab looking at the symbol Greyson and that group of high school students found. We also know that the boy, Mark Mason, was very smart and involved in many academic clubs. That will give us somewhere to start. Maybe we will be able to find out why he was in room 35.”
“About the room sir,” Jed said hesitantly, “Something the Mayor said today seemed a little off.”
Four pairs of eye shifted to Jed. “How so son?” Sheriff Miller asked.
“When I asked him if he knew who was meeting in room 35, he denied knowing anything about that room. He said it was a publicly available room. He seemed very nervous but quickly tried to hide it.”
Detective Cooper, who up until then had remained silent, said, “I met with the Mayor and his staff a few months ago in room 35 about a case. We both arrived at the same time and he opened the room with a key he had on his key ring.”
“This isn’t good,” Sheriff Miller sighed. “We need to proceed with caution from here on out. If the Mayor is involved in any way, Jed’s innocent question earlier could have scared him. This is an election year, so he will do everything he can to keep from looking bad in the public’s eye.”
“I agree sir,” Jed said standing up, “Do we have a list of Mark’s friends and the clubs he was involved in? I will see what I can find out. Some of the kids in my project group may be in the same club. Maybe a lead will turn up.”
“If any of those kids know something, I want to know right away. Remember this is your first undercover assignment, don’t be a hero. On the other hand, we must find the link between these three kids who have disappeared.”
“Sheriff,” Lieutenant Davis interrupted. “I have lined up a training session for Deputy’s Greyson and Parker, on the topic of undercover work,” Grinning Lieutenant Davis said, “I am sure they will find the course very... shall we say, helpful.”
Groaning, Jed and Mike exchanged a look. The Lt was famous for his “training sessions” which involved a lot of physical training and grueling classroom work, all crammed into a single day.
Undercover Justice Page 4
