by Diana X Dunn
“I could say the same about you,” he countered.
“But I’m teaching the course, not taking it,” she replied.
Jeff shrugged. “I thought about applying as an instructor, but I figured I had a better chance as a student.”
“Why were you so eager to be here?” Sara asked.
“I came because I had a score to settle with Jake,” he said tightly. “We worked together on something, something I’d rather not talk about, and he messed up his end. I’d been expecting it, really. I’d even warned my boss that it was going to happen, but I’d failed to fully anticipate how badly the man was going to screw things up. Not only did the case fall apart, one of the other men working with us was fatally injured.”
“I’m sorry,” Sara said.
He shrugged. “Things like that happen every day in the field. We all know the risks. I was upset, but I walked away. That was four years ago.”
“So why come after Jake now?” she asked.
“I was working on another case, not even related to that one. In the course of tracking someone down, I came across the man who’d gotten away four years earlier. He didn’t recognize me, but once we’d closed the net on his associate, I brought him in for questioning. In his eagerness to get away, he told me what I’d always suspected, that he’d paid Jake to botch the case against him.”
“You should have had Jake arrested,” Luke suggested.
“I didn’t have any proof, only what I knew to be true. I used some connections to track Jake to here and then signed myself up for the course.”
“Your boss was okay with that?” Sara wondered.
“I took a leave of absence,” Jeff said tightly.
“You came here to kill Jake,” Luke suggested.
“I came here to see him, to talk to him, to try to make him understand just how wrong what he’d done was. The man who died, we were close, almost like brothers. I felt as if I had to make Jake understand how I felt.”
Sara nodded. She’d once tried to talk to M10, the man she felt was responsible for F7’s death, about how losing F7 had felt. It hadn’t gone well. “What did Jake say?”
“We never had the conversation,” Jeff sighed. “I wanted to watch him for a while, see if he showed any signs of remorse. What I saw was a very stupid man who drank to forget his past. He was arrogant and ignorant and I don’t know that anything I could have said to him would have mattered to him in the slightest.”
“So now what?” Luke asked.
“Now I find myself wanting to know what happened to Jake,” Jeff replied. “I don’t believe he had a heart attack. Everyone around him wanted him dead. A heart attack would have been far too convenient. I think he was murdered.”
“By whom?” Sara wondered.
“Robert seems the most likely candidate. He’s the one who had Dr. Freeman do the autopsy and he’s the one who created the story about the fake murder scene, as well.”
“I don’t know if that truly was just a story,” Sara told him.
“Whatever, Robert still seems most likely. He’s certainly done everything in his power to cover up the truth,” Jeff said.
“That’s true,” Sara nodded.
They’d reach the gated entrance to the compound and stopped, standing together and talking just outside the entrance. Luke looked around.
“Do you think our conversation will be recorded once we get back inside?” he asked.
“I’m not prepared to take that risk,” Jeff said. “We can talk out here.”
Sara sat down on the grass near the fence. “Are you convinced it was Robert, then?” she asked Jeff as he dropped to the ground next to her.
“Not entirely. I assume he had some motive based on all of the secrets that Jake was always bragging about knowing, and I assume he had the means and the opportunity to kill Jake, but I believe just about everyone here is in the same position.”
“What about Mark?” Luke asked.
“I wish I knew what happened to Mark,” Jeff sighed. “I spent some time at the gator pond that morning, so I think I can picture the scene. If I’m right, it seems as if the only way Mark could have gotten where he was in the enclosure was by climbing a tree. If I’m right, why did he climb it? I can’t see anyone forcing him to do so.”
“I can see him climbing it so that he’d be out of range of Sara’s tagging, though,” Luke said. “But if that’s the case, that suggests that his death was an accident.”
“Which is an odd coincidence. I don’t like coincidences,” Jeff replied.
“We need to see the footage from the zoo’s security cameras,” Sara said. “If Robert won’t let us see them, that’s even more evidence of a cover up.”
“I’m ready to get out of here,” Jeff sighed. “I have a job that I love that I need to get back, preferably before my boss decides to stop being so understanding.”
Sara nodded, fairly certain that she knew which agency the man worked for and who his boss would be. “There’s no reason why you can’t leave, is there?” she asked.
“Technically, no, but I’ve become something like friends with some of the others,” he replied. “I don’t want to leave them here with a murderer on the loose.”
“As long as no one else starts bragging about knowing secrets, everyone should be fairly safe,” Luke suggested.
“I’ll feel better knowing the killer is behind bars,” Jeff said.
“We all will,” Sara told him. “If there truly is a killer.”
Jeff gave a sharp bark of laughter. “Let’s not go back there. Whatever happened to Mark, Jake was murdered. No one will ever convince me otherwise.”
Before the others could reply, he got to his feet and stretched. “And now I should get back to my room,” he said. “I’m sure you’re both eager to get to bed.”
Sara flushed as she stood up. The implication behind Jeff’s words was clear.
“We’re taking things slowly,” Luke said as he took Sara’s hand. “The sort of work that we do doesn’t really lend itself to relationships.”
Jeff nodded. “I keep reminding myself of that. I did think about a twirl of two with Tamara, but that might make things awkward for the next five months. Maybe I’ll wait until the very end of the course.”
“I thought you were leaving,” Sara said.
He shrugged. “I may well be.”
The trio was silent as they walked along the road, back to the housing block. Jeff stopped at the door. “I’m going to have a quick jog around the compound,” he told them. “I’m too restless to go to bed at the moment.”
Sara thought about warning him to be careful, but she didn’t bother. He was a trained agent. He already knew all about being careful.
“Come back to my room,” Luke said in a low voice as they entered the building. “We were interrupted last night. Let’s pick things up from there.”
Sara hesitated and then nodded. Luke unlocked his door and let them into his suite. He pulled Sara into an embrace that grew increasingly heated. After several minutes, he pulled back.
“We have all night,” he told her. “Let’s slow things down.”
“Slow things down?”
He nodded and then switched on some music. “Wine?” he asked.
“No, thanks.”
“Something else?” he gestured toward his drinks machine.
“No, thanks.”
“I’ll be right back,” he said before he left the room.
Sara shook her head. This wasn’t going the way she’d expected. The couch was uncomfortable and sitting didn’t suit her mood, anyway. Pacing back and forth, she wondered how long the man expected her to wait for him. After a minute, she started looking around.
Luke’s room was even more basic than hers, with cheap furniture and low quality fixtures and fittings. When she studied the drinks machine, she was glad she’d refused his offer. It seemed unlikely that anything it dispensed would be palatable. After pacing around the room yet again, she moved to the w
indow in the back wall. Sliding up the privacy screen, she looked out at the dark compound. Something moved, drawing her attention.
When Luke walked back into the room a minute later, Sara was at the door. “Sorry about that,” he said. “I wanted to make the bed.”
Sara laughed. “I’m not sure why, but never mind. Right now I’m more interested in what Candie was just doing.”
“Candie?”
“I just saw her sneaking around behind the building,” Sara explained. “She had a bag and I think she put it in the garage compactor.”
“Maybe she was just clearing out her office wastebasket.”
“Maybe, but I’d like to be sure.”
Luke frowned. “I should have spun with you on the floor out here instead of worrying about clearing the dirty clothes off my bed.”
“Later,” Sara said. “I’ll come back.”
“You aren’t going out there alone,” he countered.
“I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will, especially because I’ll be with you.”
Sara didn’t bother to argue any further. Wanting to see what Candie had been discarding was more important.
Luke slid his shoes back on and followed Sara out of the room. They held hands and chatted together along the way, acting as if they were simply out for a stroll.
“Let’s go and look at the stars,” Luke suggested as they paused outside of Sara’s door.
“Oh, yes, let’s,” she gushed. “What a romantic idea.”
Candie was in her office as they walked past it.
“Why are you still working?” Sara exclaimed as she caught the woman’s eye.
“Just dealing with a few little things for Robert,” she explained. “We got the video footage from the zoo and he wanted me to isolate the relevant parts and send copies of that to everyone.”
“I’m looking forward to seeing it,” Sara told her.
“Yes, well, it should be available in the shared files folder in half an hour or so,” Candie replied. “I’m just finishing up the last of the edits now.”
“We’re going to look at the stars,” Sara said. “For the next half hour, I’m not going to think about Mark.”
“Lucky you,” Candie replied.
Sara and Luke continued to the front of the building and then let themselves out.
“There are cameras watching our every move, aren’t there?” Luke whispered as he pulled Sara close.
“Probably. I wonder if I can disable any of them from here.”
“I suspect Robert has very good security.”
“He should, but that doesn’t mean he does. I wonder if he even bothered to put cameras on the rear of the buildings.”
“That’s a good point, actually.”
The pair walked slowly around the building, seemingly meandering as they studied the stars.
“There’s a camera on the corner,” Luke said.
“Kiss me,” she told him.
He pulled her into an embrace that left her breathless. For a moment she didn’t care in the slightest what Candie had been doing. All she wanted was Luke.
“Is this part of a plan?” Luke whispered when he lifted his head.
“Plan? Oh, yeah,” she muttered. “We need to look as if we’re desperate to twirl, like so desperate that we’re going to do it in a dark corner if we can find one.”
“No need to pretend, then,” Luke said softly before he pulled her into another kiss. When the kiss ended, he looked around and then nodded at the back of the building. “There probably aren’t cameras there,” he said loudly.
“There might be. I don’t want security watching us, um, together.”
“Let’s go and see,” he suggested, dragging her, giggling, behind the building. There weren’t any exterior lights to illuminate the building’s rear, aside from a small sign over the one rear entrance. The trash compactor was huge and stood only a foot or so away from the building’s back wall.
Sara laughed and then pulled Luke into the small space between the compactor and the building. “We should be out of sight in here,” she said as she backed up, moving along the length of the machine.
Luke stopped her when she was about halfway along. “Maybe we should stay in here for a short while?” he suggested.
“Maybe we should find something to throw away,” she replied. “Come here.” She dragged him to her and then tore his shirt off of his torso.
“That was an expensive shirt,” he complained. “And it’s cold out here.”
Sara grinned and then spent several minutes warming him up and making him forget about his ripped shirt.
“We should go inside,” she suggested after a while. “I’ll just toss this in the compactor, shall I?”
Luke laughed. “I don’t think it can be fixed.”
Sara led him out of the small space and then stopped at the door to the compactor. “It was a nice shirt,” she sighed as she pulled the door open.
The smell nearly made her gag. There were dozens of bags piled up right inside the machine’s door. It clearly hadn’t been run in days, and it was long overdue.
“Wow, what a mess,” Luke said.
“Someone needs to run it, and soon.” Sara grabbed the nearest bag. She was fairly sure that it was the one that Candie had thrown into the machine. Now she just had to work out how to get it into the building without Candie seeing her.
“If we take it into the building, we’ll be spotted on camera,” Luke said.
“It’s too dark out here to go through it properly.”
“Maybe we could take it to one of the classroom buildings?”
“They all have cameras, though.”
“Not all of them,” a voice said from behind Sara.
She jumped and then looked over at Jeff. “I should have heard you coming,” she said.
“I’m good at being quiet,” he replied. “What have you found?”
“I don’t know. Candie just threw it in the trash compactor. It could be nothing but garbage,” Sara explained.
“Or it could be something interesting,” Jeff replied. “I know where we can go and I know how to get there without being seen. Follow me.”
Sara and Luke exchanged glances and then, as Jeff began to walk away, fell into step behind him.
Chapter 15
They walked for several minutes, keeping away from buildings and in the shadows. Once or twice, Jeff had them walk in a seemingly random way from one place to the next. He finally stopped behind a small building that, as far as Sara knew, was empty and not being used.
“This one is being used for storage. There aren’t any cameras inside,” Jeff told them in a whisper.
“Why do you know this?” Sara asked.
“When I’m bored, I explore,” he replied with a grin. Pulling his M-ped from his pocket, he tapped it a few times and then pushed the door open.
“Universal lock decoders are illegal,” Luke said as they walked into the building.
“There are a lot of things on my M-ped that aren’t strictly legal,” Jeff shrugged. “They go with my job.”
The M-ped that Sara had surrendered when she’d been fired from her job had been similarly well equipped. At the time, she hadn’t realized how much she was going to miss that device.
Jeff switched on the lights and Sara took a look around. It was a single large room and, as Jeff had said, it was being used for storage. Hundreds of boxes labeled with pictures of security cameras and alarms filled the shelves.
“Robert is storing his security business equipment here?” Sara asked. “I wasn’t expecting that.”
“My sources suggest that his security business is declining fast,” Jeff told her. “I suspect he’s trying to consolidate everything in one place so that he can sell off a few buildings elsewhere.”
While the topic was interesting, Sara let it drop. “Let’s see what we’ve found, then,” she said, putting the garbage bag on a low shelf near the door. It took her a minute to c
arefully untie the top, but she was planning to return the bag to the compactor when they were done. It would be best if there wasn’t any evidence that it had been touched.
When she dumped the contents out across the floor, Luke whistled.
“That looks interesting,” he said.
Sara carefully picked up the uniform from the pile of FADS wrappers, crushed plastic cups, and bits of paper. “It’s from the zoo,” she said thoughtfully.
“It’s too small for Robert,” Luke said.
“Far too small,” Sara agreed.
“It would fit Candie,” Jeff said. “Or any of the women, really.”
“Maybe not Donna,” Sara replied thoughtfully. It was just the top, which meant that even though Lacey was short, she might have been able to wear it.
“So someone disguised themselves as a zoo employee,” Luke said. “Who and why?”
“Presumably so that she could murder Mark,” Jeff answered. “I’m not sure I understand how she did it, though.”
“Candie was supposed to have the video footage from the zoo ready for us by now,” Sara remembered. “Let’s see if we can see anything.”
“If Candie killed Mark, we won’t be able to see anything,” Luke said.
Sara pulled out her M-ped and tapped through several screens before she found what she was looking for. “Here we are.”
The trio sat silently and watched as Mark strolled into view. He seemed confident as he made his way along the path, looking so much like Luke that Sara was momentarily unnerved. He didn’t hesitate, marching resolutely past one security camera and into range of the next.
“Candie’s done a good job editing everything together,” Jeff remarked.
Sara nodded. She hadn’t detected any gaps in the footage as the cameras switched.
Mark kept walking, not stopping until he was at the foot of the large tree that stretched over the enclosure. He glanced around and then tapped on his wrist-con before beginning to climb. Within seconds he was out of view of the camera.
There was a four second gap before he appeared on screen again. This time he was barely visible at the top of the screen above the enclosure.
