by Margaret Kay
“Try,” Lassiter pushed.
“Cooper is one person in the office, a second when we text after work.” She giggled sarcastically. “I think of him as a bipolar hard ass when I’m in the office, but then I see the softer side after work.” She figured why not disclose what he may already know. She instantly hoped she was not wrong in doing it.
This revelation completely surprised Lassiter. “In what way?” He would not let on he didn’t know there was an out of the office relationship going on, but he would get to the bottom of it.
“In the office he’s all business. But later, after I’m home and we circle back and talk about the day, I see the same man who recruited me, more laid back. It’s like he wants to be that person in the office and I do see glimmers of him, but then he throws a switch and he is the boss all the way. Where Anthony is just who he is, a coworker, not trying to be my boss. He has the authority in Ops but is a teammate too.”
This explanation put Lassiter more at ease. “So, Cooper tries too hard in the office to be the boss?”
“Maybe,” she paused as she twisted her lips, twisting it around in her head. “Or maybe it’s my perception, my respect for authority.”
Lassiter decided to change gears. He’d circle back to Cooper later. “What about Doc? He’s a team member too.”
“I haven’t really had much exposure to him.”
Lassiter thought about that. This express onboarding did have its disadvantages. “Do you accept that he is a competent and capable team member? Know you can count on him?”
“I do, both. I trust Cooper and Anthony and they both trust Doc and Jackson, so I trust them too.”
Lassiter wondered about that. He knew that trust would extend the other direction as well. Cooper and Garcia trusted her, so the others would too. But did she realize that? Besides a few brief meetings, the entire team had not spent much time together for Madison to get comfortable with them as a unit. In Lassiter’s opinion, that had to happen before they went out on this Op. That would headline his report to Shepherd.
Later that day, Cooper got called into Shepherd’s office. Lassiter was there. He closed the door and dropped into a chair. “How come I have a feeling I’m not going to like this meeting?”
“Because you’re not,” Lassiter replied.
“Madison is ready,” Cooper stated flatly.
“Joe just pointed out to me how the express onboarding has created a deficiency you need to correct immediately, or the Op will be postponed.”
Cooper stared a hole through Shepherd. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me?”
“How many hours has the entire team spent together?” Lassiter asked.
Cooper searched his memory, adding it up. “Less than five if you include her interview. But she has spent a lot of time with me and Garcia, about four hours with Doc going over the first aid shit, and a couple of hours with Jackson in one meeting or another.”
“Not nearly enough. And no social time in there,” Lassiter pointed out.
“We don’t have that luxury with this case,” Cooper complained.
“Beers, bar, tonight after work. The entire team, and that’s an order,” Shepherd said firmly.
“Shep, we’re heading out tomorrow morning. Everyone wants to be home tonight to get ready to ship out.”
“Two beers, two hours,” Lassiter piped up. “Two hours of social time. No shop-talk.”
“Ordered social time,” Cooper groaned.
“If it has to be,” Shepherd admitted.
“She needs this. The whole team needs this,” Lassiter said.
Early that evening at a local bar with Happy Hour specials, Madison pushed through the front door with Garcia behind her. They found the others at a corner high top table, beers in hand. The others had left the office a good half hour before she and Garcia headed out.
Her eyes landed on Cooper. Damn, he looks better than any guy has a right to, Madison thought as she watched him laugh with the others. The curve of his lips when he smiled never failed to draw her attention. She knew she had to stop thinking about him in those terms. He was her boss, a member of the team, no one she would ever have a romantic or sexual relationship with.
“Madison?” Garcia’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. “What are you drinking?” He asked again, pointing to the young, female server who stood there, pen in hand.
“Sorry, a Blue Moon,” she replied, conscious of her .38 snub-nose nestled close to her appendix. A gun in a bar and FBI credentials in her purse, the thought slammed into her. Her life was definitely different now. Tomorrow she’d be going undercover for her first mission with this team. These men were her team, would be there to back her up.
“Is everything all right?” Jackson asked, his eyes staring intently at her from across the table.
“Yes, I’m just thinking of everything I have to do when I get home to prepare to be gone for maybe a few weeks,” she lied.
“Put all that on hold for a few hours,” Cooper said with a grin. “Besides, someone from the office will check on your house every few days. If you forget anything, they can take care of it for you.”
She didn’t like that either. Knowing someone would enter her home when she was away made her want to clean it from top to bottom and remove every last piece of clutter, not that it was very messy. “I have some dishes in the sink I need to wash,” she said.
The men laughed.
“Paper plates and plastic utensils,” Garcia said.
“And he throws away the take-out containers in the dumpster whenever he leaves his condo,” Doc threw in laughing. “His place doesn’t look lived in.”
“He doesn’t even own a trash can,” Jackson added.
“Like you were any different before Angel?” Garcia threw back. “Motel rooms had more personality than your place before Angel moved in.”
The men again laughed.
Madison’s eyes landed on Cooper. “And what about your place?”
Doc answered for him. “His Condo is the same as Garcia’s. And before you ask about mine, I am the exception to this group. My place has color and personality as well as actual, real food in the refrigerator.”
“If you call mounted fish and racks of fishing equipment in the living room personality,” Cooper added. “It’s decorated in Field and Stream essentials.”
When the laughter died down Jackson elaborated on the personality Angel brought to his townhouse, how she added color and decorations that he now loved. He and Angel had made plans for the nursery and it was obvious to all how excited he was.
The waitress returned with their beers. The conversation came easily, and they laughed and joked around for the two hours prescribed by Lassiter. They ate the Happy Hour buffet food, most of it fried and condemned by Doc, and had two more rounds of beers.
Cooper had to admit as they all headed their own directions home, the intent of the unit socializing to help induct Madison into it had been achieved. But that was why they had Lassiter on the payroll, wasn’t it? To see things the rest of them missed.
Kilo
Madison parked the car in the staff lot in front of the administration building of the Inverness Academy and grabbed her backpack. Dr. Marge Chamberlin, the chief administrative officer of the school, waited for her in her office.
Madison was dressed in the long-sleeved, white button-down shirt with the school’s emblem embroidered on the pocket that the instructors wore and blue Dockers, as required. Her booted steps echoed down the long marble hallway as she made her way to Dr. Chamberlin’s office.
Dr. Chamberlin was a dowdy woman in her mid-fifties. Her blondish-gray hair was coiffed in a perfect chignon low at the nape of the woman’s neck. Her pale face was drawn into a scowl which Madison figured was the only expression her face ever displayed. Even the slight smile she momentarily flashed at Madison as they shook hands looked forced and unnatural.
She motioned to the seating area near the lit fireplace within her large office. Mad
ison sat in one of the burgundy wingback chairs, poised on the edge.
“I don’t like the idea of a federal agent posing as a teacher,” she began, her voice heavy with a British accent. “I don’t care that you have a master’s degree, my dear.” She sighed, and her eyes gazed away from Madison. “Like that would make it okay.”
“Dr. Chamberlin, I’m sure we all want the same thing, to figure out what happened to Molly Corbin. So far, the investigation has yielded no results.”
“The last I heard the authorities were focusing on our night custodian, Mr. James Dawson, that’s if it was anything but an accident.”
Madison pushed away the outrage she felt at Dr. Chamberlin’s suggestion that it could have been an accident. “Your board of directors,” she began.
“Do not lecture me on the hierarchy of this institution, Miss Miller!”
“Dr. Chamberlin,” Madison said forcefully. “I do not need your permission for this, but I would like your cooperation. The board of directors sanctioned this assignment to get to the bottom of this. The reputation of your institution is at stake and they do not want the good name of the Inverness Academy to be tarnished.”
“It already has been. The current families are skittish, threatening to relocate their children to other schools. I don’t blame them.” She sighed out again and looked genuinely upset.
Madison wondered if it was that Molly Corbin was dead or that the reputation of the school had taken a hit that upset this woman. “I hope to help calm that by getting to the bottom of it. Certainly, you realize that it’s the unknown that is making the current families skittish. Once we prove beyond any doubt exactly what happened, the families will relax.” Even as Madison said it, she doubted it. The damage was done. If she were a parent, her child would already be pulled out of this place and no matter what an investigation determined, her child would never return here.
“I hope you are right, Miss Miller,” Dr. Chamberlin said stiffly. “So, I did as I was instructed, and your arrival has been disclosed to our staff as our new Physical Education instructor to replace Mrs. Michaels, who has just begun an unexpected and early maternity leave. A staff room in the same wing as Molly Corbin’s has been set up for you. I do not like that one of our faculty has been displaced to give you a cover.”
“Vanessa Michaels is the only person that is not suspect, and she graciously agreed to an early maternity leave,” Madison reminded her.
“I will assume that I am not suspect either as I am in on this sham.”
Madison just smiled pleasantly at the woman. The truth was, everyone was suspect. “I’d like an introduction to the four other dorm monitors.”
“Your key suspects you mean. I know all four of those women personally, hired most of them. I can tell you they are all dedicated faculty members who care deeply about all of our children.”
“I’m sure you are correct, Dr. Chamberlin.”
Dr. Chamberlin rose. “It is lunch time. All our students and faculty will be in the dining hall. I will take you and make the introductions now.” That was why she had set this meeting to the time she had.
Madison followed her from the room. They crossed the courtyard and entered the large dormitory. The dining hall was in the south wing.
“We have a student body of two-hundred students, kindergarten level through grade twelve. Our average class size is fifteen. We specialize in multi-age classrooms where older students help educate the younger students, strengthening their understanding of the material in the process. It’s beneficial in many ways to both grade levels. It’s a successful model. Our student’s graduate with above average acceptance rates into the best schools. Physical Education classes are single grade-level classes. The girls have PE classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays one week, and on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays the following week, alternating week after week. We offer challenging academic clubs and twelve extracurricular team sports in which we play other all girl academies in the area.”
“I did some research. There are a lot of private boarding schools in the area,” Madison said.
“There are, but none as special as our school. Many of our students are the children of alumni. Many families have sent their children here for generations since our founding in 1901.”
The conversation halted as Dr. Chamberlin pushed open the door to the dining hall. All conversation in the hall quieted as they entered. The eyes of two-hundred children and at least a dozen adults focused on them after they had entered.
“Good day,” Dr. Chamberlin greeted with a warm expression on her face as she glanced over the grouping.
“Good day, Dr. Chamberlin,” they replied nearly in unison.
“As I’m sure a lot of you have heard, Mrs. Michaels has been ordered to bedrest by her doctor for at least the next few weeks, if not the remainder of her pregnancy. She is well and there is no danger to her unborn child. She wanted you to know that. In the interim, we have a replacement so that your Physical Education classes may continue. Please welcome Ms. Hayes,” she concluded with her bony hand motioning to Madison.
“Welcome Ms. Hayes,” the children replied robotically.
“Thank you,” Madison said with a smile.
“I am relying upon all of you to help Ms. Hayes get acquainted with our beloved Inverness Academy.”
Then Dr. Chamberlin brought her to each member of the faculty and introduced her. Madison had of course studied each of them, bio and picture in preparation for the Op. She also had a cover which included previous teaching experience at several other boarding schools and reasons for leaving each.
Next, Dr. Chamberlin brought her to the dormitory wing and her room. She never left. Madison could not hide the gun and badge as she’d planned, so the weapon remained holstered in her boot. She’d hide them and mount the camera later.
Then they went to what had been Molly Corbin’s room. Her roommate, Ava Grier, now had the room to herself. Madison had studied Ava’s picture, so she would recognize her. That was one little girl that Madison had to get to trust her, fast. If anyone knew what happened that night, it had to be Ava, but she had clammed up and told the authorities nothing. She had claimed she slept and didn’t even know Molly wasn’t there until the morning.
The next stop on the guided tour was the science building and the room in which Molly’s body was found. Inverness Academy was known for its focus on STEM, sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics. This building was the newest addition to campus. The other classroom building was for all other subjects. Then, Dr. Chamberlin brought her to the locker room and gymnasium. She showed her the PE Teacher’s office and Vanessa Michaels’ lesson plans for each grade level.
“I’ll assume you at least have a clue how to be a Physical Education teacher?” Dr. Chamberlin’s voice sounded judgmental as she spoke.
“Yes, and I’ve spoken with Vanessa Michaels about it, can confer with her whenever needed.”
“Just try to do no harm,” Dr. Chamberlin said stiffly. “I’ll leave you to it. Your first class will be in at one o’clock.”
“Oh, she’s a joy,” Yvette’s voice came through Madison’s comms.
“Yes, a joy,” Madison replied quietly. She checked her watch. It was a quarter to one. Then she checked the lesson plans and class list. “I can’t believe they expect me to teach PE in a button-down shirt and dockers.”
“You didn’t get the camera planted in your room,” Garcia’s voice came next.
“Negative, the dragon lady didn’t leave me alone for even a minute.” Madison sat at her desk and removed her boots. She slipped the gun into the bottom desk drawer and locked the desk with the key Vanessa Michaels had given her. Then she put her gym shoes on. “I just stashed my weapon in the desk and locked it.” She glanced up at the air vent across from her at the camera she knew had been planted there earlier in the week. “You got eyes on this desk, right?”
“Affirmative, we’ll watch it,” Yvette assured her.
“Ava Grier
is in this first class. I’m going to try to get some information. You might want to have Lassiter listen in if he is available. Maybe he can give me some pointers.”
Yvette placed a call to Lassiter. He was not onsite. “Lassiter is a no-go,” Yvette said. “We’ll record it and run it by him later. This won’t be your only interaction with this kid.”
“Why didn’t we have this class schedule ahead of time?” Doc asked.
“Because they don’t have class lists and schedules electronically that I could get access to,” Garcia piped up. “Dragon lady appears a bit technology adverse.”
“Figures,” Madison moaned.
Madison knew the student’s reported to the locker room, changed into their gym clothes and then attendance was taken in the gym itself. She went to the locker room and stood just within it as the girls filed in. She greeted each, introducing herself and shaking hands with them as they told her their names. There were sixteen girls in this third-grade class.
