by Margaret Kay
“Stupid kid pranks. We were lighting and throwing firecrackers at each other and one exploded by my ear.”
Patricia Bodean laughed. “Yeah, like I always say, kids will be kids, break the rules, and do dumb things. Yet the adults always seem surprised by it.”
Madison cracked a smile.
Lima
The next week passed, with very little learned. Madison got to know the other faculty, including Mark Chase, the science instructor who benefited from the other instructor’s aversion to the room after Molly died in the refrigerator. The team did a deeper dive on him. There was nothing suspicious, and he did have an airtight alibi the night Molly died, not to mention that he was a very nice man. The team quickly scratched him off the suspect list.
Madison also got the chance to speak with both of the Dorm Monitors alone who seemed like they had more to say about Molly’s death that first night Madison ate dinner with them all. Sarah Riddings openly accused the dismissed janitor, James Dawson of killing Molly but couldn’t tell Madison why. She just insisted she had a gut feeling. Kimberly Wang was a bit cagier in her answer. She alluded that there was something going on that she didn’t have full knowledge of, just a feeling she wouldn’t dare say out loud. No matter how hard Madison pressed, she wouldn’t give it up.
Observed during PE class, Monica Cahill was indeed the definition of a nasty girl with her same age counterparts. However, Madison covertly observed her during a few extracurricular activities with the younger girls and found that she was caring, gentle, and kind to them. Madison truly did not believe she had done anything to Molly.
Madison also continued to observe Ava Grier closely that week. She kept the necklace on, which was telling. Madison tried to have several quiet conversations with Ava, with phrases fed to her by Lassiter. Nothing.
“We know there is something up with that little girl. Why can’t we pull her out of here and bring her someplace safe where she might open up?” Madison demanded. It was Saturday evening and Madison sat on her bed in her room talking on the phone, a conference call with the team.
“We can’t do that without her father’s permission, and we can’t be sure her father isn’t involved in whatever happened to Molly. He has no alibi either, except for being asleep in his bed, so we can’t risk it.” Lassiter said.
The facts of Ava Grier’s life that Patricia Bodean had shared, did check out. Her mother had been killed in a car accident, and she had lived for a short time with her father, his wife and their four children. Madison wished Bodean had lied about it. Her heart broke for that little girl.
“Besides, she is perfectly safe there. We are all watching out for her,” Yvette chimed in.
Madison knew they were right, but it still didn’t sit well with her. She knew that little girl was the key to what happened to Molly Corbin. “I guess I’ll just have to get closer to her, get her to trust me more and then maybe she’ll open up. Her dad visits again tomorrow. I’m going to try to talk with him and see what happens.”
“I’ll listen in,” Lassiter said.
“Maybe we can at least determine if he’s a suspect or not,” Cooper said.
Madison didn’t get the opportunity to talk to Ava Grier’s father on Sunday. One of the girls in the dorm tripped down the stairs and sprained an ankle. Madison was busy with her during the shorter than usual visit Ava’s father stayed for.
Madison was quite frustrated when she laid in bed that evening. Now, she’d have to wait another week to try to talk with Ava’s father. She’d been onsite over a week, and they were no closer to figuring out what had happened to Molly Corbin. Even worse, they were no closer to figuring out what had Ava Grier afraid.
Monday night after Madison had gone to bed, a call came through her comms and woke her. “Ava Grier is on the move, just crossed the courtyard and is entering the science building,” Cooper’s voice said.
“What time is it?” Madison demanded as she pulled a pair of blue jeans on.
“Twenty-three-hundred hours,” Cooper replied.
“I’ve got a visual. The Bodean woman is with her. They entered through the north side,” Garcia piped up.
Madison grabbed her gun and FBI credentials and hurried from her room. She quickly checked the alarm panel. It was disarmed. She sprinted across the courtyard. The campus was quiet, the night cool. The night sky was dark, a thick cloud layer blocking out all heavenly lighting.
As she approached the north side of the science building a shiver ran down her spine. “Do you still have eyes on Ava and Bodean?”
Her eyes flickered the direction she knew the surveillance vehicle was parked, just outside the perimeter of the campus. Then her eyes caught sight of the blinking lights on the thermal imaging drone the team launched. It came in fast and then hovered over the science building.
“Negative,” Garcia’s voice came. “I lost them on the cameras after they went down the stairs.”
“I’ve got something weird on the tracker,” Yvette piped in. “I have it overlaid on the building schematics and it appears it’s within a wall where no room is supposed to be.”
“Shit, panic button has been activated!” Garcia exclaimed.
“I’m going in,” Madison announced as she pulled the door open. “Control, guide me,” she added.
“We’re two minutes behind you,” Cooper said.
“Roger that, Coop,” Madison acknowledged.
She ran down the stairs as quietly as she could. She had the element of surprise, at least she hoped she did. She crept along the hallway, following Yvette’s directions which led her through the boiler room, through a storage area, and through another door deep within the bowels of the building.
With Yvette’s help, Madison circled the entire area near where Ava’s tracker broadcast from. Nothing. Nothing that even looked like a door.
“Find cover, Xena,” Yvette instructed. I have multiple Tangos wandering around down there.
Madison tried several doors. They were locked.
“Move your ass, Xena!” Yvette yelled. “There is a Tango circling around the hallway, coming in from your three o’clock. You have about five seconds till you’re discovered.”
“The doors are all locked,” Madison whispered.
“Take a left down that corridor five feet to the west.”
Madison came into another shadowy tunnel-like room. “Who designed this basement? Dracula?” She whispered.
“There are four small storage closets on the far side,” Yvette’s calm voice said.
Madison ducked into one of the rooms Yvette directed her to, listened and waited.
“We’ve breached the building,” Cooper’s voice came through Madison’s comms.
“Split up,” Yvette ordered. “That basement area is a fucking maze.”
The three men, Cooper, Jackson, and Doc split up as instructed.
“Xena, you’re clear. Go back out into the hallway and go left. I’m going to have you follow the Tango,” Yvette said.
Madison crept soundlessly, her heart beating wildly in her chest.
“You got an ID on that Tango?” Garcia’s voice chimed in.
“Negative,” Yvette answered.
“I’ve just descended to the basement,” Garcia announced.
“Go through the door at your two o’clock, Razor,” Yvette ordered. “I don’t have any eyes in that area, so heads up.”
“Madison, you’re on top of Ava’s tracker. It’s two feet to your right,” Yvette said.
Madison gazed swept every inch of the wall beside her that the low emergency lighting barely illuminated. How could that be? “There’s nothing here, not even an air vent,” she replied.
Madison rounded the corner and saw a narrow beam of light on the floor against the wall. It was so faint, had she not been looking for something, she’d never notice it. There had to be a door there. “I’ve got something Control. Guide one of the others to my twenty.”
Through her comms Madison heard Yvette give th
e directions to Cooper to move her way. “Hold your twenty till backup arrives, Xena.”
Just then, Madison heard a scream and what sounded like muffled crying coming from the other side of the door. “Negative, Control,” she whispered. “I hear crying. I’m going in.”
She felt along the wall, along cracks and crevices in the metal until it landed on an area that clearly felt like a spring release handle. She pulled it, and the door swung open, the light spilling out into the darkness of the room, momentarily blinding her. She stepped into a control booth with panels of monitors and other equipment. In the small room that lay beyond the glass half wall that divided it, was what could only be described as a fairytale princess room. She saw Patricia Bodean holding Ava Grier by her upper arms and another man who was kneeled in front of the crying little girl.
She rushed to the door that separated the two rooms and threw it open, gun drawn. “Freeze, FBI,” she announced.
Patricia Bodean gasped. The man on his knees spun around. She recognized James Dawson, the janitor who had been fired. But then the door was slammed against her. The gun flew from her hands and clanked against the metal wall. Ava broke from Patricia’s hands and ran out, followed by the man who had been behind the door.
Madison got to her feet as Dawson came at her. She pulled him past her and rammed his head into the wall. Patricia Bodean attempted to run out the door. Madison stopped her with a kick that sent the woman flying. Madison turned her attention back to Dawson, who had gotten up and was mid-swing. She blocked the punch and landed a few of her own, followed by a roundhouse kick that dropped him back to the ground. Patricia Bodean had scrambled to her feet. Madison pulled her by the hair, whipping her back into the fairy princess room. She alternated punching and kicking Bodean and Dawson.
Cooper burst into the room. Madison was wailing on the two suspects. It didn’t appear Bodean was putting up much of a fight, she stood in place, dazed, and staggered with each blow. Dawson kept trying to come at her. Bodean was closest. Cooper grabbed her and forced her down, securing her hands behind her back with a zip tie.
When he turned back, Madison had just dropped Dawson, again.
“Stay down!” Cooper yelled at Dawson as he planted his foot in the middle of his back.
Madison backed up enough to give Cooper room to zip tie his hands. Then she hit and kicked him several more times before moving to Bodean’s still frame and doing the same.
“You fucking scum-bag piece of shit!” Madison yelled as she buried her foot in Bodean’s side.
Cooper let her get a couple of blows in and then he restrained her. “It’s over,” he told her.
Madison snapped out of the rage that had engulfed her as she fought with the two. “Ava ran out. There was a third person in here, he went after her.”
Yvette’s voice came through their comms. “Find that kid. Doc, sweep back around towards Coop and Xena’s twenty. I’m sending you coordinates now.”
Only then did Cooper and Madison glance around the darkened room. There were multiple cameras covering a set. What they had walked into dawned on both of them at the same moment.
Cooper pulled Bodean to her feet. “Talk, who the fuck is the other person who ran out of here?”
She gazed towards Dawson, who still laid face down on the floor. “Fuck you,” she spat.
Madison came in close and punched her in her stomach, hard. Bodean bent over and wheezed. “Answer the man’s question. You’re already going away for a very long time. Make it easier on yourself. The first one of you who tells us what we want to know, gets the deal. The other gets fucked.”
“Don’t say a word,” Dawson warned from the ground, wriggling in an attempt to get up.
Cooper pressed his boot in the middle of his back, holding him in place.
“I’ve got her,” Doc’s voice came through their comms next, along with the sound of a little girl’s screams and cries. “Shh, it’s okay Ava. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“No, no!” Ava could be heard.
Then all went quiet. A few minutes later, the unmistakable sound of two gunshots echoed through the shadowy basement, reverberating off the metal walls and through everyone’s comms.
“Status report,” Yvette demanded, pacing the control center in the Shepherd Security building over nine-hundred miles away.
“Tango is down,” Doc reported.
“Do another sweep of the building, and Yvette, call in the local authorities,” Cooper ordered.
“Is Ava okay, Doc?” Madison asked, finally finding her voice.
“Affirmative.”
“Hunker in place till the sweep is complete,” Cooper ordered Doc.
He pushed the Bodean woman against the wall. “Talk,” he again demanded. “Your friend who ran out is dead.”
Bodean cried. “It was all him, Charles Howard, and he’s not my friend. He killed Molly. Neither Jim nor I ever abused either of the girls, we just let them play with each other in here,” she said.
“Shut the fuck up!” Dawson yelled.
Madison had retrieved her gun. She pressed it against his temple. “One more word and I pull the trigger.”
Cooper wasn’t sure if she would or not. “That’s not necessary,” he told her. “Talk,” he said with his menacing face leaning into Patricia Bodean’s.
“He paid to play with the girls. Molly refused and ran. I don’t know what happened after that, but I didn’t do it.”
Ten minutes later, Jackson came through the door. “The area is secure.”
Then two local cops came in as well. They grabbed Dawson and Bodean and took them from the room.
Cooper was at the door. “Come on,” he prompted Madison.
“Give me just a second alone, will you?”
He nodded and left the room. She glanced over the set, a playroom any little girl would want. Her hands clenched in anger and they shook. There were dolls and stuffed animals, and a sleigh bed she would have given her left arm for when she was a little girl. The room was decorated in pink and purple, with white furniture and a dozen cameras. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what had taken place in this room.
Stepping back into the night, now ablaze with the lights from every emergency vehicle the nearby community had in its fleet, Madison filled her lungs with the cool, damp air. Her hands still shook. Her eyes scanned the scene, looking for Doc. Thank God he had Ava!
Finally, she saw him. He approached from the far end of the science building, nearest the clumps of overgrown brush that crowded in close. He held Ava in his arms, cradling her head to his shoulder. Madison rushed to him. He had been making his way towards one of the awaiting ambulances.
That was when Madison realized Ava wasn’t moving.
“I gave her a sedative to quiet her and so she wouldn’t see anyone get killed. She’s been through enough. She sure as hell didn’t need to see any of that.”
In his eyes, Madison saw something she didn’t expect, raw emotion. She laid a hand to his shoulder and nodded her understanding and support. He handed the little girl off to the EMT.
The next few hours were filled with questions and answers, statements given by the entire team, the repeated flashing of government badges and credentials, and a phone call from the Deputy Director of the FBI to the authorities onsite. The crime scene investigators did their thing, and then the coroner did his. Finally, the regional FBI Director arrived on scene and the chopper was called in to bring the Shepherd Security team back to the airport for the flight back to headquarters.
Madison passed by the uniformed officers stationed at the entry to the dorm. Within, she encountered the three other Dorm Monitors. She had rushed back to her room to grab her few belongings there. Sarah Riddings took a step into her room. The two others cowered together at the door. “Are you going to tell us what happened?”
“That’s on local law enforcement.” Madison jammed her clothes into her bag. Her holstered weapon was visible to the three women.
“Maddie, you have a gun,” Kimberly Wang said softly.
Madison pulled her credentials from her back pocket. “FBI,” she declared. “Take care of the kids and don’t let any of them leave the dorm. Cooperate with the authorities.”
The women exchanged startled and question-filled glances. “Is anyone hurt?” Sarah asked.
“No children,” Madison replied. Then she pushed past them and left the building.
Mike
On the short chopper ride to the airport where the Lear waited, Madison was quiet, sullen, sitting off to the side, away from the others. She gripped her head in her hands and then ran her fingers through her tangled locks. She was exhausted and so damned relieved this case was concluded. She was angry and sickened by what had been going on at that school. And she was pissed at herself that she had lost control.
