Chapter 11 - THE LOCKED OFFICE
The IT technician yanked the network cable from the wall.
"That stopped the remote connection."
"How much is gone?" Cole asked.
"I don't know yet."
The access log showed the wipe command had come from the principal's office.
Bell stared at the screen.
"My office is locked."
They ran upstairs.
It was.
Bell unlocked it with shaking hands.
Inside, nobody was there.
But his desktop computer was awake.
A progress window sat frozen at sixty-three percent.
Delete archived media.
Bell whispered, "I didn't do this."
Cole looked around.
"Who has keys?"
"Me. Mills. The head secretary."
Rafael noticed the office window.
It faced the reception counter. On the sill was a fresh smear of gray dust.
He touched it.
Drywall powder.
He looked up.
A ceiling tile above the file cabinets sat crooked.
"Somebody came through the ceiling."
Bell almost laughed. "That's ridiculous."
Rafael pulled a chair over and lifted the tile.
Above it ran the service crawlspace connecting the office to the records room next door.
And caught on a metal bracket was a strip of blue fabric.
Sofia, who had been allowed to wait outside the office, saw it through the doorway.
"Dad," she said, "Mills was wearing a blue cardigan yesterday."
Bell turned sharply.
Cole bagged the fabric.
Minutes later, they learned Mills had not reported to work.
Her house was empty.
Her phone was off.
And her district laptop had been left on her kitchen table with the hard drive removed.
Then Dr. Shah found something in Bell's filing cabinet.
A sealed envelope marked CONFIDENTIAL - BOARD REVIEW.
Inside were copies of eleven parent complaints against Kendrick.
Every one had been stamped CLOSED.
Every one carried Bell's signature.
But the oldest complaint contained a handwritten note in a different ink:
Warren - if this becomes public, the grant is gone.
May you like
The initials beneath it belonged to someone above the principal.
The district superintendent.
