Chapter 14 - THE AUDITORIUM
Mills's car was parked behind the gym, hidden from the street.
Police searched the building room by room.
Rafael joined only because he knew the maintenance spaces better than anyone.
They found Mills in the auditorium catwalk.
She was sitting on the floor beside a backpack full of copied files.
She did not run.
She started crying.
"I didn't attack April."
Cole said, "Then why are you hiding?"
"Because Reece called me at midnight. He knew I had copied the complaint records. He said if I talked, he'd tell police the entire Reset system was my idea."
Rafael stared at her.
"You helped lock Maisie in that closet."
Mills looked down.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Kendrick said Maisie was threatening to tell her mother about the haircut. I panicked. We needed time to get the paperwork in place."
Rafael's voice sharpened. "So you locked a nine-year-old child in a dark room to protect paperwork?"
Mills broke.
"I know what I did."
"Do you?"
Cole stepped between them.
Mills opened the backpack.
Inside were copies of complaints, internal emails, and grant documents.
Then she removed a small voice recorder.
"Reece met with Bell and me yesterday. I recorded it."
On the file, Reece could be heard telling Bell to "contain the Ortiz problem" and instructing Mills to clean up the local archive before investigators accessed it.
Bell's voice answered, "I'm not deleting evidence."
Reece replied, "Then Dana will."
Mills covered her face.
"I did it. I tried."
Cole took the recorder.
Rafael felt no victory.
Only exhaustion.
Then Mills said something that changed the room.
"There's one more file you haven't seen."
She reached into the backpack.
"It's from yesterday morning. Before Maisie's haircut."
She handed Cole a printed email from Kendrick.
Subject: Carter girl.
The first line read:
May you like
If she refuses to recant what she told the counselor, I'll handle it myself.
Leah had never known Maisie had spoken to the school counselor at all.
