Chapter 7 - Locker 318
Grace should have stayed outside.
She knew that.
Instead, she slipped through the side entrance behind a custodian and moved down the empty science hallway.
The fire alarm pulsed overhead.
Locker 318 was twenty yards away.
Ms. Crane rounded the corner from the other direction.
Grace ducked into the girls’ restroom.
Through the cracked door, she watched Ms. Crane stop at Maya’s locker.
She pulled a key ring from her pocket.
Master key.
The locker opened.
Ms. Crane reached inside and removed a small black flash drive taped beneath the shelf.
Grace’s stomach dropped.
So Maya had hidden evidence.
Ms. Crane slipped the drive into her blazer pocket.
Then she closed the locker and walked away.
Grace waited ten seconds before stepping into the hall.
A voice behind her said, “You really are bad at following instructions.”
She spun.
Officer Reed stood there.
Grace exhaled. “She took something.”
“I saw.”
“You saw?”
He pointed toward a small body camera clipped near his chest.
“I started recording when she came back inside.”
Grace stared at him.
“Then we have her.”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
“We have an administrator opening a student locker during an alarm. She’ll say she was securing property.”
“She took a flash drive.”
“And we need to know what was on it.”
Grace looked toward the office wing.
“Can you stop her?”
Officer Reed shook his head.
“Not without more.”
The alarm suddenly stopped.
Students began returning inside.
Officer Reed lowered his voice.
“Go to class. Act normal.”
Grace started to leave.
Then he added, “One more thing.”
She turned.
“The cloud backup password was changed from Ms. Crane’s computer.”
Grace stared at him.
“Can you prove it?”
Officer Reed nodded.
“Not yet.”
From the far end of the hallway, Ms. Crane appeared again.
This time she was not alone.
May you like
Charles Vale walked beside her.
And in his hand was Maya’s black flash drive.
