Page 71

“Cold or cool?”

“Cool.” Ellery stared down the dark passage. “I mean, it’s cold and damp in here, but even so. Wejustheard her scream.”

“Noted. It’s now 3:47. Okay. Anything else out of the ordinary?”

“Like what? There’s a hatchet in her head!”

“Okay,” Jack said soothingly. “Listen, I know this is hard. But your help is crucial.”

“It can’t have been more than forty-five minutes since she screamed.”

“I’ve made a note. Now I want you to remove yourself from the scene. I want you to close the passage. I want you to leave everything in the library exactly as it is, and I want you to lock the library doors and block them with furniture. No one is to enter that room until I can get a crime scene team from the mainland out there.”

“Yes. Okay.”

“Then I want you to block off the other entrance to that passageway and lock the cellar door.”

“Got it. But if Dolph is dead, no one is going to come out of those tunnels.”

“You and I know that. No one else needs to.”

“Yes. Right.” They’d covered this already. His brain seemed to be moving in slow motion.

“Next, you’re going to need to confiscate everyone’s electronics.”

“Uhhhh...”

“I know, but we don’t want any data erased and we don’t want them communicating with each other after you tell them to isolate in their rooms.

“After I—That isnotgoing to go over well.”

“Explain to them that it’s necessary to prevent any communication that could interfere with the investigation.”

“I can explain that to them until I’m blue in the face, but I don’t think they’re going to care. I don’t think they’ll want to cooperate when they think there’s a crazed killer running loose, and I can’t exactly blame them.”

“I know, but we need to prevent them from talking and potentially contaminating each other’s testimony.”

Ellery didn’t continue to argue, but Jack really did not get the current mood at Captain’s Seat.

“Obviously, Chelsea’s room is off limits—you’ll have to lock it up as well—but we want everyone in a separate room, if possible. I know there aren’t enough bedrooms—”

“Wait a minute,” Ellery objected. “How am I supposed to convince them that even though Edwin Dolph is still on the loose, they all need to isolate? Because that’s thelastthing we’d be doing, if Dolph was actually a threat. There’s safety in numbers and we all know it.”

Jack was silent for a moment.

He sighed. “Okay. You’re right. It’s going to be difficult in these circumstances to keep them separated. You’ll have to get them to agree not to discuss what’s happened amongst themselves.”

Ellery assented doubtfully.

“I’ll have to have you collect initial statements from everyone.” Jack sounded like he was thinking aloud. “Yeah,that’ll work. Record the interviews on your phone. Get them to tell you where they were and what they were doing from the point each of them went to bed.”

Ellery bit back a slightly hysterical laugh. “That should make for enlivening listening.”

“Make it clear that a more thorough questioning will follow once the CSI team arrives, and that they arenotto discuss anything related to Chelsea’s death.”

“I’ll try, Jack. I just don’t know how practical it is to ask that. Everyone is shocked and upset and scared. They’re going to talk. Theyneedto talk.”

Jack sighed. “I know. Believe me. But at the very least, warn them theycannottalk to each other about this until you’ve taken those initial statements. That’s not too much self-control to ask for.”