Page 14

THIRTEEN

By the time I get off the phone with Mr. Lake, my hand is shaking.

He acted as I expected he would. His voice, heavy with sleep, soon morphing into controlled urgency as I heard him climbing out of bed, rustling through his closet. Then came the questions, many a repetition of what I’d asked the girls moments earlier.

Where is Evie? How did this happen?

I head back to the center of the gymnasium, where the girls are still seated in their bags. Joanna is becoming obviously more uneasy, nibbling at ragged cuticles as she paces the floor.

“What did Lake say?”

“He’s coming to the school now,” I say. “He wants to conduct his own search before getting the police involved.”

Saying that sentence sends a shiver down my spine. Police. My hope that this is some slumber party game gone awry is fading away. I pull out my phone, counting the time since I last spoke to Mr. Lake. Only two minutes have passed, and yet it feels like an eternity.

Nadia crosses my mind again.

When I inspected the computer lab moments ago, nothing had been stolen. Is there a reason they didn’t go through with the burglary? Could she have seen something?

Then an even more sinister idea arises: Could Nadia be involved in Evie’s disappearance?

Maybe the intention was never to steal technology. Maybe they’d intended to take something far more valuable, and I’d unknowingly helped them. A hard lump forms in my throat, and I’m incapable of swallowing it down.

“Mr. Lake is on his way,” I address the girls, my words tinged with threatening anger. “If any of you know where Evie is, you best speak up now.”

“We already told you,” Connie says.

“None of us have seen her,” Amber adds.

My hands begin shaking again with frustration.

“We’re wasting time,” I say.

“What about the intercom?” Joanna asks, her expression alight with hope.

“What?”

“If Evie’s in the school, we could call her through the intercom.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I say, checking the time again on my phone. “If she’s somewhere in the building, at least she would know we’re looking for her. That it’s getting serious.”

“I can go to the office,” Joanna suggests.

“No. You stay with the girls,” I say. “I won’t start searching the building until Mr. Lake arrives.”

Before she can counter, I take off in the direction of the main office. It’s out the front corridor, only a few doors down. The doors to all the individual rooms inside are locked, but the secretary’s desk is accessible. Sitting on the tabletop is the main computer, the hub of intelligence for every staff member and student in the building. Beside it, is the intercom system.

I lift the L-shaped microphone, a gadget that hasn’t seemed to change in shape since my own years as a student, even though my school was nowhere near as fancy as Manning Academy.

“Evie, this is Coach Cass.” My voice fills the space like a loud boom. “If you’re in the building, you need to report back to the gymnasium. Now.”

I’m disturbed by the silence that follows. I’m not sure what I expected to happen, if I thought Evie would miraculously jump from behind a door at the sound of my voice, but nothing changes. I’m still alone in the dark room.

I pull out my phone again, thinking of Nadia. She hasn’t responded to my message from earlier, and I wonder why. I wonder if she even knows what chaos is unfolding.

As I stare at the screen, my eyes wander, landing on the computer on the secretary’s desk. Not only does that computer house all the information about home addresses and phone numbers and class schedules, it’s also where the school security video is transmitted to. A brief, selfish thought enters my mind. If Evie doesn’t return soon, the school will continue to investigate. The police could get involved. Will they be able to see me wandering through the school?

With Evie missing, that should be the last thought on my mind, and yet, I’m prone to consider self-preservation. It was a way of life growing up. In recent years, my life has felt so pampered. I’m not used to thinking about having to protect myself. Then again, I’ve not made a mistake this big in a long time, and if it somehow connects to what happened with Evie…

For only a moment, I consider turning on the computer and opening the camera footage files. Our School Resource Officer showed me how to access them once, when we were investigating an incident. I could erase the feed from earlier in the night that shows me walking around the building when I should have been in the gym. But if I did that, would it potentially erase evidence that could help us find Evie? We might be able to find out exactly what happened by watching these videos but that takes time, something I don’t have right now.

My throat feels like it’s closing in on itself, my mental anguish beginning to manifest throughout my body. I look around, my eyes resting on the bluish glow coming from the mini refrigerator across the room. I march over there and pull open the door, relieved at the sight of an ice-cold water. I take several gulps, trying to calm myself, before placing it on the secretary’s desk and grabbing the intercom again.

“Evie, you won’t be in trouble,” I say. This time, my voice is much calmer. “We’re worried about you. We only want to make sure you’re okay. If you can hear me, if you’re anywhere inside the school, for any reason, please just come back to the gym.”

As I’m lowering the microphone, I feel something brush against my arm. I jump back immediately, scared by the possibility I’m no longer alone in this dark room. Someone is standing beside me.

When I turn, I see it’s only Joanna, but my reaction startled her. As she steps back, her elbow hits my open water bottle, liquid pouring all over the secretary’s computer.

“Shit!” I say, holding out my hands out of instinct, but it’s pointless. Water is already pooling between the gaps in the keyboard, trailing down the monitor resting on the ground.

“I didn’t mean to—” Joanna doesn’t finish her sentence. She’s already headed down the corridor to the employee restroom. When she returns, she has a wad of paper towels in her hands. “Do you think it’s okay?”

“I’m not sure,” I say, dabbing the device, trying to soak up as much liquid as possible.

That selfish thought returns. Maybe Joanna did me a favor. Her snafu with the water bottle may corrupt the video evidence of me opening that door.

Then the full picture sinks in. What if it erases much more than that? What if it erases something that tells us what happened to Evie?

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” she says. She’s breathing heavily, her hands clammy when my own brush against them.

“What are you doing here anyway? I thought I told you to stay with the girls.”

“Mr. Lake arrived. He told me to come find you.”

I sigh in frustration. “I’m guessing Evie didn’t return to the gymnasium.”

She shakes her head, her eyes turning to the ruined computer. “And he’s not alone.”

“What do you mean?” When we talked, he’d specifically told me not to involve the police. Not yet, anyway.

“He brought Coach Reynolds with him.”

I clump the remaining paper towels in my hands into a ball and drop it on the desk.

“That’s just great,” I say, as I stomp in the direction of the gym.