Page 95 of Our Daughter's Bones

“I must say I’m shocked that Erica’s phone was in school.” She bit her lip, looking over her shoulder. “I don’t know what to think.”

“The school’s not in any trouble,” Mackenzie assured her. “We just want to check if there is anything else.”

“Of course.” She reached the woodshop door and took out her keys. “The start of the football season is exhausting for me. I finally understand why the principal before me retired at the age of forty-five.”

“Tell me about it. The city is already preparing to close down some streets and deploy police everywhere in case we lose, and there’s a riot,” Nick said.

She grinned, unlocking the door. “That won’t happen as long as we have Bill—Coach Grayson. Quinn too, of course. He has a bright future in the NFL.”

“Let’s hope so.”

The woodshop was smaller than Mackenzie had expected. It smelled heavenly. The scent of freshly cut wood and sawdust inched up her nose. Woods of different shades and textures were stacked along the walls. Individual workstations were set up. Each had separate sets of tools and a multifunction table. The back wall seemed to be the supply shelf. It held everything from power tools to dust collectors, hoses and clamps.

“Does the school have any safety protocol in place?” Daniel asked, pulling on latex gloves. “These tools are dangerous.”

“Of course. The room is locked at all times other than when there is a class in here. The students must finish safety training and always work under the supervision of the instructor.”

Mackenzie trailed her hand over the rich sheen of birch wood sitting on a table, half curved into a circle. “Which one is Abby’s station?”

“The one on your left. I’ll be right outside if you need anything.”

Abby’s workstation looked much like everyone else’s. Mackenzie had expected more organization, knowing her, but then it wouldn’t take long for another student using the station to undo all that.

Daniel knocked on the uncut wood on the table. “What’s this? Oak?”

“Pine,” Nick said. “Look at all the knots.”

“You took woodshop in high school?”

“I liked power drills.”

They assessed Abby’s cluttered station, covered in sawdust, a gunstock-carving vise, bench gripper, screwdriver, and brackets. Mackenzie sifted through them carefully. “I doubt she hid anything in plain sight. Let’s check the drawers.”

The plywood workbench consisted of a folding table and stool. The table had three drawers running down each side. They opened the drawers and checked for anything unusual. The bottom drawer on the right was filled with a collection of adhesives.

“She must have put the phone here. The table is made of plywood.” Mackenzie rummaged through the drawer. “There’s also chalk in here.”

Mackenzie pulled out the drawer and set it on the tabletop. The three of them took out every piece inside the drawer and examined it. They extracted each tube of adhesive and glue and opened them. With the drawer contents arranged over the table, Nick searched for anything written on the inside of the drawer. His scowl deepened as each compartment yielded nothing. After ten minutes of inspection, they hadn’t found anything.

“I can’t believe this was a dead-end.” Daniel gritted his teeth.

“Maybe we should check the supply shelf in the back,” Mackenzie said. “There are some adhesives over there.”

Daniel hurried to the back of the room and began picking apart the shelf. Mackenzie and Nick exchanged an uneasy glance. His desperation was evident in the hasty and careless movements of his hands. Mackenzie picked up the drawer to put it back in place.

Right when she was about to push it back, she noticed a small groove running down the right side of the drawer. It was only three inches long and close to the bottom. The line wasn’t there on the left side. She opened another drawer.

Her breath got stuck in her throat.

She opened all the drawers.

“What are you thinking?” Nick asked.

She ignored him and placed the drawer back on the table. “Do you see this groove? It’s only on this drawer.”

She tilted the drawer to the right at a ninety-degree angle and shook it. A small drawer slid out a few inches.

They froze.