Page 30 of Vanish From Sight (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #2)

E xtracting truth was an art form, at least according to McKenzie.

On the journey up to the Academy, he’d wanted to make it clear that he was to do the talking and her job was to observe, evaluate and take notes.

Nothing had changed. It was the same old boys’ club mentality she’d experienced the moment she put the uniform on.

It was as if they were intimidated but not enough to have her stay behind.

Oh, she saw it for what it was — a power trip — a stand back and watch how it’s done kind of deal.

“It’s a fine balancing act, Thorne. We often only get one shot before these idiots’ lawyer up. No offense but I’ve been at this so long, I know how to read a room long before they even open their traps. So, leave the talking to me.”

She blew out her cheeks. “You got it. ”

In some ways, she was glad to take a backseat. At least if he dug himself a hole, she wouldn’t be the one on the hook.

The tension in the room could be cut with a knife from the moment they entered. However, it was different this time. It was clear that Rector Hawthorne had his guard up as there were other faculty members in attendance.

Hawthorne stepped forward. “Alexander Hawthorne. Please, take a seat.”

“Thank you,” McKenzie said, extending his hand and shaking Hawthorne’s. “Detective Angus McKenzie, I’m the lead investigator for Adirondack County Sheriff’s Office.” He turned and with a gesture of the hand pointed to Callie. “This is Deputy Callie Thorne.”

“Yes, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting already,” he said, shaking her hand.

“You have?” McKenzie’s gaze darted between them. “Ah, well, she is just here to observe.” Of course, he had to throw it out there. A slight jab to make it clear to others that he was at the helm.

“Mr. Sutherland not with you?”

“I’m afraid he was called away. An urgent matter,” McKenzie replied.

Hawthorne nodded then turned to the three others who were present. “This is our residential director, Helen Anderson, and Dalton Mathers is our expedition leader, and of course, last but not least, Erin Spencer is our current counselor. I’ve asked them to join us.”

Erin squinted and shook Callie’s hand. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to an Abigail Thorne, would you?”

“That’s my mother.”

Erin took a seat. “What a small world. I had the honor of listening to one of her talks when I was studying at Harvard. A true pioneer. ”

“Really?” Callie replied.

Erin turned to Hawthorne who looked intrigued. “The deputy’s mother is Abigail Thorne, a psychologist and professor of Psychology and Computer Science at Harvard.”

“Was,” Callie was quick to correct her. “She passed on two years ago.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I admired the work that she did.

It was very influential.” Erin turned to Hawthorne to clarify.

“Abigail developed a unique approach to rational analysis and cognitive science and was heavily involved in ACT, which stands for Adaptive Control of Thoughts. She had a lot of interesting insights into planning, solving and response stages as well as breaking down problems into more manageable components.” She looked back at Callie.

“I expect what you learned from your mother will be an asset to the Sheriff’s Office. ”

“I hope so,” Callie replied.

“You’re lucky to have her,” Erin said to McKenzie.

McKenzie cut her a sideways glance, an eyebrow rising. “Seems so.”

Hawthorne fidgeted in his chair, smiling politely but it was clear he wanted to get down to business. “So how can we help?”

McKenzie glanced around. He stood up and perused the room under their watchful eye, picking up items as if he was there to make some formal inspection before he turned toward them.

“You ever heard the saying, kill two birds with one stone?” He paused.

“I never really understood the phrase. I mean, sure, the idea behind it is to achieve two things by doing a single action. But really. Why would you ever want to kill birds in the first place? And if you did, could you really do it with one single action?” He smiled.

“It’s a metaphor,” Hawthorne said, chuckling.

“Well of course it is.” McKenzie joined him before losing his smile. “Still, two birds together, so close. You know — something that brings them so closely together and yet offers enough reason for both to die. Katherine Evans and Laura Summers for instance. What are the odds of that?”

Hawthorne exhaled loudly. “Our nurse. Yes. We heard.” He paused for a second. “Her partner, Ana Silva, notified us.”

“Well, that saves us a lot of time. I mean, I hate having to give the death notification. It never gets easy,” he said sarcastically. Callie glanced at the others to gauge their reaction. Either he knew what he was doing or once again he was being an ass.

Hawthorne remained stoic.

“It’s a real tragedy. That’s what it is. A definite blow for the Academy.”

“Oh, I’d say it affects more people than the Academy.”

“Well, of course, that’s what I meant. It’s just… because she worked here.”

“As did Katherine Evans. Who I’m glad to see you managed to find a replacement for,” he said, eyeing Erin Spencer.

“It’s been six months since Katherine stepped down,” Hawthorne added.

McKenzie snorted. “Stepped down. Interesting choice of words. Incidentally, I wouldn’t mind seeing Katherine’s office.”

“Erin would be glad to show you. Is that all?”

McKenzie smirked at Callie before looking back at Hawthorne. “No. That won’t be all,” he said before blazing into his line of questioning. “Friday, November eighteenth, the night Katherine’s body was found in the lake, journalist Nate Sawyer said he had a meeting with you. How did that go?”

“It didn’t. Once I learned what his end game was, I canceled.”

“What was it in regards to?”

Hawthorne glared. “Outlandish lies.”

“Those lies wouldn’t by any chance be the reason why Katherine was forced to resign? ”

“Detective, no one forced Katherine to resign.”

“Oh, that’s right. She… stepped down. My bad.

Look, I’m really not one for doing the dance.

So, how about we cut the crap and get straight to the point.

You see, we know she didn’t willingly step down.

There was a reason that gave her no other choice.

And if I am correct…” He turned to Callie.

She flipped the pages in her notebook and then handed it to him.

He took out a pair of glasses and donned them.

“… you told Investigator Sutherland we would need to ask her. Is that right?”

Hawthorne shrugged. “If I said that. Yes. It wasn’t my place to speak on her behalf.”

“Of course,” he chuckled. “Conveniently. We can’t do that now.

However, we did confer with two individuals close to Katherine.

Nicholas Evans, her husband, and Nate Sawyer who told us a very different story.

One in which she was told in no uncertain terms that if she didn’t leave of her own volition, she’d never get a job in counseling again. Sound right to you?”

“Like I said. Misconstrued. Lies.”

“Okay, let’s deep dive into those alleged lies.

” He flipped the pages a few more times.

“Ah, here we are. Accusations. According to Katherine’s husband, there were several accusations that had been brought to your attention.

Rumors, some might say of a sexual nature.

Students saying that Katherine was interfering with them. How am I doing?”

Hawthorne cleared his throat and glanced at his colleagues. “Correct.”

“You gave Katherine the option to either leave or face the consequences of what could not only land her in jail but would most certainly destroy her career and the reputation of High Peaks Academy.”

“I gave her an option. Correct.”

McKenzie stared back at him, waiting for more. “If there is anything you feel I might be overlooking or have misunderstood. Now would be a good time to clarify.”

“Sure,” he replied, looking directly back at him with a smile but not offering anything further.

McKenzie continued.

“How long did Katherine work here?”

“Six years.”

“And in any of that time, did anyone ever spread rumors about her before the recent accusations?”

“No.”

“Well then that seems a little like jumping the gun, wouldn’t you say so, Alexander? I mean, is the Academy in the habit of letting staff members go over unproved rumors?”

“We had a strong reason to believe they were true.”

“Okay, then if that was the case, why wasn’t a report filed with the police?”

“After Katherine willingly stepped down, we felt as if the issue had been resolved.”

“Resolved?” He cleared his throat and offered back a surprised expression. “You hear rumors that one of your teachers is interfering with your students and you decide to brush it under the rug?”

Hawthorne moved uncomfortably in his seat. He pulled at his collar. “The matter was handled.”

“That’s good to know. Except what did the parents have to say about that?”

Hawthorne laced his fingers together and leaned forward in his chair, placing them on top of his desk. “They were rumors.”

“Aye but rumors you felt were strong enough to believe. That was what you said, right?”

“I did, Mr. McKenzie.”

“Detective.”

Hawthorne glared at him. “Detective McKenzie. Please. You have to understand. High Peaks Academy was established back in the 1950s. As a state-approved organization, we’ve been around a long time.

We’ve seen it all. Most parents send their troubled teens to our private school as a last-ditch effort with the hope of not only educating them but ensuring changes in behavior, empowering them to become leaders, and ultimately guiding them to make that transition back into their home communities with a different worldview. We take that very seriously.”

“But not seriously enough to tell the parents their child was interfered with?”

“Like I said. They were rumors. I made a judgment call on those rumors.”