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“Of course,” the headmaster said. “Whatever you need.”
Kit gave her a nod of appreciation. “Thank you. We can’t help but notice that your admissions director isn’t here. Why is that?”
Worry flickered in the headmaster’s eyes. “When he read that article, he was devastated. He’s been with Orion from the very beginning and we’re his life. His health is a little frail, so I told him that we’d try to address your questions first. If you still need to see him, he’ll be available.”
“We will want to talk to him,” Kit said. “We need to know if any of the victims reached out to ask questions about the scholarship.”
“He’ll give you full access to his email,” the headmaster promised, surprising Kit. She’d figured that the school would require a warrant.
One of the lawyers leaned in to whisper in her ear, but she shook her head. “I know they officially need a warrant. I’m saying that we are not going to require that. We will be cooperative. We don’t want any more girls to die.”
They probably wanted the good press that full cooperation would provide, but that was okay. As long as she and Connor got access to the emails.
“Thank you,” Kit said. “Who helped start the scholarship program and how was it originally publicized? Was there a press release to all the high schools? Did you run ads on TV, radio, or social media? Who would have known about it from the beginning?”
The headmaster blinked. “I don’t know off the top of my head who started it. It was already in place when I was selected for the position of headmaster. I assume there was a committee. I’ll find out for you. As for publicizing, the school has always sent student reps to various high schools in the district to promote. Usually they do a Q&A with the drama clubs.”
“Do you choose the schools at random or is there a schedule?” Connor asked.
“Oh, it’s never random.” The headmaster made a note on the tablet she held. “I’ll get you the schedules for as far back as we’ve had them.”
“That would be very helpful.” Kit slid the list of occurrences into her folder, then turned to Connor. “Any more questions?”
He nodded. “Yes, just one. Did you ever ask for law enforcement assistance in dealing with this scam?”
The lawyers looked at each other, then the one with the rainbow tie spoke. “We did about five years ago. We simply wanted it to stop. We thought that the fact he was offering a forty-thousand-dollar scholarship constituted fraud, so we called SDPD’s fraud department. They came out and talked to us, looked at the emails, then said it was a prank. That the ‘prankster’ didn’t financially benefit.” He swallowed hard. “I wish we’d pressed harder.”
“It might not have mattered,” Kit said practically. “Like my partner said, we’re just now gathering the puzzle pieces. We didn’t have anything to go on before, and the likelihood of connecting this scam to our Jane Does back then was minimal at best.”
The lawyer nodded. “Thank you, but I think we’ll be second-guessing ourselves for a long time.”
Welcome to a very crowded club, Kit thought as she rose. “Thank you all for your time.”
Connor stood and handed the staff their business cards. “If you remember anything else, please call. Ted, CSU will contact you ASAP.”
“We’re still filing a formal complaint against that reporter,” the first lawyer said.
Kit let herself smile, just a little. “Good.”
They were walked out by Ted, who gave them his contact information when they reached the front door. “We should have tried harder to find him,” he said heavily. “It happened intermittently, and we’d get complacent when we had a few years off. We’d think, Great, he stopped. But now we know what he was doing when we thought he was inactive.”
“Don’t beat yourself up,” Connor said quietly. “Unless you know of anyone here who’s too interested in the female students.”
He shook his head emphatically. “No, and I’m all over the school every day. A computer crashes and I’m the one they call. I’ve never heard of any staff member doing anything inappropriate. The kids usually talk around me like I’m not there.” He shrugged. “Mostly it’s the really rich kids since they have staff at home. You’d be shocked at some of the things I hear. But abusive teachers have never been one of those things.”
“Good to know.” Kit gave him a smile as they took their leave. “Take care.”
She and Connor said nothing until they got to the car. “I don’t think they were involved,” Connor said as he started the engine.
“I agree. But knowing who was there at the beginning of the scholarship program might point us in the right direction. That and identifying the location of that living room are our best leads right now.”
“We didn’t find any bartenders who’d seen Skyler Carville on Friday night,” he countered. “We might still find him that way.”
“That’s true,” Kit said. “I still haven’t checked my five bars, what with digging up Driscoll’s backyard and all. I’ll take care of that.”
Connor restarted the engine. “Didn’t you want to talk to the parks and rec people about maintenance schedules in the parks where we’ve found bodies?”
“Yes, especially with the September/February pattern. That’s fall and spring planting season,” she added when he frowned. “Farm girl, remember? The ground might have been dug up for him to bury them in.”
