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Nathan spun around, facing her, and then looked to Dr. Green for any hint as to what she was talking about. “What? We found it? Where?”
“Out front,” she said quickly. “There’s caution tape all over it.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t see it, but there was a crowd of cop cars. And a fire truck. We thought it was another bomb threat or something.”
Dr. Green came to the table, putting his palms down on the top and leaning against it. “I may have to go talk to the police at some point. They may be looking for me. Ms. Johnson identified it as a possible vehicle that threw the smoke bomb. I don’t think the tape is for anything other than keeping people away until bomb squad can take a look at it. After all the threats, and it being the smoke bomb car from last night, they’re on high alert. And to keep people away in general until they settle what to do with it.”
“Why are they so wrapped up in this smoke thing?” Nathan asked. “It was a firework. They wouldn’t have caution tape around it. There’s no way she can confirm without knowing the plate.”
“As soon as that smoke bomb dropped, the police were there before it even really cleared,” Dr. Green said. He motioned to Nathan. “It must have been just after you left. In a way, you did us all a favor by getting out of there. They checked those woods.” He lowered his head slowly. He remained like that for a long time, like he was thinking. When he lifted his head again, his serious expression remained. “But once the cops were there, Mr. McCoy started throwing conspiracy theories about us at the police. Ms. Johnson spilled about being asked to be there by the principal for late night security since there wasn’t any. She mentioned the delivery, but the police were more interested in the smoke bombs. I think they think it’s connected to the recent slew of bomb threats on the school.”
Nathan’s eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open. “So...what about Mr. McCoy? And Hendricks?”
“It’s all going down right now,” Dr. Green said. He stabbed a finger at the top of the folded table. “Today. The police are here waiting for Mr. Hendricks to ask him questions. They went to his house last night and he wasn’t there. Teachers and faculty are being pulled out of classes to be questioned. Everyone’s talking about being followed, and Mr. Hendricks asking them to do weird things. Lawyers are showing up now.”
Complete disaster. With everyone on edge, it was a wall of cards coming down. Everyone would tattle on everyone else.
Nathan’s jaw remained wedged open. He imagined this was what Mr. Hendricks was going to allow to happen when it was time for him to leave.
Was this it? He was booking out early? Did he call the cops on Dr. Green initially and the smoke bomb saved their asses?
Was it because they pushed him so far yesterday? They underestimated his nerves and stability.
He looked over at Sang and then back to Dr. Green. “So...what now?”
“I don’t know yet,” Dr. Green said. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “I don’t know how we’ll contain this. The whole point of being here was to get the money recovered before the police became involved so it wasn’t in the middle of the investigation and tied up forever as evidence by police.”
He was right. He rolled his head back. “God damn it.”
He felt a hand on his arm and straightened, finding Sang touching him. “But this isn’t over the money,” she said. She looked back to Dr. Green. “It’s about the smoke bomb, a babbling vice principal that has been missing, and... well... it isn’t about the money. Isn’t there something we can do to keep it that way?”
Nathan thought of the options. “If people corroborated with Ms. Johnson about what Mr. Hendricks with his strange behavior, they may not notice...” He looked up at Dr. Green. “But we’ll have to figure out a way for us to stay on. This won’t be over just because Hendricks is gone. If he’s gone.”
“That might be why we’re still here,” Dr. Green said. “Mr. Blackbourne hasn’t told us to bail. But I have to keep her out of it.” He motioned to Sang. He smiled at her. “Looks like you’re off duty right now.”
“I know,” she said.
Her staying here to take a test with her sister made even more sense now. “Yeah.” Nathan motioned to the door. “I’m going to go see about the others. Silas went over to check out what was going on.”
Sang backed up, putting her arms around her stomach and holding herself. “Go find them,” she said. “Come back and tell us what’s happening?”
He left Sang with Dr. Green. His heart pounded, his mind whirling with questions. Did Volto’s chaos actually help them out or did it lead them all to disaster much more dire than they realized? There was no escaping North being questioned about where he was last night and what happened. Dr. Green was going to be involved sooner or later. Mr. Blackbourne was probably inside the main office right now, sorting through the mess.
He doubted they could get out of this one without a lot of favors.
Where Everything Gets Tricky
The front of the school was crowded with students and faculty alike. A policeman stood by the main office, hands in his pockets, monitoring the activity and warding off anyone who came by. While most kept their distance, the area was alive with talking, very animated.
Bomb threat? Did someone die? Nathan could feel the questions without even hearing what they were asking.
Jay and Rocky stood together near the back of the crowd. Silas was with them, looking toward the students and beyond, to the front doors of the school.
Nathan had to circle around to even see what was going on near the front doors, finding police at the front, blocking off access to anyone going out without permission. Occasionally, someone came inside, people who had been standing out front. It left lots of room for speculation.
Nathan wasn’t sure why they were letting anyone out front at all.
Since the bell had rung, most of the teachers that were near the front door were warding off students.
“Go to class,” they said.
Some of the students were breaking away. The bell rang again, indicating they were all late for homeroom.
Teachers took to ushering kids away from the front of the school and to class before they all got detention. They formed a line and shooed with hand motions, getting them to move.
Silas broke away from Jay and Rocky and jogged over to Nathan. “I can’t get into the main office. Jay said there’s a rumor going around they put Mr. McCoy in custody.”
“Any reason why?”
He shook his head. “And no sign of Mr. Hendricks. I don’t know what the hell is going on with the Jeep. North’s in the office with Mr. Blackbourne. We’re getting an Academy lawyer in there. A few other people might be on the way, too.”
Academy people. When police got involved, it took more resources to straighten it all out. Nathan put his hands into his pockets and stood there, looking on toward the front doors. Despite the teachers shooing away other students, they seemed to ignore Nathan and Silas standing, for the most part.
“We can’t stay right here,” Silas said. “The teachers might avoid us, but the police will wonder why we’re standing around.”
“Should we go to the office? Can we help Mr. Blackbourne or North?”
“No. We can’t get to them. I’m not sure we should.”
“He’ll call if he needs us,” Nathan said, although he didn’t have a phone. “Where are the others? Where’s Kota?”
“Kota left with Gabriel. They’re out looking for Hendricks, although they doubt they’ll find him.”
“Luke? Where’s he?”
Silas blinked and shrugged. “I know he’s here. I just don’t know where. It’s been crazy since we arrived.”
Great. “Maybe we should be looking for him.” He remained stationary for a moment as a teacher moved from outside to the office, looking pale faced. Nathan suspected he was asked to go inside and answer questions. “We also need to know how his Jeep got there. Any cameras?”
“Victor’s working o
n that. They’re going through footage.”
Nathan could go through it, but maybe Victor didn’t need another person working on it. And unless they were willing to admit they had cameras installed in the school, then there wasn’t much chance they could turn it in as evidence.
“Let’s look for Luke, I guess,” Silas said.
Nathan retreated from the chaos at the front of the school. Silas joined him, and they took a long route around the school, crossing through the cafeteria and then on through hallways. Eventually they got to a stairwell. Most of this side of the school was empty, except for the classrooms.
Silas said nothing during this time, looking at his feet as they walked around. Now that they’d left the crime scene area, they couldn’t return unless they had a purpose. Mr. Blackbourne and North being in there alone irked at Nathan. He hoped it was going okay.
“How’d it go getting a cousin in?” Nathan asked.
“Hmmm,” Silas said, sounding sour.
“Can’t get one to come?”
“He’s wanting to call in a whole family.”
Nathan chuckled. “Do it. He’ll get lots of people to help.”
Silas shook his head, smirking. “It won’t deter him. He’ll want me to manage.”
