“Rewind the tape and zoom in on the man’s face.” Kane leaned on the table and stared at the screen. “The way he has his ball cap pulled down it’s hard to distinguish his features.”
Jenna moved closer to the screen and shook her head. By the way the man kept his head down the entire time, he knewabout the CCTV cameras. He wore gloves and a pair of coveralls, and it was impossible to even make out the color of his skin. She looked up at the principal. “Does this super AI security system use facial recognition or the barcode on the ID cards?”
“The barcode.” The principal shook his head slowly. “Not one of my employees would hand over their ID card. To do so would be instant dismissal. The safety of the students is our priority in this school.”
“This means that one of your employees won’t be able to enter the building if the card was stolen from them.” Kane straightened. “I noticed the time stamp on the footage was seven-fifty, so if you keep a record of when the staff enter the building, we should be able to pinpoint whose card has been appropriated.” He turned his attention to the principal. “You do keep a record of who is entering the building and at what time, don’t you?”
“Yes, and I’ll ask someone in the office to do a search. They have all the software on their computers. If you’ll give me a few moments, it shouldn’t be too difficult to find.” The principal went to leave but Kane stopped him. “Is there anything else?”
“Yeah, maybe check to see if the janitor is here today.” Kane frowned at him. “If he hasn’t arrived, he might be in trouble. If so, we’ll need his details so we can do a welfare check on him.”
The principal gave him a curt nod and headed back to his office. Jenna glanced at the security guard and indicated to the screen. “Can you follow that guy and see where he goes?”
“I already have but I can show you if you like.” The security guard forwarded the tape and then jumped to another camera feed to follow the man. “He dumps the bucket in a closet and heads out of the front door. I ran the tape on a little to see if I could glimpse his vehicle leaving the parking lot.” He indicated to the screen. “It’s not very clear but I do believe that is a silver SUV.”
“Thanks.” Kane pulled a thumb drive from his pocket. “Can you copy the vehicle footage and the part outside the classroom onto this for me? I’ll get the FBI to run it through their software.”
“Not a problem.” The security guard went to work.
Once the copy was made, Jenna and Kane headed back to the principal’s office. They waited for him to finish a call and Jenna looked at him and raised one eyebrow in question. “Have you been able to get the information we requested?”
“My secretary is putting it on a thumb drive as we speak.” The principal’s eyes narrowed and he leaned back in his chair staring up at them. “The janitor didn’t come to work today, so I called him. He is at home and did call in this morning to say that his truck wouldn’t start and he’s waiting for someone from Millers’ Garage to drop by to look at it. I asked him to go and look for his ID card. He usually leaves it in the glovebox of his vehicle and of course it’s missing.”
Jenna exchanged a glance with Kane. “So I assume whoever stole the card did something to his truck so he couldn’t get here this morning.”
“It sure seems that way.” The principal ran a hand down his face. “I just wonder how the person who wrote the message on the whiteboard knew that the janitor kept his ID in the glovebox.”
Ideas buzzed around Jenna’s head. “There are a million options on how he got that information. I gather the janitor’s been working here for a long time?”
“Yes, maybe fifteen years or so.” The principal clasped his hands and stared at her.
Nodding, Jenna straightened. “This man might have even been employed by the school and had gotten to know the janitor and maybe seen him put his card or keys in the glovebox.” She sighed. “We’ll look into it. We’ll need those handwriting samples. I’ll send a deputy over to collect them, if you could give me a call and let me know when they’re ready.” Shehanded him her card. “Thank you for your assistance. If anything else unusual happens, call 911 right away.”
Jenna led the way out of the office and waited at the secretary’s desk for her to hand her a thumb drive. After thanking the woman, she turned to Kane. “I figure it’s time to visit Aunt Betty’s Café and we’ll go over the information we’ve discovered and then decide what to do next. For now, we’ll leave Ellie at the Her Broken Wings Foundation residences. She’ll be safe there. I don’t want to risk her going home until we have this sorted.”
“Okay, Aunt Betty’s it is.” Kane pulled down the rim of his Stetson and headed out into the snow.
TWELVE
Heavy snowfall built up on the wipers as they drove back to Main. It seemed that everyone in town had decided to go to Aunt Betty’s Café for lunch and parking outside was limited. Kane turned the truck around and parked on the grass alongside the park. He climbed out, his boots sinking into the deep snow, and went around the hood to assist Jenna across the road. They both stamped their feet on the mat outside the café door and stepped inside. Kane inhaled the delicious aromas of fresh-baked bread and coffee. As they walked toward the counter, the distinct smell of chili wafted toward him and his stomach growled in appreciation. Nothing better on a freezing cold day than Aunt Betty’s chili along with wedges of fresh bread.
They ordered at the counter as the servers were busy. The restaurant hummed with the sound of conversation and the clinking of silverware. Kane’s attention went to the fresh-baked pies in the display case and he ordered a wedge of pecan and one of peach. “I’ll have them à la mode.”
“I’ll have the same. I’m as hungry as a wolf.” Jenna grinned at him. “You can eat my leftovers if my eyes are bigger than my stomach.”
Kane chuckled. “Not a problem.” He took the pot of coffee Susie, the manager, had placed on the counter. “I’ll take that. You’re rushed off your feet.”
“Thanks.” Susie smiled and indicated toward another group of people coming through the door to join the line to the counter. “It’s been like this since six this morning.”
Kane headed toward the table reserved for the sheriff’s department at the back of the room. Aunt Betty’s Café had always been good to the law enforcement in town. They delivered take-out orders in record time, allowed them to jump the line when they were busy, and provided a reserved table. All these considerations made their lives better because they could dive into the café and grab a quick meal during investigations without delay. After placing the jug of coffee on the table, he removed his coat and hung it over the chair beside him and dropped his Stetson onto the seat. He sat down and rested his hands on the table as Jenna poured the coffee and added the fixings. Their table was situated up in a corner, so no one was actually sitting close by and they could talk freely without anyone overhearing them. “I noticed that you were working on your tablet on the way here. Did you happen to contact Kalo and tell him what we’re up against?”
“Yeah, I did and I sent him the files on the thumb drives.” Jenna pushed a cup of coffee toward him. “It’s pretty quiet in Snakeskin Gully at the moment and he was glad of something to do. He’s looking forward to coming to see us over Christmas. Apparently his folks have gone to Australia for twelve months for his father’s work, so he’ll be glad of our company.”
Kane sipped his coffee, wishing that his bowl of chili would arrive soon. “This abduction case is complex, isn’t it? Ellie McBride doesn’t seem the type of person who would try to hoodwink law enforcement. To me, she seems like a typical teacher, but here is where I become concerned. Her abductor has her purse and phone, he knows where she lives, and almostkilled her, and yet when we spoke to her this morning, her main interest was for the safety of the students in her classroom. When we mentioned taking her to the foundation to live for a few days, all she was concerned about was her cat. I’ve seen many abducted people and they’re usually traumatized, and yet she carries on without a care in the world. It’s as if it never happened. Do you find that unusual for someone who’s been abducted?”
“All the people we’ve spoken to after a terrible tragedy or the death of someone close to them react differently.” Jenna eyed him over the rim of her coffee cup. “Classrooms filled with kids can be very difficult to control and it takes a special kind of person to remain cool and calm when all about you is going crazy. She did seem upset this morning when she mentioned the writing on the whiteboard. I figured that was a normal reaction. She didn’t mention anything about wanting to go home, so I believe she understands the gravity of the situation.” Jenna took a long drink of her coffee and then refilled her cup from the pot on the table. “The problem is there are too many things surrounding this case that bother me. There is no proof whatsoever that she was kidnapped. We have no CCTV camera footage apart from her going into the store to buy her groceries and then heading out the door. Her purchases are still in the back of her vehicle and there were no signs of a struggle in the snow around her SUV. We have no vision of her leaving the vehicle at the roadhouse. I know it was around eleven when she left the store, but we haven’t considered that she might have taken a cab to the roadhouse.” She slowly added the fixings to her cup and stirred. “Then we have the writing that is almost identical to her own on the whiteboard in the classroom. My problem here is, yes, there was someone going into that classroom this morning, so she could be telling the truth, although how do we know that the man entering the classroom wrote on the whiteboard? The otherthing that’s bothering me is how did the man know that was her classroom?”
Kane finished his coffee pondering what she said and then poured himself another. “We’ll need to check to see if the janitor finally arrived at the school this morning. If he did, we’ll know he got a replacement card and there are two cards out there with his name on them. I would imagine that this person knows his way around the school, so either he’s worked there before or was a past student. Teachers keep their own classrooms for many years, so it wouldn’t be too far of a reach to believe that that’s how he knew where Ellie McBride was teaching. It would also account for how he knows about the janitor using his glovebox for his card and keys.” He smiled as Susie came over with a tray carrying their bowls of chili and a plate piled high with buttered bread still hot from the oven. “Thanks, Susie.”
