“We’ll need to clear the building.” Jenna looked around the table at her deputies. “Grab your gear and Kevlar vests. We’re not taking any risks with this killer. Go straight to the school. I’ll call Wolfe.”
TWENTY-ONE
Concern twisted in Jenna’s belly as she headed for her office. She’d done everything within her power to protect Ellie McBride and she should have been safe in the school during daylight hours. The principal informed her there would be maintenance men and teachers around her all day. She took the Kevlar vest that Kane handed her and pulled it on over her head. As she tightened up the Velcro on each side, she looked at him. “This shouldn’t be happening. I left her in a safe environment. No one gets in and out of that place without a card. With all the problems we have in this town, the mayor went to a great deal of trouble to ensure that the school is safe. It makes no sense at all that someone got in and strangled Ellie McBride.”
“They have CCTV cameras everywhere.” Kane shrugged into his coat and then pulled on his thick leather gloves. “The chances of the killer being unseen will be remote. It’s snowing and hasn’t stopped for days. There should be footprints or evidence he’s left behind to show us how he’s getting in and out of the school. I checked the place out thoroughly when we were last there and even the windows have alarms on them. Only the windows that face the playgrounds can be opened during theday. The others on the street side are protected by alarms. I’m mystified how anyone could have gotten inside without somebody knowing.”
Slipping her weapon into the holster, Jenna met his gaze with a frown. “Now we have two murders, and from what they were saying, they’re both strangulations. What do these two women have in common? It seems to me this is the same killer.”
“Yeah, leaving notes to frighten the women and then strangling them seems to be his fantasy.” Kane slid his pistol into the holster and gave her a grim look. “Ellie was murdered from behind like Laney Prescott. I figure it’s the same killer. Wolfe will be able to determine that when he does his autopsy.”
Jenna zipped up her coat, pulled on gloves, and headed toward the door. “Ellie didn’t have anyone in town to stay with, I don’t even know if she has any next of kin close by.” She sighed. “When we get into the truck, I’ll contact Father Derry and tell him not to go to the school this afternoon to give her a ride home. He will be very upset that something has happened to her. He went out of his way to keep her safe. I feel that I’ve let her down. Half of the time I suspected her involvement. That makes me feel like a heel.” As they walked along the hallway, she touched his arm. “You were right all along. You never believed that she could be involved. So many things she said made me believe she’d made up stories to get attention. All this time she was telling the truth.”
“You can’t let this eat you up, Jenna.” Kane headed for the door and an arctic breeze buffeted them as they went outside. “We couldn’t find a suspect and couldn’t verify anything she said. The only indication that she’d been kidnapped was when she arrived at the Triple Z Roadhouse with a head injury—and we have no proof that she didn’t hit herself in the head. There’s no CCTV camera footage of her arriving there and she claimed to have climbed out of the vehicle at the pumps. The person on the footage is indistinguishable in the blizzard and they usedher credit card. It could have been her. She’d been bundled up and wearing similar clothes when we found her at the roadhouse. The vehicle was the same make and model as her own. I can see why you would believe that she’d been involved.” He pulled down the rim of his Stetson. “Add to that the writing on the whiteboard in the classroom being similar to hers, almost had me convinced as well.” He slid inside the vehicle and turned to look at her. “To be honest, I’d started coming around to your way of thinking when Wolfe discovered her fingerprints on the lipstick used to write the message on Laney Prescott’s pillow.” He sighed and started the engine. “My problem with her involvement in Laney Prescott’s murder came down to a motive to kill her. We asked her if she knew Laney, and she’d never met her, but it wasn’t that. It’s very unusual for a woman to strangle another woman. It’s a very personal act. There’s usually a ton of emotion involved, like hate or jealousy, and I didn’t see any reason for Ellie to hate someone that much. That was one of the reasons I dismissed the idea of Ellie being involved in Laney’s murder.”
Jenna leaned back in her seat as the truck crunched through the thick coating of ice retardant. Snow battered the windows like a swarm of angry white bees. “I found it hard to believe that she didn’t know Laney Prescott. As Laney worked in children’s services, she would be involved with the local teachers. Especially around the age of Ellie’s students. You would figure that Laney’s name would be known as she had been working there for a time.” She sighed and pulled out her phone to call Father Derry. “We can talk about this ’til the sun goes down, but the fact is, it seems she’s been murdered by the same person. This means we’re dealing with someone who has involvement with a school and children’s services. These two facts might give us a break in the case that we need. The moment we get back to the office, I’ll get the search warrant for the Department of Social Services. I figure there’s a connection between thereand the school. If necessary, I’ll ask Kalo to assist us. I might run this case through Jo as well. I can’t get my head around it and as we are having a behavioral analyst dropping by for Christmas, we might as well use her knowledge.”
“Don’t forget you have Beth Katz coming as well.” Kane turned onto Stanton and headed toward the school. “We’ve hit the jackpot. You’ll have two of the top FBI IT specialists arriving in town shortly.”
Jenna stared out at the bleak white snowscape. “That’s good. We need all the help we can get.”
TWENTY-TWO
Emotions jumbled through Jenna’s mind as she climbed from the Beast. How could she have been so wrong about Ellie? Another thought flashed through her mind. What if Ellie had an accomplice and he or she turned on her? It would make perfect sense for Ellie to go to the boiler room to speak to them in a place no one ever went to. However, the reason she would pretend to be kidnapped still caused havoc in her mind. If she had been the second or third person to be injured after a series of murders, Jenna would have considered that Ellie did it to take the heat off her accomplice, but being the first one posed questions she didn’t have the answers to.
Confusion surrounded her as she slipped her way through the parking lot and to the front doors of the school. The foyer opened up to the administration desk, concealed behind a wall of glass with only a small service counter peephole for anyone walking through the front door. She noticed the entrance into the school went via metal detectors with cameras above them. These led along a short corridor to a set of automatic doors. She guessed that if someone tried to get through without authorization they would be stopped in the middle corridor. She recalledthe plan to have the security at all the schools in the area upgraded but hadn’t read through all the changes. Not knowing who the next threat would be in Serial Killer Central, the council upgraded many of the local institutions to ensure the safety of the townsfolk.
The principal waited for them just inside the front door. He wore a thick winter coat over track pants. It looked as if he’d rushed to the school right away. Jenna nodded to him as she walked through the door. The principal showed them through a side door using his card and handed them both visitor lanyards. “Thanks.” Jenna slipped it over her head. “Where are my deputies?”
“They’re waiting in the hallway just through the next door.” The principal led the way. He opened the door and waved them through. “The paramedics came and left. They confirmed she was dead and told me to keep away and wait for you.”
Jenna’s attention went immediately to her three deputies moving in and out of the classrooms and clearing each room as they went. She turned to the principal. “The medical examiner, Dr. Shane Wolfe, will be here shortly to take over. Have someone take him directly to the boiler room. He’ll have a large team with him, so there will be four or five people carrying equipment.”
“Stop people coming into the building while we are here and don’t allow anyone to leave.” Kane moved to Jenna’s side and looked at principal. “Anyone we find will be treated as a suspect and likely arrested. Once we have seen the body, we’ll come back to the office and interview Jesse Holland.”
As her deputies came out of the classrooms, Jenna motioned to Rowley. “I gather you went to school here. Do you know where the boiler room is?”
“I sure do.” Rowley indicated over his shoulder with his thumb. “It’s at the other end of the school in the maintenance area.”
Turning back to the principal, Jenna met the man’s worried gaze. He appeared to have taken the death of one of his teachers badly. His graying hair stuck up all over and his coat sat uneven, with the buttons mismatched as if fastened in haste. “Why don’t you go back to the office, have something hot to drink, while we do our job? We’ll come and speak to you when we’re done.” She kept her tone calm and even. “I know this has been a terrible shock for you. You can be assured my department will be doing everything possible to discover who murdered Ellie.”
“Okay, thank you.” The principal let out a long sigh. “Ms. McBride has been working here for seven years or more. She is one of our most respected teachers. She goes out of her way to help the students. I can’t imagine why anyone would have chosen her as a victim. It makes no sense at all. The world has lost a very beautiful, kindhearted person today.”
“Murder never makes sense.” Kane led him back to the door. “We’ll be along shortly.”
Raven and Rio walked up to Jenna and waited for her to give them orders. She looked from one to the other. “We have no idea if the perpetrator is still in the building. Rowley is going to lead the way to the boiler room, so spread out and keep your eyes peeled for anyone moving around. There are only three people that we know of in the building at the moment apart from us. They should all be in the office. Detain anyone else you come across and be on your guard. We may be dealing with a serial killer.”
Jenna and Kane followed Rowley as he headed along the hallway. Walking to see a murder victim always caused a little rush of panic. If the killer still lurked in the building, they could be walking into a trap. Taking a deep breath and blowing it out to slow her racing heart, Jenna pushed her mind to another place. The smell of the school brought back memories of her childhood. Unsure how the smell of books, sweat, and gym shoes had triggered memories, she could clearly remember herteachers right from first grade through to when she graduated from high school. She’d been lucky and school had been a place she enjoyed. Many of the teachers had time to spare for the students. She’d been inquisitive and all her questions had been answered, which she believed helped her to get a scholarship to college and later join the DEA.
As she scanned the classrooms, she noticed many things had changed since she’d been at school. She recalled rigid lines of tables and a blackboard, with choking white dust from the erasers, not the interactive screens and whiteboards that they had now. It seemed that they made school days much more interesting. Her sons’ time at school would be an adventure in learning.
“It’s just through that walkway.” Rowley used his lanyard to open the door to a short open space between the buildings.
Freezing air buffeted them as they stepped out into the cold ice-filled wind. Snow had blown across the covered walkway. “Wait!”
“What is it?” Rowley stopped midstride and turned to look at her.
Jenna paused at the open door and stared at the footprints. “Take photographs of the footprints before they’re covered in snow. We’ll need to get images of anyone’s shoes who we know was walking through here earlier.”
