“Just under two hours,” he said under his breath. He looked at her. “What do you want to do?”
“School took down the post, but nothing’s ever truly gone. All it will take is for one person to share it, or to have taken a screenshot and share it.”
His office phone started ringing at that moment. He moved behind his desk and looked at the display. “Shit. It’s Sealy.” He picked up the phone. “Vaughn.”
When the superintendent started speaking, she could just hear him over the line. He sounded agitated, and rightfully so.
“Sir, I’m putting you on speaker. Officer Hookstead just came into my office with the news.”
“I got a call from the media,” Sealy said. “We need to act on this quickly, before it becomes a circus. I’m wondering if we should call off school for the day. Say we have a water main leak or something like that.”
“Sir,” Elyxandre said, “I don’t think that’s advisable. If the media has this already, you can bet it will be on their page any second. News vans are going to show up. Everyone will know that’s a lie. Transparency is your best bet.”
“Could this be a hoax?” Lucas asked.
“Given all the chaos of the week—the vandalism from the raid, the fire alarm, the flooding of the locker room, the damage to the greenhouse? We have to treat it as if it’s the real thing. For the students, it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“The publicity,” the superintendent moaned.
Seriously? That’s what he was worried about. “Sir, if you’re concerned about how this is going to reflect your administration in the media, I would remind you that the public will crucify you if you treat a threat as anything less than credible. Let the complainers bitch afterwards if we find it’s a hoax.”
“Should we evacuate the school immediately?” Sealy asked.
“Not a good idea,” she advised.
The superintendent huffed loudly. “You just said we needed to treat this as the real deal, Officer Hookstead.”
“If you want to evacuate, I have no issue with it, but we need to do it smartly.”
Lucas interceded. “I agree with Officer Hookstead, Superintendent. We want to be safe, but we also want to prevent panic.”
“What do you advise?” the superintendent asked. The reluctance in his voice was readily apparent.
“The first and largest concern is the focus of the attack. The post didn’t name anyone in particular, just that there would be a shooting at eleven, which suggests there is no specific victim or group in mind. That makes the situation all that much more difficult.”
“Without that, we have no idea where they’d start,” Lucas concluded.
“Exactly. We don’t know if it’s in regard to a particular grievance, if it’s student-aimed, or adult-aimed. If they’re targeting students, teachers, staff, administration, or if they’re threatening indiscriminately. We’re essentially running blind.”
“Have there been any especially volatile students this week?” Sealy asked.
She shared a look with Lucas.
“The only students who have come across my path this week with any anger have been the students we dealt with regarding the raid on Monday. I saw several of them today as they returned from their out-of-school suspensions, and I didn’t get any sense of rage. Anger, yes. But nothing that suggested violence.”
“Ryker was the most upset. His departure from the office on Monday was certainly on the volatile end,” Lucas reminded her.
“My son would never make a threat of any kind, let alone to shoot someone,” Sealy interrupted.
“I didn’t accuse him, Superintendent. I was merely pointing out that he was the most upset student I’ve dealt with this week.”
“Hardly surprising, given the circumstances,” their boss replied petulantly.
“Sir,” she said, “the problem is, we don’t even know if this is a student. The message gave us no clues as to who we’re dealing with. It could be a former student, a parent, or even someone not related to the school at all. Without a stated motivation, we can’t afford to overlook any possibility, and that includes the fact that this could be something as simple as a hoax, with the only intention being to get students an early release from school. We just don’t know.”
“I’m guessing this is why you’ve put us on a hold?” Lucas asked.
“Yes. The second issue is that, since we don’t know who we’re dealing with, we have no clue where they are physically. What is their plan of attack? Are they already inside the building? If yes,is there a specific target in mind? If they are outside the building, how do they plan to enter and where? If we can prevent everyone from moving around the hallways, we control movements.”
