“Upstairs in the theatre attic,” the boy said wearily. “Be careful, Officer E. He has a gun.”
The officers went back around the hood of the car, Quint shuffling through the blueprints they had there, along with maps of the nature preserve. Hushed voices began discussing the schematics.
“The gunshots.” She couldn’t even ask the question.
“He fired at us, but we were already down the stairs. We snuck out as he was following Dr. Vaughn into the back. Officer E.” He stopped. “There’s only one way into the attic. He won’t be able to get around Judah.”
Her spine went steel hard, drawing her to full height. Taking two steps away and turning her back, she pulled her gun from its holster and checked that it was loaded.
“Elyxandre!”
Holstering her gun, she turned to see Quint waving her over. “We found something.”
She stepped over to the car and looked down at the blueprint of the theatre space.
Hayden Yates, the sheriff, pointed at an inner wall. “These drawings look weird. Like they put a wall inside a wall. What’s this?”
Elyxandre looked closer at where she was pointing. Her brow scrunched up, and her mouth turned down. “The old staircase to the lighting catwalks.”
“When was the school built?”
“I think it was in the early fifties.”
“Was there any remodeling done?” Hayden asked.
“I haven’t been here since graduation, but I’m pretty sure they went through a referendum about ten years ago. They added some sections to the school. The two-story math and languages wing. An extra gymnasium. Basically, the entire backof the school was extended, and I think some of the fields were repurposed.”
“Anything with the theatre area?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s been remodeled at least once. Stage right was deeper than left because there used to be a staircase here along the wall.” She pointed to the schematic. “When the crew wasn’t needed, that’s where they’d hang out. They could see everything going on and still be close to the action. They were out of the way of the actors making entrances and exits, and the audience couldn’t see them because the blackout curtains hid them. It was perfect for storing props and furniture because it was so close to the stage.”
The sheriff pointed to the theatre walls on the blueprint. “See these support walls? These are too thick for a standard building. It looks like when they designed the new stage area, they built a new set of stairs on the opposite side, placing the access in the scene shop so the storage could be used safely.”
TJ glanced over her shoulder. “It’s a supporting wall, by the looks of it. Believe it or not, deconstructing something can cost just as much, if not more, than constructing something new. Looks like they cut their losses and just built over the old stairway.”
A voice materialized from behind them and down near the ground on the passenger side of the car. They’d forgotten Ryker and Kennedy were still there. “There are rumors of tunnels in the walls. I’ve never seen them. Always considered it to be our school’s version of an urban legend. There are some shallow tunnels under the school that house piping for electricity, water, stuff like that. They’re locked up so students can’t get in them, but they don’t go anywhere, like some kids believe. I just assumed the wall stories were the same.”
“What are the wall stories, Ryker?” Elyxandre asked.
“Well, the diehard theatre kids claim there’s a way to get from the previous boys’ dressing room to the theatre attic and the catwalks. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but when they restructured the theatre area, Dad said they tore out some walls but left others.
“One day, when we were cleaning out the space after a play production, one of the ceiling tiles had water damage, so the teacher told us to take the tile out so it wouldn’t get moldy, and she called custodial to put in a new one. When we pulled the tile down, we could see a huge open space above. In the old scene shop, they had this mural on the wall that students added to every year, listing all the shows they’d done since the school opened. There’s at least a ten-foot gap between the ceiling there now and what it used to be. We’ve been adding to it, sort of like our own secret society of thespians. I didn’t see a door or anything, but there was some space between the new walls and the old ones. If someone were small enough, they could maybe fit between, but I’d hate to get stuck there. How the hell would anyone find you?”
Hayden looked at the other officers around the car. “Depending on how the walls line up, and what got left behind, it’s entirely possible you might be able to get from downstairs to upstairs, or vice versa, in the negative space.”
“But how do we get inside that wall to the stairs?”
“We could break through it. I doubt a sledgehammer would do it, but a jackhammer maybe,” TJ suggested.
“But he’ll hear us coming then. We can’t risk that. We need to surprise him.”
Kennedy’s voice rang through. “Not if you use the old trapdoor.”
Everyone around the car turned to look at the girl.
“There’s a trapdoor in the stage. Our teacher said it hasn’t been used in years, and now, of course, since they rebuilt thatportion of the theatre, the trapdoor is in the wrong place. But that door would still have its original exit, right? The original exit is in the boys’ dressing room space, between the old wall and the new wall.”
“Where’s the entrance to the trap?” Elyxandre asked.
