I glanced back at Mira, who gave me a chin lift. Rolling my shoulders, I headed up the long aisle covered in worn maroon carpeting to the principal. The man’s features reminded me of the actor who played Principal Snyder onBuffy the Vampire Slayer. In all honesty, if the man mentioned their hockey State Championships one more time, I’d probably sacrifice him to a demon myself.
Principal Hagley slipped back out of the auditorium as soon as he saw me walking back up the aisle. I opened the squeaky door and stepped out into the main commons that was empty of tables or furniture. I wondered if they placed tables out for lunches or if they had another cafeteria section. I was going to need floor plans and access to the school’s security systems too. I needed to know how the killer entered and exited without the school being alerted.
The janitor who had discovered the body was still in the nurse’s office after being ill. He was told not to leave, though I wondered if he was as bad at listening to my orders as the principal and police officer were.
I was not a small man. At thirty-seven and with a physically demanding job, my body was hardened with muscle. I’d long ago given up the pleasantries of smiling at victims and witnesseswho were just as likely to lie to me as the perpetrators. If I gave them no bullshit, I tended to receive less bullshit in return. My suit was jet black and off-the-rack. In my early years as a field agent, I’d taken pride in my appearance and gotten tailored suits, which soon became damaged, stained, or ruined. A cheap suit ripped just as easily as an expensive one did, but beat my wallet less.
My white button-up shirt was covered by my black tie and my black and gold badge on a silver chain. Around my waist was my gun in its holster, my handcuffs, two spare magazines, a small flashlight, and a push blade that was not regulation. I carried my wallet and identification on the inside of my left breast pocket.
Since I never knew when I had to run, I was wearing boots rather than loafers. Fashion became less practical the longer you were on this job. More than once, I’d lost a shoe while on a foot chase in my early twenties. Never again.
I was six foot-four with broad shoulders. The scruff around my chin and lips had less to do with sex appeal and more to do with a lack of desire to shave over sleep. If I’d known Mira and I were going to be up at the ass-crack of dawn, I would not have stayed so late at the club last night.
No, I mentally corrected myself. I would have still stayed. Otherwise, I would have missed the sexy owl who’d let me bend her against the dancing pole on stage and fuck her in view of her admirers. Her long raven hair, the black owl mask over her eyes, and that alluring body wasexactlywhat I needed to get my mind off of my last case.
Cannibals. I internally shuddered at the memory. Not much freaked me out, butcannibals? That would do it.
I crossed my arms over my broad chest and stared down—way down—at the principal. “What?”
He swallowed. “I was just… I wasn’t sure if you’d identified the…” He leaned in and whispered like it was a secret, “The body.”
“Not yet,” I answered shortly. “Why? Are you missing one of your staff members?”
His face paled as if he hadn’t thought of that option. “Oh dear. Oh my. No, I…” His voice trailed off. “No, I haven’t spoken with all of them yet. I’ll get right on that.”
“Is that why you asked me out here?” While annoyed to have my time wasted, at least the man hadn’t referenced anything to do with hockey. Yet.
“I wasn’t, well, I just needed to know if it was a man or a woman.”
I continued to stare down at him for several long, silent seconds. The man was a squirrel. I knew his type. He frightened easily and had no backbone. It was a wonder he was principal of anything. Didn’t his students just walk all over him? But there was something there… My eyes narrowed. Heknewsomething.
Despite what many thought, there were only two options when it came to gender. After someone died, it didn’t matter what politically correct pronoun or made-up gender they wanted to use during their life. Biologically, there were two: male and female. Some people might not like that fact, but there you have it. When you die, the coroner only cared about which genitalia you had.
The principal wasn’t asking if the victim was a man or a woman because he only had a fifty-fifty chance of either one, but because heknewsomething if it was one gender or the other. I took a shot in the dark.
“It’s a woman,” I lied.
If possible, the man got even paler. “A… A…” He looked like he was about to pass out. “A woman. A girl, a student? They did it again. Oh God, not again…”
I watched his reaction. The man really did look like he was going to bolt. “Actually, it’s a man,” I told him. He froze, straightening slightly. His hands that had gone to his cheeks lowered. He looked at me accusingly. I stared back at him, completely unapologetic. “Now, what the fuck did you mean by ‘they did it again’?”
Chapter Two
Holly
In the constantdrizzle that plagued this hemisphere, I watched the flurry of people ambling in and out of my old high school. I hadn’t stepped foot inside it in fourteen years. The weasel of a principal had to have put it together by now. Even he wasn’t that thick. Fifteen years to the day. Fifteen years since Jason Kadeer, the high school’s former janitor, had found me bloody and bound in the middle of the stage.
I wasn’t sure how I felt. My mission was far from over, but I thought, or maybe hoped, that I would feelsomething. The first name on my list had been crossed off.
Christopher Harrow. Even his name made him sound like a jerk. I’d chosen him first, not because of his name or his participation in my attack, but because he lived the furthest away. It had taken time to get him and the others who no longer lived in Alaska back home. A reunion, if you will, but with a specific guest list.
My list consisted of twenty-seven names, from the witnesses of my attack to the rapists who forcefully invaded my virgin body to the doctor who had treated me and the police officers who had taken my statement to the principal who had begged everything to “go away”.
I rolled my neck around my shoulders, remembering the weasel’s words as if he was speaking in my ear right that moment.“…you don’t understand. If they press charges, we’ll never make it to the finals. We’ll be disqualified…”
Did Principal Hagley even know I was awake in my hospital bed? That I had heard him and former Sheriff Renfrew make a deal that not only protected the sheriff’s son, but also gave him the title of State Champion?
I was not so twisted that I would harm those indirectly related to my crime. The teachers who had stood back and done nothing had to think about their lives and jobs. I understood that. Unlike Hagley, they were not in a position of power to have done something. In my condition, it was still unclear to me how something as monumentous as my attack had been covered up. There’d been videos and photos taken. I remembered seeing the lights from the cell phones.
