Chapter 12 #2
Grant nodded and left the office, taking Dexter with him as he left, and drove to the school district administration building near the high school. He stepped into the office with Dexter next to him and asked to speak to the superintendent.
The middle-aged man came out with fire in his eyes, but stopped almost immediately when he saw Dexter staring back at him. Grant knew that Dexter had his puppy moments, like when he played with Cameron. But he could be fierce as well, and the man’s eyes flashed with fear.
“I’m Officer Grant Webster.”
“Superintendent Monty Banks,” he said. “Dogs are not allowed in this building.”
“Dexter is a member of the police force. He’s allowed everywhere.
” Grant knew how to handle people like this.
They were used to being in charge, even when they weren’t.
“I’m here to look at your records. Could you please show me to the appropriate person?
” He wasn’t going to waste time with small talk or trying to put Monty at ease.
Having him in a state of fear was more beneficial.
“Yes.” He turned and led the way to a woman with bright eyes and a big smile.
“You must be Grant. I’m Unity, and I was told to help you search our records,” she said.
“This is my partner, Dexter.” Grant sat in the chair she indicated, and he took Dexter off his leash and gestured for him to check out the space. “He isn’t going to hurt anyone.”
She sat as well, glancing around as Dexter wandered from desk to desk. Eventually he returned and sat next to him, indicating that he found nothing interesting. Unity relaxed and cleared her throat. “What is it you’re looking for?”
He couldn’t go into the details of the situation. “You understand that everything we speak about is confidential, even from the superintendent if he asks, and he will ask.”
She smiled and then chuckled. “Yes.” She seemed pleased. “It’s going to drive him crazy.” That tickled her. “So let’s get started.”
“All right. We’ll start with all staff and volunteers who worked at Mooreland Elementary, because they would know that the entrance to the mechanical room didn’t have a camera.”
She paused with her hand over the keyboard. “None of them have a camera,” she told him. “All the buildings are that way.” She glanced toward the superintendent’s office. “He set it up that way because children don’t use those doors, and he thought he could save money.” She clearly wasn’t a fan.
“Is that something that’s well-known?”
She shook her head. “The ones outside those doors are fake. But no one is supposed to know.” She sounded like she was sharing a secret.
“But who would know?” Someone definitely did and used that fact to their advantage.
“Let’s start with all the custodians and principals.” That got her a list of names. “But that’s just an assumption,” she added, and Grant shook his head, the list vanishing. “What else could you use?”
“The person is tall. We know that. Over six feet,” he said. “Do you have that data?”
“Yes. Because of the background checks, we keep basic description data. Do you want current and past employees?” Grant nodded, and that search produced a list of names and a realization of just how fucking little they actually knew about this guy.
“Wait. In Mooreland Elementary, the old water tank was decommissioned. When was that?”
Unity shrugged, but then picked up the phone and made a call. She knew exactly who would have the answer and got it before hanging up. “Eight years ago. That was when they remodeled the heating. Why?” He met her gaze, and she turned away. “Forget I asked.”
“Okay. So this tank is sitting there in the school, but it’s empty and unused. No one is going to think much about it. Why would you?”
“Exactly, and no one is going to even know it’s no longer used or pay attention to it,” Unity added.
“Unless you were there at the time of the remodel. Those are very disruptive. The custodial staff isn’t able to work in the building at that time, and afterward they have to clean up the mess.
Sometimes the teachers can’t get into their classrooms until the very last minute because they’re still being cleaned up after the remodel. ”
“Yeah. But most people aren’t going to pay attention to the remodel details themselves. Teachers are going to be worried about how it affects their classroom and their work. But the custodial staff has to deal with it all.”
“Yes. So let’s concentrate there,” she said and narrowed the search.
“I have four past and present members of the custodial staff that are over six feet tall. None of them worked at Mooreland Elementary, and two of them are part-time and over sixty-five.” She brought up images of the other two.
It was obvious that the build for either man was not the person standing outside the school.
One was quite muscular, and the other was a very tall, thin man in his fifties.
Neither one of them was the person Cameron identified.
Grant had thought that he might have had a way to figure this out, but it was coming to nothing.
“Okay. Let’s start over. Everyone over six feet.
” She nodded, cleared everything, and started again.
“Eliminate anyone Black, Asian, or of Latin descent.” Those were most definitely out.
It took her a few minutes, but the list shortened.
It was still quite a few people. Unity worked a little longer and then added the data into a spreadsheet.
“Okay. I added a bunch of data points in here. Now you can get a better idea of each person. This is their name, positions held, age, height, weight, date of hire, gender, and schools that they’ve worked at.”
Grant looked more closely at the information. “The thing is that the person I’m looking for seems to know the school systems pretty well. We barely caught them on camera, and even then, they knew to keep to the shadows. This is someone who might have worked with those systems.”
“A security officer?” she asked and began typing quickly.
“I’m not sure this helps, but we used a private company for security for a while.
It was ridiculously expensive, so we developed a program in-house.
” She brought up another list of names. “Our security people who meet your criteria are on this list. I’m giving it to you because no students are directly involved.
Otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed. These are the people from the private security firm who meet your criteria, though it has been two years since we used them, so it may be difficult to find what you need. ”
He took the information and thanked her.
“It’s a place to start. I appreciate all your help.
” Grant stood and put Dexter on his lead and left the office.
Once back inside his car, he sat with the lists, staring at names and wondering how he was going to narrow this down.
It wasn’t like he could question each and every one of them just because they had worked for the school and were over six feet tall.
It was quite a few people and potentially a ton of loose ends.
What he needed was a way to break down the list. He got out of the car and went back inside.
Unity met him at the door. “I just thought of something. Can you take the list of people you gave me and remove everyone who was at work in locations other than LeTort Elementary and Mooreland on the following dates?” He gave her the exact dates all three boys went missing.
She led him to the office and worked a few minutes.
“I have it. I can send it to you,” she said, and Grant gave her an email to send the file to.
“Thank you very much.” He waited until the file came through. They were now down to eight names. That was a real place to start. He returned and started the car and headed back to the station, hopefully with something he could use if he could only put the pieces together.