Chapter 2 - Copies
Principal Danner took Lily and Hailey to separate offices.
At least, that was what he claimed he intended to do.
Instead, within three minutes, all three of them were standing inside his office while Assistant Principal Marjorie Wells tried unsuccessfully to persuade him that school policy required separate statements.
“Robert,” Wells said carefully, “they should not be interviewed together.”
“I’m trying to establish what happened.”
“We already have approximately forty recordings.”
Danner looked irritated.
“Which students were instructed to delete.”
“No,” Lily said.
Danner turned.
“What?”
“You told them to put their phones away. You didn’t tell them to delete anything.”
His expression hardened.
“You seem unusually interested in technicalities.”
“My mother says technicalities are what people call rules when they don’t like them.”
Hailey gave Lily a disgusted look.
“Could you stop acting like you’re some kind of lawyer?”
Lily looked at her bruised knees.
“Could you stop kicking furniture into people?”
Wells intervened.
“Enough.”
She sat beside Lily.
“Are you injured?”
“My knees hurt.”
“We’ll have the nurse examine you.”
Danner tapped his pen against the desk.
“First, I need whatever confidential material Lily brought onto campus.”
“I didn’t bring confidential material.”
“The drive.”
“I never said I had it.”
“But you reached into your bag.”
“For my phone.”
That was true.
The original copy was not in Lily’s backpack.
Neither was the second.
Rebecca had placed one with attorney Melissa Grant, who represented the district cafeteria workers’ union.
A third encrypted copy sat in cloud storage.
What Lily carried was a short clip copied to her phone.
Twenty-six seconds.
Just enough.
Danner leaned back.
“Then show me your phone.”
“No.”
“Lily—”
“Do I have to?”
Wells looked at him.
“Not without a specific policy basis.”
Danner’s eyes narrowed.
Hailey noticed.
“What is happening?”
Nobody answered.
Her voice rose.
“What did my dad do?”
Lily almost felt sorry for her.
Almost.
Then she remembered the bread roll under the cafeteria bench.
Danner stood.
“I’m calling both parents.”
“My mother’s already coming,” Lily said.
Hailey immediately took out her phone.
Danner snapped, “Put that away.”
She ignored him and called her father.
He did not answer.
She tried again.
Nothing.
For the first time, Hailey Carter looked like a girl who had encountered a door money could not instantly open.
Twenty minutes later, Rebecca Morgan entered the office wearing her cafeteria uniform.
The front of her navy shirt still carried a small flour stain.
Her eyes went first to Lily’s knees.
“What happened?”
“Hailey kicked the table.”
Rebecca turned toward Hailey.
Hailey looked away.
Danner stepped in.
“We are investigating an altercation involving both students.”
“Both?”
“Lily made statements regarding confidential district information.”
Rebecca became completely still.
“Did she?”
Danner lowered his voice.
“You know exactly what I mean.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“So you’re investigating the child who was knocked off a bench because you’re worried about what evidence she might possess?”
“That is not what I said.”
“It’s exactly what you demonstrated.”
Danner’s office door opened.
William Carter walked in.
He wore a charcoal suit and the same expensive watch Lily had noticed on her porch the previous night.
Hailey rushed toward him.
“Dad.”
He touched her shoulder.
“You okay?”
Lily nearly laughed.
He had not asked her that when he entered.
He did not even look at the bruises forming below her skirt.
Rebecca noticed too.
“Mr. Carter,” she said.
William’s gaze met hers.
Something passed between them.
Last night.
The porch.
His offer.
His threat.
“Rebecca,” he said carefully.
Hailey stared between them.
“You really went to their house?”
William ignored the question.
Danner closed the office door.
“Perhaps we should all be reasonable.”
Rebecca’s eyes sharpened.
“That word seems to appear whenever powerful people are about to request silence.”
William exhaled.
“Rebecca, this isn’t the place.”
“No. Last night, my home was the place. Today, apparently, my daughter’s cafeteria is.”
“Dad,” Hailey said again. “What video?”
William finally looked at her.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
The answer frightened her more than any confession could have.
Rebecca reached into her bag.
Danner stood quickly.
“What are you doing?”
She removed a manila envelope.
“Giving Ms. Wells my formal complaint about what happened today.”
Then she looked at him.
“And informing you that copies of the footage you’re worried about are no longer under your control.”
Danner’s face drained.
William said softly, “Rebecca.”
She turned to him.
“You had your chance last night.”
Hailey looked from her father to Lily.
“What is on it?”
Lily’s phone buzzed.
A notification appeared.
CEDAR RIDGE CHAOS — FULL CAFETERIA VIDEO
Someone had uploaded Hailey’s attack.
Already 3,412 views.
Then another message appeared.
From an unknown number.
Your mother only knows about the cafeteria contracts. Ask her what Invoice 4417 was really paying for.
Lily stared at the screen.
Another message followed.
Your father asked the same question before he died.
She looked up at Rebecca.
May you like
For the first time since William Carter entered the room, Lily forgot Hailey completely.
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