Chapter 5 - The Price of Protection
Maya refused to plug Mackenzie’s flash drive into her laptop.
“Why?”
“Because journalists who enjoy keeping their computers functional don’t insert mystery drives handed over by hostile teenagers.”
“I’m not hostile,” Mackenzie muttered.
Ava looked at her.
Mackenzie corrected herself.
“Not currently hostile.”
They met at Maya’s newspaper office, where the technology editor examined the drive on an isolated machine.
There were thirty-seven files.
Most were ordinary.
Invoices.
Meeting agendas.
Contract drafts.
Photographs from Scott Civic construction sites.
Then they found a folder titled RHS.
Inside were exported text-message screenshots.
Grant Scott and Principal Mercer.
The first exchange dated back fourteen months.
GRANT: We can’t afford another public mess before the facilities campaign.
MERCER: Porter family meeting tomorrow. I’ll control it.
GRANT: Board member Walsh is panicking.
MERCER: His son will not appear in a formal expulsion hearing.
Ava looked at Mackenzie.
“You read these?”
“Not all.”
The next exchange appeared six months later.
Ava recognized the date.
Her first complaint.
MERCER: Your daughter again.
GRANT: Serious?
MERCER: Backpack nonsense. I’ll keep it verbal.
GRANT: Thank you.
Then:
MERCER: She may be persistent.
GRANT: Her mother?
MERCER: No. The girl.
Ava felt strangely exposed.
They had discussed her.
Assessed her.
Reduced her to a problem requiring management.
Mackenzie looked sick.
“I didn’t know he was sending my dad updates about you.”
“You knew you were protected.”
“I thought it was because of donations.”
“That makes it so much better.”
Laura placed a hand on Ava’s arm.
“Keep reading.”
The next file changed everything.
It contained photographs of a contract appendix.
Scott Civic had originally submitted a bid of $19.7 million for Ridgeview’s modernization project.
Another company, Harland Municipal Builders, submitted $18.2 million.
Yet Harland had been eliminated for supposedly failing a technical qualification involving storm-drain engineering.
Two weeks later, Scott Civic submitted a revised bid.
$18.16 million.
Forty thousand dollars below Harland.
Maya leaned toward the screen.
“How did they know what they had to beat?”
Mackenzie whispered, “I don’t know.”
Ava looked at her.
“You copied this from your dad’s office.”
“That doesn’t mean I understand it.”
The technology editor opened another screenshot.
Mercer had sent Grant Scott a photograph.
A spreadsheet.
At the top was a list of competing bids.
Maya said nothing for several seconds.
Laura finally whispered, “Is that legal?”
“Not if the bids were supposed to be confidential.”
“Were they?”
“I need procurement documents.”
Maya was already typing.
Mackenzie looked at Ava.
“This is why I came.”
“No. You came because your father started deleting things.”
“Yes.”
“And you got scared he was going to get caught.”
Mackenzie’s face tightened.
“You think I’m protecting him?”
“Aren’t you?”
“I’m protecting me.”
At least that was honest.
“If he goes down, everybody will act like I knew everything.”
“You knew enough.”
“I’m seventeen.”
“So am I almost.”
“You don’t understand.”
Ava laughed bitterly.
“That’s what people say when they want their choices to count less than mine.”
Mackenzie stood.
Laura watched carefully.
Mackenzie looked toward the office windows.
“My entire life, my father has decided what happens after I make a mistake.”
Ava said nothing.
“If I failed something, he called somebody. If a coach benched me, he donated equipment. If I got in trouble, he said the school needed to remember who supported it.”
“That sounds terrible,” Ava said coldly.
“It was.”
Ava stared at her.
For the first time, Mackenzie’s voice cracked.
“Because after a while you don’t know whether anyone likes you or is afraid of him.”
Ava almost felt sympathy.
Then she remembered the cafeteria floor.
“You still kicked the table.”
Mackenzie looked down.
“I know.”
“You still told everyone I didn’t matter.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to turn your father into an excuse.”
“I’m not.”
“Good.”
Mackenzie picked up her bag.
At the door, she stopped.
“There’s another folder.”
The technology editor frowned.
“We checked everything.”
“Hidden file.”
He searched.
Mackenzie gave him the password.
LEAH17
The folder appeared.
Ava’s skin prickled.
Inside was an audio file.
Only forty-three seconds long.
Maya clicked play.
Grant Scott’s voice filled the room.
“Elias, Walsh is losing his mind. Keep the Porter girl from putting anything in front of the board.”
Mercer answered.
“She already filed.”
“Then change what it’s called.”
A pause.
Mercer spoke more quietly.
“And if her parents challenge it?”
Grant laughed.
“Parents get tired. Students get scared. Give them time.”
The recording ended.
Nobody moved.
Mackenzie was staring at the screen.
“I’d never heard that.”
Maya looked at her.
“Where did your father get this recording?”
“I don’t know.”
“It appears to be recorded from inside a room.”
Mackenzie frowned.
“He records meetings sometimes.”
“Does Mercer know?”
“I don’t know.”
Maya replayed it.
This time Ava heard something beneath the voices.
A mechanical hum.
Then a bell.
Ridgeview’s old passing bell.
The recording had likely been made at school.
Laura whispered, “This could destroy them.”
Maya shook her head.
“It could prove they discussed manipulating a complaint. We still need authentication.”
Ava almost smiled.
Again: evidence moved slowly.
Then Mackenzie’s phone rang.
She looked at the caller.
Her face drained.
“My dad.”
No one spoke.
It stopped.
Immediately, a message appeared.
Mackenzie read it.
“What?” Ava asked.
Mackenzie turned the screen around.
COME HOME NOW.
Then another.
I know what you took.
Mackenzie’s hands began to shake.
A third message appeared.
May you like
And I know who you gave it to.
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