Chapter 8 - The Board Member
Natalie Cole-Bishop’s attorney called the footage “ambiguous.”
Emily thought that was impressive.
A school-board member leaving the campus with the security director on the exact evening Ava vanished, then returning with Ava’s phone, seemed less ambiguous than most things in life.
But ambiguity was what attorneys were paid to manufacture.
Natalie admitted going to the terminal.
She claimed she had been trying to convince Ava to accept a voluntary transfer.
She claimed Ava handed over the phone willingly.
She claimed Mark Danner later drove Ava to another bus station because Ava “wanted space from her mother.”
Sofia Morales called that a lie.
For the first time, Emily saw Ava’s mother in person.
Sofia looked exhausted and furious.
She hugged Rachel outside the district office.
Then turned toward Emily.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For dragging your mother into this.”
“You were protecting Ava.”
Sofia looked away.
“I thought I was.”
“Where is she?”
Sofia’s silence was different from everyone else’s.
Emily noticed.
“You know.”
Sofia’s eyes filled.
Rachel whispered, “Sofia.”
“I don’t know where she is now.”
“But you knew after she left.”
“For a while.”
Emily stared.
“What does that mean?”
Sofia sat on a bench.
“After the bus station, Ava called me from a grocery store.”
“She escaped?”
“She said Danner and Natalie tried to make her sign withdrawal papers. She refused. They took her phone. Danner told her they would drive her home.”
“Did they?”
“No.”
Sofia’s voice shook.
“They drove toward Cole County.”
Emily sat beside her.
“What happened?”
“Ava started screaming when Danner passed our exit. At a gas station, she opened the door and ran.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
“She called me from a woman’s phone.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I did.”
Emily stared.
“What?”
“The officer came. Then his supervisor came. Then Danner arrived.”
Of course.
Former police.
Connections.
Sofia continued.
“Ava panicked. She thought nobody was safe.”
“Where did she go?”
“My sister picked her up.”
“Your sister?”
“In another county.”
“So Ava was safe.”
“For nine days.”
“What happened after nine days?”
Sofia looked toward Ellis, who had just joined them.
“A car started sitting outside my sister’s house.”
Ellis’s expression tightened.
“She moved Ava?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
Emily frowned.
“Your sister didn’t tell you?”
“She said the fewer people who knew, the safer Ava would be.”
“Do police know your sister?”
“Now they do.”
Ellis sat.
“We’ve been trying to locate her since this morning.”
Emily’s pulse quickened.
Ava had escaped the Coles’ plan.
She had not been kidnapped for weeks.
She had been hiding because powerful adults had convinced her the system could not protect her.
Somehow that felt worse.
Dr. Bennett arrived with more bad news.
The school board had voted to place her on administrative leave.
“Why?”
Logan demanded.
“Pending review of my handling of confidential student information.”
Emily laughed.
“They’re suspending you?”
“Four to three vote.”
“Who proposed it?”
Dr. Bennett looked tired.
“Board member Paul Granger.”
“One of Victor’s friends.”
“Yes.”
Acting principal:
Dean Harlow.
Emily actually stood.
“He’s under investigation.”
“Not by the board.”
“This is insane.”
“It is also temporary.”
Temporary power could still destroy evidence.
Logan immediately understood.
“The records room.”
Bennett looked at him.
“What?”
“Harlow gets his office access back.”
Ellis was already calling district counsel.
By the time they arrived at Westbridge, Harlow was inside.
Security video showed him entering the administrative records room.
When Ellis and two district officers opened the door, they found him beside a shredder.
Paper strips filled two plastic bags.
Harlow froze.
Ellis looked at the shredded documents.
“What were you doing?”
“Routine records disposal.”
Logan stared.
“On your first hour back?”
Harlow’s face reddened.
“You are not part of this conversation.”
Emily saw a document sticking halfway from the shredder.
A red stripe along the edge.
The donor disciplinary binder.
Ellis removed it.
Harlow stepped forward.
“That is confidential district property.”
“It’s also potential evidence.”
His face changed.
Outside, reporters gathered.
By evening the board reversed Bennett’s suspension.
Too late.
Enough of the red binder had been shredded that investigators would need days to reconstruct it.
But Harlow had made one mistake.
He had not shredded the cover pocket.
Inside was a handwritten note.
Four words:
Brittany — Morales — make useful.
Below it were initials.
N.C.B.
Natalie Cole-Bishop.
Then a second line.
If she refuses, Victor handles family.
Emily stared at it.
There it was.
Natalie handled the school.
Victor handled the pressure outside.
And Brittany?
She had been used as the weapon inside the hallway.
May you like
Just like she had tried to use the hallway against Emily.
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