The Third Victim Part 63

Jean Walker looked directly at Rainie, trying to second Quincy's motion with her gaze. Go, get out of here, before you make things worse.

Rainie turned away and walked down the hill with Quincy at her side.

People were still staring. For the first time in her life, she didn't return their gazes.

She kept walking, and for reasons she couldn't talk about, she was ashamed.

Friday, May 18, 5:04 p.m.

Rainie, Luke Hayes, Sanders, and Quincy a.s.sembled in the attic of city hall for the task-force meeting. Rainie had already been in the headquarters for the past thirty minutes, gathering paperwork and breaking any #2. pencil she could find. The hardwood floor was now covered with slivers of yellow debris, earning concerned looks from both Sanders and Quincy. Luke, on the other hand, barely registered the mess. He had been working with Rainie for years.

Rainie took a seat behind her sawhorse desk and briskly shuffled together her notes.

"Ready?"

The three men unfolded their metal seats and nodded.

"Let's start with updates on the suspects first, since I know we have progress there. Next we'll move on to evidence, then revisit our theories of the case. Got it?" Everyone nodded. Rainie began:

"At our last meeting I was a.s.signed Charlie Kenyon and Richard Mann as possible suspects. Charlie's a bust. He was out of town on Tuesday, visiting his girlfriend in Portland, which was corroborated by the girl's parents. As you'll see in my notes' she handed out three copies of her handwritten interview with Charlie'he hung out with Danny O'grady on occasion, but I'm willing to believe he didn't know anything about plans to attack the school. Mostly because we have Charlie arraigned on possession charges right now, and if he did know anything specific, he'd be dealing that information to save his hide." "Charlie, Charlie, Charlie," Luke murmured.

"Exactly. So count Charlie out. That leaves us with Richard Mann.

I've run a basic background report." Rainie pa.s.sed around more copies.

"Mann has no record of criminal activity and no handguns registered in his name in Oregon or California. I called the L.A. school where he worked as a student teacher last year, and they rave about the guy.

They're sending me a copy of his personnel file, but I'm not sure it's gonna lead anywhere. Finally, the school's secretary, Marge, confirms his alibi: She saw him go into his office with a sandwich at the beginning of the period. And she was there, right outside his and Princ.i.p.al VanderZanden's offices, until shots were fired. She also said that to the best of the rumor mill's knowledge, there wasn't anything one way or another between the school counselor and Miss Avalon."

"Does that seem odd?" Sanders spoke up.

"They're both young, both new in town. Seems like if anything they'd be friends."

"Sure, why not?" Rainie agreed.

"Or maybe VanderZanden entered the picture right away, and after that Avalon wasn't interested in expanding her social circle. Don't know.

I'll keep asking around, I'm just not optimistic. On a scale of one to ten, ten being the son of a b.i.t.c.h we're going to lock up for life, I give Richard Mann a three, but it's a weasel factor three, based more on the fact that he's held out information on us than anything concrete." Rainie shrugged. She'd tried, but at the moment her suspects looked no good.

"What about Princ.i.p.al VanderZanden? Sanders?"

"Still inconclusive," Sanders reported, opening a color-coded file and also dispensing copies. Rainie noticed that his notes were typed and he had chosen a nice font.

"VanderZanden's alibi for the shooting is also the school secretary, Marge. She said she saw VanderZanden go into his office and shut the door at the end of lunch. Minutes later, when the shots were fired, he came running out of his office and joined her in the hall."

"Sounds like an alibi to me," Luke said.

Sanders shook his head.

"Yes and no. When I checked out the offices' Sanders gave Rainie a pointed glance 7 happened to notice that both Richard Mann's and Princ.i.p.al VanderZanden's offices have windows big enough for a grown man to exit. That raises the possibility of either man departing his office through the window, reentering the school through the side door, and surprising Miss Avalon in her cla.s.sroom. In theory, he could've used Danny to create a large diversion by continuing the gunfire while he ran back out of the school and reentered his office through the window.

"The good news with this scenario is it would explain why some children thought they saw a man in black but none of the neighbors saw anyone flee through their yards. The bad news is that the office windows overlook the school parking lot. What are the chances of a grown man climbing in and out of that window without anyone noticing?"

"Stranger things have happened," Luke said with a shrug, but no one jumped on that bandwagon. The chances were pretty slim.

"For the sake of argument," Sanders continued, 'we do have motive.

According to Avalon's diary, she was starting to have doubts about being involved with VanderZanden. In her last entry she talks about wanting to find a therapist. You know, to resolve her father-figure issues."

"Had she told VanderZanden this?" Quincy asked.

"Don't know. We haven't found any correspondence between them. Plus, I can't find any close friends or confidantes to tell us more about Avalon's state of mind. According to her coworkers, she was nice but kept to herself. Her phone bills are a bust. I can't even find records of her calling VanderZanden, so they either communicated strictly in person or she did it all by computer. Of course, the computers are wiped clean."

"So we have one possible scenario," Rainie summarized.

"Avalon wanted to end things with VanderZanden. He retaliated by arranging her murder, disguised as a school shooting. Which involved

intimidating Danny into being his cover, wiping all lab computers clean to cover his tracks, and sneaking in and out of his office to do the actual crime." She frowned.

"It's elaborate, but not impossible."

"Give him a six," Sanders said.

"He has motive and opportunity. The VanderZandens only have a .2,1 rifle registered in their name, but it's not impossible to get your hands on an unregistered gun. I mean, as long as you're climbing out your office window, why not stop at the street corner for a black-market semiauto?"

"Point taken," Rainie observed dryly. She was about to turn to Luke when Quincy interrupted.

"What about Mrs. VanderZanden?"

"What about her?" Sanders asked.

"Any evidence that she knew about the affair? Neighbors report any tension in the marriage?"

"Umm .. ." For once the superefficient detective was caught off guard.

"I'd have to get back to you on that."

Rainie was impressed. So Sanders wasn't all-knowing, after all. Who would've thought?

She returned to their rundown of current suspects.

"Luke, bring Sanders up to date on Daniel and Angelina Avalon."

Luke turned to Sanders. He didn't have notes or handouts, and his expression made it clear he thought Sanders's color-coded binders were a deep-seated cry for help.

"Angelina Avalon is Melissa's stepmom," Luke reported off the top of his head.

"Her real mom died during childbirth. Daniel waited thirteen years to remarry, and Quincy thinks he was having "inappropriate relations" with his daughter."

"Incest?" Sanders asked incredulously.

"Bingo," Luke said.