Page 112 of Vanish From Sight
He shrugged, glancing back at the TV. “Like you said, theories lead us nowhere. Only facts do.”
“Then where are the facts leading us?”
Noah took his glass and wandered over to the French doors that led out to the balcony. Callie’s fourth floor apartment didn’t have a clear view of the town or anything but trees for that matter, as it was nestled in Adirondack State Park. “We have an assault that was confirmed by one of the boys alleged to have been there. So, I’ve been thinking a lot about gain and loss. You know — who had the most to gain from the murders of Katherine and Laura. And with both of them alive, what would the perpetrator stand to lose?”
Callie chimed in. “Both women had knowledge of the assault on Isabella and the alleged hazing. If Isabella was telling the truth, someone from the Academy would have every reason to want to keep that quiet. That’s why there is no police report of her assault. If it got out that they never reported the assault to police, the backlash from that alone would be the end of the school’s reputation. No one would trust them, let alone send their kids there.”
“But is that enough to murder two people?” Noah asked, looking back at her. “Countless private boarding schools over the years have been exposed for sexual misconduct.”
Callie mused. “Yes, but not until decades later when the statute of limitations was past.”
“So why wait? If they felt that Katherine and Laura were athreat, they could have acted sooner,” Noah said. “No, I don’t buy it.”
Callie took a sip of her drink before saying, “The Academy felt the matter was handled. It was only when Charlie Delaney started seeing Katherine that she would have brought it up for a second time, and this time it wouldn’t have just been the alleged assault on Isabella but what happened to him too.”
Noah shifted his weight from one foot to the next. “So, Hawthorne gives Katherine an option.”
Callie nodded. “It might have been career suicide taking a private school that has been around for decades to court, especially when accusations were leveled at her. So she exited. Then two months pass.”
“Exactly,” he said. “The Academy thought they were out of the woods. However, the next time the matter would have been brought up, was when Sawyer got involved. Now they realize this isn’t going away and not only are they dealing with sexual assault, but also Charlie’s attack and the unfair dismissal of an employee. That’s one hell of a dark cloud to live under. And to top it off, Katherine is now willing to lose her career for the sake of the truth.”
Callie stared at him. “So, she’s murdered and they follow through with Laura.”
“Go on,” Noah said, encouraging her to follow that same train of logic.
“By this point Sawyer is inside but there is no way of knowing if he’s going down for it, so an attempt is made on Nicholas and they opt to pin the evidence on him.” She shook her head and ran a hand over her blonde hair. “No. Something’s not right here.”
“What?” he asked.
“All right. Just humor me on this one. We know that Hawthorne doesn’t have an alibi for the night Katherine wasfound dead. Okay. If Hawthorne was behind it, let’s say he kills Katherine, he follows up with Laura and makes sure Sawyer’s stolen SUV is seen. He then sets fire to it so it could be found and linked back to Sawyer. However, Sawyer was inside when that fire occurred, leading us to believe that it couldn’t have been him. That’s also backed up by the stolen vehicle report Sawyer filed and CCTV footage that wouldn’t have given him enough time to do the murder. So instead of leaving the keys in the vehicle, Hawthorne or someone from the Academy plants them at Nicholas’ place along with the rest of the evidence, knowing full well that Nicholas was the only other person that Katherine might have talked to about the assaults, but that’s the problem…”
Noah smiled. He could tell she was beginning to realize what he had discovered and why he’d refused to believe that it was Nicholas. “Keep going,” Noah said. It was a simple matter of connecting the dots and applying common sense.
“If Hawthorne is responsible for the murders, he couldn’t have known who Katherine told. She may have told countless people. So, killing Nicholas wouldn’t have helped. In fact, it might have worked against the Academy because they would have known that we would have looked into Katherine’s background, spoke with Nicholas, learned about the dismissal and the alleged interference with children. We found no report had been filed, let alone the alleged assault on Isabella. And that alone would have opened up a can of worms he didn’t want.”
“Exactly. It would have ended up with the result Hawthorne didn’t want in the first place, which was for no one to know about what was covered up. An adult would think about that. A teen? Maybe not so much. Isabella was straightforward. Charlie didn’t deny it.”
They exchanged a contemplative stare.
“And there are only three other people who really knewabout it: Hawthorne, Charlie and Isabella. You think they might be targeted next?” He didn’t even need to answer it. The penny dropped. “You think it’s the boys who murdered them?”
Noah nodded.
“But there were four of them. You honestly think they’re all involved?”
“Remember, Thorne, we are dealing with a theory here. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” He reached for a pen and piece of paper. “You got a map of the area?”
“Yeah. One second.”
She returned a moment later and helped him clear off the table so he could spread it out. Noah unfolded the map. He circled the places where Katherine and Laura were found, and the Evans home, and then drew a red line back to the Academy. “Connery Pond is nine minutes away for Laura. Pulpit Rock is fourteen minutes away for Katherine. The Evans residence in Keene is twenty minutes. Nate Sawyer’s residence is ten minutes.” Noah turned to his scrap of paper and jotted down the names of the victims. “Here’s what dawned on me. Katherine Evans, Laura Summers, and even if we include Nicholas Evans, who still hasn’t regained consciousness at the hospital. All of their deaths occurred within a very specific time frame. Okay, we don’t know exactly what time Katherine died at, but if we go on the timeline of Laura’s abduction based on her run, and then we take the incident at the Evans house, which we have McKenzie’s logbook to thank for that. Then we take the time of when the farmer saw the SUV on fire. All three, four if you include the site where Sawyer’s SUV was found, are within thirty minutes’ driving distance of the Academy. Based on the estimated time of death for Lena, she doesn’t fall into the timeline as she was located at Split Rock Falls, a forty-minute one-way drive from here, which is less than an hour and a half if you race back. Now I called the Academy tonight to find out when everyone eats inthe dining hall. They said between five-thirty and six-thirty. That’s an hour window. Plenty of time for them to do what needs to be done and get back without anyone noticing they are gone.”
“We saw people eating elsewhere — in the library.”
“Exactly,” he replied, nodding. Noah continued. “And I’m pretty sure unless they knew to leave their phones behind, we’ll soon have a record of where their phones pinged. There is a chance it will match these locations. However, chances are if this is correct, and all four are involved, they may have left them behind with one or two of the other teens.”
“So they would have an alibi,” she said.
“Exactly. Phones stay at the Academy, and the word of two other students. It’s busy. You saw it. Students were coming and going. Some were eating outside, in the library, walking down the hallway.”
