Page 76 of Vanish From Sight
She blew out her cheeks. “You got it.”
In some ways, she was glad to take a backseat. At least if he dug himself a hole, she wouldn’t be the one on the hook.
The tension in the room could be cut with a knife from the moment they entered. However, it was different this time. It was clear that Rector Hawthorne had his guard up as there were other faculty members in attendance.
Hawthorne stepped forward. “Alexander Hawthorne. Please, take a seat.”
“Thank you,” McKenzie said, extending his hand and shaking Hawthorne’s. “Detective Angus McKenzie, I’m the lead investigator for Adirondack County Sheriff’s Office.” He turned and with a gesture of the hand pointed to Callie. “This is Deputy Callie Thorne.”
“Yes, we’ve had the pleasure of meeting already,” he said, shaking her hand.
“You have?” McKenzie’s gaze darted between them. “Ah, well, she is just here to observe.” Of course, he had to throw it out there. A slight jab to make it clear to others that he was at the helm.
“Mr. Sutherland not with you?”
“I’m afraid he was called away. An urgent matter,” McKenzie replied.
Hawthorne nodded then turned to the three others who were present. “This is our residential director, Helen Anderson, and Dalton Mathers is our expedition leader, and of course, last but not least, Erin Spencer is our current counselor. I’ve asked them to join us.”
Erin squinted and shook Callie’s hand. “You wouldn’t happen to be related to an Abigail Thorne, would you?”
“That’s my mother.”
Erin took a seat. “What a small world. I had the honor of listening to one of her talks when I was studying at Harvard. A true pioneer.”
“Really?” Callie replied.
Erin turned to Hawthorne who looked intrigued. “The deputy’s mother is Abigail Thorne, a psychologist and professor of Psychology and Computer Science at Harvard.”
“Was,” Callie was quick to correct her. “She passed on two years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I admired the work that she did. It was very influential.” Erin turned to Hawthorne to clarify. “Abigail developed a unique approach to rational analysis and cognitive science and was heavily involved in ACT, which stands for Adaptive Control of Thoughts. She had a lot of interesting insights into planning, solving and response stages as well as breaking down problems into more manageable components.” She looked back at Callie. “I expect what you learned from your mother will be an asset to the Sheriff’s Office.”
“I hope so,” Callie replied.
“You’re lucky to have her,” Erin said to McKenzie.
McKenzie cut her a sideways glance, an eyebrow rising. “Seems so.”
Hawthorne fidgeted in his chair, smiling politely but it was clear he wanted to get down to business. “So how can we help?”
McKenzie glanced around. He stood up and perused the room under their watchful eye, picking up items as if he was there to make some formal inspection before he turned toward them. “You ever heard the saying, kill two birds with one stone?” He paused. “I never really understood the phrase. I mean, sure, the idea behind it is to achieve two things by doing a single action. But really. Why would you ever want to kill birds in the first place? And if you did, could you really do it with one single action?” He smiled.
“It’s a metaphor,” Hawthorne said, chuckling.
“Well of course it is.” McKenzie joined him before losing his smile. “Still, two birds together, so close. You know — somethingthat brings them so closely together and yet offers enough reason for both to die. Katherine Evans and Laura Summers for instance. What are the odds of that?”
Hawthorne exhaled loudly. “Our nurse. Yes. We heard.” He paused for a second. “Her partner, Ana Silva, notified us.”
“Well, that saves us a lot of time. I mean, I hate having to give the death notification. It never gets easy,” he said sarcastically. Callie glanced at the others to gauge their reaction. Either he knew what he was doing or once again he was being an ass.
Hawthorne remained stoic.
“It’s a real tragedy. That’s what it is. A definite blow for the Academy.”
“Oh, I’d say it affects more people than the Academy.”
“Well, of course, that’s what I meant. It’s just… because she worked here.”
