Page 110 of Web of Lies
Click.
I twist the door handle carefully, peeking my head inside the darkened hallway. “It’s clear,” I whisper up at Seger as we make our way silently down the hallway.
“How fucking eerie is this,” Seger whispers, looking around the shadows.
On light feet, we make our way down the hall, holding our breaths. Regardless of Zepp monitoring us through the cameras, anything could happen, and anyone could catch us. The last thing I want is to get myself, and Seger kicked out of school for trespassing.
I scowl as we round the hallway across from the principal’s office. “Ew, do you hear that?”Grunt. Smack. Grunt. Smack.
Someone hits someone over and over.Smack. Grunt. Smack. Grunt.Only they’re enjoying it, really enjoying it. Especially the man, he’s moaning so low it’s filling the hallway and—oh crap. Maze flashbacks assault my mind. It’s like I’m standing in the middle of it. But no, I’m standing at the edge of the school’s hallway. My face twists, heating like an oven, looking back at Seger’s grinning face, his hands rub together.
“Oh yeah,” Seger says with a little too much excitement. “Someone’s getting frisky in here, like really frisky.” He wiggles his eyebrows, making me roll my eyes.
“Well, whoever they are, let’s hope they stay busy for another hour.” I breathe, trying to block out their disturbing sexy time.
An ominous shiver scurries down my spine the moment we stand in front of Shaw’s office. I crane my neck, looking up at the dark wooden door. Cloudy glass covers a tiny square on the outside, hiding what’s on the inside. For today, that’s perfect. No one will detect us here.
“Oh, I don’t think that’ll be a problem, princess. I’m pretty sure they’re going to be going at it for a long time, and besides, once they’re done, they’ll leave.” He shrugs, standing over me again.
Falling to my knees, I lean my ear close to the lock. With all the noise coming from down the hall, it’s almost impossible to listen for the tiny click, but that’s the key to it all, moving the cylinders inside the mechanism at the perfect time and listening for the click.
Click.
I stand, turning the knob, and we enter the darkened office. “Are you ever going to teach me how to do that?” Seger asks, flicking the lock. “Because—that’s pretty fucking sexy, but it would come in handy.”
Walking into the darkened office sends the same chills up my spine. There’s a bad omen in the air, and it stinks. The darkened room gives me pause, but Seger, of course, has other ideas. A manic grin spreads across his lips when he gazes at the large office like a new playroom. Give the boy a swing or a ball pit and call it a day.
Tall, dark bookshelves line two walls, with a large desk in the center and a small closet in the corner. Seger pokes his head inside the small closet, smiling, probably thinking dirty thoughts. Turning to me, he wiggles his eyebrows suggestively, implying I should join him inside.
A laugh escapes me as I plop down onto the headmaster’s chair. “Yeah, I’ll teach you,” I say, curling my fingers toward Seger. “Now, hand it over.” He rolls his eyes, coming up behind me and handing me the USB stick Zepp made for this crime.
“So what? You just plug it in, and it copies everything?” Seger asks, leaning over me as I plug it in.
“Ah, pretty much. The computer will recognize it, and then it’ll do its thing.” I shrug, typing in a few things into the command box, the USB copies every piece of information stored on the computer. Unfortunately, it’s a time-consuming process. A blue box pops up on the screen, starting at one percent, climbing at a snail’s pace.
“Now that’s started, I need that,” I say, pointing towards the picture that’s captured my interest since the moment I walked in here a few weeks ago.
“Why?” Seger asks with creased brows, making his way over to the picture situated high on the wall, and plucks it off. He hands it to me regardless of his question, leaning over my shoulder.
Four identical-looking boys, sporting the same blonde hair, smile at the camera. Two have brown eyes, and two have dark blue, sharing the same shapes and crinkles. It’s easy now to tell which one is Shaw, who is smack dab in the middle of the picture. He’s smaller than the other two, but not the youngest. A younger boy sits in front of him, maybe three years old, looking as happy as the other boys. Their smiles light up the picture better than the Christmas lights behind them.
The jubilation they felt that day comes through the photos in waves. They’re all so happy together, showing off their new toys with laughs and giggles. But who are they, and why can’t I get these boys out of my head? I pick apart the frame, taking the old picture in my hands. I snap a pic with my camera and then turn it over, snapping a picture of the names on the back.
Lucas, William, Edward, and Joshua. No last name. No year, just their names scribbled in cursive. I turn it over again and stare at the woman behind them with a deep scowl etched into her exhausted face with a cigarette propped between her fingers. She stares at the boys like they’re the bane of her existence, like they pissed in her cornflakes and ruined her entire life. Whatever her problem was with them, it seemed to run deep—blood deep.
“So, what’s the verdict?” Seger asks as he places the picture back onto the wall, staring at the boys’ faces too.
“Just a hunch,” I say with a shrug. Walking to the bookshelf in the corner, I run my fingers down the thick spines of each book.
“You’re killing me, babe. Just a hunch? Spill,” he whines.
Wrapping his arms around me from behind, he snuggles into my neck, rubbing his nose up and down the length of my flesh. Sometimes I think he needs this closeness to feel in control and grounded, like when my father threatened to take me home. He didn’t want to let me go. But that’s fine, too. I enjoy his cuddles, probably too much sometimes, because he grounds me too. His touches—all their touches—spark me to life.
“I investigated him after coming here when I realized he was new. His records are all squeaky clean. Closed adoption, an only child, raised by a single mother, everything online screams perfect. So why does he have an old picture like that hanging in his office? Who are they to him?” I ask, gesturing to the picture.
“Sounds too clean to me,” Zepp says through our earpieces. My body jumps, forcing an embarrassing squeak to come out. He really is like a sneaky ninja. “Just like everyone else you suspected,” he says through a sigh on the line. Crap, he’s right. Everyone I researched before coming here, besides them, is squeaky clean.
“We still look good, man?” Seger asks, leaning into me.
