Page 33 of Peak Suspicion
“The way he looked at you wasn’t curiosity, it was concern.” Shayla elbowed her again. “You should ask him out.”
Mira shook her head.
“Why not? You told me that’s what I should do.”
“I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone,” Mira said.
Shayla’s expression sobered. “Nothing wrong with that. But you should tell Carter that. Just in case he’s getting the wrong message.”
“I’ve told him. We agreed to be just friends.”
“Does that ever really work?”
“Men and women can be friends,” Mira said.
“Sure they can,” Shayla agreed. “If both of them are on the same page about their feelings. But I think Carter might be more into you than you realize.”
And I might be more into him than I’m ready to admit. They reached the door of Mira’s classroom. “I’ll see you at the barbecue tomorrow,” she said. She could stand back and cheer on Shayla and Mitch’s romance without worrying about one of her own.
Mira entered her classroom. A couple of students were already there, standing just inside the door and staring at the whiteboard behind her desk.
“Ms. Veronica, it was like that when we came in,” one of the students, Douglas Graham, said. An earnest kid with brownish-red hair, his skin was so pale right now his freckles stood out like sprinkled cinnamon.
Mira followed his gaze to the foot-high letters scrawled in red marker on the board and gasped.Kid killer,the message read, marker smeared below it like dripping blood.
Chapter Ten
“No one is supposed to enter the building without a pass,” Principal Martin’s voice shook as he spoke to Deputy Ryker Vernon. “To enter any door but the main one requires an electronic key card that is only issued to staff. The front entrance has a camera and a metal detector everyone must pass through. Visitors then have to check in with the front office and receive a pass. That goes for parents, spouses or local dignitaries. No exceptions.”
“No one asked me to check in at the office when I arrived,” Ryker said.
The principal glared at him. “This is not the time for sarcasm, Deputy.”
“I wasn’t being sarcastic. I’m assuming someone dressed like a law enforcement officer could enter unchallenged.”
“No one reported seeing a law enforcement officer in the halls today,” Principal Martin said. “And we have a camera on that door. You can check it.”
“Do any of the other doors have cameras?”
“The back door to the gym and the outside door to the cafeteria.”
“How many unmonitored doors are there?”
“Half a dozen? But they all require the electronic key card.”
“Has anyone reported their card missing?” Ryker asked.
“Not that I know of, but I’ll check.”
“Please do.” Ryker turned to Mira. She had been seated at her desk, her back to the damning message, stunned. Her twostudents had been sent to the office to wait for their parents to arrive. After that, they would be questioned, but they had already said the classroom had been empty when they arrived, and they hadn’t seen anyone out of place in the halls.
“Do you know of anyone who could have written this message?” he asked. “A student or another teacher?”
“No.” She glanced at Principal Martin. “No one else knows about the anonymous letters I received, or Bryce’s pants being found in my desk.”
“Someone could have leaked that information,” Ryker said.
“I suppose.” She looked at the principal. He certainly knew about the pants.
