Will told the security guard, "Get some more of your men around here. Keep the press off school property."
"Yes, sir," the man replied, taking his walkie-talkie out of his pocket.
Will took the steps up to the main building two at a time. He had already debated with Amanda about how to approach this. Emma Campano was in danger, but Evan Bernard could not hurt her while he was at school. Surprise was the only element they had in their favor. The fact that the ransom call was supposed to be made within the next half hour had sealed the deal. If they could catch him on the phone, that would be all the proof they would need.
Will reached out to press the intercom button, but he was already buzzed in. Olivia McFaden waited for him on the other side of the door.
She didn't mince words. "There are two officers with guns in front of my school."
"There are two more in the back," Will informed her, ushering her down the hallway by her arm. He led her into the same conference room they had used the day before. "I'm going to tell you some things and I need you to remain calm."
She jerked her arm away. "I run a high school, Mr. Trent. There's not much you can say that would shock me."
Will did not feel the need to go into the fact that they had found Bernard's sperm inside one of his dead students. Instead, he told the woman, "We have reason to believe that Evan Bernard was having a sexual affair with Kayla Alexander."
Apparently, she could be shocked. She sunk into one of the chairs. "My God." She stood up just as quickly, her mind leaping to the next conclusion. Kayla had been murdered, but Emma was still missing. "He's got students-" She was heading toward the door, but Will stopped her.
"Is there a camera in his room?"
She was still trying to absorb the news, but McFaden snapped out of her surprise quickly enough. "This way," she said, leading him back into the hallway and to the main office. "Colleen," she told the woman behind the desk. "Pull up Mr. Bernard's classroom."
The woman turned to the bank of monitors and tapped some keys. There were six screens in all, each partitioned into smaller images from various cameras around the school. They were all in color, all showing crisp, clear images. Colleen pressed another key and Evan Bernard's classroom filled the middle screen.
There he was in his rumpled jacket and patchy beard, walking up and down the rows of desks, surrounded by teenagers. The class was a small one, maybe a dozen kids in all. They were mostly young girls, their knees clenched together under their desks, pens scribbling nimbly as they recorded Mr. Bernard's every word. No one had their heads down on their desks. They seemed enraptured. Had the fifteen-year-old whom Evan Bernard met in Savannah looked at him the same way? Maybe she did until he raped her.
Will asked, "Is there audio?"
Colleen tapped another key. Sound came out of the speakers, Evan Bernard discussing the importance of The Awakening in American literature.
Will asked, "When is his planning period?"
The principal provided, "Right after lunch, so he gets about an hour and a half between classes."
"Can you give me an exact time frame?"
"Class ends at eleven forty-five. Evan wouldn't have to be back until one-thirty."
Plenty of time, Will thought. Adam's car was parked in the garage at eleven-fifteen. Paul Campano had made the 9-1-1 call at twelve-thirty.
Will asked the secretary, "Do you archive footage?"
"We have everything from every school year since we started recording in 1998," Colleen told him. "What do you need?"
"Two days ago," Will said. "From eleven forty-five until one-thirty."
"Well, that's easy." She kept the image of Bernard on the monitor and pulled up the information on another screen. The woman knew how to work the keyboard and she had obviously figured out what they wanted, because she tracked Evan Bernard's movements as he packed up his briefcase, left his classroom, walked down the hall, exited the building, got into his red Volvo C30 and drove away.
Will tried not to get excited. "When did he return?"
The parking lot was still on the monitor, and she fast-forwarded the camera until Evan Bernard's Volvo showed back up. The car slid into the parking space, stopping on a dime. Bernard got out, glancing around nervously as he adjusted his tie. He ran toward the building. Will thought Colleen was still fast-forwarding, but he saw that the man was, in fact, jogging.
"One thirty-two," McFaden noted from the time stamp. "He was late for class."
The next frame showed Bernard running down the hall. "Back it up," Will said. Something was different, and not just the man's disheveled appearance.
Colleen worked the keys and froze the frame on Evan Bernard as he jogged down the hall. He was looking right up at the camera. His hair was messed up, his tie skewed.
Will asked, "Can you leave that there and pull up the image of him leaving the first time?"
Colleen went to work, and he stared at the live image of Bernard in his classroom. The teacher was still pacing up and down between the desks, still droning on about literature.
McFaden was still incredulous. "I don't understand how this can happen. Mr. Bernard has been teaching with us for twelve years. There was nothing in his background-"
"You did a check, right?"
"Of course," McFaden told him. "It's state law. All school employees are screened by the police department before we can hire them."
"Oh, my Lord," Colleen whispered. Will saw that she had captured the images of Bernard leaving the school and returning side by side. "He changed his clothes."
The shirts were the same color, but the style looked different. His pants went from black to khaki. Will remembered what Beckey from the lab had told him earlier. Kayla Alexander wasn't the only source of DNA matching Evan Bernard. The seat swatch Charlie had cut out of the Prius had contained traces of Bernard's sperm, too. Of course, none of that got them closer to linking Bernard to Emma Campano. Even if they found a way to get a DNA sample from the teacher, all they could prove was that the teacher had at some point had sex in the Prius with Kayla Alexander.
The telephone on the desk rang. McFaden answered it, then handed the receiver to Will.
Amanda demanded, "Why aren't you answering your phone?"
Will patted his pocket, feeling the pieces of plastic move around.
Amanda didn't wait for his answer. "Did you catch him?"
Will looked at the monitor, Evan Bernard pacing the classroom. "We're waiting until he makes the ransom call."
"He already made it," she told him. "The proof of life was the same tape as yesterday, Will. I told him we had to have a new one or the deal is off."
"Is he going to call back?"
"Four o'clock," she said.
Will checked the digital clock on the wall. Ten thirty-three. "I've been watching Bernard the whole time. He hasn't left the classroom and he hasn't made a call."
"Shit," she hissed. "He's got an accomplice."
WILL KNOCKED ON Evan Bernard's classroom door. The man seemed surprised to find him standing there.
"Agent Trent? Come in."
Will shut the door behind him.
"Actually, leave that open. I've got students coming."
"My partner's keeping them out in the hall."
"I'm glad you're here." Bernard picked up a book off his desk. There were triangles and squares in various colors on the cover. "This is a copy of Emma's reading textbook. I thought maybe you could use it."
"I just wanted to go over a couple of things you said."
"All right." He put the book on the desk, then used his sleeve to wipe the cover, telling Will, "Sorry, I smudged it up a bit."
Will wasn't concerned about fingerprints. "You seemed pretty certain that whoever wrote those notes was illiterate. I'm really not sure what you mean by illiterate, though. I mean, is it like dyslexia? Is that some sort of spectrum diagnosis where somebody can be at one end or the other?"