“You still think she was... was in cahoots with whoever did this?”
“No, I really don’t.”
The woman’s lips trembled. “Debbie was a good kid.”
“I’m sure she was, which makes it even more important that we find out who did this.”
Lancaster glanced at the partially packed suitcase. “Look, it’s none of my business, but do you think you should be making that sort of drastic change right after losing your daughter? It might be better for you and your husband to get through this together and then you can make some decisions. Knee-jerk tends to come back to bite you in the butt.”
Beth looked at her cross-eyed. “I wanted to leave two years ago, but I stayed for Debbie’s sake. Well, Debbie’s not here anymore. So I’m not wasting another second of my life in this fucking place. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to finish packing so I can get the hell out of here.”
She slammed the bedroom door in their faces.
“So much for ‘for better or worse,’” said Lancaster.
“For some people, the longer the marriage, the worse it gets,” said Decker. “But at least we know my theory might work out. Simon did know about something at the school. An underground shelter.”
“So now what do we do?” asked Lancaster.
“Let’s go outside. You can smoke a cigarette and I can make some phone calls.”
“You know I can quit anytime I want.”
He stared at her. “No you can’t, Mary. You’re addicted to nicotine.”
“I was making a joke. Damn, do you have to take everything so literally?”
But Decker was already on his cell.
It took three phone calls and being passed from one person to the next before Decker found someone who sort of knew what he was talking about. He patiently explained who he was and what he wanted.
“Mansfield,” said the woman on the other end of the line. “Where the mass shooting took place?”
“That’s right,” said Decker. “We’re trying to figure out how the killer got in and out. Since it was so close to McDonald Army Base, we thought there might be something there. Turns out we learned there is an underground passage or facility of some kind. We’d like confirmation of that and also particulars on how to get in there so we don’t have to tear the whole school down looking for it.”
“I’m going to need something in writing on the appropriate letterhead to get this request verified and initiated.”
“Okay, but once verified and initiated, how long will it take? We’re looking for a murderer. Someone who killed a bunch of kids. The longer it goes, the farther away he gets.”
“I wish I could tell you it would be fast. But this is the United States Army. The only place we move fast is on the battlefield. The stuff behind the lines, not so much.”
Decker got the information on where to send the request and clicked off.
He looked over at Lancaster, who had been leaning against the hood of her car all this time and had whittled down not one but three cigarettes while Decker had been playing Whac-A-Mole with the Army.
Lancaster dropped her last smoke and ground it into the asphalt with the heel of her shoe. “And?”
“And we might all be dead of old age before they get back to us.”
“So what now?”
“So it looks like we’ll have to find it ourselves.”
Chapter 28
Decker and Lancaster paced the cafeteria, working from opposite ends of the space.
“So it makes sense an entrance would be in here,” said Lancaster. “Big room, get lots of students assembled in here and then down into the shelter in the event of an emergency.”
Decker nodded but said nothing.
She continued, “If it’s here it must be hidden behind something. Maybe the appliances?”
Decker shook his head. “It couldn’t be something that involved. With an emergency you have to have fast access.”
“But it was probably boarded up,” Lancaster pointed out. “Built over.”
“But the shooter still couldn’t be tearing into walls, floors, or ceilings, because that would also make noise and leave evidence behind of how he went from here to the back hall.”
“Well, he did leave evidence he was in here. The spoiled food, remember?”
“He did that on purpose. He could have easily turned the temp back down once he came out of it. Hell, he didn’t have to stay in the freezer all night anyway. He wanted us to know he was here. But he didn’t want us to find how he got from the front to the back. At least not right away. That’s the reason he left the trace in the ceiling and the tile dust on the floor. Classic misdirection. He’s screwing with us. And he’s costing us time. All good for him and bad for us.”
Lancaster kept glancing around. “So we’re looking for an entrance in here that’s been sealed up. We just don’t know how or where.”
“The term ‘sealed’ can mean a lot of different things. But the point is, our guy befriended Debbie for one reason and one reason only — to learn about this passage.”
“Come on, Decker. How would he even know about it to ask her?”
“I found out about it based on observations and hunches and a little research. He could have done the same. This is a relatively small town. He could have found out Simon Watson worked at the base any number of ways. He could have learned he once lived with the Watsons. He could have approached Debbie to see if she knew anything about it. And of course she did.”
“That takes a lot of planning and forethought.”
“And that apparently is a strong suit for our guy.”
Decker walked back and forth in front of a section of the wall.
Lancaster noted this and said, “I bet those rules haven’t changed in sixty years. I suppose you adhered to all of them when you went here?” she added with a smile tacked on.
The “rules” she was referring to were posted on a large section of the wall that Decker was studying. They included no loud talking, no throwing food, no eating off someone else’s plate, no milk cartons left on tables, all trash in the garbage, no running, and on and on.
“Amos, I said—”
He held up his hand for her to stay quiet, while he paced the wall and then looked at the floor.
“What do you see down there, Mary?”
She bent low and looked where he was pointing.
“Some marks. Probably from a student’s shoes.”
“I don’t think so. There’s no uniform requirement at Mansfield. Most boys wear sneakers. And from what I’ve seen, most girls wear sneakers, flats, or chunky heels. That footwear wouldn’t leave those sorts of marks. It’s actually scraped into the linoleum. And they’re not short, like a heel might make. They’re long. And they’re on a slight curve. Looks to be a few of them.”
“Well, what do you think they are?”
He stood closer to the section of wall where the rules were printed on a massive piece of wood painted to match the wall color. The wood ran down to the floor and nearly to the ceiling.
“No hinges evident,” he said. “But—”
He dug his fingers under the right section of the wall and tugged at various spots. He did this on the other side. Finally, after ten minutes of probing, tugging, and pushing, there was a little click and the entire section behind the sign opened outward. He pulled on it, opening it farther. Revealed behind it was a pair of old wooden doors painted the color of the wall.
“Look at the floor,” said Decker.
Lancaster noted another set of fresh scuff marks where the wood had dragged in one place across the floor when he’d opened the section.