Chapter 6 - Someone Came for the Backpack
I killed the kitchen lights.
“Stay here,” I said.
Maya grabbed my sleeve. “Don't go outside.”
“Why?”
“Because they did this before.”
That sentence stopped me.
My security team was already moving. Evan's voice came through my phone.
“Daniel, we've got motion by the east hedge. One person. Maybe two.”
Maya stood in the kitchen doorway, shaking.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“I don't know exactly.”
“You said they did this before.”
She looked at Sophie, who had come downstairs despite my instructions.
“After I found the ledger, my locker got broken into. Then my room at the youth shelter was searched. Nothing valuable was taken. Just papers.”
“What ledger?”
She sat down.
For the first time, the anger left her face and she looked seventeen.
Maya had searched public filings. The nonprofit's mailing address matched a law office used by Headmaster Whitmore's brother-in-law.
“Why would Claire involve you?” I asked.
“She didn't at first. I caught her crying over a spreadsheet in the library.”
I swallowed.
Claire almost never cried in front of me.
Maya continued. “I fixed one formula. Then another. After that she started asking me questions.”
“What did she find?”
“Enough to be worried. Not enough to prove who was taking it.”
“And after she died?”
“I kept looking.”
Sophie whispered, “Because Mom asked you to?”
Maya's eyes filled.
“No. Because she was the first adult who ever looked at me like I wasn't a problem she had to solve.”
I looked away.
Maya pulled a math workbook from her bag and opened the back cover. A tiny key was taped inside.
“The real copies aren't in my backpack.”
“Where are they?”
“In a locker at the Harold Washington Library.”
My phone buzzed.
Evan.
We caught the intruder on a neighboring camera. Sending photo now.
The image loaded.
It was grainy, but clear enough.
May you like
I knew the man.
He worked for Nolan Price.
