Chapter 10 - The Principal's Second Office
Principal Hargrove was gone by the time police reached his house.
So was his wife.
So were two suitcases, a laptop, and the lockbox normally stored in his home office.
The school district tried to call it "a personal leave."
Nobody believed them.
The next morning, Ryan was released to his parents while prosecutors reviewed charges connected to Seth's abduction. Gordon Mercer's attorney insisted Ryan had only gone to the fieldhouse because Seth asked to meet him.
"That's insane," Seth said from Maya's kitchen table.
His mother sat beside him, one arm locked around his shoulders.
Coach Danner had spent the night giving a statement and had been suspended from the school.
Seth looked wrecked, but angry now instead of afraid.
"Hargrove knew everything," he said. "Dad complained about Ryan two years ago. Hargrove told him the basketball program couldn't survive a scandal."
Chloe set down her phone. "Survive? It's high school basketball, not a government."
Luis snorted. "Around here, same thing."
Seth looked at Maya. "The original ledger is in Hargrove's office."
"Police searched it."
"Not the office everyone sees."
Maya frowned.
Seth explained that a hidden storage room sat behind the trophy wall, left over from when the administrative wing had been remodeled. Hargrove used it as a private meeting space.
"My dad went in there once. He said Hargrove kept old files because he didn't trust computers."
Detective Ruiz obtained a second warrant.
By afternoon, investigators removed the trophy panels.
Behind them was a narrow door.
Inside were six filing cabinets, a mini-fridge, a desk, and boxes labeled by year.
One box contained disciplinary complaints against Ryan Mercer.
Thirty-two of them.
Only three had ever appeared in his official student record.
Maya found her own first report in a folder marked RESOLVED.
Across the top, Hargrove had written: DO NOT ESCALATE - GM.
"Gordon Mercer," Elena said.
Detective Ruiz photographed it.
Another cabinet held booster-club records.
But the ledger was missing.
On the desk sat a yellow legal pad.
The last page had been torn away, but the pressure marks remained.
An investigator shaded it lightly with graphite.
Words appeared.
PIKE - 11:30
CABIN - NORTH LAKE
BRING LEDGER
Maya read the note over Ruiz's shoulder.
"Alan Pike," she said. "The retired deputy from my dad's crash."
Ruiz nodded.
"If Hargrove is meeting him, we may finally get the missing piece."
Then Bennett's radio crackled.
May you like
A dispatcher reported a vehicle fire on North Lake Road.
Registered owner: Alan Pike.
