Chapter 8 - Missing Phone

Keene slapped both hands against his jacket pockets.

"Where is my phone?"

Alvarez immediately stepped toward the door. "Nobody leaves."

"You cannot detain me."

"I'm preserving a potential district-security incident until police arrive."

Keene's eyes moved from face to face.

Ben saw panic now, not anger.

Lena whispered, "He had it ten minutes ago."

Ms. Harrow pointed toward the teacher desk. "He set something down when Dr. Voss opened the records."

They checked the desk.

No phone.

Ben looked at Scout.

The dog had been calm all morning, but now his nose worked the air near the classroom's back cabinets.

"Scout," Ben said softly.

The dog's ears lifted.

Ben did not give a search command. Scout was not there to perform law-enforcement work. But the Malinois took two curious steps and stopped beside a low bookcase.

A faint vibration buzzed behind it.

Everyone heard it.

Alvarez crouched and reached into the narrow space between the bookcase and wall.

He pulled out Keene's phone.

"That is not where I put it," Keene said.

The screen lit with a new message.

Only the preview was visible.

DELETE THE BACKUP. THEY FOUND THE EDIT LOGS.

Nobody needed to unlock the phone to understand that sentence.

Keene lunged for it.

Alvarez moved back. "Don't."

"It's my property!"

"Then you can explain the message to the police."

Keene stopped.

Ben felt Clara's absence suddenly. She was safe in the library, but he hated that adults had created something ugly around a child who had simply wanted to draw her father and his dog.

Dr. Voss took a photograph of the lock-screen message using her own phone.

"Whoever sent that knows about the district logs."

Lena looked toward the hallway.

"Only a few people knew IT was checking them."

Ms. Harrow whispered, "Someone inside the building."

A loud crash came from the administrative wing.

Then the fire alarm erupted.

Red strobes flashed across the classroom.

Alvarez grabbed his radio.

"Office, report."

Static.

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Then a voice shouted through the speaker:

"Server closet. Smoke. Somebody broke into the server closet."