Chapter 12 - What Daniel Knew
The video had no sound.
It did not need much.
Daniel held a clipboard. Grant Whitmore pointed toward the scaffold structure, then toward a page in Daniel's hand. Daniel shook his head.
Grant stepped closer.
Daniel pointed at the security camera.
Grant looked directly into it.
Then the video ended.
"Why does it stop?" Ethan asked.
Ben rubbed both hands over his face.
"That camera went offline at 7:03 p.m. Daniel died the next morning."
Laura stared at the frozen frame.
"Are you saying Grant killed him?"
Pike answered carefully.
"We are not saying that. We are saying there may have been safety violations and evidence that was not properly preserved. We need experts, records, and investigators."
Ethan appreciated the precision, but anger still burned inside him.
"And now Mason thinks he can do the same thing. Hurt people, erase the video, blame somebody else."
No one disagreed.
Pike turned to Ethan.
"Your case at school and your father's case are connected by people, not necessarily by law. Don't mix facts we can prove with conclusions we can't."
"So what do we do?"
"We prove what happened to you. Then we let the other evidence go where it belongs."
That afternoon, Pike sent preservation letters to Westbridge demanding that security footage, emails, disciplinary records, and server logs be retained.
Within two hours, Principal Vale emailed Laura that all communication should go through counsel.
Within three, Ms. Ruiz was placed on administrative leave.
She called Ethan from her car.
"They searched my classroom."
"For the reports?"
"I think so."
"Do they have them?"
A pause.
"No."
Ethan smiled for the first time all day.
"Where are they?"
"Somewhere safer."
The next morning, Maya sent him a message.
DON'T CALL. COME TO MY HOUSE AFTER 6. IMPORTANT.
When Ethan arrived, her father opened the door. Thomas Bennett was a county prosecutor, something Maya had somehow never mentioned because, as she later said, "People act weird when they know."
On the dining table were printed screenshots of Westbridge server logs.
Maya tapped one line.
"This is the hallway video from the morning Mason stepped on your hand."
Ethan leaned closer.
"Deleted at 9:18 a.m."
"Yes."
"My meeting started at 9:12."
"Yes."
"Who deleted it?"
Maya pointed to the administrator account.
DANNER.M
Ethan stared.
Thomas Bennett spoke quietly.
"Deleting school footage after an assault complaint can become a serious problem, depending on what was known and why it was deleted."
Then Maya pulled up another log.
"There's something else."
The same account had accessed Ethan's scholarship file thirty minutes later.
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And changed one field.
STATUS: ACTIVE had become STATUS: UNDER REVIEW.
