Captured in death, p.4
Captured in Death, page 4
They sat down at a table with soft drinks and small servings of fries and mini donuts, fragrant with grease, yeast, and vanilla, and ate slowly, savoring the treat and the special time together. But Kenzie found her mind constantly distracted by Vera’s reaction to Kenzie stepping in and taking over Rhys’s phone and deciding what was best for him without any thought that his guardian might have a different opinion.
Kenzie’s life experience had been very different from Rhys’s or even Vera’s. A white girl, growing up in a wealthy, privileged home, her biggest challenges had been related to her sister Amanda’s illness. Rhys and Vera had to deal with prejudices against Blacks, especially in law enforcement and the legal system. They grew up fearing random police attention and unfair prison terms. Vera also dealt with the terror of Rhys not being able to speak to the police, being taken as a problem: having an attitude and being unable to explain himself verbally. The family’s reaction to Clarence’s murder had not been to seek justice, but to keep it quiet. To cover it up and turn away police suspicions.
Considering Campbell’s reaction to finding out that Rhys was the boy who had been in possession of the picture of the man with a bullet in his head, Vera was right to believe that the police would think the worst of Rhys. That they would automatically see him as a troublemaker, either a criminal or an attention-seeker, rather than as a troubled boy who had been traumatized by what he had witnessed and then received on his phone. They did not see him as vulnerable and broken, but as a potential threat to public peace. Campbell was one of the good ones. Kenzie could only imagine what those who were really prejudiced would think.
She initially flinched when Zachary put his hand over hers. But she relaxed and looked at his face and forced a smile in response to his concerned expression.
“Are you okay?” Zachary asked. “You must be tired. It’s been a long day, and with the concussion…”
“The concussion isn’t a problem,” Kenzie said. “I don’t think I’m having any more symptoms. It was just very mild. But… I am tired.”
“We’ll head for home once we finish eating.”
“Yeah, that would be good. I’ll need some time to unwind before we go to bed.”
He nodded. His eyes still searched her face, maybe sensing that there was more to it than just tiredness. But that was up to Kenzie to explain. He had already asked her if she was okay. He wouldn’t push too hard for more than she had offered. He wouldn’t dig down deeper unless it was really obvious that something was bothering her and, hopefully, she’d not given that much away.
“It’s just Vera,” Kenzie told him. “She was really not happy with me going ahead and taking Rhys’s phone and the picture to the police.”
Zachary nodded slowly. “I don’t see how we could have done anything else. But… I guess I can see where she’s coming from. He’s her grandson; she’s the boss and the one making decisions for him. And it is kind of… the second strike.”
Kenzie winced. “Because I was against the MDMA therapy.”
“Yeah. So that’s twice when you’ve ‘known better’ than her what was best for Rhys.”
“I suppose so. She was pretty upset.”
“How was Rhys?”
Kenzie thought about it. If it was Rhys that she was trying to help, then she should probably focus on his reaction rather than Vera’s. Vera was his caregiver for now but, in a few years, Rhys would be making his own decisions, and he was old enough now to defy Vera, riding across town when he was supposed to be at school, showing up at Stanley Green’s late at night when he was supposed to be in bed. Vera might think that she knew what was best for Rhys, but how had Rhys felt about it?
Rhys had seemed happy. He had certainly liked getting the new phone, but that wasn’t all there was to it. He had not bowed under Vera’s opinion that taking the case to the police had been the wrong thing to do. He had still maintained that was what he wanted done. And she thought he seemed lighter for having passed that burden on to Kenzie. He no longer had to shoulder it alone and to figure out what to do and how to get justice for the murdered man. Instead, he could leave it to Kenzie and the police to sort out, and he could go back to being a kid.
Or at least, not as much. She suspected he would still think a lot about the dead man. And still have flashbacks to Grandpa Clarence’s murder. Nightmares too. But at least he had taken one step, a constructive step to resolving the situation he found himself in once more. He wouldn’t stand by and be a silent witness this time. His voice might have been silenced, but his brain and his body weren’t, and he could still shout his story out to anyone who would listen.
Kenzie nodded her head slowly. “Rhys was okay with it. Happy, I think. Happier than before.”
“I felt when we left there this morning that it was a relief for him to talk to us about it and to get you looking into it.”
“I guess so. It’s hard to hold things in.” Kenzie closed her eyes and passed her hand over her lids, tired. “Even though it was really hard to talk to you and Dr. B about the… about the Russians…” She still had a hard time saying the word kidnapping. “I really did feel better about getting it out in the open and not having to keep it a secret anymore.”
Zachary nodded. He ate a fry and stared away from Kenzie, ostensibly looking at a row of shiny Fords. But Kenzie knew he wasn’t looking at them.
How many secrets was Zachary still hiding, trying to stuff down things that had happened in his life that he’d been forced to be quiet about? And how many times had something happened, like the assault by Archuro, and Zachary had done his best to forget it because it was so traumatic? She hoped that, somehow, he would be able to talk about more of those things.
8
Zachary confirmed the fact that he couldn’t find any copies of the photograph of the dead man that had been in circulation prior to two weeks before, when Rhys had received it on his phone.
Once the picture had started circulating the school, there were a few instances where it had popped up on the internet in places that should have been secure, but were not to someone who knew the secrets of getting into such places. And it appeared more frequently on the deep web, where it couldn’t be easily deleted or blocked by the content scrubbers searching for offensive material.
But none of the copies were more than two weeks old. And the picture seemed to have originated locally, though it had been distributed to some far-flung parts of the world very quickly.
“So, I think I should talk to some of the teachers and kids at the school and see if I can find out some more about it,” Kenzie told Zachary over breakfast. “It may be that a few well-placed questions will crack this open, and we will be able to find out who that man was and where the message came from pretty quickly.”
Zachary grimaced. “I don’t think it will be as quick as you think. Kids aren’t necessarily going to want to talk to you. They like their secrets. You’re an adult, and not a trusted one.”
“But I have to try, right? The only way I’m going to find out who forwarded it to whom is by asking. They still have the choice of whether to answer me or not. But I only need one or two people who will answer my questions.”
“One or two people who know something,” he clarified.
“Well, yes.” Kenzie was slightly deflated. It wouldn’t do to have a hundred students telling her they had no idea who the man was or why they had been sent the picture. She needed one or two people who knew what was going on.
“I know the principal over there,” Zachary offered.
“At Rhys’s school?”
“Yeah.”
Kenzie sat up. “That would be great. How do you know him?”
“Her. I talked to her when I was looking for Madison. Principal Lakes. I’m sure she’ll cooperate if you mention my name.”
“Because you helped Madison?”
“Well, as far as they are concerned, Madison was fatally injured in a shootout on the highway, so I didn’t do much to help her. But I also… broke a case regarding Principal Lakes’s predecessor.”
“A case regarding her predecessor?”
“Yeah. It turned out that she was… seeing some of her students socially.”
It took a minute for his meaning to sink in. Kenzie’s brows rose. “She was a pedophile?”
Zachary nodded.
“And you were the one who figured it out?”
“I can’t take all of the credit. It was her husband who figured she was seeing someone behind his back. And the police who made the arrest.”
“But you’re the one who caught her with a student.”
Zachary nodded.
Kenzie vaguely remembered something in the news a couple of years before about a principal dating a student. But she didn’t think she had known at the time that Zachary had been the one to break it. It had been early in their relationship. Maybe just around the time she had met him.
“Well, I guess you’re in the new principal’s good books, then,” she agreed. “Unless, of course, she has a similar leaning.”
“No,” Zachary shook his head quickly, getting red-faced, “She told me why she was having to rebuild everyone’s trust after Principal Montgomery was arrested. She would have known better than to do anything like that, even if she did have… leanings.” His face got redder still.
“Do you want to come with me, then?” Kenzie offered. “If I talk to the school on Monday, do you want to ride along and break the ice for me?”
He looked proud of himself. And well he should. Principal Lakes had good reason to be impressed with him after he both exposed a pedophile working in the school system and rescued a girl who was being trafficked. She had no way of knowing that Madison’s story hadn’t ended on the tragic note she thought it had. And she didn’t know that Zachary had rescued Luke at the same time. And again, once more since then, had proven that Luke was not guilty of the murder he had been accused of.
Zachary had done a lot of good over the last few years. And maybe he could help Kenzie solve this case, too.
“Sure,” Zachary agreed. “I’ll make some time for it. Besides, you shouldn’t be driving yet, anyway. You’ll need someone to take you over there.”
“My head is fine.” At some point, he would have to let her start driving again. She was going to have to insist. But she needed him at the school, so she would let him drive her one more time before insisting on his letting her return to normal
Saturday and Sunday were more relaxing. Now that the deaths at the private psychiatric facility were off of her plate and Rhys was back in the public hospital where he was safe, she could take some time to rest and regenerate. She put in a couple of hours of work on Saturday and nothing on Sunday. She knew she had a slight backlog of bodies to catch up on when she returned to the office. But it would only take her and Dr. Cook a few days. There was nothing too controversial or unexpected. Unless something turned up in the postmortem examinations that gave her cause for concern, she should be able to deal with them quickly enough.
So, Monday morning, she and Zachary headed over to Rhys’s school to see what they could find out about the picture’s origin. Zachary had messaged the principal over the weekend so that she knew they were coming, though she didn’t know any details about what was going on yet. As expected, Zachary was an angel in her eyes, and she went out of her way to clear her schedule to see them.
Principal Lakes was a young woman. She was the type of young professional that always made Kenzie feel like she had wasted the first part of her life when others, like the principal, were building their careers early, hitting it hard and getting ahead before Kenzie had even figured out what she wanted to do with her life. It wasn’t the money. She knew that principals did not make a lot. It was just the feeling that she had been left behind in the dust while the movers and the shakers had taken up their positions.
“Dr. Kirsch, it’s very nice to meet you,” Principal Lakes greeted, shaking her hand firmly, but not too hard. Just the right professional touch. “Why don’t we all have a seat, and you can tell me what you’re here about today?”
She gestured to the couch and chairs grouped at the end of her office opposite her desk, where a coffee carafe, mugs, and milk and sugar were waiting.
Principal Lakes gave Zachary a quick hug before letting him sit, making him blush. Kenzie enjoyed his discomfort.
They all sat down and helped themselves to the coffee. Principal Lakes asked Zachary how he was doing, and he answered her questions politely and professionally.
“So.” Principal Lakes wrapped her hands around her mug. “What can I help you with today? I guess this has something to do with Rhys?”
Zachary looked at Kenzie, indicating it was time for her to take over.
Kenzie took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm herself.
9
We found out from Rhys that there is a photograph circulating amongst the students, which is disturbing and impacted him quite significantly.”
Principal Lakes shook her head. “Selfies? Nudes? We have talked to students about that before. I thought they were doing very well. But of course, that is from an administrator’s perspective, and I don’t see everything that happens on their phones. I do try to be aware of it, and we have frequent discussions about what is appropriate or not appropriate to have on their phones.”
“No,” Kenzie said. “Not selfies.” She brought the picture up on her phone and handed it to Principal Lakes. She stared at it, frowning.
“What is this?”
“It appears to be a dead man. A man who was shot.”
“This can’t be real. It’s probably off of some television show or movie.”
“I will be very relieved if it turns out to be,” Kenzie said. “But it is very realistic. As someone who deals regularly with dead bodies, I can tell you that. I don’t believe it is from a movie. I think it is real.”
“But where would students get such a thing? I suppose it’s off of the internet—some crime scene photo. People have ways of repurposing material and using it to achieve their own goals. Maybe a student thought this looked disgusting and wanted to cause drama and upset people. Or maybe it was originally sent by a student interested in forensics or pathology, like you,” Principal Lakes nodded to Kenzie. “It could be quite innocent, initially.”
“We would like to figure out where it came from. To trace it back to its origin.”
“Do you think that the students have done something criminal here? I don’t see how they could be charged for this.”
Kenzie thought about Campbell opening it as a phone harassment case. There were certainly things that students could be charged with for forwarding explicit or terroristic material to their friends. Even if they didn’t intend any harm. But she wasn’t about to tell Principal Lakes that her students could be arrested and charged for what they had unwittingly done.
“We just want to find out where the picture originated, to help us identify who he is and what happened to him.”
“And you will not charge any students in this matter.”
“I’m not a cop. I’m not charging anyone with anything.”
“And you’re a private investigator,” Lakes looked at Zachary for confirmation. “So you’re not laying any charges either.”
“No, ma’am.”
“Well, this is something that bears looking into.” She meditated for a moment, considering the matter. “My first guess would be that it was a picture that someone found online, like I said. If it wasn’t that, my next suspects would be the drama club.”
Kenzie raised her brows. She had difficulty believing that a group of students could pull off something that looked so realistic with amateur makeup skills. But then, sometimes an amateur job could look more realistic than a professional one. Amateurs had certainly fooled experts with pictures in the past. And a group of dedicated hobbyists might have the ingenuity to pull off something like that. She remembered back when she was in school; students had been using oatmeal and food coloring to make fairly convincing zombies. Who had come up with the idea of oatmeal? Not likely a professional.
“If it was created by a group of kids,” Zachary said slowly, “then wouldn’t the apparent victim be a kid?”
Principal Lakes looked at him, lips pursed. “They could have talked an adult into being their test subject. We have the auto mechanics students working on people’s cars and the hairdressing students cutting hair for other students or adults. It’s not unusual to recruit an adult for help with practical application.”
Zachary looked unconvinced. “We can talk to the drama club, but I suspect they would have used another student. This guy doesn’t look old enough to be someone’s parent. If it were a teacher, you would recognize him. They didn’t just recruit some random guy off the street.”
The principal looked at the photo again, for a bit longer this time, deep frown lines between her brows, clearly trying to figure out if she could identify the “victim.”
“If you could let us talk to the drama club kids,” Kenzie said, “that would be helpful. And if you could identify who some of Rhys’s friends are, so we can talk to them about what they might know about the picture and its origins, that would also be great.”
She should have asked Rhys for the names of his friends. That would have sped things up a little. She could just say who she wanted rather than rely on the principal to know who Rhys hung out with the most. But Rhys had been tiring and not as communicative at the end of their discussion. And Kenzie hadn’t wanted to ask him anything about the picture in front of Vera. She knew when to keep her mouth shut.
“I can call a few people down to the office to talk to you,” Principal Lakes offered slowly. “But this is not an official interview. This is just you, as a friend to Rhys, trying to help him with a personal problem. I don’t want there to be any suggestion that the police are involved or that these interviews are being done on their behalf.”
