David Baldacci - Memory Man

“You’re starting to lose me, Amos.”

“You have the school interior laid out with your prelim shot register?”

She nodded.

“Let’s take a look. Because it might just be this guy did the reverse of what we think he did.”

“But if you’re right about what you found, and he did go front to back to front, he would have made his escape out through the storage area off the cafeteria and then through the path to the woods. That’s the easiest egress. It would all fit.”

Decker took a breath, let it out, and stared at the ceiling.

“And maybe that’s exactly what the son of a bitch wants us to think.”

His confidence in his ability to perform as a detective growing, Decker spent another hour going over and over the preliminary shot registry. It was based on witness accounts, which Decker knew were unreliable; forensic evidence, which he knew was not nearly as flawless as TV made it seem; hunches, which were just that and nothing more; and, lastly, common sense, which might just be the most accurate and helpful of the bunch.

Lancaster looked away from her laptop screen and studied him.

“So what do you think?”

Decker absently stroked his shortened beard, his belly rumbling. It was now light outside. And it had been a long time in between meals for him. But he could stand to miss a few meals. A few hundred of them, in fact. He was like a polar bear. He could live off his accumulated fat all winter.

“Point one. I think he originated from the cafeteria.”

“Okay.”

“Point two. I think Debbie Watson was the first vic.”

“So we’re back to your dilemma. One plus one equals three. How did a big guy in cammies, hood, and face shield walk the length of the school with weapons totally unseen? And then where did he go? He can’t just vanish.”

“There’s no way there could be two shooters?” he said. “One coming out of the freezer and one coming in the rear?”

She shook her head. “Impossible. There was only one shooter. Same description. Unless you think identically shaped men did this together.”

“Okay, one shooter. The pistol is easily hidden. The shotgun could be stowed down a pants leg.”

“But the clothing. The shield?”

Decker thought some more about this. “Who’s to say he put that on in the cafeteria?”

“We found a fiber in the ceiling.”

“Still doesn’t mean he had all the stuff on in there.”

“So he carries it down the hall with him? In what? And the guns? The guy must have been so bulky that someone would have noticed. Especially if he was a stranger. And then where does he change?”

“You’re sure no one was seen walking the halls at that time?”

“Yes.”

“No one? Really? In a busy school?”

“Everyone was in class, both students and teachers. The folks in the office were working. Most had not been at their desks long. The gym teacher was in his office where he was shot. There was a half-eaten Egg McMuffin on his desk and a nearly full cup of coffee. Custodians were in their part of the school going over the schedule for the day.”

“But if no one was in the halls, there was no one to see a stranger roaming.” But then Decker immediately corrected himself. “Only all the doors have windows. He would have had to pass by numerous ones.”

“Exactly,” agreed Lancaster.

“No visitors?”

“None logged in and no one remembered any. That’s not to say someone didn’t slip in. That’s always possible. And like you said, he could have come in the night before during the play. The school was wide open then.”

“But why would the guy hide in the freezer?” said Decker. “Is there security here at night?”

Lancaster shook her head. “No, but if he came in during the school play, he would want to be out of sight. He couldn’t know someone wouldn’t come into the cafeteria that night for some reason.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Let’s move to Debbie Watson. She was heading to the nurse’s station?”

Lancaster nodded. “Yes. She had stopped, apparently, to get something from her locker. It was right near where she was found. The locker door was still open.”

“And the nurse’s room is in the office section?”

Lancaster nodded again. “She would have had to walk along the main corridor from the rear to the front.”

“What class was she coming out of to go to the nurse?”

“Math. Classroom 144.”

“Same hall as custodial?”

“That’s right,” said Lancaster. “Which has a loading dock. And thus an exit.”

“So if we’re right and the guy came through the cafeteria, here’s what his route looks like. He went from the front to the back of the school on the first floor. I’m assuming the second and third floors were clear?”

“We’re searching them, of course. But the enrollment at Mansfield has steadily gone down over the years. There are enough kids to fill out the first floor and that’s it. They have a hard enough time finding bodies to fill out the football team. The upper floors are used for storage and such. And they’re locked and barred off. And they were still secure when we checked them, with no sign of tampering.”

“Then for some reason he waited to start shooting until he got to the rear of the school. Then he starts popping people, going down halls, entering classrooms, shooting as he goes. He reaches the office at the front, kills the assistant principal. And then he escapes through the cafeteria’s loading dock and takes the footpath to the woods. How likely is that?”

“You mean why didn’t he just start shooting in the front, work his way to the back, and then escape out the rear?”

Decker was studying the ceiling. “Let’s put means aside and look at motive. Mansfield has its share of violence. Gangs, drugs, assaults. Kids mature a lot faster.”

“No argument there.”

“So is this a Columbine? A kid with a grudge? Maybe not even a student. Either from another school or he graduated, or he dropped out.”

Lancaster said, “We’re compiling a database with all that info. The FBI is helping.”

“When will they have an answer?”

Lancaster rubbed her eyes and checked her watch. “I’m not sure. Look, I’ve got to get home, grab an hour’s sleep, and change my clothes. And I need to give Earl a little break. Sandy hasn‘t been sleeping very well lately.”

Decker knew Sandy Lancaster as gentle, funny, bubbly, and wildly enthusiastic about everything and everyone. But he knew she could also become depressed and anxious over something relatively trivial. And then she wouldn’t sleep. Which meant no one else in the Lancaster household did either.

“You need any help with that?” asked Decker.

She looked surprised. “Are you offering to babysit?”

“I don’t know. I’m just... asking,” he finished awkwardly. He had never done much with Molly when she had been really little. He was so big and she was so tiny he’d been terrified he’d break her.

She smiled. “I’m good, Amos. But thanks. I’ll be back at the station later this morning. We can grab a cup of coffee and go over things. You need a ride back to your place?”

“No, I’ll hang out here for a while.”

“Suit yourself. You want to talk, about anything, give me a ring.”

She gathered up her things and started to leave. But she stopped and looked at him. “It really feels like old times.”

Decker said nothing, but he gave her a slight nod, which made her smile. She turned and walked out.

He sat in the chair in the library. He’d spent more time in here now than he probably had in his four years as a student. It wasn’t that the schoolwork had come easily to him; it hadn’t. But he was not the type to sit and read. That had changed. Now he devoured prodigious amounts of information. Now that he could remember it all, it was like he couldn’t get enough of it. He wondered if his brain had a capacity limit. If so, he hoped it was as big as he was.