CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The security guards stood in Theresa's office.

"Did any of you leave your post during your evening shift?" Anna asked as stood beside Theresa and Fred.

"No, ma'am," they replied together.

Fred glanced at them while looking through his laptop. "At exactly 7:28 PM, one of the security men was missing. Who was it?"

Anna quickly looked over his shoulder at the screen.

Sure enough, one of the guards was missing at 7:28 PM.

A stout, light-skinned guard dropped to his knees. "I had an upset stomach. I left my post for just a brief moment."

Anna eyed him curiously. "Did you eat anything unusual?"

"No, ma'am. All the guards usually eat Mrs. Papaya's food. We all buy from her. But this was the first time her food made me sick."

Anna bit her lip. Was it just a coincidence that he got sick on the same night Claudia was murdered?

"Where is Mrs. Papaya?" she asked.

The Chief Security Officer (CSO) offered to call her. He returned five minutes later, looking worried. "They said Mrs. Papaya moved out of her dormitory last night."

Everyone was shocked.

Theresa quickly dialed her number, as she had all the phone numbers of the trusted school chefs.

But the phone was off.

"We have to find her,"

Fred said urgently. "She might have the answers we need."

"I know where her daughter lives with her husband. I have her daughter's number," said one of the older security guards.

They watched as he dialed the number, putting the call on speaker. "Hello, Taya, is your mum with you?" he asked.

The woman on the other end sobbed uncontrollably. "Uncle Tipa, someone killed my mother! A hit-and-run accident! We just found her..." Her voice broke into sobs.

Everyone was shaken.

Anna looked at the CSO. "Did any students go out yesterday? Any final year students?"

"No, ma'am. The gate was locked at exactly 5:00 PM. After making sure all the day students had left, we locked the school gate," he assured.

She narrowed her eyes. "Think like a thief. If you had to leave the school without getting caught, where would you go?"

"The back of the school has a high fence, but someone with good climbing skills could get over it without being seen," Fred observed.

Anna turned to the CSO. "Did you have guards watching the back of the school last night?"

"No, ma'am. Only the library was strictly guarded because it's closest to the back of the school."

"I need footage from every building in Saint High from last night," she instructed the CSO.

"You can all leave."

After they left, Anna turned to Theresa. "Order a thorough search of the boys' hostels. We need to find those missing phones. Do it now."

Theresa made the call for the search order.

The CSO returned fifteen minutes later with a flash drive containing the footage.

Theresa was worried. "Thirty senior female students were withdrawn by their parents from Saint High. It's a huge loss, and more will follow."

After an hour of searching the boys' hostels, the guards found nothing.

Frustrated, Anna decided to search the buildings where the incidents had occurred, but still, they found nothing.

She turned toward the third building, considering the untouched chapel.

The first two buildings had been targeted; the third would definitely be the killer's main focus.

She rushed into the third building with the guards and found Laurel Bernie praying there.

She immediately recalled seeing Laurel praying in the chapel at the time of the incident.

Now, he was praying in the third chapel.

Was this just a coincidence?

She approached him as she ordered the guards to start searching. "I last saw you in the same building where Claudia was killed. Is this just a coincidence?"

"No," he replied casually, without opening his eyes.

She gasped. "What did you just say?"

He opened his eyes and stood up to face her. "Why are you surprised? I thought that was what you wanted to hear."

Anna trembled. Could Laurel be the killer?

Just then, a security guard shouted that he had found something.

Behind the curtains of the altar was a black bag containing an axe, a knife, and four phones.

Anna grabbed the bag and walked to Laurel, furious. "You are under arrest, Laurel Bernie."

She called the police, who handcuffed him and took him to the station.

Wearing gloves, she examined the phones in the office, with Theresa and Fred watching.

Three of the phones had been wiped clean, but the last one had not.

It had a theft alert.

As she touched it, the phone sounded a siren alert.

With that theft alert, the killer would have been caught.

Now, who owned the phone with the theft alert?