“What?” asked Lancaster as she popped another stick of gum in her mouth after wadding up the old one in a tissue and throwing it into the trash can.
“If your theory holds that Debbie Watson was the first vic, she was on the hall next to the rear entrance. That would mean that if our guy was hiding in the freezer overnight he would have had to walk down the hall between the cafeteria and the library, turn right down the main hall, pass two more corridors on both sides, past classrooms and presumably people, to take out first Watson and then, at the other end of the hall, the gym teacher Kramer. Then he reverses his path and starts mowing folks down as he moves back to the front of the school.” Decker looked at her skeptically. “That doesn’t seem plausible. Why not just start shooting on the front half of the school and work your way to the back? Which would mean Watson would be one of the last vics, not the first.”
“But the time stamp on the video?”
“That’s the real hitch in all this. That tells us he did begin his shooting at the rear part of the school. And he wanted us to see him on that camera for some reason. Now that we know he might have been hiding in the cafeteria, the video image looks like misdirection. So that means we have one proven point—the video camera time stamp, and one almost proven point—the shooter was hiding in the cafeteria. If they’re both true, neither makes sense as a whole. One plus one does not equal three.”
“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.”
Chapter
16
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 ever
ything 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.