The Executioner

Eighty-Two

In Compton High, Hunter got his hands on a 1985 students’ yearbook – Father Fabian’s graduating year. He also managed to dig up some of his old report cards and records. The young priest had been suspended seven times during his junior year. The interesting fact was that all seven suspensions had been requested by the same teacher – Mrs. Patricia Reed, who taught algebra 2, the priest’s weakest subject, according to his grades. Teachers tend to remember their worst students better than their best ones. If anybody would remember Brett Stewart Nichols, Patricia Reed would, Hunter was certain of that.

The day was sliding from pale blue to dark night when Hunter walked into his office. Garcia had arrived only a couple of minutes before him and was standing in front of the picture board, attentively studying one of the photos. He turned and faced Hunter.

‘You won’t believe what I found.’ Excitement coated his words as he wiggled a six by twelve photo in his hand.

Hunter arched an eyebrow and took a few steps towards his partner.

‘I got this from an old storage room in Gardena High.’ He handed Hunter the photo.

‘Storage room?’

Garcia quickly summarized his day at Gardena High before stabbing at the picture with his index finger. ‘Second girl from the left.’

Hunter studied the girl Garcia had indicated. It didn’t take him long. ‘Amanda Reilly,’ he said confidently.

‘That’s right.’ Garcia retrieved an old-fashioned, Sherlock Holmes-style magnifying glass from his desk and handed it to Hunter. ‘But that’s not all. Take a look at the last girl on the right, the one who has a sort of amused look on her face.’

Hunter analyzed the picture once again, this time for a while longer. There was nothing peculiar about the girl, and he was about to ask Garcia ‘What about her?’ when he saw it and stopped.

‘You’re kidding me?’

‘Looks familiar?’ Garcia said, arching his eyebrows.

Hunter turned to the picture board and unpinned the woman’s photo they’d found on the fireplace inside the Malibu mansion. The one with the number two written on the back. He brought it back to his desk and sat it next to the schoolgirls’ photo. His eyes jumped from one picture to the other several times before he looked at Garcia. ‘It’s her.’

Garcia nodded slowly. ‘That’s what I thought, but I didn’t have that photo with me.’ He pointed to the woman’s picture on Hunter’s desk. ‘I needed to come back here to confirm it. Now I’m positive. They went to the same school, Robert. Amanda and the alleged second victim hung out together.’

‘What’s her name? Who is she?’

‘That, I still don’t know.’

‘Did you get a yearbook?’

Garcia told him about the stolen yearbooks and the burned down printer. ‘The school might have a graduating picture, but I’m not sure. As I said, I needed to first confirm my suspicion, and by the time I got out of the storage room everyone was gone. Today was the last day for the faculty. The school is closed for the holidays.’ Garcia returned to his desk. ‘If they have a graduating picture and it hasn’t been stolen, it will probably be in the library.’

‘Won’t this Mr. Davis have the keys?’

‘Probably, but I wouldn’t know where to start. Their library is massive. I would’ve ended up just wasting time. We need the librarian or someone who works there, and as of today they’re all on vacation.’

Hunter thought it over. ‘OK, let’s try and get back in contact with the school principal or anyone who might know where to find these graduating pictures.’ He glanced at the girls’ photograph. ‘Two out of four girls on that picture are dead. The other two are probably in great danger. We need to find them, and we need to find them fast.’

Clang. The office door slammed shut with a thundering noise, making both detectives turn around. Captain Blake was standing inside the room. She looked furious.

‘What the fuck do you two think you’re doing?’ The question was spat out between clenched teeth.