Without Mercy (Mercy 1)

She’d planned on phoning Adele Burdette, the headmistress for the girls. According to all the Blue Rock Academy literature she’d skimmed, as a member of the staff, she was supposed to help with emotional or physical trauma as well as report all “incidents” with students, including physical altercations or verbal confrontations or emotional problems.

Maeve Mancuso’s meltdown in the hallway probably qualified, but Jules didn’t want to create a tempest in a teapot. She figured she’d let Dean Burdette know what happened, but downplay it. So, after she got hold of Burdette, Jules planned on calling Analise and her husband. She needed to find out more about the TAs, and she decided a good source of information would be her cousin. Eli had been a TA; he hadn’t revealed much before, but if she confronted him now, she felt sure he would give her more information if there was some kind of secretive cult.

Or laugh in your face.

Since her phone wasn’t in her purse, she checked her book bag. Nothing. Her pockets, too, were empty. “Can’t be,” she said to herself, remembering that she’d had it just before class when she’d talked to Edie.

The phone was definitely missing.

Had she left it in the classroom? She knew she had it there; she’d been talking to Edie.

Oh, great. A killer on campus, and now she didn’t even have a cell phone to call for help. Some example she was setting for these kids.

As Jules turned on her heel and headed back to the education hall, she thought of the information on that phone. The calls that had come in from Shaylee on Nona’s prepaid cell, the menu of numbers that included Shaylee’s old cell phone and Edie’s home and cell. Analise and Eli’s number would show on the recent calls. Though she remembered locking the phone, any techie type would make fast work of unlocking the phone and retrieving all of the data stored inside.

“Damn.”

Her heart began to race, and she had to fight a looming sense of panic. “Don’t go into orbit yet,” she cautioned herself, her breath fogging with the cold. The phone wasn’t really lost or stolen, just misplaced. However, the knot twisting painfully in her stomach reminded her of how much she had at stake.

She flew into the building and ran up the stairs. Her boots rang in the hollow hallway, melting snow dripping onto the tiles. On the second floor, she nearly skidded around a corner, then stopped short when she spied Missy Albright just closing the door to room 212 behind her. Loitering in the empty hallway, as if he was standing guard while waiting for Missy, was Zach Bernsen.

What?

For a split second, they both appeared startled; then matching grins quickly slid into place. Just like clockwork. “Hi!” Missy said brightly. She held up her calculator as Jules approached. “I’m sorry, but I lost my stupid calculator. It must’ve fallen out of my purse when I was in your class.”

“Is that right?” Jules couldn’t keep the disbelief from her voice. “You know, I didn’t see it when I was straightening up the room.” And now I’m missing my phone.

“I know, I know.” Missy rolled her eyes in a silly-me-I’m such-a-goose expression. “When I started looking around the classroom, Zach came up here and found me. I’d left it in the science lab when he and I were doing calculations for a chemistry experiment.” She stretched her mouth and lifted her shoulders in an exaggerated shrug while starting to walk toward the elevators with Zach. “I’m really sorry.”

“Wait a sec. While you were in there,” Jules said, motioning toward the door to her classroom and not letting the girl escape so easily, “did you happen to see my cell phone?”

Missy’s face collapsed into an expression of confusion. “Nuh-uh,” she said, shaking her head and keeping her gaze locked with Jules’s. “But I wasn’t looking for it.”

“I just thought you might have come across it while searching.”

“Sorry.” Again she lifted her shoulders as if that said it all. Other than calling the girl an out-and-out liar or stripping Missy of her bag and searching it, Jules was out of options. As for Zach, he seemed almost bored with the exchange.

“Then it must still be in the classroom,” Jules said as the two students retreated for the bank of elevators.

She opened the door to her room, and it appeared just as she’d left it, the desks rearranged into a semicircle, all the surfaces clean.

Jules searched for ten minutes, opening drawers, looking in the closet, eyeing the floor, but she came up empty-handed. Her cell phone wasn’t anywhere to be found. Had Missy taken it? Someone else in the classroom? Or had Jules lost it during the time she’d spent dealing with Maeve?

She realized that a cell phone was like gold to these kids; most of them would jump on the chance to swipe it, either for personal use or for trade. The reasons didn’t necessarily have to be nefarious.

And yet…

Once again she turned off the lights, but this time, before she actually stepped into the hallway, she detoured to the window and looked across the campus, where snow glittering under the security lamps offered a peaceful vista.

Warm lamplight glowing from the chapel added to the appearance of serenity. All an illusion, she told herself.

If she didn’t believe it, all she had to do was ask Nona Vickers’s father.

She spied Missy and Zach as they walked rapidly from the education building toward the chapel. Zach’s arm was slung over Missy’s shoulders, as if he were shepherding the tall girl.

Just as they reached the arched doors, Missy dared to look over her shoulder. Her face turned upward, her gaze centered on the very spot where Jules stood in the darkness.

She froze, wondering if the girl could see her.