Best Friend's Ex Box Set

I shook my head. "No, nothing at all like that. I mean, sure, kids act up all the time – that's what they do, they're kids. I've had to call in parents a few times about their kids' behavior on occasion, but it hasn't happened too many times over the past two years. And in all the cases, the parents involved were sympathetic and non-confrontational, and we solved the issues in a rational way."

"So, nobody was left with hurt feelings, a grudge perhaps?"

"No, definitely not. Everything was resolved on good terms."

He wrote all of this down in his notebook.

"Alright, I see," he continued. "Well, then I guess I can rule out the possibility of the culprit being a parent of one of your kids here."

I nodded. "Yes, definitely. The thought that it might be one of the parents who bring their kids here never crossed my mind."

"Okay, well then it has to be related to a matter outside of the business."

"So, you think this is personal?" I asked. "Not just some random thief looking for valuables to steal?"

"Well, we don't know if anything was stolen; that's why you'll need to have a careful look around. But in my opinion, no, I don't think this break-in was done for financial gain. Come on, let me show you what we've found."

"Alright."

The officer led me over to the side of the building where one of the windows was broken out.

"This is where the guy got in. See, away from the view of the street, nice and convenient for him, no passers-by could have seen what he was up to."

"I see."

"Me and the boys had to go in through the window as well, so maybe now that you're here, you can open up the place for us? Just to make it a bit easier to get inside."

"Sure."

I got my keys out, opened the front door, and we headed in. The place didn't look like it had been broken into; it was still neat and tidy, and most things seemed to be in their places.

"So, where's this message you told me about?" I asked.

"This way," he said. "Maybe when you see it, you can make some sense of it. I have to admit I was a little surprised when you told me the name of the previous owner was Dianne."

"Uh, why?"

"Come through here, and you'll see."

We walked through to the girls' bathroom, which had a large mirror on the wall – and as soon I stepped in, my blood turned to ice and terror shot through me. Scrawled across the bathroom mirror, with a red liquid that looked alarmingly like blood, was the message: "I bet you thought I'd never find you again... But you were wrong. Very, very wrong. See you soon, Alicia."

Chapter Sixteen

Everett

We reached the hospital where Kendrick was around 20 minutes after leaving the school.

"I sure hope this kid is still awake," I said to Ben.

He nodded grimly.

"I know. If he's already gone into surgery, we'll have to wait at least 24 hours before we can talk to him."

"Well let's hope he's still conscious then. Come on, let's go."

We jogged up the steps and headed straight to the front desk to talk to the nurse who was on duty.

"Hello, gentlemen, would I be able to help you with something?"