"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?"
"We're here to see Kendrick Green, a high school student who was brought in earlier with a gunshot wound."
"Kendrick Green, alright, let me just check for you..."
She typed his name into her computer and peered at the screen for a few moments, furrowing her brow with concentration.
"I'm afraid you can't see Kendrick right now. He's going to be going into surgery in an hour."
"Has he been sedated yet?"
"Not yet, no, but he's in a serious—"
"Look, this is a matter of life and death, and more lives might be at stake if we don't see him now. It'll take two minutes. I'm the
principal of his high school, my name is Everett James, and this is the deputy principal, Ben Henderson. Please, please could you just bend the rules for us. Like I said, many more kids' lives are at stake here."
She breathed in deeply.
"I uh, I don't usually break the rules, but if there are lives at stake, especially children's, then I think I can look past a few regulations here and there. He's in room 35C, third floor. If you hurry, you can get to him before they start prepping him for surgery."
"Thank you so much!" I said, my gratitude genuine and obvious.