Hindsight, p.17
Hindsight, page 17
“Absolutely not,” Olivia said flatly. “If you’re going to do this then I’ll have to go with you. Let’s get on the road.”
“No.” Kendra shook her head. “This isn’t your job. I’ll be fine without you—”
“Be quiet, Kendra. I know every inch of the grounds of that school just as well as you do. Don’t argue. I haven’t been able to help since Elaine and Mr. Kim were killed. If you think there’s some reason you might be able to find out something from this bizarre message, then we have to go for it.” She smiled over her shoulder. “Besides, you need me to protect you.”
“Protect me?”
“No school officials. No FBI. But he didn’t say anything about me.” Olivia clipped the leash to Harley’s collar. “Or my friend here who we know can be very protective when the occasion calls for it.” She led him toward the door. “Providing no one knows what a complete softie he is.”
Chapter
10
See? I told you that there would be no threat,” Kendra said to Olivia as they rounded the corner that led down to the gate. “No scumbags waiting in the shadows to take me down. Feel that sun on your face? No shadows. And you can even hear the choir practicing over at the chapel.”
“I definitely heard them,” Olivia said dryly. “It made me nervous that Harley might decide to join in and start caterwauling. And then all hell would break loose and whoever is down there waiting for you would take off in fear for his life.”
“It’s something to think about,” Kendra said. “But he usually sticks close to you, and he’s seemed content enough, even familiar, with the grounds ever since we got out of the car. I think Elaine must have taken him for walks here on the campus when she brought him to work with her.” She had another thought. “I wonder if she introduced him to Mr. Kim? It would have been natural for him to have run into—” She stopped as they came over the hill and she was suddenly staring down at the grove. “I don’t see anyone.” She felt a rush of disappointment. “Maybe our Praxidike got nervous and decided to stand me up. How rude of him. I was hoping that—” Then she saw a man getting to his feet from a kneeling position near the hydrangea bushes. He was wearing jeans and a blue work shirt and had glossy dark hair that shone in the sunlight. “I spoke too soon, Olivia. There’s a man working down there in the bushes, I think he was digging. He’s got a spade in his hand and looks like a gardener.” She was starting down the hill. “Stay here. We don’t want to scare him off. I’ll call you if I need you and you can loose our fierce Harley to go on the attack.”
“I don’t like this, Kendra.”
“It’s why we’re here. He looks harmless. Just listen and be my trusty backup. Okay?” She didn’t wait for a response but took off at a trot. Better to get this over quickly before Olivia got anxious and decided to come to her rescue. As she drew closer to the man, her confidence grew. Well, not really a man; he looked like a college kid and had the same golden skin and slightly almond-shaped eyes as Mr. Kim.
“Hello,” she said. “I’m Kendra Michaels. You wanted to speak to me?”
He jumped and whirled to face her. “What?”
If he was a college kid, he was a very nervous one. “Don’t be afraid. You’re doing the right thing. If you have information, you should tell us about it.”
“Information?” His gaze was raking her face. “You’re not one of the blind students, are you? You can see me.”
“I can see you. You must know that if you contacted me. I told you, I’m Kendra Michaels.”
“I didn’t contact you.” He appeared sincerely bewildered. “But I know who you are. My grandfather used to tell us about you. You’re the one who works with the FBI.”
“Yes.” Now she was the one who was confused. “Your grandfather?”
“I’m John Kim.” He wiped his hand on his jeans so he could shake her hand. “My grandfather is…was Ronald Kim. I took a break from my classes at UCSD to help out at the school until they could get someone qualified to replace him.” He cleared his throat. “Not that anyone could. But I knew he wouldn’t want his gardens here to suffer while they tried. He loved every plant, every blade of grass.”
“I realize that,” Kendra said gently. “I’m sure he’d appreciate what you’re doing. We’ll all miss him.” She paused. “And you didn’t send me an email asking me to meet you here at six?”
He shook his head. “No, the only reason I didn’t leave earlier was that I needed to trim the hydrangeas.” His gaze went to the yellow barrier tapes several yards away. “And I kept putting it off because it was…here…too close to where he died. It hurt too much.” He added, “But they say the police are done now and won’t be back. Maybe it will be better now.” He started to turn away. “It was nice to meet you, Dr. Michaels.” Then he turned back. “You really shouldn’t have come here alone. Please don’t do it again. Like I told you, my grandfather always talked about you and the other kids. He wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
She was touched. “Thank you, John.” She gestured to Olivia and Harley a short distance away. “I’m not alone. And I’m so sorry for your loss.”
He lifted his hand and headed for the gate.
She watched him leave. Mr. Kim had been such a part of her youth and who she had been during her growing years, and yet she couldn’t remember him ever speaking of his family. When he was here with them, it was as if he were one of the strong, beautiful plants that he nurtured so carefully, giving everything, taking nothing.
“He’s nice, isn’t he?” Ariel Jones came out of the shrubbery behind her. She had her white cane and was carrying a bouquet of the same white hydrangeas that John Kim had been trimming. “His name’s John and he’s Mr. Kim’s grandson. He gave me these flowers when I was up here before. He said that he was trimming them anyway and I might as well enjoy them.”
“He’s very nice,” Kendra agreed. She fixed the girl with a stern glance. “But you shouldn’t be out here without someone with you. I thought we addressed the buddy system the last time we talked.”
She nodded. “But you didn’t use it. I heard John tell you that you shouldn’t be alone here. Does that mean I shouldn’t have told you to come?”
“What?” Kendra frowned. “First, I have a friend and a dog up on the hill. I’m not alone. And does that question mean what I think it means? You’re the one who sent me that email message? Was it some kind of joke?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that. If I did, you wouldn’t pay any attention when I did need you. It would be like that boy-and-the-wolf story. I just wasn’t sure what I should do so I wouldn’t get in trouble.”
“You made it sound very dramatic. No FBI? Really, Ariel.”
“Well, I think the FBI puts hackers in jail. And maybe I should have told you about Ms. Wessler.”
She stiffened. “More than you already told me?”
“Not about the hacking. I told you I was nervous.”
Kendra tried to stifle her impatience. “Okay. Tell me about the hacking and everything else. Who hacked whom?”
“I did. I get bored sometimes and I’m really good at hacking. You find out so many things that are more interesting than all the things they let kids know. It doesn’t seem fair. Well, I was sitting in Ms. Wessler’s class and I’d finished my work and I was trying to find something to do.”
“And you found it,” Kendra said grimly.
“Ms. Wessler had one of those old-style flip-top phones, and she had to use the hard buttons with that beep I could hear when she logged into the faculty bulletin board. I memorized it and later, I used it to log in and use my text-to-speech app to read all kinds of interesting discussions between the faculty members.”
“Private discussions,” Kendra said pointedly.
“Yes, but I’m telling you about it now, aren’t I? Anyway, I could also read private messages between Ms. Wessler and other faculty members, including unsent drafts. It was kind of exciting.” She hesitated. “But then I sort of got carried away and I listened and managed to pick up Ms. Wessler’s email password. That way I could hack into her email account.”
“Ariel!”
“I know I shouldn’t have done it. It was an experiment. I was only going to do it for a little while. But then stuff started to happen and I didn’t know what to do.”
“What ‘stuff’?”
“Ms. Wessler emailed Mr. Kim about something strange she’d thought she’d seen while she was up on the cliff path the night before. She said it looked like people moving back and forth on the north shore. But the beach is private and she thought she must have been mistaken. It was dark, and it had only been for a minute, but she was still uneasy so she asked him to check it out if he got the chance. She said she knew he sometimes worked late in the gardens to avoid the heat of the day and hoped it wouldn’t be an inconvenience for him.” She frowned. “That was really interesting. And I was waiting for him to answer her back, but if he did, it wasn’t by email.” She swallowed. “And then two days later I heard that he’d been killed and it scared me real bad. I didn’t know what to do. It scared Ms. Wessler, too. She emailed her ex-husband right away even though he was in Tokyo and told him that she was feeling guilty, that she should never have asked Mr. Kim to do something she could have done herself. She asked if there was any way he could come home and meet with her so that they could talk it all out before she went to the police. She said the day before Mr. Kim was killed, she thought she saw movement down on the shore again and she’d tried to take pictures. And the day that Mr. Kim was murdered she was sure she and her dog had been followed. That’s when her husband told her not to wait until he could fly home to be with her, but to take the pictures right to the police.” Ariel whispered, “But she didn’t do it. I think she really liked her husband and wanted to see him. She must have felt kind of alone. I waited and kept checking all night to see if she emailed the police or maybe Dr. Walker. But she didn’t do it.” She moistened her lips. “And then the next day she was dead, too.”
Kendra stared at her, stunned. It was a secondhand experience of horror, but that didn’t mitigate the terror and confusion this little girl must have felt. “I’m sorry, Ariel.”
“Was it my fault? Could I have done something to stop it?”
“It wasn’t your fault. You’re a child and it was the responsibility of the adults you were monitoring to take care of their own situation.” She reached out and grasped her arms. “You mustn’t think that you could have changed anything just because of those emails. Do you hear?”
“I hear.” She was frowning. “I just thought that because I’m smarter than most people, I should have been able to stop it from happening.”
“Well, there is that.” Kendra found herself smiling in spite of the gravity of the situation. “But even Einstein might have had trouble balancing guilt and responsibility. I know you feel terrible about Mr. Kim and Ms. Wessler, but they wouldn’t blame you. They loved children and understood them.”
“You’re sure it’s not my fault?”
“I’m very sure.”
Ariel gave a deep sigh. “Whew. When those terrible things happened to both of them, I wondered if maybe I should have let someone know about it. Even if I got into trouble for hacking.”
“I’m not saying that the hacking wasn’t wrong. It certainly was wrong and you should have gotten in trouble for doing it. I’m only saying that it wasn’t your responsibility to run the lives of the people you chose to hack. That would have been an even greater intrusion.”
“But if I hadn’t been hacking, I wouldn’t have had anything to tell you and that would have been bad, too.” She gazed at her hopefully. “And everything is important in a murder case, isn’t it? So didn’t that kind of make up for it?”
Kendra couldn’t argue with that logic even if Ariel had twisted it to suit herself. “Maybe. As long as you don’t do it again. It’s true the FBI should know everything you’ve told me about Ms. Wessler and Mr. Kim. I want you to give me copies of those emails.” She tilted her head. “Now, is there anything else you haven’t told me?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so.” She thought about it. “Except I don’t know if I shouldn’t feel guilty just because I’m a kid. If I’m smart enough to hack emails, shouldn’t I be smart enough to know what to do with them?”
Kendra was silent. “You’ll have to decide that for yourself. I’ve given you my opinion. Anything else?”
She shook her head. “But I’ll let you know if I think of something.”
“Please do.” She took her hand. “Now I’m taking you back to the residence hall and dropping you off.” She was leading her up the hill toward Olivia. “And you’re going to remember the buddy system from now on. Right?”
She nodded. “But a buddy would have gotten in my way today.” She stopped abruptly. “What’s that sound?”
Oh, Lord, Harley was barking.
“That’s our dog, Harley. Don’t pay any attention to him. He won’t hurt you. He just sounds odd.”
But Harley had broken free of Olivia’s leash and was tearing toward Ariel, and the barking was fiercer than Kendra had ever heard it. He was acting as if he was going to tear her apart. Kendra instinctively stepped in front of the child to protect her.
But Harley streaked past Ariel and Kendra and tore through the brush, howling and growling. Was he trying to attack John Kim? She ran through the brush after Harley, but she could see that Kim’s grandson was no longer in sight.
And neither was Harley. He’d gone under the yellow barrier tapes and was in the crime scene area where Kim had been killed. He was tearing around the brush, sniffing and growling, pawing and digging at the ground.
“Harley, stop it!”
Harley was paying no attention to her. He was whimpering, sniffing, and growling, running excitedly from place to place.
“Harley!” Olivia called. “Come!” She’d made her way down the rest of the way to stand beside Ariel. “Now!”
Harley halted, freezing. Then he was darting out under the yellow tape straight to Olivia. But he didn’t stop; instead he ran circles around Olivia and Ariel, still barking and growling.
Kendra caught up with him and grabbed for his leash. “Tell him to stop, Olivia. He’s going crazy and he’s not paying any attention to me. I think he’s trying to protect you and Ariel.”
“Stop!” Olivia yelled. “Idiot dog. Everything’s fine.”
Harley stopped. He was still panting, but he was leaning against Olivia’s knee and that weird aggressiveness was gone.
“Or is it?” Olivia turned to Kendra. “Harley doesn’t act like that. What happened?”
“He ran into Kim’s crime scene area and was sniffing and digging and I couldn’t get him to quit. Then he ran back toward you and Ariel.” She gazed at Ariel. “I’m sorry if he frightened you. He’s really a very gentle dog. He’d never hurt you.”
“Of course he wouldn’t.” She reached out for the dog, ignoring the horrendous sounds he was making, and began to stroke him. “Anyone can tell that. I’ve read about police dogs like him. He was just looking for clues to help the FBI find the people who did those bad things to Mr. Kim. I think he must be very clever to make those horrible sounds so the bad guys would be afraid of him.”
“I’m glad you think so.” She looked at Olivia and shrugged in bewilderment at Ariel’s total acceptance of both the situation and Harley’s hideous caterwauling, which usually frightened everyone. “And this is my friend Olivia Moore, Ariel. I told you about Ariel, Olivia. It seems she was the one who sent me the message. I’ll tell you all about it later. Right now we’re going to take Ariel back to the residence.”
“Olivia Moore?” Ariel froze, transfixed. “You’re the one who created Outasite. I go there all the time. You’re awesome.”
“Thank you. It’s nice to be appreciated.” Olivia smiled. “Particularly since you seem to be such a fan of my friend Kendra, who has a much more glamorous image.”
“I didn’t even know you were friends. How cool is that?” Ariel’s cheeks were flushed with excitement. “Appreciated? I was standing in line to attend your Advanced Computer Savvy lecture last year. I had to get special permission because I was a little young for it. I learned so much. Are you going to give another one this year?”
“I’m sure I will. It’s just not set up yet.”
“Then could I help you do it? I still have lots of questions I need answered.”
It was obvious Kendra had been forgotten, and she just stepped back and enjoyed the adulation Olivia was receiving.
“You could always email me.” Olivia was smiling at Ariel with amusement. “You’re clearly very good at that. I’ll give you my email address.”
“Would you? That would be great. I’ll try not to bother you too much.” She suddenly thrust the bouquet of flowers she was still carrying at Olivia. “You should take this bouquet. It will be like someone in the audience giving flowers to a great artist.”
Kendra could see Olivia was touched, and her friend didn’t make the mistake of refusing the offering. “That’s kind of you.” She lifted the hydrangeas and breathed in the fragrance. “It’s a lovely gesture and it makes me feel very special.”
“You are special.” She turned toward Kendra as if suddenly remembering she was there. “You’re both special and it’s wonderful that you’re friends.” She went still, and then she was suddenly beaming. “I bet you email back and forth all the time.”
Oh, shit.
“No!” Kendra said sharply. “We live in the same building. We hardly ever email. We just run back and forth when we have something to say.”
“Really?” Ariel said, disappointed. “But I’d think it would be more convenient to—”
“Wrong.” Olivia stepped in, as she sensed there was more to Kendra’s answer than appeared on the surface. “Sometimes it’s good to forget about technology and just reach out and touch.” She glanced at Kendra. “You’re right, we should get Ariel back to her residence hall so that you can fill me in on what’s been going on.” She turned back to where Ariel was petting Harley. “But not until we get Harley to be a little quieter before he disturbs the entire campus. He likes her entirely too much.” She put her hand on his muzzle and said firmly, “Hush, Harley. No more.”
