Chapter 2 - Seven Missing MinutesPrincipal Voss shut the laptop.
Too quickly.
Officer Grant noticed.
“So who deleted it?” Jayden asked.
Voss straightened.
“We don't know that anything was deliberately deleted.”
“You just heard him.”
“Officer Grant is not an IT technician.”
Grant folded his arms.
“No. But I've worked with this camera system for six years.”
Mrs. Harper pressed a tissue under one eye.
“This is becoming absurd. I was assaulted.”
Grant looked at her.
“And I'm investigating it.”
Something in his tone made Mrs. Harper stop crying.
Voss stood.
“I think the priority is contacting Jayden’s parents.”
“They’re working,” Jayden said.
“Then they will need to leave work.”
Mrs. Harper looked toward him.
A tiny smile flickered.
Jayden saw it.
There it was again.
Fish sellers.
Work.
Embarrassment.
She wanted his parents dragged into school smelling like the market so everyone could see exactly what she meant.
Jayden took out his phone.
Voss immediately said, “You may not use that.”
“I’m calling my mom.”
“The office will contact her.”
Officer Grant stepped between them.
“Let him call.”
Voss stared at him.
Grant stared back.
Jayden dialed.
His mother answered after two rings.
“Jayden?”
He had planned to sound calm.
He failed.
“Mom, I need you to come to school.”
Silence.
“What happened?”
Jayden looked directly at Mrs. Harper.
“I hit my teacher.”
Elena Cole did not respond for several seconds.
Then she said, “I’m coming.”
Jayden closed his eyes.
“Mom—”
“What happened before that?”
He opened them.
Mrs. Harper was watching him carefully.
“She hit my hand with a ruler.”
Elena’s voice changed.
“She what?”
“And she talked about you and Dad.”
“What did she say?”
Jayden swallowed.
“That you were nothing but fish sellers.”
Mrs. Harper looked away.
Elena became completely quiet.
Then she said, “Your father and I will be there.”
The call ended.
Voss exhaled.
“We should avoid inflaming the situation.”
Jayden stared at him.
“My mom wasn't inflamed until your teacher hit me.”
Mrs. Harper stood.
“He is openly disrespectful.”
Grant’s eyes moved toward her.
“Sit down.”
She did.
Twenty-eight minutes later, Mateo and Elena Cole walked into the office.
They had not gone home to change.
Mateo still wore his blue work shirt with COLE FAMILY SEAFOOD stitched over the pocket.
Elena wore rubber-soled market shoes.
Both smelled faintly of salt, ice, and the Atlantic shipments they had unpacked that morning.
Mrs. Harper noticed.
Jayden watched her nose tighten.
His father noticed too.
Mateo was forty-three, thick-shouldered from years of lifting crates. Elena was forty-one and smaller, but when she was angry, everyone in the Cole family knew she was the more dangerous of the two.
She went directly to Jayden.
“Show me your hand.”
“Mom.”
“Show me.”
He opened his palm.
A red line crossed the center.
Elena stared at it.
Mrs. Harper said, “It looks worse than it is.”
Elena slowly turned.
“Did I ask you?”
Voss stepped forward.
“Mrs. Cole—”
“Elena.”
“Elena. We are trying to establish what occurred.”
Mateo looked at Jayden.
“Did you hit her?”
Jayden lowered his eyes for the first time that morning.
“Yes.”
Mateo’s face tightened.
“You shouldn't have.”
“I know.”
Mrs. Harper seemed pleased.
Then Mateo looked at her.
“But if you put a ruler on my fourteen-year-old son, we're going to talk about that too.”
Voss interrupted.
“The alleged ruler incident is under review.”
Officer Grant said, “The video was deleted.”
Elena turned.
“Deleted?”
Voss shot Grant an irritated look.
“We do not yet know whether there was a technical—”
“The system log says manual deletion.”
Grant walked to the laptop.
“I checked again.”
He reopened the event log.
“Classroom 214 footage was accessed at 9:23 a.m.”
Jayden frowned.
“That was after I left.”
Grant nodded.
“The footage wasn't deleted before the incident.”
Mrs. Harper’s eyes shifted.
“It was deleted eight minutes after.”
Mateo looked toward Voss.
“By who?”
Grant hesitated.
Voss suddenly moved closer.
“System credentials don't necessarily identify a person.”
“Whose credentials?” Elena asked.
Grant looked at Voss.
The principal’s jaw tightened.
“Officer Grant.”
“You asked me to investigate.”
“I asked you to secure the classroom.”
Grant turned back to the family.
“The deletion was performed under an administrator account.”
Mateo stared at Voss.
“Yours?”
“There are multiple administrative accounts.”
“How many?”
Voss did not answer.
Elena did.
“That's not a difficult question.”
“Three.”
“Who has them?”
“Me, our district technology coordinator, and the assistant principal.”
Grant said, “The technology coordinator is at the district office today.”
Elena’s eyes sharpened.
“And the assistant principal?”
“Conference in Richmond.”
Mateo stared at Voss.
“So you were the only one in this building with one.”
Voss’s professional expression cracked.
“For all we know, someone obtained my credentials.”
Mrs. Harper spoke quickly.
“Exactly.”
Too quickly.
Officer Grant looked at her.
“So you agree someone deleted the footage?”
She blinked.
“I said if it was deleted.”
“You said exactly.”
Mrs. Harper’s lips tightened.
Voss ended the meeting.
Jayden would be placed on emergency administrative leave for two school days while the incident was reviewed.
Mrs. Harper would continue teaching.
Elena laughed once.
No humor.
“My son goes home, and she stays?”
“Your son admitted striking a teacher.”
“My son also says she struck him.”
“We have no video evidence supporting that.”
Mateo looked toward the computer.
“You did.”
Nobody answered.
The Coles left.
Outside, Jayden walked several steps behind his parents.
He expected anger.
He expected his father to lecture him.
Instead Mateo stopped beside their old pickup truck.
“You never hit someone because they insult you.”
“I know.”
“You walk away.”
“I know.”
“But you tell the truth afterward.”
Jayden looked at him.
“I am.”
Mateo put a hand on his shoulder.
“Then we tell all of it.”
Someone called Jayden’s name.
Maya Brooks ran across the parking lot.
“Maya?”
She stopped in front of them, breathing hard.
“I couldn't say it in the office.”
She looked behind her.
“What?”
Maya held up her phone.
“The classroom camera isn't the only camera.”
Jayden stared.
Maya unlocked the screen.
“I recorded it.”
Elena reached for the phone.
Maya pulled it back.
“There's something else.”
“What?”
“The video starts before Mrs. Harper made Jayden kneel.”
Jayden felt his pulse jump.
Maya looked terrified.
“And what she said before the ruler?”
May you like
She swallowed.
“I don't think this started today.”
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