Chapter 5 - Somebody Opened the DoorPrincipal Rachel Evans did not touch the blue folder at first.
She stared at it.
Then at Madison.
“Where did you get this?”
“My mother’s office.”
“Did you take it?”
Madison swallowed.
“Yes.”
Evans closed the office door.
Derek sat beside Hailey.
Chloe and her mother had been asked to join because Chloe had additional recordings.
A district compliance officer named Anthony Price sat near the window with a laptop open.
“This document is confidential,” Price said.
Madison’s face crumpled.
“Am I in trouble?”
“No,” he said immediately. “I’m asking because we need to know the chain of custody.”
“I took pictures before I brought it.”
“Good.”
Madison blinked.
“Good?”
“It preserves what you saw.”
Derek looked at Price.
“So who had access to it?”
Price glanced at Evans.
“Five people.”
“Names?”
“We’re still determining whether all copies were controlled.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Evans intervened.
“Mr. Brooks.”
“No. A teacher hit my daughter after changing grades and apparently got confidential scholarship scores. I’m done with vague answers.”
Price nodded.
“Fair.”
He turned the laptop.
“The worksheet was generated by the foundation and shared with two district administrators and three school employees involved in verifying records.”
“Mrs. Callahan?”
“No.”
“Principal Evans?”
“Yes.”
Derek looked at her.
Evans did not flinch.
“Who else?”
The principal named the school counselor, the registrar, and an assistant principal.
Derek frowned.
“Five people.”
Price nodded.
“Correct.”
Hailey looked at the folder.
“Could she have stolen it?”
“Possibly.”
Madison shook her head.
“My mom doesn’t steal papers out of offices.”
Chloe muttered, “She hits students with rulers.”
Madison flinched.
Chloe immediately regretted it.
“Sorry.”
Madison stared at her hands.
“It’s true.”
Price asked Madison another question.
“Did your mother ever mention someone helping her with scholarship information?”
Madison thought.
“Not directly.”
“Anything close.”
She looked toward the ceiling.
Then her expression changed.
“There was a man.”
Evans stiffened.
“What man?”
“I don’t know his name.”
“Where?”
“At our house.”
“When?”
“A few weeks before the scholarship announcement.”
“Describe him.”
Madison hesitated.
“Older than my mom. Maybe fifty. Gray hair. School badge.”
Principal Evans and Anthony Price exchanged a glance.
“Badge color?” Price asked.
“Blue.”
Evans’s face changed.
District employees had blue badges.
School employees had green.
Price asked, “Did you hear what they were talking about?”
“I was upstairs.”
“Anything?”
Madison closed her eyes.
“I heard my name.”
“And?”
“She said, ‘I only need to know how far behind she is.’”
Derek went still.
“She?”
“My mom.”
“Who did the man say?”
“I couldn’t hear.”
Principal Evans stood.
“I need a minute.”
She stepped into the hallway with Price.
Derek watched through the narrow window in the door.
They spoke quietly.
Price looked alarmed.
Evans looked angry.
When they returned, Derek asked, “You know who she’s talking about.”
Evans sat.
“There is someone we need to interview.”
“Who?”
“District assessment director Raymond Holt.”
Price spoke quickly.
“We do not know that he gave Mrs. Callahan anything.”
“But you think the description fits him.”
“It could.”
Hailey looked confused.
“Why would a district director help her?”
Nobody answered.
That bothered her more than an answer would have.
Chloe interrupted.
“I have something too.”
She opened a photograph.
It showed Mrs. Callahan standing beside Hailey’s desk while Hailey worked.
The photo itself seemed unimportant.
Then Chloe zoomed in.
On Mrs. Callahan’s desk behind them sat a manila folder.
A label was partially visible.
HAWTHORNE.
The timestamp was eleven days before the official results.
Principal Evans whispered, “Send me that.”
Chloe did.
Price typed notes.
Derek looked from one adult to another.
“So someone gave her confidential information.”
“Possibly.”
“She altered grades.”
“Yes.”
“She submitted an anonymous complaint.”
“We haven’t proven that.”
“She hit Hailey and said why.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re still saying possibly?”
Price met his gaze.
“Because if we want consequences that hold, we prove every step.”
That was the first thing a district official had said that Derek respected.
He nodded once.
“Then prove it.”
That afternoon, Price requested access logs from the district’s scholarship server.
Every document downloaded.
Every user who opened it.
Every time stamp.
At 6:43 p.m., the results came back.
The internal worksheet had been accessed by Principal Evans.
The counselor.
The registrar.
The assistant principal.
And Raymond Holt.
Holt had opened it six times.
On one of those dates, the file had been downloaded to an external USB device.
The next day, according to Madison, Holt had visited the Callahan house.
But there was another access record.
One nobody expected.
The worksheet had also been opened using Principal Evans’s credentials at 10:16 p.m.
From an IP address outside the school network.
Evans was staring at the log when Price called.
“That wasn’t me.”
Price asked, “Are you sure?”
“I was in Chicago that night for my mother’s surgery.”
A pause.
Then Price said, “Does anyone else know your password?”
Evans went silent.
Years of school routines flashed through her mind.
Shared offices.
Emergency coverage.
Staff deadlines.
One person occasionally used her workstation when she was pulled into district meetings.
One person she had trusted for eight years.
Mrs. Callahan.
The investigation had just changed again.
May you like
Because the question was no longer only who gave Mrs. Callahan access.
It was how many doors she had opened herself.
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