Chapter 22

As they drove up to The Xavier School of the Gifted and Talented, it was apparent that they were entering a very high affluent area of Connecticut. Veronica did not feel very comfortable in this type of environment. She had always felt that the public schools were good enough for everyone and that there shouldn’t be private schools that people could choose to go to. It was unfair to everyone if they did not get the same education.

She knew that every school had to follow the same standards set forth by the state that they were located in and that they did that. It was for this reason that she could not understand why there had to be a school that only the rich kids could go to. It was something that always upset her and she could not get over it. She hoped that, for the sake of the investigation that she was going to be able to put her feelings aside and do her job effectively.

William got out of the car and opened her door; he was such a gentleman. She could not believe that she had never had anyone open the door for her. It was not something that she was use to but she thought she would like it to happen. As they walked up the front steps of the school, the bell to signal that the school day had begun rang. There was some loud talking as the students got to their classes. They had an appointment with the headmaster to talk to him about all of the victims and to see if it was true that they were all interconnected. They both hoped that they were going to be able to figure out what was going on. There had to be something that was to be found out here. Veronica had a good feeling about this and knew that this was the key to the entire case.

They arrived at the office and introduced themselves to the secretary. She seemed a little put off that they had arrived just as the day was beginning. It was true that they were about fifteen minutes early, but they both felt that it was a good idea to get their early so that they could make a good impression. It was always important to appear to take the job serious if the expected answers are to be found. They both did not like the idea of going to the principal’s office but they knew that it was necessary. He was the one that was going to have the answers for them.

“Hello, Mr. Wilson I am Veronica and this is William. We both are from the Grangeville Police Task force.”

“I have been expecting both of you. Please come into my office.” Mr. Barry Wilson showed them to his office. His office was small, yet comfortable. There were two school chairs on one side of his desk and his comfortable office chair for himself.

“I am sorry that I don’t have more comfortable chairs. It is not very often that I have anyone other than the children here in my office. I hope you understand.”

“Of course we do, Mr. Wilson,” William stated. “It has been quite a while since I myself was in the principal’s office, but I have to say that it hasn’t changed that much.”

Barry Wilson smiled, “I try to make it feel uncomfortable to the students because I don’t want to have them sent to me. I would rather be able to go into the common room and just chat with them about their day, rather than having to discipline them.”

“Well we are not here to talk about a current student, Mr. Wilson,” said Veronica. “We are actually here to see if any of the victims of a crime spree in Grangeville, Illinois may have attended this school.”

“We have reason to believe that they all attended around the same time,” William said.

Veronica gave him the list of the victims. As Barry was looking over the names, Veronica noticed a seal above his desk. It appeared to be that of a lion.

“That seal above your desk, Mr. Wilson, is that of a lion?”

“Yes that is the seal of our school. It has been part of the history of the school for as long as it has been opened. It is said that our students are to be as proud as a lion. We want all of them to leave here feeling that they can take on the world. Many of our students have not started out in life as well as they should have. We are here to make sure that they leave strong and ready to face the world outside of our walls.”

Veronica started to take notes. She wanted to make sure that the information that was given was properly recorded. She had a feeling that this was going to be what was going to break the case. It was her responsibility to make sure that she looked as good as possible to Jason Roberts. She wanted to be credited with cracking the case. She thought that it was possible that this lion was the same one that was on each of the victim’s ankles. She made a note to pick up a piece of letterhead that would have the seal on it to compare it to the one on the victims.

“You know the interesting thing about these names,” Barry said, looking shocked, “is that they all graduated from here within a three year period of each other. I would therefore expect that they all knew each other. With living in the dorms, everyone who attends that close to each other is bound to know each other.”

“Really,” Veronica sighed, “That means that they all were possibly friends, or at least knew of each other.” This struck her as strange. Why hadn’t they figured this out before? It would appear that this information would have been available to them and that someone should have know about this before.

William looked up, “Is there any way to know who the headmaster was at the time that they all attended? Maybe he could give us some insight as to what all of these students were like.”

“The interesting thing is that it was a female, our only headmistress of the school. Her name was Milly Tillerman.”

Veronica wrote down this name and then looked at Barry. “You don’t happen to know where she lives at this time do you.

“Yes, in fact she was just here yesterday updating her information and letting us know how she is doing. We always like to keep in contact with our headmasters or mistresses are doing and it was a pleasure to see how Milly was doing.”

“So, where does she live?”

“Strange thing is that she has moved to the town that you all are from. She is in Grangeville now. She said she just moved there about six months ago and she loves it. She said that she had never found a better place to live. I wonder why she didn’t mention that there had been four of her students murdered.”

William did notice that this was strange. It would seem that seeing it in the newspaper and on the television would be enough to jog her memory. Maybe she had not paid attention to the names and was unaware of the fact that they were her old students. There had to be some explanation as to why she did not know, or at least speak about it to Barry. That was something that would need to be figured out.

As the conversation was wrapping up, Veronica thanked Barry for all of his help and asked if they could contact him if they had any further questions. He was more than happy to help in any way that he could. He was not sure what knowledge he had that they had not already gleaned from him, but he said he would think about it and see if there was anything else of consequence to tell them. As they left, Veronica stopped at the secretary’s desk and asked her for a copy of letterhead. She placed it safely inside her notebook so nothing would happen to it.

With the interview behind them, William and Veronica decided to go to a local coffee shop and debrief each other of what knowledge they had gained. They both knew that they needed to contact Jason Roberts as soon as possible so he could track down Milly Tillerman. Neither one of them could have guessed how important finding and talking to her was going to be.

While they were talking in the coffee shop, it became apparent to both of them that they might have found something out that would actually keep this person from striking again. William placed a call to Jason to let him know what they had found. He told him that he and Grace should meet them at the airport as what they had found out was that important. Jason agreed to meet them there and told them that all he needed to do was find Grace.

He had not seen Grace in about three hours. Jason was slightly concerned but he knew that she could take care of herself. She did not need to be babysat. He only hoped that she did not go and do something crazy that could jeopardize her well being. If that was the case then he was going to feel personally responsible. After all he was the one who had asked her to be part of the task force and he had promised himself that he would keep an eye on her. He knew that she was new to this type of case and did not want to have anything happen to her. He knew that he shouldn’t worry and that he should be focusing on what William had just told him.

Once they got off the phone with Jason, they both realized how imperative it was that they figure all of this out quickly. However, neither of them knew that this was something that needed to be taken care of so they were not in a hurry. This might be the window of opportunity that “El Diablo” was hoping for. He could also not know that they had figured out that there was some connection between all of them. But had they figured out the right connection or just one that was plausible. This was going to be the most important day in all of the lives of those involved with this case. Would they be able to stop the murderer or would he continue on his killing spree?