Chapter 3 - Locker 214Police released Sadie shortly before midnight.
By the second hour, she understood that mistakes could become accusations frighteningly fast.
Officer Keller removed the handcuffs after placing her inside a small interview room. There was no dramatic steel table or one-way mirror like in television shows. The room was almost worse because it looked ordinary.
Beige walls.
Two chairs.
A box of tissues.
A security camera in the corner.
Sadie sat with both hands beneath the table because she could not make them stop shaking.
Her mother arrived twenty-three minutes later.
Megan Monroe came through the door still wearing hospital scrubs beneath her coat.
“What happened?”
Sadie stood so quickly her chair scraped backward.
“Mom.”
Megan crossed the room and pulled her daughter against her.
Officer Keller entered behind her.
“Mrs. Monroe, before we continue, I need you to understand that Sadie has not been formally charged.”
“Then why was she handcuffed?”
“We recovered suspected controlled substances from her backpack during an active medical emergency.”
“They weren’t mine.”
“I believe my daughter,” Megan said.
Keller nodded.
“I’m not asking you not to.”
He sat across from them.
“Leah Benson is alive.”
Sadie closed her eyes.
Some of the pressure inside her chest disappeared.
“Is she okay?”
“She’s critical, but stable.”
“What did she take?”
“We’re still waiting on toxicology.”
Sadie remembered the black liquid.
“She had a vial.”
“We recovered it.”
“Then test it.”
“We are.”
Megan put one hand over Sadie’s.
Officer Keller opened a folder.
“There’s another problem.”
He rotated a printed photograph toward them.
It showed Sadie near the chemistry storage cabinet.
The timestamp was from that morning.
Sadie frowned.
“What is that?”
“Security footage from the hallway camera outside the lab.”
“So?”
“There is no camera inside the lab, but this angle shows you entering the supply room at 7:41.”
“I was getting distilled water.”
“You were alone.”
“Yes.”
“Approximately nine minutes later, Leah Benson entered the classroom.”
Sadie looked at her mother.
“I always help set up.”
Megan nodded.
“She gets to school early.”
Officer Keller continued.
“Several students have also told us Leah had recently argued with you.”
Sadie stared at him.
“What?”
“About the state science scholarship.”
“That wasn’t an argument.”
“What was it?”
“She accused me of getting favoritism because Mr. Whitaker recommended me.”
“Did you respond?”
“I told her the committee decides, not him.”
Keller opened another page.
“One student says you told Leah, ‘You’re going to regret this.’”
Sadie’s mouth fell open.
“I never said that.”
“We have video.”
He placed a tablet on the table.
The clip had already spread through school social media.
Sadie watched herself standing near the lockers with Leah three days earlier.
The audio was muffled.
Leah said something.
Sadie replied.
Then the video ended.
The caption underneath read:
SADIE MONROE THREATENING LEAH BEFORE CHEM LAB INCIDENT.
Sadie leaned closer.
“That’s edited.”
Keller watched her.
“How do you know?”
“Because I remember that conversation.”
“What did you say?”
“I said, ‘You’re going to regret missing the deadline.’”
Megan looked at Keller.
“What deadline?”
“Scholarship application.”
Sadie nodded quickly.
“Leah forgot to upload a recommendation form. I was telling her to email the committee.”
Keller replayed the video.
The sound clearly ended after the word “this.”
“Someone cut it.”
“That’s possible.”
“Possible?”
Sadie stood.
“Officer, somebody put pills in my backpack and edited a video to make me look guilty!”
“Sit down.”
“I saw Mr. Whitaker tear something from Leah’s notebook.”
Keller’s expression changed slightly.
“We searched Mr. Whitaker after the fire alarm.”
“And?”
“We found nothing.”
Sadie stared.
“He put it inside his coat.”
“His laboratory coat was hanging in the classroom when officers returned.”
“Then he moved it.”
“Maybe.”
“Why are you saying maybe like I’m imagining it?”
“Because I investigate evidence, Sadie.”
“And the evidence was planted!”
Keller remained calm.
“That is also something we’re investigating.”
Megan pulled Sadie back into the chair.
“Who had access to her backpack?”
“Anyone,” Sadie said.
The backpacks sat on hooks along the side of the lab.
Officer Keller nodded.
“That helps.”
His phone vibrated.
He checked the message.
Something shifted in his expression.
“What?” Megan asked.
Keller stood.
“I need a few minutes.”
He left.
Sadie looked at her mother.
“I didn’t do this.”
“I know.”
“Everyone at school thinks I poisoned her.”
“We’ll deal with school later.”
“My college applications…”
“Sadie.”
Megan squeezed her hand.
“You helped a dying girl while everyone else recorded her. That tells me exactly who you are.”
Sadie started crying then.
Not loudly.
Just suddenly.
All the fear she had been holding escaped at once.
Megan pulled her close.
Ten minutes later, the door opened again.
But it wasn’t Officer Keller.
It was Mr. Whitaker.
Sadie immediately stood.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked older than he had that morning.
Exhausted.
His tie was gone.
His white coat had been replaced with a brown jacket.
“Your principal asked me to give a statement.”
Sadie stared at his pocket.
“Where is the page?”
His eyes moved toward Megan.
“What page?”
“You know exactly what page.”
“Sadie, today was traumatic.”
“Don’t.”
Her voice hardened.
“Don’t treat me like I’m confused.”
Mr. Whitaker looked toward the hallway.
Then quietly closed the door.
Megan stood.
“I don’t think you should be speaking to my daughter without the officer present.”
“You’re right.”
Yet he didn’t leave.
Instead, he pulled something from his jacket.
A folded piece of paper.
Sadie’s heart stopped.
“You took it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Mr. Whitaker stepped closer.
“Because Leah asked me to.”
Sadie stared at him.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
He unfolded the page.
It contained rows of chemical formulas, dates, and initials.
At the bottom, Leah had written one sentence in red ink.
IF SOMETHING HAPPENS TO ME, CHECK LOCKER 214. DO NOT TRUST THE SCHOOL OFFICE.
Sadie looked at him.
“Why didn’t you give this to police?”
Mr. Whitaker swallowed.
“Because whoever planted those pills in your backpack pulled the fire alarm thirty seconds after you saw me take this.”
Megan went still.
Mr. Whitaker lowered his voice.
“That means they were still inside the school.”
Sadie felt cold.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Then his phone rang.
He checked the screen.
His face turned white.
“What is it?” Megan asked.
He held the phone out.
A photograph had been sent from an unknown number.
It showed Mr. Whitaker standing inside the police station hallway.
Taken less than a minute earlier.
May you like
Underneath were seven words.
GIVE HER THE PAGE AND SHE DIES.
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