Chapter 6 - THE FLASH DRIVE
Dylan lunged.
Jake grabbed him.
“Don’t!”
Coach Bell stepped back.
“Smart friend.”
Maya held the flash drive behind her back.
“What’s on it?”
Bell’s face tightened.
“Nothing that belongs to you.”
“That means something important.”
“Give it to me.”
Jake looked toward the hallway.
“Or what?”
Bell’s phone buzzed.
He looked at it.
Then smiled.
“Or Mr. Cooper has a very bad morning.”
Maya suddenly threw the flash drive.
Not at Bell.
Past him.
Bell turned instinctively.
Jake slammed the mop handle into Bell’s wrist.
His phone hit the floor.
Dylan kicked it under a bench.
“RUN!”
Maya had never actually thrown the drive.
She still had it.
They sprinted through Bell’s office and out the side door.
Twenty minutes later they were inside Mark’s truck.
Mark drove while Maya opened the flash drive on an old laptop.
Folders appeared.
GRADES.
DISCIPLINE.
PAYMENTS.
BOARD.
Jake whispered, “No way.”
There were spreadsheets.
Student names.
Parents.
Payment dates.
Amounts.
Notes.
Some payments were marked C.
Cash.
Others D.
Donation.
One folder contained scanned checks made out to the Ridgeway Academic Excellence Foundation.
Dylan shook his head.
“They’re hiding bribes as donations.”
Mark’s knuckles turned white around the steering wheel.
Maya opened another folder.
VIDEO.
Dozens of clips.
Security-camera footage.
Office recordings.
One file was dated nineteen years earlier.
Mark slammed on the brakes.
“What?”
Maya stared at the file name.
QUARRY_10_14.
Mark’s face drained.
“No.”
Dylan whispered, “Dad?”
Mark pulled into an empty parking lot.
Nobody moved.
Maya clicked the video.
Grainy footage appeared.
A school hallway.
Old timestamp.
10:43 PM.
Adam Cooper walked into frame.
Alive.
Two men followed him.
One was much younger, but unmistakable.
Daniel Voss.
The future principal.
The second man was Robert Harlan.
Mark leaned toward the screen.
“What did they do?”
The video had no sound.
Adam turned.
He argued with them.
Voss shoved him.
Harlan grabbed Adam’s backpack.
Adam fought back.
Then a third person entered frame.
A woman.
Maya froze the video.
Jake stared at her.
“You know her?”
Maya didn’t answer.
“Maya?”
May you like
Her eyes filled with tears.
“That’s my mother.”
