Chapter 4 - THE GIRL WHO VANISHED
The girl’s name was Maya Torres.
Lila had met her during orientation.
Maya was thirteen.
Quiet.
Smart.
Also on scholarship.
“She told me to stay away from Peyton,” Lila said during the ride home.
Elliot sat beside her in the back seat.
For the first time in months, the Mercer security team surrounded them.
“What happened to Maya?”
“She complained.”
“To whom?”
“Principal Crowe.”
“And then?”
“She stopped coming to school.”
Elliot leaned forward.
“Did anyone say why?”
“They told us her family moved.”
Lila shook her head.
“But Maya told me her mom had just signed a new lease.”
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Elliot called Dana.
“Find Maya Torres.”
Dana paused.
“Student?”
“Yes.”
“Public records?”
“Anything legal.”
Thirty minutes later, Dana called back.
“Maya still lives in Yonkers.”
Elliot looked at Lila.
“She never moved.”
Dana continued.
“She was withdrawn from Ashbury Hall eight months ago.”
“By her mother?”
“That’s the strange part.”
Elliot waited.
“The withdrawal paperwork has her mother’s signature.”
“But?”
“The mother says she never signed it.”
Elliot felt cold.
“How do you know?”
“I called her.”
“Put her through.”
A woman answered.
“Mr. Mercer?”
“Ms. Torres?”
“My daughter told me what happened today.”
Her voice trembled.
“Maya has been waiting for someone to believe her.”
That evening, Elliot drove to the Torres apartment.
Maria Torres opened the door.
Maya stood behind her.
The moment Maya saw Lila, she started crying.
“You told.”
Lila nodded.
Maya hugged her.
Elliot sat at the kitchen table with Maria.
She opened a folder.
Inside were emails.
Complaint letters.
Medical reports.
Photos of bruises.
One photograph showed Maya’s hair cut unevenly.
Elliot stared.
“They did that at school?”
Maria nodded.
“Peyton and two other girls.”
“Why?”
“They said poor girls shouldn’t pretend to be pretty.”
Elliot clenched the page.
“I reported it.”
Maria continued.
“Crowe told me there wasn’t enough evidence.”
“What about cameras?”
“He said the camera in that hallway was broken.”
Maya spoke from the doorway.
“It wasn’t.”
Everyone looked at her.
“I saw the red light.”
Elliot’s suspicion became certainty.
“What happened next?”
Maria took a breath.
“Caroline Hargrove came to my apartment.”
Lila’s eyes widened.
“She offered me money.”
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
Elliot stared.
“To withdraw Maya?”
Maria nodded.
“I refused.”
“So what happened?”
“Two weeks later, the school accused Maya of stealing a teacher’s laptop.”
Maya shook her head violently.
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
Maria reached for her daughter’s hand.
“They said they would call police unless I withdrew her.”
Elliot felt rage burn through him.
“And the withdrawal paperwork?”
“I never signed it.”
Maria opened another folder.
“Then this came.”
It was a confidentiality agreement.
Attached to a check for twenty-five thousand dollars.
Unsigned.
Elliot read the sender.
Ashbury Hall Educational Foundation.
He knew that foundation.
Mercer Industries had donated three million dollars to it the previous year.
His own money had helped fund the machine hurting these girls.
Then Maya said something that changed everything.
“There’s a room.”
Elliot looked up.
“What room?”
“Under the auditorium.”
Maya’s face went pale.
“Peyton took us there when she wanted to scare people.”
Lila whispered,
“She took me there too.”
Elliot stared at his daughter.
“You never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“What’s inside?”
Lila and Maya looked at each other.
Maya answered.
“Old security monitors.”
Elliot stopped breathing.
“And a computer.”
Lila’s voice shook.
“With folders named after students.”
Elliot rose from the table.
This was no longer bullying.
May you like
Someone had built an archive.
And tomorrow morning, Elliot Mercer was going back to school.
