Page 12 of A Thin Line

The acid in my gut churned once more. Although I planned to tell the officers the whole truth, I didn’t know what they’d seen on the cameras yet—or if they’d even looked. They seemed to be following the orders of the plainclothes cops working in the lab.

The security guard stood just outside his office, having been kicked out for the greater good, left to watching over us to make sure we didn’t “escape.” I wondered if Dr. Rakhimov had managed to take advantage of her misfortune, getting more donors to cough up cash to help the school in time of its greatest need. I didn’t know that that was actually true—but I could hear Dr. R. asking it in just that way, her voice tinged with a hint of compassion for the students. That compassion didn’t really exist, but her performances were often Oscar worthy.

It made me wonder what she got out of all this—but I knew. Dr. R. wielded great power with the school, far more than the actual president of campus. What Dr. R. wanted, Dr. R. got. I knew too that, as head of the ever-growing nursing and health sciences programs, she earned far more than other professors—but I wondered if she earned bonuses for bringing in more students or money, or if it was just the power she enjoyed.

When the door to the security guard’s office opened, we three girls startled and looked over. One of the cops was escorting the male student, accompanied by the security guard. Before he was out of sight, he said, “Don’t get any bright ideas.”

Jenna smirked, but I didn’t know if it was because she was considering it anyway or shocked that the security guard thought we were stupid. But this was Jenna, so I wasn’t about to ask.

The other cop exited the office holding a clipboard. He looked up and said, “Miller.”

That had to be directed at me, as I was the only one there with that last name. Still, I was used to being addressed by my first. Pointing my hand at myself, I asked, “Me?”

“Your name Miller?”

“My last name.”

“Then yeah, you. Unless you wanted a red carpet or something.”

I tried not to look as scared or nervous as I felt, but I still had a hard time getting up from the soft chair. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket, no doubt a return message from my dad, but it would have to wait. I suspected pulling out my phone and reading through messages like Jenna often did no matter what was going on would not be tolerated by the man in front of me.

When I reached him, he waved me into the office. “Have a seat.” Before he entered, though, he said to the girls outside, “You’re not under arrest—but I promise your life will be miserable if you leave before we have a chance to ask you questions.”

As he closed the door, I was certain Jenna would be whining to Piper again about being treated like a common criminal, but it was obvious she was enjoying the change of pace. Although she’d been told to refrain from posting about the vandalism on social media until the cops had had a chance to process the crime scene, I had no doubt she had let several of her select friends know what was happening nonetheless.

As the cop turned around, I realized just what a tight space the security office was. There was a huge desk in the middle of the room and multiple monitors lined the wall beside the desk. It made me wonder if they’d already looked at the recordings—but if they had, why would they be questioning us?

“All right, Miss Miller, I want you to tell me about your day in regard to the lab in as much detail as you can. Something you might remember that seems insignificant could turn out to be important information, so don’t leave out anything.”

“Um…okay. I, uh…I arrived on campus at eleven AM, and I was in and out of the lab off and on all day, but I wasn’t there making final preparations until around three.” I explained to him how I’d gone through all the simulation stations three times to make sure everything Dr. Rakhimov had wanted to demonstrate was working perfectly. If I hadn’t done each three times, she would have made me go back and do them again.

“You could have lied about how many times you tested them.”

“Yes, I suppose I could have, but Jenna was there—and, even though she wasn’t exactly paying attention, the time it took me to go through each station would have been evident.” Jenna wouldn’t have had any problem lying about helping or about testing each station three times if she’d only done it once, but I just knew if I hadn’t told the truth, Dr. R. would somehow know.

“Jenna—Haskell?”

“Yes.”

“And what was Jenna doing in the lab?”

The easy answer would have been to say nothing and that would have almost been the truth. “She was supposed to be testing the stations as well but she was on her phone a lot…so I would ask her to do certain things when I needed a hand.”

“Like what?”

“Like filling up the cotton ball jar in one of the stations and making sure there was another box of small gloves in another. Just things like that.”

“And how long did this go on?”

I was not about to tell him that I’d moved slowly through the lab on purpose, but I had—for two reasons. One was to avoid being around Dr. Rakhimov as much as possible, because her mood had been worse than usual, and the second was so that I could honestly say I’d painstakingly tested everything and knew it was working perfectly. Had I known it would all be destroyed later, I might not have cared as much.

“Are you Haskell’s supervisor?”

I didn’t laugh but I almost wanted to. Even had I been, I doubted she would have been much more help to me. “No. I’m Dr. Rakhimov’s Teaching Assistant. Jenna and the male student usually work in the Admissions Office and I think Piper works in the Media Center but Dr. Rakhimov borrowed them just for today. After tonight, they’ll be going back to their usual work-study jobs.”

“Do you—” He paused when there was a sharp knock on the door before it swung open and the other police officer entered. As he got situated, I stole a glance at the bank of monitors and noticed one of them looking out over one of the parking lots where several cars were leaving.

I knew that had to be some of the people Dr. Rakhimov had invited.

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