The Night Shift (22 page)

"Oh? And just what was that reason?" she asked, still sounding a bit suspicious.

"Well…"

Collin explained everything to her-about how Teneire told him to find something new or verifying and that if he wanted to continue helping, he'd need to bring it in as quickly as possible.

What Collin didn't realize was that Christine had long since walked out of the bathroom and noticed the confrontation between him and Lisa. Christine couldn't help but eavesdrop on the whole thing, and when she realized that Collin was starting to sound very suspicious and that he was onto something new about the murder, Christine could hardly keep herself quiet. Anxiously, she ran off, with the encounter between her coworker and boss ringing in her mind.

Lisa continued to be understanding and decided to let Collin go without giving him much of a lecture, despite the fact he had just rummaged through her office without permission. As she walked out to head back to her post, Collin looked anxiously at the
records
in front of him.

"Oh, man…just wait until Teneire sees
this
!"

*  *  *

"You found something
already
?" Teneire asked with a grin of disbelief when Collin walked into his office.

"Yes, sir."

"Well, what have ya got?"

"Work
records
."

"Work
records
? What are
those
gonna do?"

"You'll see. Here, take a look at'em."

Collin first handed Teneire the original records that had been kept on the night Scott got killed; he then handed Teneire a series of separate records from random days.

Teneire stared puzzled at the sheets of paper he held in his hand. "Aaaaaand…what exactly do these prove again?"

"You see the ones I just gave you? Take a good look at those…actually, just take a look at the first box."

Teneire did as he was told. After looking at the black splotched papers a few times, he looked back to Collin to see what he wanted him to do next.

"Okay, now look at the records from the night Scott died."

Still not seeing the point of it all, Teneire let out
a
soft, yet reluctant sigh. "I don't really see your point."

"You will soon. Now look at the other
records
at the same time. Just focus on the first boxes, all right?"

Teneire rolled his eyes but followed his instructions anyway. After several seconds, he said, "I don't see it."

"Really? Do me a favor and look at the records for any regular day and tell me what you see in the first box."

"I see Jess's name."

"Uh huh. What else do you see?"

"Uh…a bunch of black ink spots?"

A smile suddenly shot across Collin's face. "Exactly! Now look at the work
records
that were kept when Scott kicked the bucket. What do you see in
that
box?"

More puzzled than ever, Teneire looked at the box. "No one's name is there."

"Right. A name's not there. But something
else
is missing."

"What?"

"Notice how there were a lot of blobs of ink on the first couple of records?"

"Yeah."

"Do you see any of those black spots on the record that was used when Scott died?"

Now suddenly piecing everything together, Teneire anxiously looked at the work records from that night and didn't see any ink spots at all in that box.

"Uh…I see your point," Teneire said a bit dully. "But what exactly are you trying to prove just by saying these records are different? How do you know a different sheet wasn't just used?"

"Because…look at the other spots of ink on the night shift records. Those ink spots are exactly the same shape, are exactly the same size and are in the exact same position as the ones on all the other records."

Teneire now seemed even more confused. "Wait, what are you saying?!"

"Sir, no offense, but it's kind of obvious. Those records have the exact same ink spots on them, except for the one in the box where whoever was on the night shift would write down their name."

"And…"

"That means someone tampered with the records."

"What?! How'd you figure
that
out?"

"All right, here's what I'm thinking: obviously, these records were all photocopied from a sheet that had a bunch of these blots of ink, right? There's no other way those ink spots could be the same on every single record."

"I get
that
much."

"All right. These night shift records are exactly the same, except the first box is blank when there should be some of those spots of ink in it. And if you look at that box even closer, the blank white spot actually looks a LOT paler than the other parts of the paper without ink."

Teneire looked closely at the box and eventually looked back at Collin. "You know, that you mention it, it kind of does. Still, you haven't said what that's supposed to prove."

"Well, like I said, someone messed with this record and made the box look that way. The only thing I can think of is that whoever did this used white out."

"What?"

"How else could he have erased all the black spots of ink and made the sheet look paler than normal? So here's what I'm thinking: there
was
someone working on the night shift when Scott got killed and a name was written down on the records. Then, for some reason, the name that was written down got whited out by someone. That's why there aren't any black splotches and there's instead just an empty white space."

Teneire was rendered completely silent; he had no idea what to say.

"Just making sure I understand you…" Teneire started, now sounding very serious. "You're saying someone WAS working on the night Scott died, and then someone whited out the name on the records?"

"Exactly."

Teneire was silent a bit longer before saying, "Then whose name was written down on the work records? And who erased it?"

Collin fell silent as well after hearing that question. He was suddenly getting more excited and felt like he had finally done something right. Now all he had to do was put the final nail in the coffin before Teneire would allow him to call Randy in for questioning.

With a sly smirk spreading over his face, Collin said, "That's an easy one."

Chapter 13
 

Another Theory

"All right, then, what is it?"

Collin took a deep breath.
Okay, this is it…this is what it's all come down to right here. Gotta make this one count!
"The person whose name is whited out on that form is the one who killed Scott."

Teneire seemed to be expecting that answer, but he was still shocked by it. Perhaps it was because he was stunned he and Collin had come to the same conclusion, for once.

"What? Where do you get that?!"

"Think about it like this: the guy who killed Scott shows up for work at around the start of the night shift, all right? He puts his name down on the paper and signs into work. Then BAM! He kills Scott around one in the morning and goes back to the work
records
. He gets some white out, puts it over his name, and he's clear."

"What do you mean 'he's clear'?"

"Well, if his name wasn't on the records, then that would mean he wasn't at work, right? So if Scott died at work and the records said the guy who killed him wasn't there, then that would mean the killer would have an alibi, right?"

"Collin, you're overlooking a few things," Teneire said. "Let me ask you something: if the person who killed Scott was going to erase his name from the records, then why would he even write his name down in the first place?"

"Oh, come on, sir. You've seen how many people there are in the office when you've investigated, right? The killer just had to look natural, so he signed into work so no one would suspect he was up to anything."

"That wouldn't make a difference, though! Collin, if one of the workers actually saw the killer sign in and then saw his name was off the records the next morning after Scott's body was found, then they'd still know the killer was there."

At first, that argument made Collin feel like a sharp knife had been stuck right through him. However, it only took
a
moment to get himself back together. "And that's where you need to check
your
theory, sir."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You saw that there was only one name on the record, right? That would mean that there were no other workers around when the killer signed in."

"Which leads me right back to my question! If the killer really did sign in like you said so he wouldn't
look
suspicious, then what would be the point of it if there were no other workers around?"

Collin began grinning. "I don't think I said anything about
workers
being there, sir."

"What?"

"Like I said…you know how busy that office gets, right? If there were no other workers signing in, then the killer was probably just trying to make himself look less suspicious to some of the customers."

"That's…but that's not logical!" Teneire said.

Collin was suddenly feeling such an enormous rush from his growing confidence that he began talking back to Teneire in ways he never imagined he would. "Oh, really? Fine. What's something
illogical
about that?"

"Wha?...Uh…well, it seems weird that…"

"Sorry, sir, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But if you find something,
pleeeeease
tell me."

"Don't use that tone with me, Mr. Bansen…grrrr, all right, I can't find anything wrong right away with that theory you just gave me, but don't think you've won yet."

What's he going on about?...
"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I can't find anything wrong with what you just told me. But all you've done is tell me about what you think happened when the killer first showed up for work. If you're so sure you're right, then I want to hear what you think happened from the time the killer showed up to the time Scott's body was found."

Wha?!...Gah, this is bad. Okay. Eeeeeasy does it, Collin. Just think carefully and try to go back to what you were saying before. Take it nice and slow…

"All right, here's my theory: the killer shows up at the start of what would have been the night shift, right? He signs in so none of the customers will think anything is wrong. When it's late out and the killer was sure everyone was in their tents for the night, he lures Scott there and kills him. The killer then dragged Scott to the hiking trail-
if
they weren't already there-and then returned to the main office. The killer whites his name out for the
records
and then leaves. Then the hiker finds the body a few hours later, and you know it from there."