The entire dynamic had changed after we found Eunice's body. Whoever we were up against had a very good idea of how things worked here, particularly Amanda's schedule, habits, and mannerisms.
They were also heartless, and cold-blooded in their operation. 'Sadistic' might have even been a great word to describe them, judging by how they disposed of Eunice's body to cover up the deed.
"This is my fault," Amanda said as we stood in the empty room, thinking and planning out our next action.
"How so?"
"Routine checks. Vigilance. Generally checking on everyone within this facility and making sure everything runs smoothly. I got too comfortable, even though I'm working with people who kill and are being trained to kill on a whim. After setting systems in place, I just relaxed and assumed those systems were okay as far as they continued working."
"I still don't understand where you're going with this," I answered, not really getting her point.
"Eunice is supposed to clean and reload my guns every time she returns them. When I gave her that gun and got it back the next day, I assumed all was okay. She always dropped it off early in the morning through my inbox chute, so I rarely ever saw her. I always deposited the gun through her inbox chute, so I couldn't smell a rat since everything was working how it used to. I didn't bother to check the gun that was returned to me either."
"But then how did you find out about the hemlock?"
"Ah? My dog, Xavier."
"X-Xavier?"
"Has always had the bad habit of digging into my meal before I got to eat, especially if I'm not paying attention like I wasn't that day. Within three hours, he dropped dead, and that's when I realized and called the meeting. The lab results came back and showed that it was hemlock."
"That's something. Now I understand what you mean. You let your guard down because you trusted the top security systems you put in place."
"The death of Eunice and the sabotage of my gun was to ensure I would be defenseless in a critical situation, for example, assuming I did not fall for the poison for some reason. Pandemonium breaks out, a shootout, and I'm left without ammo... the perfect setup."
I shook my head tiredly. "Another thread we have to follow is finding out who exactly got hemlock on this island, and how they managed to do it. I'm pursuing that based on the assumption that it came from one of the supply boats that come here."
"You think it's external?"
"Eh? Of course. The students are searched routinely, and none of them could have had access to your food anyway. There was a window of opportunity to poison your food, now that I think about it. Right in front of your door, while I wheeled the cart, I got distracted by the archery practice going on for a few seconds. I stepped away from the cart for a few minutes at that moment, so I'm sure that must be the one time the culprit had to do this."
April nodded, thinking about what I said for a while before she turned back to me.
"Maria, I'll tell you this one thing. I trust in your mental aptitude far more than you do. You may underestimate yourself, but I don't, because I didn't pick you up from that place just because I needed a cook here. There's a fire inside you that I can see in your eyes, and you're sharp-"
I blushed a little. "And why are you telling me this?"
"Who do you think did this? Based on all you know?"
"A member of the administrative board is involved, and at least one student is working with the person. There may be more members of either of the two classes of people I mentioned now - or both. But I feel that's the case."
"And why is that?"
"The fact that this person is well aware of your schedule - as in the Eunice case - gives away the fact that it's a member of the administrative board. None of the students would be able to access such information. But then the flexibility of movement gives away the involvement of one of the students. At the time your food was poisoned, the instructors all had to be involved in some activity or the other."
She smiled.
"I thought the same thing, but mine was just a thought. Yours is a well-thought hypothesis and one we caneasily confirm by checking the security footage that's being relayed to my office. "
I remembered that there was that. "Why didn't we use that since?"
"Well-"
We were interrupted by the sudden power outage. The whole place went pitch black for a few seconds as we both scrambled for weapons, Amanda switching on her phone's torch.
Somewhere in the distance, we heard a loud shriek.
*****
To Be Continued.
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