[10:08AM, EDT, Karellon University Administration Building]
The security office was just a few steps further down the hall. Behind the frosted glass door of the office, there was a waiting room, ringed by a series of service windows, each clearly marked as to the service provided there, and all of them closed except the one with the sign that said ‘Pay Fines Here.’ There seemed to be two people on duty in the office, a guard and a secretary, both of whom were hovering near a coffee pot in the back of the room beyond the windows. They looked up from their conversation when Kate and Sandra came into the office. The guard, a paunchy man in his late fifties, groaned loudly, mumbled something which was apparently quite amusing to the secretary, then very slowly meandered back to his window.
"If you don’t mind, why don’t you see about the car," Kate said. "I’m going to see what I can find out about Amy Richmond."
Sandra nodded and headed over to the guard, ID already in hand. "I want to know why our vehicle has been immobilized," she began.
Kate approached the window nearest to where the secretary was standing. "Excuse me, I’d like to ask you a few question," she said, holding up her ID.
The secretary looked at her for a long moment, then looked at the cup of coffee in her hand, trying to figure out which was more important. Finally, she set the cup down on the table and came up to the window. "What can I do for you," she said in a bored tone.
"Agent Calloway, FBI. And your name is?"
"Trudy."
"Trudy, I was told that you were holding the belongings of Amy Richmond in this office."
"Who told you that," the secretary asked suspiciously.
Kate debated for a moment whether or not she should reveal her source. Her reluctance to do so probably had more to do with the fact that she didn’t like the secretary’s attitude than anything else. In fact, she hadn’t liked the attitude of any of the people she had met who were associated with the university, except Officer Quinn. She decided to leave his name out of it for the moment.
"Does that make a difference?"
Trudy thought about that for a while. "No, I guess it doesn’t."
"Can I see Miss Richmond’s things," Kate asked when it became clear that there was going to be no further response.
"Nope."
"I can get a warrant if need be, but…"
"Wouldn’t make any difference. Her stuff isn’t here anymore."
"What happened to it?"
"Got picked up."
"When?"
"This morning."
"By whom?"
"Someone from her father’s office, I think." Trudy waited for the next question, but Kate just looked at her with an expression that encouraged her to elaborate. "I suppose you want me to look up the name," she sighed.
"Please," Kate said.
Kate had managed to keep a look of surprise off her face at this information. It was too coincidental to be a coincidence, but the only way Mayor Richmond could know about her interest in Amy’s disappearance would be if Quinn had told him. That didn’t make sense either. She decided that it was time to have another chat with Quinn, and to redouble the effort to get in touch with Richmond. Two more things added to the list of about a dozen things she wanted to do in relation to the case.
The secretary fumbled with a few papers on her desk and finally found what she was looking for. "Sharon Bixby, the mayor’s secretary. She was here as soon as the office opened at eight o’clock."
"Thank you," Kate said. She turned away from the window and looked around. Sandra was still discussing the car situation with the guard, and from the looks of it was getting nowhere fast. Kate walked over to them.
"When will the tow truck be here," Sandra asked, sounding exasperated. Seeing Kate nearby, she smiled grimly. "Apparently only the tow truck driver can remove the device," she said.
"Might be half an hour," the guard said in answer to her question. "Might take all day. Don’t know."
"And that’s the straightest answer I’ve gotten out of him so far."
"Who put the thing on the car in the first place," Kate asked.
Sandra rolled her eyes. "He doesn’t know, he can’t find out and they have no record of it," she said, preempting the statement the guard was about to make.
The guard shrugged apologetically. "Don’t know what else to tell you, ladies. Its not one of our boots, so we don’t have the key. I called the tow truck for you, don’t know what else I can do."
"Yeah, thanks."
"Something interesting," Kate said as soon as they were out of the office. "The mayor’s secretary supposedly picked up Amy’s things at eight o’clock this morning. At eight o’clock this morning, I was on the phone with the mayor’s secretary trying to get an appointment."
"So who was here?"
"That’s what I’d like to know."
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