Janet:

"Who?" said Janet next morning at breakfast, "Tanner's dad? But, do you actually know what he does?"

"Well, let's see, Tanner said something at our last class discussion about his dad being a police officer? Something about, ah, what was it, taking risks to look after people?"

Janet was still looking at Mackay with a strange look on her face. As if she wasn't quite sure she believed what Mackay was saying, or perhaps she wasn't quite sure if she believed the implications of what he was saying.

"Well, Ok, considering everything, I'll make that pitch to Parker."

"Tanner's dad?" said Parker, “You mean the specialist in...”

“Yep, that’s right.” said Janet.

“But, how can he even do anything, without any specific situation to react to?”

“Don’t know. But, well, you know this Angel of Death business must mean something, since Jenny and Carmen are alive and well, even if the doctors say they have no right to be.”

“Ok, Ok, but when? Do we have him on standby for the entire last week of term? Our superiors might get a little annoyed at the waste of resources.”

“But, remember, most of the time he just waits around anyway, and does training programmes and the like. So we might be able to fit into his schedule.”

Big sigh from Parker.

“Ok, I’ll ring his office now and see what I can arrange.”

“Unfortunately, he is busy for once, with conferences and time off. The only time he has available in the next two weeks is this afternoon. So he can pay a visit, with all of his equipment, and we can discuss what exactly he can do, and he can do a dry run. Then, depending on what is decided, he can make himself available in the last week.” said Parker to Janet and Charlie.

“Oh, and also, we need to discuss what to do about our prime three suspects.”

After some talk.

“Ok, we assign Gagnon temporary duties at a police station way over the over side of the city, and make sure we can track his movements sufficiently well. Hopefully he will understand. After all, it could end up in him being removed from the suspect list.”

“As for Joshi and Daskalov; I don’t suppose we could convince them to have an unscheduled holiday for the last week?”

“That is going to be a tricky topic to bring up with them, let’s think about it for a day or two, agreed?” said Janet.

“And, we also need to get stuck into all of the other security details. Got to get it all in place within a couple of days.” said Charlie, “What a shame we don’t get overtime pay.”

“This end of term festival is going to be pretty stressful, that’s for sure.” said Janet.

That afternoon, a little after the end of the school day, Tanner's father drove his car up and walked into the station.

"Hi there, Trevor!" said Parker, shaking his hands, "Keeping well?"

"Yeah, sure am. But I must admit, I'm a bit puzzled by this assignment."

"Ah, yes, well now, perhaps I could ask you to suspend your sense of disbelief for a bit and listen to our explanation..."

After Janet explained the situation:

"That's... Interesting." said Trevor.

"So polite..." said Janet, "But you must admit the medical reports provide some compelling evidence."

"Yeah... I suppose so. Anyway, exactly what should I do? As requested, I have brought all of my stuff for a test run."

"Tell you what; let's go up to the roof. We can get a panoramic view of this side of the school building from there." said Parker.

Janet, Parker, and Trevor stood in the shade of a small lean-to built on the side of the air-conditioning housing. It went right up to the edge of the building, and, as promised, had a scenic view of the main school building, and the grounds in front of it and to both sides.

"Hmm" said Trevor, looking at the view from a professional perspective.

He ignored the beauty of the sun's rays lighting up the side of the school, and the trees and gardens around it. Instead, he took note of the fact that all of the windows from the second or third floor and upwards were clearly visible.

"You know, within another half hour the sun will be in the perfect position to light up the rooms on this side, but from here there will be no reflections. You're saying that from this time to evening is the crucial time frame for the end of term festival?"

"That's right." said Parker.

"And, of course, from here you can also see all of the playground areas in front of the school. Pity those trees block the view of the first and second floors." said Janet.

"So, in actual fact, this is as good a place as any for me to set my stuff up. I mean, unless we have an actual incident, there is no point in me being inside the school, since all I can see is just the single corridor and floor that I'm on."

"Well?" said Parker, looking at Janet.

"Mackay wasn't given any specific orders, so, I suppose, this is as good as anything." said Janet.

"Perhaps you could do your test run here?" said Parker.

"Sure."

"Oh, and as for communications..."

Janet gave Trevor a USB thumb stick. Trevor extracted his radio gear from his pack, and plugged the stick in.

"Ok, I'm now plugged in to your system."

"Can you wait for a while and we can test various scenarios?" said Parker, "Right now all of our officers apart from Charlie and us are out, but they should be back soon."

"Yes, I can. I brought my office work with me to do, after I set myself up."

Trevor showed them his police issue laptop.

"The damn paper work just keeps on growing. At least here I can do it while watching the sun set on the river."

The river was clearly visible, on either side, a result of the school and station being on a small island. And, indeed, it was a beautiful sight. The sun was still high enough to light up the river and the little boats moving along it. The main road ran between the station and the school and over the causeway and bridge, the traffic was beginning to peak for the afternoon rush. In front of the school itself were many students, scurrying around, most of them hurrying to escape from dullness of prosaic school life and do something exciting for once. Although, in truth, most of them just went home and watched TV.

Jenny:

Four of those students were our teenagers. They had been scurrying along, but Jenny delayed them.

"Oh, wait, I think I had better go somewhere." said Jenny, who was now jigging up and down on the spot.

She was slightly embarrassed to have to almost ask permission like that, but they all acknowledged, for the time being, that they had to put up with it.

Two girls and a boy waited outside the ground floor female toilets, as Jenny dashed inside.

"That's better." she said. She washed her hands, and then checked her mobile as it started to vibrate.

A message from someone - Oh

"If you do not follow these instructions I will kill Mackay. You know I can."

Jenny's body jerked and she almost collapsed, only managing to right herself by stumbling against the sink.

"Go out of the window. When outside, go around the end of the building and up the stairs to the third floor store room."

Jenny was trembling. And panicking. All she could think of was being raped last year. And of Mackay being killed. Which would kill her and Carmen. And who knows what would happen to Turquoise?

"If you do this, Mackay and you won't die."

Won't die. Won't die. Mum told me not to split from the others. But if she ignored the message, Mackay would die. And everyone else. But if she obeyed the message, she would be, would be, ...

She remembered Janet talking about pathological situations once upon a time.

Pathological. Pathological. This certainly is.

Shaking so much, she dropped the phone. She went to the window, to discover it was already slightly opened.

What to do...

If she doesn't do what was being asked, Mackay would die...

Her emotions totally blown by the message, the only thing she could see to do was to go out of the window.

The window slammed shut behind her, incidentally banging her hand and mashing some fingers. Reeling from pain and thinking with even less rationality than before, she staggered and stumbled along the wall, leaning against it to maintain her balance, around the corner, in through the end door and up the stairs.

Mackay:

Carmen and Turquoise had been having a discussion about where to go on their next date. Unfortunately, they could not agree, and Carmen in particular was getting a bit stroppy.

"But Carmen, you really need to let me have my way, at least some times." said Turquoise.

She was not longer in her meek little mouse mode. But she still had not gotten very assertive as of yet.

"Of course, of course! But, I really think that my idea is clearly the best..."

"Girls, if I might interrupt, but I'm getting a very bad feeling about Jenny's safety." said Mackay, managing at last to break into the conversation.

"Eh? Ah" said Carmen.

By now, Mackay was twitching and barely restraining himself from charging into the girls toilets.

"If you lot don't do something, I'm just going to check her out myself."

He made a move towards the door, only to be blocked by Carmen.

"Hey, this is the girls. We'll check first! Ok!"

The two girls went inside.

"Jenny, you here? Anyone else?" said Carmen.

Turquoise checked the stalls. "No one here."

"Shit" said Mackay, "This is bad. Where has she gone to?"

He tried pushing the window open, but it did not budge.

"The window is locked, just like they always are."

Carmen became as still as a statue. She was holding a phone and was intently reading the text on its screen.

"Carmen?" said Turquoise. It was not usual for Carmen to remain so silent for so long.

"Mackay, this is Jenny's phone." said Carmen.

Mackay and Turquoise peered over Carmen's shoulders and read the text also.

Mackay panicked. He beat against the glass of the window.

"Let's break it! Then follow Jenny!"

Carmen was still frozen, and just looked at Mackay.

"That's stupid, you'll only slash yourself into blood soaked confetti!" said Turquoise, "We just have to go out of the door, around, and we're at the stairs."

Mackay grabbed Carmen's hand and they were out.

"Hey, wait, we have to ring Janet!"

Turquoise scrambled after them, while getting out her mobile and tapping out Janet's number.

Parker:

Janet had just sat down in her office, with Parker standing at the side, holding some notes in his hand. Charlie standing at the doorway, wondering if he should get some coffee. Trevor was still upstairs. Janet's phone rang.

"Arrgh!" screamed Janet, "Tell them to stop running! We'll get there immediately!"

"Shit! Turquoise is too busy running to listen. Parker! We've been had! Jenny is being lured this very moment. Charlie! Let's go!"

She pushed some buttons to transfer the call to the police system, thus allowing Parker to access it from her desk. Parker sat down and logged in, while Janet and Charlie started running.

They were parents. So not running to their children's aid was unthinkable. But they were also experienced police officers. So, as they ran, they activated their own police communications gear. It allowed them hands free communications with the police operations centre.

Parker watched as the two officers disappeared.

“Damn…”

Then he spoke to Janet over the police system.

"Where are the kids going?" he said.

Parker could hear her gasping for breath has she sprinted over the pedestrian bridge to the school.

"Turquoise's voice was indistinct; it's either the second or third floor, the storage room at one end."

They kept running.

Then Parker spoke to Police Operations.

"Get me Trevor, now!"

Operations managed to work out which Trevor he wanted, and patched him through.

Trevor:

Trevor, still on the roof, had set out his equipment and was just about to open his laptop. His phone, which was an integral part of his communications gear, switched itself to active mode, and Parker's voice boomed out.

"Something's happening right now. Apparently, Jenny is in danger. Get out your binoculars and look at the second or third floor, at the end, can you see anything?"

"Ok."

Jenny:

Jenny's mind was full of terror. Of the pain of being raped. Of the fear of being killed. And the grinding, wrenching, gut tearing terror of Mackay being killed. And then Carmen and Turquoise dying.

If I meet him, he'll only rape me, right? He said so in his email. Surely? Otherwise, he'll kill Mackay. I know he can, he could have killed him easily last week. And I'll die also. What will mum and dad think? I can't allow that, I can't. But it's so horrible, horrible.

Her mind awash in a frothing, foaming mass of hurt and confusion and anguish and pain, her feet carried her forward with no conscious awareness. She came up to the storage door, twitching and trembling, and just stood there for a moment. He must have been waiting, since, without her touching it, the door opened.

Mackey:

Mackay, dragging Carmen, ran down the corridor and came to the internal door that separated the ground floor entrance area from the rest of the building.

Thud!

Mackay ran full tilt at the door, and bounced off it. It did not break, which was fortunate since it was glass.

"It's locked!" he screamed, as he shook the handle, "What do we do?"

"It's not! It's merely got its bolts engaged, and they're on this side!" said Carmen.

"Oh" said Mackay.

Carmen bent down and pulled up the lower bolt. Turquoise, just then catching up with them, reached up and pulled down the upper bolt.

"We're going upstairs," she shouted into her phone, then ignored it as she ran to catch up with the others, who by now were attacking the stairs.

Parker:

"Which floor are you going to?" said Parker, talking directly to Turquoise’s phone.

There was no reply, just the sounds of frantic activity. So Parker spoke to Janet.

"If they're going to save Jenny, I don’t think I’ll say anymore to them over their phone, since it might alert the attacker."

"Right" she said, into her police mike, clipped to her shirtfront.

Jenny:

The door opened, a hand reached out and grabbed Jenny's, and she was dragged inside. The man closed the door and locked it, then dragged her down to the end of the room.

"Daskalov!" said Jenny, momentarily relieved.

He smiled his usual, somewhat sardonic, smile.

Then Jenny noticed that in his other hand he was holding a long knife.

Trevor:

Trevor had dropped his laptop, and by now was scanning the windows of the lower two floors of the school building. He was talking directly to Parker.

"The sun light is at the perfect angle, I can see in each room, nothing, nothing, wait a minute, shit!"

There was a brief moment while Trevor changed mental gears. Be stopped acting like some excited observer watching a tragedy unfold, and started acting in a completely cool, unhurried, calm professional manner. A professional sniper. Ten years military experience, seven years as a member of the police tactical response team. He went to his rifle, loaded it, aimed it and looked through the scope.

"Parker, I see a man in a third floor room. He is holding a knife. A girl with long black hair has just entered the room. It is not clear exactly what is happening. Suggest those two police officers get there as soon as possible."

Parker relayed the message on.

Janet:

Charlie and Janet were now at the entrance hall. They had some moments confusion as they tried to work out which was the direction to the stairs. Fortunately, there were not many students around, and those that were around were exiting the building and walking to the gates. They looked at the police officers with interest, but none of them were willing to delay their escape from school.

Parker:

Trevor spoke to Parker over the radio link:

"Parker! Ask those officers to stop at the stairwell just before entering the corridor. I want to know if there are any people around. Just in case I need to fire."

Parker dutifully relayed this message on.

Jenny:

Jenny stared at the knife, and then looked up at Daskalov.

"But, but, you said, you said I would be Ok..."

"What a shame. I lied. But I did tell you originally what would happen if you told someone, didn't I?"

He kept on smiling. His usual smile. And Jenny was drowning in horror. Her visual field contracted, she looked from his smile to the knife in his hand, and back again.

"Serves you right for entering my trap." he said, "But first, put your hands on that desk..."

She was frozen in fear. She couldn't move. He was just about to push her towards the desk when

Crash!

The door sprang open, and Mackay, then Carmen, then Turquoise piled into the room.

"Huh? I locked that!" said Daskalov.

Carmen and Turquoise both screamed out "Jenny" and rushed to either side of her. Mackay only went a little way in, then stopped in confusion as he realised who the man was. Daskalov went past Mackay, locked the door, and this time made sure it was locked. He then turned to Mackay, holding his knife.

"Huh" said Mackay.

All of the girls were now frozen.

"What a nuisance. Now I will have to kill you all."

"What, what, what?" said Mackay. He started backing off, because Daskalov was slowly approaching, leading with his knife.

Trevor:

"Parker! There are now two more girls and a boy in that room. And the man is threatening the boy with the knife. Tell Janet and what's his name I definitely need to know if there are any people in the corridors. Tell them to wait at the stair well."

Janet and Charlie:

Janet and Charlie received this order just as they were coming to the top of the third floor stairs. Being parents, they were filled with screaming urgency to get to their children as soon as possible. But being police officers, they knew that this was not necessarily the best choice of action. Simultaneously they both reached out and grabbed the other.

"Stop here!" they ordered each other.

"The corridors on either side of the void are empty." said Charlie to Parker, who then told Trevor.

Trevor:

"The man is holding his knife out and is walking towards the boy. The boy is backing off. I can't get a clear shot, the window glass will shatter over everyone..." said Trevor.

Mackey:

Mackay took another step back, mesmerized by point of the knife. It was moving in erratic circles, as Daskalov took each step forward.

Mackay lifted his foot for another step, when the lighting in the room shifted to the harsh black and white that he recognised.

Esmeralda's hand pressed his back, preventing him from moving any more.

"Stand your ground!" she said.

The lighting went back to normal. Daskalov, completely oblivious to this, took another step forward.

“Yes, that’s good; get it over and done with.”

Still smiling, he wound back his arm in preparation of making a lunge.

Parker:

“The boy has stopped. The man has stopped and is precisely outlined by the only opened window. He’s getting ready to stab. Don’t disturb me.” said Trevor.

Trevor focused the cross hairs of his telescopic sight onto the man’s chest, placed his finger gently on the trigger, and waited for the perfect moment.

Daskalov completed his leisurely backward movement.

Trevor squeezed the trigger.

Daskalov had moved at the same time, but he still went down.

“Get there as soon as possible! I don’t know if I hit him or not!”

Mackay:

Mackay and the girls heard a zapping sound, and saw Daskalov collapse on the floor. They did not move, just looked on in shock.

Janet and Charlie:

Charlie reached the door. It was locked. Charlie had a robust build. The door did not last very long and Charlie and Janet burst into the room. They saw a man lying on the ground, with a geyser of blood pulsing out of his neck, up into the air by a quarter of a metre, then falling onto the floor.

This sight they totally ignored.

“Jenny! And Turquoise!” screamed Janet, as she jumped over the man, ran around Mackay, and launched herself at the two girls. Charlie did the same, but aiming for Carmen.

After two seconds of hugging, both parents simultaneously stopped, whipped their heads around, and shouted.

“Mackay, are you Ok!”

“Y - y - yes, I-I’m fine.”

And then they all looked at the man on the floor.

“Daskalov?” said Janet.

“Really?” said Charlie.

Trevor:

Both Parker and Trevor were by now also sprinting towards the school.

Mackay:

Blood still spurting out, Daskalov managed to raise his head and upper body. His head jerked around, as if his neck had rusty joints.

“What the hell happened?”

He saw the two police officers hugging the girls, and Mackay standing in front of them.

“Just what the hell is so special about those brats, anyway?”

And then he collapsed. His head hit the floor with a thud. The blood stopped spurting.

A moment’s silence. Then everyone still alive in the room saw the lighting go high contrast black and white. Daskalov sat up, looking puzzled. That is, his soul sat up. His body lay still on the floor. Daskalov looked around in puzzlement. And then Esmeralda arrived.

Her eyes were glowing red; her face was filled with anger.

Mackay gulped nervously.

So that’s what she looks like when she really is angry.

“Daskalov! You’re coming with me!” said Esmeralda.

She grabbed him and dragged him up, out through the window, and away. He was beginning to open his mouth, but before he could scream, he and the angel both faded out. The lighting went back to normal. The only Daskalov left was the body on the floor.

Trevor and Parker:

When Trevor and Parker, both panting from exertion, finally arrived at the doorway, they both wondered.

Why was everyone in the room staring out of the window, and not at the body?

Janet:

Later that evening, back at Janet's home, with all parents were present.

Janet and Jiro hugged their daughter as she wailed.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I should have just rung you and rejoined the others. But I was so worried about Mackay and the others..."

"That's all right dear, it all worked out well in the end." said Janet.

An hour later, the teenagers were fast asleep. The parents tiptoed into the room, and looked at them sleeping all in a row.

"I really envy their ability to all fall asleep in five minutes flat." said Catalina.

She and Charlie and Mackay's parents also stayed the night in their respective guest rooms.

None of the parents got all that much sleep.

Next day was Tuesday.

"Well, aren't you lucky," said Janet to the teenagers, "School is closed today. Us police officers have to go to work, but the other parents are taking time off work and staying over. See ya."

Janet and Charlie, looking washed out, dark smudges under their eyes, presented themselves to the police station conference room.

Yawn. "Oh, hi, you two." said Parker.

"Don't mind us," said Trevor, "we've been up all night doing the initial investigation."

"Actually, we didn't get much sleep, either" said Charlie.

"And, more importantly, are all of those purple horrors accounted for?" said Janet.

"Yep, they sure are. There were initially ten in the packet, and two we already known about. We found the packet with seven in it at Daskalov's unit, and, after a lot of searching, we found a small shallow grave in his back yard that had a mummified cat in a plastic bag. At three o’clock in the morning, mind you. Forensics has just reported that there are definitely signs of the break down products of the purple poison in the poor moggie." said Parker.

"So, he practiced on the cat first, and then went on to bigger targets." said Charlie.

"Damn him to hell." said Janet.

"Which is apparently where he is, anyway." said Trevor.

Both Janet and Charlie helped themselves to some coffee, and flopped down into two spare chairs.

"So, how the hell was he aiming to get away with all of this, anyway?" said Janet, "I mean, there are security cameras covering the stair well and corridors."

"Audaciously, I suppose you could say," said Parker, "He merely went to the security switch board in the communications room at the back of the staff room, and turned off the cameras in that area. Since the security team was still in the process of installing more cameras, the security monitoring centre didn't pay much attention to the outage."

"He would have just kept watch and waited until Jenny was in a good position, then rang her, then gone up the stairs. And he would have aimed to just stroll down the stairs and out afterwards. Perfectly simple, no witnesses, and he wasn't anywhere he wouldn't normally be, anyway." said Trevor.

Charlie had been idly looking at the row of cardboard boxes on the bench. They contained various bits of evidence, like Daskalov's wallet and his keys and two mobiles, and-

"Ah, right, protection."

"Yeah, he wasn't planning on leaving any genetic evidence behind, just like before." said Parker.

Janet looked down at her hands as she squeezed the side rests of her chair. Her knuckles went white. Everyone else pretended not to hear the string of obscenities she mumbled to herself.

After a few seconds. "Ok, ok, I'm back to normal, don't mind me."

"And, I suppose that second mobile was the one he used to text Jenny?" said Charlie.

"Yep, it belongs to a little ten year old school girl, who lost it sometime yesterday."

Silence for a while.

"And, a coil of rope and gloves?"

"We are guessing that that was his backup plan. He could climb out of the window if something went wrong." said Parker.

Charlie and Janet morosely looked at the neatly sorted evidence for a while.

"Well, I suppose we had better get back to work." said Parker.

The school board, a number of concerned parents, and the police, all had a meeting in an empty classroom at midday. After some extremely sober discussion, it was decided that the children could come back to school tomorrow. But it was obvious that the repercussions of having one of the teachers of the school actually committing such crimes were not going to be over any time soon.

"Fortunately, that is not for you to worry about." said Janet to Mackay and the others at the evening meal that night.

"And you are free to go back to school as usual."

They were no longer compelled to stick together, but for the remaining two and a half weeks, they did just that. Jenny in particular made sure she was always next to Mackay.

Tanner:

"You’d think they were super glued together." said Tanner to his girlfriend.

"Well, he did do the macho thing and protect his girlfriend, so it is only natural that she would return the favour."

"Humph"

"Would you like me to stick with you, too?" she said, suiting her actions to her words, with, err, some extra additions.

"Well, now, I need to think about this..."

Mackay and Handel: Tally the Final Score

And on the last day or term, at lunchtime.

"Jenny, if you can keep Carmen, Turquoise and Harmony company, since Handel and I need to have a meeting..." said Mackay.

Mackay and Handel went to the location where they had their initial discussion about getting girlfriends. They stood there, in front of the bench, right next to a playground and sand pit for the grade schoolers. There was an awkward silence.

"Well, it's the last day of term." said Handel.

"Yeah. And we can now tote up our scores, as per agreement." said Mackay.

The breeze caused one of the swings to move slightly, producing a squeaking noise.

"Ok, I'll start." said Handel. He picked up a stick and wrote an H in the sand.

"I've finally gotten used to being different from everyone else. I do not want either a girlfriend or boyfriend, and if anybody objects, then tough. However, I have gained a platonic friend in Harmony, hopefully for life. So perhaps I can claim a score of five?"

He scratched the number next to the H.

Mackay took the stick.

"However, I do have a girlfriend. Jenny and I may have not gone anywhere near as far as Seff did with his girls, but, well, we are committed to each other, in more ways than one. And, I'll say we have made a good start. So, perhaps, a score of twenty?"

He scratched out the letter M, and the number twenty. They both contemplated the scorecard so far.

"You know, due to your circumstances, like for example, you being inextricably involved with two other lovely ladies," said Handel.

"Purely platonically!" said Mackay.

"Yes, for sure, but still, how about we give you another five points per platonic friendship, just like me. So that means you get thirty."

"Ok."

Mackay rubbed out the twenty and put in thirty.

The leaves in the trees swirled around in some wind currents. A few grains of sand were blown up and across the sand pit and the swing creaked some more.

Mackay wrote the letter S.

"He went all the way with three girls." said Handel.

"So he gets a score of three hundred." said Mackay. He wrote this down.

Handel took the stick, and put a horizontal bar in front of the number.

"That now makes it minus three hundred."

"That looks about right."

They looked at the final score for a minute, then without saying anything more, they went back to their friends. The score in the sand was obliterated within five minutes when a bunch of grade schoolers went through.

"How did it go?" asked Turquoise.

"Handel and I are satisfied with our scores."