Chapter 45 – Stalking and Stakeout – Holly Hayfield

My stakeout with Sam began immediately after learning that Ms. Logan hadn’t left her classroom. There was an empty classroom across the hall from Ms. Logan. That was the area we chose for our stake out. The glass on the door window was frosted in a way that would obscure our faces. Furthermore, we kept the lights out in the room to hide our activity. We’d be able to see her come out, but she wouldn’t see us.

The first thing I had to do was call my ride home, Angel, to let her know I’d be staying after school for a while. The excuse I gave her was student council group related and so she didn’t ask any questions. Sam made similar arrangements of her own via text. Next up, Sam had plans to secure disguises. She had her hoodie and beanie hat in her locker still. On the other hand I still had the black surgical mask Silver gave me. I never thought I’d actually make use of it.

Ms. Logan was still in her classroom by the time Sam got back from visiting her locker. She handed me her hoodie once I was done tying up my hair in the back. I donned her hoodie and pulled up the hood. The hoodie was big on me but it would do a good job at concealing my identity. With the mask, the hoodie, and my hair tied up in the back I was practically unrecognizable. Sam didn’t need to go as far since Ms. Logan wasn’t familiar with her. Sam just put on her beanie cap to hide her white hair and put her mask back on.

“She still hasn’t come out the room?” Sam asked.

“No, hopefully she does soon. I don’t want to wait here too long. My ride said she’d be here in about an hour to pick me up.”

“That looks good on you,” Sam said, “The mask, that is.”

“I’m glad Silver made it for me. This will help us in case Ms. Logan gets a glimpse of us. She’ll just dismiss us as being part of Naomi’s gang.”

“Good point, a lot of my girlfriends still hang out around here after school. We shouldn’t garner too much attention like this.”

From the corner of my eye I could see movement from the door’s window. I moved closer to the window to get a better look. Across the hall, the profile of a woman was coming out while carrying something. The glazing on the window made it hard to make out the details but I recognized it as Ms. Logan walking out with the painting in the same plastic covering that she was using to transport it before. She was moving into action.

“It’s time.” I whispered to Sam. “I’ll crack the door open to peek at which direction she goes. Get ready.”

I turned the door’s handle so slowly that the tumbling of the door’s mechanism couldn’t be heard. The door was opened just enough that a small portion of the hallway could be made out. It was enough for me to look through with one eye and keep track of where Ms. Logan was going. As she walked out the end of the history hallway she made a sharp turn right. Once she was out of sight I opened the door up all the way.

“Come on, let’s go!” I said to Sam.

“I’m right behind you.” She said.

We had to creep up fast enough that we wouldn’t lose her trail, but slow enough that our footfalls against the hard concrete flooring wouldn’t sound like running. We made it to the corner that she turned in time enough to see her go down another hallway. It wasn’t the hallway I was expecting. I was expecting her to go more in the direction of the Discipline Hall. This new hallway wouldn’t get her any closer.

As we followed her to this new hallway I began to consider the possibility that my theory was wrong. It was possible she had somewhere else in mind and I had led myself into believing what I wanted. If that was the case I had no idea where we were going now. It wasn’t like she was heading to her car in the parking lot. That would’ve been the opposite direction she was going.

We followed her down into this new hall from a distance. She was so far away that we didn’t take any special precaution while following her steps. That became a problem when she unexpectedly looked behind her. Sam pushed me against the wall behind me and lowered her mask to kiss me on the forehead. This came as a surprise to me, but I understood her reasoning. This way we were just two of Naomi’s girlfriends just goofing around in the hallways as usual.

Sam kept up the kissing long enough for Ms. Logan to lose interest. Sam lowered her kissing from my forehead and went to my cheek, letting me look in Ms. Logan’s direction. She was opening up a random door towards the far end of the hallway. I had no idea what that door led to. This was one of the lesser used hallways we were going through.

I poked Sam in the stomach so that she’d back off. She didn’t. She went as far as lowering my mask to plant a light kiss on my lips. The way she pulled back and smiled made me realize that she had this planned all along. The charming look on her face made me smiled too. I poked her in the stomach once more, this time harder.

“You silly goose, do you think we’re here to play?” I asked.

“Sorry, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me up.”

“Well, at least it was a friendly kiss, unlike the first time Val kissed me.”

“You mean she did it more than once? What’s the story behind that?” She asked.

“That’s a long, long story. We need to go check out that door before we lose Ms. Logan.”

“Right!”

We ran over to the door in a light jog. It looked like the door to a classroom or closet. It was impossible to know without opening it as the door didn’t have a window. Sam volunteered to peek inside. She looked at me with a confused expression and then opened the door all the way up so that I could see also. It wasn’t a classroom. It was a hidden hallway. This hallway was even more narrow and bleaker than the rest of the school hallways.

The most important thing about this hallway was that Ms. Logan wasn’t there. Sam and I looked at each other before walking in. There were small windows to the outside lighting the hallway, but other than that the hallway was unlit. Sam and I walked through, looking around. It was like we were expecting to find a secret passageway somewhere like in the movies. The idea in my mind sounded ridiculous. That was until we actually found it.

The door barely even registered as a door. It was painted the same dark gray as the wall, handle and all. Sam and I opened the door slowly. Light from the outdoors flooded in. This was somewhere outside behind the school. I didn’t recognize this area as it was pretty remote. Sam and I quickly got out and looked around for Ms. Logan. Sam pointed her out, walking down the side of the building. We got down into the bushes against the wall and followed her.

We stalked her around another part of the school building. This was a strange pathway that Ms. Logan was taking. There were plenty of unkept bushes on this part of the school. The area around this far wall was surrounded so densely by trees that it seemed like the school officials just didn’t bother with the lawn upkeep. The grass was also noticeably higher than the more managed parts of the school.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The way the afternoon sun shined on the school building put this entire area in the school’s shadow. That gave Sam and I further cover as we crept up behind the bushes. It wasn’t easy to navigate our way through the brushes either. At one point we were both being scratched in poked by long branches sticking out from these wild bushes. It felt like we would lose sight of Ms. Logan while we were making our way through. That fear was quelled when she stopped in her tracks.

“What’s she doing?” Sam asked in a whisper.

“I don’t know. It looks like she’s looking around. We’d better keep our heads down.” I whispered back.

Ms. Logan surveyed the area and then sat the wrapped up painting down on the ground. She went into the bushes just in front of her and leaned forward. We could see her fiddling with something, but we weren’t sure what. It was like she was opening a box or something. We couldn’t afford to stick our heads out any further for fear of being seen. Suddenly there was a large creaking sound and Ms. Logan pulled a metallic door open.

“There’s a storm cellar door!” I whispered when I realized. “That storm cellar must connect to the basement somehow!”

“Look! She’s going in!” Sam whispered back.

Ms. Logan picked her painting up off the ground and went into this cellar, slamming the door shut behind her. Sam and I changed positions immediately after she went in. Across from this storm cellar door, there was a line of trees and bushes that we could hide in. From there we had a better view of the door in focus. It was pretty well concealed by the bushes. No one would be likely to find it without knowing what they were looking for.

“That’s why my girlfriends couldn’t find the secret passage way into the basement.” Sam said. “We were busy looking for an indoor staircase! I never imagined it’d be an outdoor entryway.”

“It looks like this school still has a lot of secrets to be learned. Let’s keep a close eye from here and wait for her to come out. Once she’s clear we’ll get a closer look.”

“Right,” Sam said.

So our second stakeout officially began. In my mind I imagined Ms. Logan walking down into that cellar and heading into the basement from there. I expected that she’d unveil her painting beside Malorie’s ‘shrine’ and then promptly leave to go back home. The problem with this succinct mental image of Ms. Logan’s behavior was that she was often unpredictable. This was one of those times. She was taking a massively long time to come out of the cellar. Sam and I were naturally getting anxious.

“Where the hell is she?” Sam asked. “It’s been like fifteen minutes. Shouldn’t she have come out by now?”

“Maybe she’s saying a prayer for her friend or something?” I asked. “She’s using this painting as a way to come to terms with her grief. This must be a deeply spiritual moment for her.”

“Well I hope her little vision quest ends soon. My older sister is picking me up today to go to her place.”

“You have an older sister?” I asked. “What’s she like?”

“Eh, my sister is a lot like me I guess. Truthfully, it’s more like I became a lot like her. My sister was pretty rebellious at my age, which was why my parents were so tough on me. They didn’t want me to end up like her, and yet…”

“They ended up causing a spoiler effect.” I said.

“Huh, I haven’t heard it put that way, but I guess you’re right. You’re really smart Holly.”

I smiled at her.

“Complimenting me isn’t going to get you another kiss.” I said.

Sam and I both laughed. Our laughs were interrupted by the sound of the cellar door creaking open.

“She’s coming out!” Sam said and pushed my shoulder down. “Get down.”

We hunkered down behind the bushes across from the cellar door. As expected, the painting was no longer with Ms. Logan. She fulfilled her mission. After stepping out of the cellar door she turned back to fiddle with it. I couldn’t tell what she was doing but from a distance it looked like she was trying to make sure it was closed all the way. Once that was done, she looked around shiftily and started back in the direction that she originally came from.

We waited for her to walk completely out of sight before doing anything else. Once we knew she was gone we both rushed over to the cellar door and witnessed just what she was fiddling with on the cellar door. It was a lock. It wasn’t just any lock, either. It was a heavy steel reinforced lock with steel chains that kept the cellar door closed tightly. No matter how hard we pulled the cellar doors wouldn’t pry even an inch.

“It’s no use.” Sam said after pulling the door. “The lock is too well made. Something like this isn’t going to just snap like cheap plastic. We’ll need to get it open some other way.”

“I’ve talked for Ms. Logan for a while but never got a good look at her keychain.” I said. “Considering how paranoid she is she probably keeps them in her pocket at almost all times. I don’t know how I could get close enough to grab the key.”

“Maybe you won’t have to.” Sam said. “One girl in Naomi’s group is good with handling locks. Her name’s Perri. I’ve seen her open up a vending machine with just a tiny screwdriver and a prying tool. She’s a genius at this type of thing. We can talk to her about this.”

“Good!” I said. “That’s good! Talk to Naomi about this too. I already planned on sneaking in on the weekend if we managed to find the basement. I’ve already made plans to visit Lilith’s house this weekend. She lives close by. We’ll use that as the staging grounds for a break-in.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to Naomi as soon as I get home from my sister’s place tonight. I’ll have her contact you on ChatCat with whatever we come up with.”

“Let’s get a few pictures of this door for Val and the others, and then we’ll head back.” I said.

Sam pulled out her cell phone.

“Your ride still won’t be here for a while, right? Want me to ask my sister to drop you off?”

“No, that’s fine. Besides, if the plans for this weekend are going to work out then I need to have an important conversation with her on the way home.”

As soon as Sam and I had a few choice pictures selected from our pool we dropped them straight into Val’s student council group ChatCat. It was four simple pictures with a caption that read ‘The way into the basement’. The other three girls immediately flooded the ChatCat chat-box with questions. Val wanted to know how we found it. Jay wanted to know where it was in relativity to the rest of the school. Lilith had erupted, coming at us with an explosion of questions.

Sam and I explained our tailing of Ms. Logan, but didn’t go too far into detail. The cellar’s location was difficult to explain as we didn’t know where we were ourselves. We only knew how we got there and how to get back. It wasn’t until we did some scouting that we learned the exact location of the cellar door. We had a landmark to go on. The school’s rarely used indoor swimming pool was nearby. The swimming facility had a small external storage building for storing maintenance tools and equipment. This small building was a stone’s throw from the cellar door.

Sam’s sister picked her up soon after we returned to the front of the school. Angel reminded me by text that she was on her way. She wasn’t the only one I was receiving messages from. Lilith wouldn’t stop sending me private ChatCat message after message. I did respond to some of them, but only as lax as possible. I told her I had a plan to get inside, but I didn’t give any details. She must’ve realized how reserved I was purposely being because she sent me a message practically begging me for details on my plan. I promised to tell her this weekend when I was at her place.

My ride home with Angel was going normally. Angel had been so busy with work lately that the only time she had to talk to me was during these car rides and late at night. That was why she would usually overload me with things that were going on in her day-to-day life, and things she had handled at work. To reciprocate I told her the non-gritty parts of my school life and what I was working on in class. Recently this talk had shifted away from my school work to my garden. Today I needed to shift it away even more.

“I have a favor to ask. I’d like to visit my friend’s house this weekend. Could you disable my ankle monitor for this weekend?” I said.

There was no point in hiding my intentions here so I came straight out with it. After all, on the surface this was just a request to visit a friend’s house, nothing more. The true nefarious nature of my weekend plans would be concealed by that fact.

“Hmm… I’m not so sure. There is a holiday system but that is mostly for juveniles visiting grandparents or family members while you’re on vacation. It would be hard to get permission for visiting a friend.”

“Could you tell them I’m visiting my grandmother?” I asked.

She looked over at me and smiled.

“Sure! What the hell, you’ve been doing well in school haven’t you? You deserve a reward. I’m still looking into getting your monitor removed earlier than expected. If we’re lucky then it’ll be your Christmas present.”

“Thank you, that’s great news! This thing has been weighing me down.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll come off soon. My superiors have recognized your good behavior. I explained to them that there was nothing to worry about in the first place. Go and enjoy yourself this weekend. Remember, this secret stays between us.”