The Night Shift (31 page)

Christine looked shocked. "You didn't hear about all the rumors going on about Randy at work?!"

"I…don't think so. Was I supposed to?"

"Um…yeah! I kinda
told you
about them myself!"

"No you didn't! When was
this
?!"

"Like, the first time I talked to you about Randy."

"
That…and the rumors probably had something to do with it."

"
Rumors?" Collin asked. "I didn't hear anything about rumors."

Suddenly, he thought that maybe he could get something useful out of this conversation with Christine, after all. Out of all the things he had heard at the police station a year before, he never once heard anything about rumors going around.

"
Oh, yeah. There were rumors floating around at work that Randy was
a
bit of a dirty guy."

"
Dirty? Waddaya mean?"

"
People were saying he had dirty magazines lying around in his desk at work. Others said that he was being even cheaper with the money and not always paying the guys who worked here all the money that they deserved."

"Oh…that. Yeah, now I remember."

Christine sighed. "Anyway, those rumors…were started by Scott."

"What?!"

"You heard me."

"How'd you learn
that
?!"

"I just went around asking people where they first heard the rumors from. All of them said Scott was the first one to tell them. Randy even said that when most of the people confronted him about it, they all said it was Scott."

"Christine, are you sure?"

"Positive. All of those nasty rumors about him were completely made up by Scott. So, if you take that and the fact he was trying to steal Lisa from him, I think that would pretty much give Randy a motive. Don't you think?"

"I guess, but come on! Having a motive doesn't really prove anything on its own. Heck, there are a lot of people in this world I'd like to kill, but that doesn't…"
Whhooo…easy does it, Collin. This probably isn't the best place to say that.
"Yeah…so what about evidence and opportunity? Yeah! Remember, the murder weapon was Jess's knife?"

"Yes, I know Jess lent it to Nick after he lost his, and I know Scott's blood was found on it. But you're forgetting something."

"What's that?"

"Randy was the boss of the place, and part of that job included ordering the customized knives, right?"

"Right."

"So, when he saw Jess didn't have her knife any more, he could've just ordered up another one for her and used that. Then all he would've had to do was take Jess's knife from Nick when he wasn't looking and throw it away or something. And Nick borrowed Jess's knife about a week before Scott died, right?"

"Yeah."

"And Lisa told you how long it takes for a new knife to arrive once it's ordered, right?"

Collin tried to think back to his very first day on the job, just moments after Lisa said he was hired.

"
But be careful not to lose that, all right? It takes us over a week to order those knives and get them delivered. Trust me, you don't want to go ten days without one of those things."

Heh…never thought THAT would be coming up again…

"So here's what I'm thinking: Nick loses his knife and asks Jess for hers. This is about a week before Scott dies, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, a week would have been
just
enough time for Randy to order another one with Jess's name on it and then use
that
to frame her or Nick, right?"

"I don't think so. Lisa made it sound like it never took only a week. She said OVER a week."

"Okay, so a week wouldn't have been enough time. But so what? Maybe Randy was plotting this for a while and maybe
took
Nick's knife and he counted on Nick going to Jess for a replacement one? If that happened, then he would've had plenty of time to reorder the knife before Nick even took Jess's."

"Does that really seem like it could've happened?" Collin asked, still not ready to believe Christine's theory.

"Yeah. It's possible, anyway."

"Yeah. POSSIBLE. But unless you can prove it…"

"Hey, I never said I couldn't."

"Christine, you realize that for what you said to actually happen, then Nick would've just held on to Jess's knife before getting a new one and not giving her back the old one."

"Right."

"…why wouldn't he give her back her old one after he got his replacement?"

"Probably because she didn't need it. And come on, this is around the time Scott gets killed by a knife. You think he'd want to make himself look suspicious by giving back a knife after a murder had happened?"

"Uh…well, I guess there's that, but…"

"Wait, you still haven't let me prove it yet. I remember the log book before the police took it last year. Remember how there was that page that was typed instead of being handwritten?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

"Come on! Doesn't that seem a little weird to you? What are the odds that every single one of the fifty zillion pens in that office were dried up?"

"Not too high."

"But possible, right?"

"Yeah, but…"

"There. So, someone typed on the computer, so no one had a handwriting sample from that night to analyze, right?"

"Right."

"So we don't really know that Scott was the one who typed and printed it. And you know how Randy shuts down the computer after the day shifts end?"

"Well, I wasn't here while
he
was, so…no, I don't."

Christine groaned. "Well, he did. He always shut down the computer after 6:00. And that journal entry was written WAY after 6:00 PM. And since Randy never shared the passwords for security reasons, only one person would've known how to log on after it was shut down: Randy."

This last statement caused Collin to swallow hard. "Are you serious?"

"Yup."

"Uh…do you think it could have been both Nick AND Randy?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

"I went to one of the host campers who was there last summer on the night Scott died."

"A 'host
camper
'?"

"Yeah. Don't you know what they are?"

"Uh…"

"Ugh. They're campers who spend a huge chunk of the summer at camp and help keeping it clean and all that."

"Oh."

"Anyway, he was there last summer, and he came back this summer. He said he only saw one person that night while he was up."

"What was he doing up that early in the morning?"

"The tapping noise. Remember?"

"Oh…yeah."

Christine took a deep breath and continued. "Anyway, Randy and Nick hated each other. Heck, they wouldn't even trust each other about the time of day. There's no way they'd cooperate on something like pulling off a murder together."

"So…there was only one person, and the two suspects wouldn't
trust
each other NEARLY enough to work together on this?" Collin confirmed.

"Yup."

Ugh…this makes things SO much harder! Why couldn't Christine just mind her own beeswax?! If she did then I wouldn't be like this now…but what if she's right? What if it IS Randy and not Nick?

Collin didn't have time to toss these possibilities back and forth in his head; the door to the courtroom abruptly opened, causing him to jump. Mandel peeked out from inside and said, "Mr. Bansen, the trial's about to start. You'd better get in here now."

"Oh…right."

Insecurely, Collin walked slowly into the courtroom. After he got in, he noticed Mandel was still peering outside and staring right at Christine.

"You!" he called to her. "You can't be here right now."

"Oh…sorry," she said. "Hey, Collin!"

Collin positioned himself so he could see passed Mandel and out at Christine.

"Good luck!" she called.

I am SO going to puke,
he thought to himself as he heard those words. The anxiety was taking control of him very quickly.
Maybe if I pass out, I won't have to testify.

As he finished that thought, Mandel closed the door behind him. The door sounded exceptionally loud and carried a great sense of doom as it closed off Collin's one route to escape.

Chapter 18
 

Trial and Decision

The long, dry process of swearing in the parties in court, the judge officially starting the trial and both the prosecution and the defense slowly passed. Collin sat in a seat close to the prosecution's table the whole time, nervously twiddling his thumbs and dreading the time when he knew he would have to go to the witness stand and explain everything about what he did and who he'd say was the killer. His entire mindset of confidence had been shattered with the conversation he had with Christine right before the trial started.

"The prosecution would like to call its first witness," Mandel said. He was standing a few feet away from the deserted stand and was looking right at Nick. "The defendant…Nick Fust."

"Mr. Fust?" the judge asked just for confirmation. She was a middle aged, professional-looking woman with glasses and long, curly brown hair. There was
a
presence around her that made her seem like a straight-to-business woman who had no time for nonsense. "What does the defense have to say to this?"

"My client has agreed to testify in his own defense," said the defense attorney. He looked like he was no older than his late twenties and was probably the only person in the entire courtroom whose hair had no signs of turning gray yet. He had previously been introduced as Wilbur R. Vill.

The judge quickly nodded her head. "Very well. Mr. Fust, please take the stand."

Nick took a deep breath as he got up from behind the defense's table and walked over to the witness's stand. As he slowly sat down, Mandel confidently got up from his own seat and walked over to the stand while straightening his tie. He flashed Nick a smirk that seemed to say, "You're finished, kid."

"Mr. Fust?" he asked.

"Yes, sir?" Nick was dressed up in a somewhat tacky, yet effective business suit.

"As I understand it, you're claiming you're not the murderer because you weren't at work when the crime happened. Is that correct?"