Chapter 9: Nine Empty Seats

Mikkel's borrowed lab was on the third floor of the kinesiology building, and it smelled of coffee and cold metal.

He had a whiteboard, a laptop and a small heater under the desk.

I came in at ten that night with Doc's folder under my arm.

"You walked here alone?" he said.

"It's four blocks. I wore a hat."

"I would have driven."

"I know. I'm telling you what I did."

He almost smiled and waved me toward the stool.

I put the folder on the desk and the napkin on top of it.

He read it twice.

"Rhett filmed you," he said, and his voice went flat. "Then they were not unaware. They were watching."

"They were laughing."

"We will find the video." He picked up a marker. "First, what Doc brought."

Doc had called the charter company that afternoon, and they had faxed him the dispatch log.

Three buses had left Harlan State's lot at 5:12.

I read the numbers aloud.

Bus one carried forty-one seated passengers.

Bus two carried thirty-five.

Bus three carried the coaching staff and the band equipment.

"Bus two has forty-four seats," Mikkel said, writing. "Thirty-five riders. Nine empty."

"That's the bus Tate, Reagan, Rhett and Heidi rode."

"In the last row."

"Four seats in the last row," I said. "He called them on Friday night."

Mikkel set the marker down.

"There were nine seats," he said slowly. "Nine, and you were counted on a paper as one of the riders."

"They didn't forget me for lack of space."

Keep reading free with an account. Start No One Left Behind, Except for Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.