The Third Message novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: On the Record
At four that afternoon, the whole Ridgemont geology department filled the big lecture hall.
Two hundred students sat in the rows, and the faculty lined the front.
I stood at the back wall by the door, with Miles beside me and my cane in my hand.
Bree sat alone in the first row between two campus officers.
The chair took the podium and held up a stack of papers.
"I will read the findings once," she said. "Then the department will vote."
The hall went quiet.
"A forged denial letter. Eleven false calls to a university office. Medical records obtained by posing as a sister."
A murmur ran up the rows.
"Those are on paper, and the Portland police have them. Here is the finding I did not expect."
She turned a page.
"The permit for the March survey was filed under Miss Aldridge's name as the funding sponsor. The signature is forged."
My ears rang.
Miles's arm came against mine, solid, and stayed.
"If that slope had failed with students on it, the sponsor of record would have answered for it," the chair said. "That sponsor was a girl in Oregon."
Someone near me whispered, "That's evil."
Bree stared straight ahead.
"I also have a recording from this morning that includes claims I will not repeat in this room."
"Last time?" a voice said somewhere in the rows.
Another voice said, "She's lost it."
The chair raised her hand.
"Whatever Ms. Whitham believes, her actions are on paper. The department's vote is to expel her from the geology program and bar her from this campus."
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