Watched in the Pines (A Detective Riley Quinn Pine Brooke Mystery Book 6) by A.J. Rivers

Author:A.J. Rivers [Rivers, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A.J. Rivers
Published: 2025-09-26T00:00:00+00:00

I wasn’t surprised that the principal wouldn’t let us do a search.

“Don’t you care about following up for student safety?” I asked in frustration.

“I don’t understand why you would think that. We take care of our students. We keep them safe.”

“One of them might have gone missing on the premises, and you refuse to do anything about it,” Trish pointed out.

“What was going on at the school during that time? When Priscilla disappeared. Were you here then?” I asked.

Her eyes flicked to me. “I was a teacher then. English. Principal Cooley retired and I’ve been filling in until they find someone else. During that time, nothing out of the ordinary was going on. Not that I knew of. This was… it was close to Spring Break. The week before, if I remember correctly.”

I glanced at Trish, who nodded in agreement. “Any work going on here? Construction?”

“No…” She paused for a moment. “Well, the pool.”

“The school has a pool?”

“In the basement. Principal Cooley thought it would be a good idea, and we got the funding for it. Surprisingly, a lot of the students didn’t know how to swim, so we were going to start swimming lessons with PE for those who wanted them.”

“Was it put in before she went missing?” asked Trish.

“No. It was in the process. I think… it was dug out by then, but the concrete hadn’t been poured yet.” Her voice trailed off. I looked at Trish.

“We should probably start there.”

She nodded.

“I’ll call the Superintendent.”

Trish, Zelina, and I huddled in the hallway while the principal spoke with her boss and what sounded like a few other people. “Did you know about the pool?”

Trish shot me a look, and I threw my hands up. “Not accusing you of not doing your job. I’m just curious. Did you?”

She sighed. “No, I didn’t. Well, I knew they had a pool, but not when it was put in. No one mentioned it, and for whatever reason, I didn’t think to ask. By the time it became an investigation, the work was done. I saw the pool and there was water in it already.”

“What do you mean by the time it became an investigation?” asked Zelina. Priscilla was a high school student. She was a minor when she went missing; it should have been an investigation from the beginning.

“There was a lot going on during that time. Priscilla’s parents were divorced, and I heard she wanted to live with her mother and not her father. Her mother had visitation, but her father had physical custody. She didn’t like the arrangement, so there was some speculation as to whether she ran away or not.”

“Her stepmother reported her missing?”

Trish nodded. “She was close with her stepmom, and they spoke a lot. Every day, sometimes several times a day. When she didn’t hear from her after the party, she got worried.”

“But her dad wasn’t?” That in and of itself sounded suspicious to me. Why was one parent worried and the other was not?

“He figured she was staying with her mom.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.