Vallejo being rattled means one of three things: 1) Administration was coming down on him, 2) Fillmore had just managed to break something particularly expensive, or 3)Something big was happening. Something bad.
Guess which number this was.
"Two lawn mowers had their blades removed...every sawblade taken out of woodshop...the automotive lab was COMPLETELY gutted..." Vallejo listed as he paced the floor.
"Basically, anything that could take off a kid's head if they ain't wearing safety equipment is being stolen. We've got no prints, no suspects...nothing but a buncha clubs asking where their supplies are and a shortage on excuses."
Fillmore looked over the photos of the crime scene: there was literally nothing out of place, aside from the missing objects. "We got any witnesses? Security camera pick up anything?"
Vallejo eased himself back into his seat. "Security cameras all blinked out at the same time: when they came back on, the stuff was gone. As for witnesses...Principal Buttsavage has requested we keep this on a low-profile."
I arched an eyebrow.
"I don't like it either, but he says to keep it a secret at all costs," Vallejo sighed.
So, we had a bevy of potentially dangerous objects missing, and we were forbidden from interacting with anyone else on the case.
Hell, we've puled off miracles before. "We're on it," Fillmore spouted, and off we went.
Our first stop was Wood shop. We scoped the entire place out. No windows had been jimmied open, the door hadn't been busted in...but we were able to find something.
I had to heft Fillmore up onto the teacher's desk, but his hunch was right: the screws had been removed from the ventilation duct in the ceiling. He gave it a quick tap, and it swung open. We had our point of entry. I recalled some blueprints of the school I had glanced at during a case a few weeks ago, and spotted a connection: each place that had been broken into was connected to the same ventilation system. None of the non-main campus buildings had been hit.
It stood to reason, then, that our perp would strike the next room connected to the system that contained something potentially dangerous. It was all a matter of reviewing what had been taken and what was left, then forming a stake-out.
Of course, the case wouldn't be that simple. Not at all.