Background, Chapter 8
A/N: I move out in 25 days :D It feels so weird. I started on when I was like 12 I think? It's been six years!
The next morning, Elliot and Olivia arrived at Johnson Academy just as the first bell rang. Cragen had been livid the day before, more mad than either one of them had ever seen him. He had given Elliot and Olivia the duty of inviting the teacher for a little chat back at the station, and then talking to the administration about how he got hired. Finn and Munch were to look through the journal that Kayla had left at Liz's house.
They ducked in and out of tardy students running towards their classrooms, and finally reached the office. The same secretary who had led them to Principal Underwood's office before, greeted them. "Do you know who did this yet?" She asked quietly. A picture of Kayla sat on the counter in between various papers advertising school pictures, yearbook forms, and field trips.
"No, we don't. We're getting close though," Olivia smiled at the lady. "We're here to see Mr. Underwood again. Is he in?"
"Oh, sure, you know where his office is."
They walked through the door and down a short hallway. Principal Underwood was sitting at his desk, talking to someone.
"...No, the media is not allowed on my school's property. This is a tragedy, and the students need to grieve. I don't care that other schools let you!" They heard the tail end of the conversation before he slammed the phone down.
"Oh, hey detectives. It's a media frenzy. I've caught reporters sneaking into the school just to interview a few kids who may or may not have even known Kayla. It's ridiculous," he said angrily, rubbing at his temples. "What can I help you with?"
"We'd like to speak with one of your staff, Wyatt Allen?" Olivia asked.
They saw a look pass over Underwood's face as he nodded slowly.
"Do you have anything to tell us about him?" Elliot prodded.
"Nothing important to your case, if that's what you mean," the man snapped back. "He wasn't even a teacher of hers."
"Then what was that look for?"
"Nothing. Just my personal opinion of the man."
"Which is...?"
"Which is that he's a relatively new teacher and still doesn't know his boundaries!" Underwood exclaimed angrily.
"What's that suppose to mean? How about you explain it all instead of us having to prod you like one of our four-year-olds?"
"I don't mean anything serious. I've never seen-or heard-of Wyatt doing anything inappropriate. He's a young guy, and I think he needs to learn to distance himself from his students. I've gone in there and he's been just talking to a group of two or three girls, before or after school, with the door closed. He doesn't realize the kind of accusations that could arise from that! And apparently he's lied to his students about going to prison. I mean, it makes a great story, that you can arise from your troubles, but I don't encourage lying."
"You don't find that he was talking to female students behind closed doors, suspicious? And how do you know he was lying about being in prison?"
"I told you, I find it highly inaproppriate, but like I also told you, he's a new teacher. He doens't know about the rumours that spread rapidly. ANd I know because we don't hire criminals."
"We'll see about that. Please call Mr. Allen in here," Olivia instructed.
Mr. Underwood breathed deeply before calling into Allen's class room. "Mr. Allen? Can you please come up to my office? No, don't worry, there will be a substitute there shortly."
"Do I need to leave?" He asked.
"No. We'll just need a second of his time."
"Well I guess there's no reason for me to send someone down there, then," he said, leaning back in his chair.
Olivia and Elliot exchanged a look. "If I'm not mistaken, sir, a class is suppose to be monitored at all time."
"No, you're not mistaken. I'll get someone."
He continued to sit and stare at them.
"I don't-" He started but Wyatt Allen walked into the room.
He was nearly six feet and imposing even to Olivia, though handsome. He walked with a military stance, and she saw that what Liz had thought was a dragon tattoo, was actually a military crest.
"Yes, Principal Underwood?" He asked, nodding at the detectives.
"The detectives just need a couple of words with you, Wyatt."
"Hi, Wyatt. I'm Elliot Stabler, this is my partner Olivia Benson. We're just here to request that you come down to our station after school today. Just some routine questions involving Kayla Harrison's murder."
"I suppose I really don't have a question, but I could save us all some time and point out that I don't even know Kayla Harrison. Had never seen her before the murder."
"We understand, Mr. Allen, but we'd still like to talk to you. We're just talking to everyone at the school. The case has hit a wall, and I'm sure you'd like to put her family at ease. We'll see you in a few hours?"
The pleasant smile that had been on his face since he walked in faltered a little. "I suppose I don't have a choice, now do I?" He said through gritted teeth as he left.
"Now back to you. What were you saying?" Olivia turned back to the principal.
"I don't want trouble at my school. The media is unrelenting, I have parents calling everyday demanding that more security be put up, I have even more parents calling to explain to me their child's relationship to Kayla Harrison, and how they believe they should get a break in their workload. Now I have you interrogating my staff. It's only a matter of time before this gets out."
"You invited trouble the minute you hired Wyatt Allen," Elliot said coldly, him and Olivia finally taking a seat to have a little chat with Principal Underwood.
"I told you he didn't have a record!"
"Of course he doesn't! Wyatt Allen doesn't exist in this area of New York! His name's not in any kind of database that we could find. Teachers are suppose to be in there, Underwood. How is it that this man isn't?" Olivia exclaimed, throwing copies of multiple screenshots all having various wordings of "person not found; please check spelling" errors. "All of these came from our captain's computer. He searched eleven different databases-local, state wide, and national-and no Wyatt Allen lives in this area, or even New York. How did you run a background check on a man that doesn't exist?"
Underwood stared at the papers, shaking his head. "There must be some mistake. We have to do background checks, fingerprint checks, before you hire someone."
"Who does the background checks?"
"A secretary, Keisha Berry."
"Get her in here."
Keisha walked in. It was the same secretary that had greeted the detectives. "Yes, Principal Underwood?"
"Keisha, please tell the detectives that you checked every single member of this staff. Myself, the janitors, any gardeners, any and all teachers. Tell them."
"Of course. You have to," she mumbled, looking down at the floor.
"You did Wyatt Allen's background check?" Olivia asked.
"If he's a teacher here, then I did his check!" She snapped defensively.
"Maybe you can explain this to us: Wyatt Allen doesn't exist."
Keisha started fidgeting. "I don't know. Okay, I don't know! I did all the background checks."
"Keisha, please, tell the detectives the truth. This is a part of the investigation," Underwood explained.
She was silent for a moment.
"His name didn't come up," she said quietly.
"Excuse me?" Elliot, Olivia and Underwood exclaimed.
"I entered it, and he didn't come up. I took him out of his class one day, confronted him about it, just playing around, asking him how he could be dumb enough to spell his name wrong. He got angry and told me to drop it. I told him I couldn't, that I'd have to tell the authorities. He paid me to keep it quiet." She explained.
"Keisha...How could you do this?"
"I needed the money! I have two kids and I don't want them going to an inner-city school and getting on the wrong road like I did! I have to pay half of their tuition out of my pocket, and with that there's barely any money left to cover the food and rent and...I wasn't thinking, I know that! I wasn't thinking that he could have something to hide. I just thought...I don't know."
"Keisha, you may have caused a predator to work among these kids. You just better hope that he has nothing to do with this child's murder," Olivia said angrily.
"Wait a minute-you pulled him out of class? He was teaching before a background check was even attempted?" Elliot intervened.
"We're given up to a month into the year to complete the checks. I have to run background checks on over a hundred individuals, by myself."
"A month," Elliot said quietly, thinking of his own kids. "A month is not a long time for a trained pedophile to befriend and betray a kid."
"I don't make the rules!"
"Get out of here, Keisha. Now," Underwood demanded. After she had left, he said, "I had no idea. I assumed that it was ran. God, I had no idea!"
"Thanks for your time, Principal underwood," Olivia said adn they walked out.