Read Online The Twenty-Three 3 (Promise Falls) by Linwood Barclay - Free Book Online Page B

the Boston PD, had assumed a man with that kind of experience would be a perfect candidate.
    “We could not have been more wrong,” the president said.
    Duncomb’s failure to bring the Promise Falls police into the hunt for the campus predator had created massive liability problems for Thackeray. The parents of the boy he’d shot dead, Mason Helt, were launching a multimillion-dollar suit against the school. If the police had been brought in, it was unlikely Duncomb would have been running his own sting operation.
    Joyce did not mention that she herself had been wondering whether to bring a suit against the college for what Duncomb had put her through.
    “You’ve got a clear head,” the president told her. “You’re smart, you’re responsible, and I think it would be sending a strong message that someone like you—”
    “A woman,” Joyce Pilgrim said.
    “That someone like you was taking over.”
    Joyce took a bite of her filet. “How much?”
    Once her salary had been sorted, she agreed to take the job.
    On a Saturday morning, especially the Saturday morning of a long holiday weekend when the college was pretty much deserted until September, save for a few dozen students who were taking some summer courses, one would not have expected the head of security to be in her office.
    But because Joyce was new to the position, she was trying to get herself up to speed. She’d been familiarizing herself with every aspect of the college. Getting to know the staff, at least those who were here. She wanted to completely revamp all the security protocols before students returned in the fall.
    Plus, she was getting caught up on e-mails and phone messages. She’d barely gotten started and already she was feeling behind. She was sitting at her desk, on the computer, when the phone rang.
    “Security,” Joyce said.
    “This is Angela Ferraza, Promise Falls police. Who’s this?”
    “Joyce Pilgrim.”
    “Ms. Pilgrim, there’s reason to believe Promise Falls’ water supply may have been contaminated, constituting an emergency health hazard. You need to get word out to everyone to not drink the water.”
    “What’s happened?” she asked.
    “No time to explain. Check our Web site later for further details. I’ve a million more calls to make.”
    Ferraza hung up.
    Joyce kept the phone to her ear, entered the extension for the college infirmary. She had her doubts anyone would even be there, but someone picked up on the third ring.
    “Hello?” a woman said.
    “It’s Joyce Pilgrim in security. Who’s this?”
    “It’s Mavis. How ya doin’, Joyce?”
    “Hey, Mavis. Didn’t know if I’d find anybody there.”
    “Place is deserted, but as long as there’re kids here somewhere, someone’s gotta be here. I’m getting a lot of reading done.”
    “So you haven’t had any sick kids wandering in this morning?”
    “Nope. Why?”
    “We got word there’s something wrong with the municipal water system. Some kids might show up sick.”
    “Doubt that’ll happen anyway,” Mavis said.
    “Why’s that?”
    “The college isn’t on the town’s water system. Town’s got its own reservoir, has for years. Same source of water that feeds Thackeray Pond.”
    “Just the same, in case—what do they call it, the aquifer?—in case it’s something that could get into both water supplies, be aware, okay?”
    “Got it.”
    “I’m sending out a mass e-mail and text, putting it up on theWeb.” The college had the e-mail addresses and phone numbers for all its staff and students and could send out messages to everyone in an instant.
    She gave herself a mental kick for not knowing the college didn’t rely on the town for water. What did she think was going on, exactly, in the pumping station at the north end of the campus?
    Duh.
    When Joyce got off the phone with Mavis, she sent out the mass e-mail, but not before phoning her husband, Ted, at home and telling him not to drink what came out of the tap. They had a house