“And Alice says she signed the form but that was only after you prompted her with a question about it,” A.L. said.

“Yes. And said that of course she’d have written a time if there was a blank for the time but couldn’t remember what time she’d written.”

“We need to talk to these parents tonight,” A.L. said.

“Okay. That’s eight calls, then, that we need to make.”

Alice poked her head out of her office and handed them two sheets of the information they’d requested. “I made a copy for each of you.”

“Thank you,” Rena said.

“Alice, I have a question about the sign-in sheet that is posted by the office,” A.L. said. He showed her the plastic bag. “It’s dated with today’s date. Who wrote that?”

“Kara. She always gets the sheet ready. Does it first thing when she comes in the door.”

“Has she always had that responsibility?”

“I guess. Besides me, she’s always the first one in. She started getting the sheet ready and I guess it sort of became part of her job. At night, whoever is the last one in the building, which is usually me, is responsible for removing the sheet and putting it in my in-box.”

“Okay, thank you.”

He walked back to Classroom 1 and Rena followed.

A.L. held up the sign-in sheet. “Kara did not tell me about getting this sheet ready. Said that the first thing she did was make coffee.”

“Again, like Elaine not mentioning she signed in, perhaps it’s so routine that it doesn’t bear mentioning.”

“Maybe. Let’s split up the parents of kids in Kara Wiese’s class. I’ll take the first three, you take numbers four through six,” he said. “Then we’ll regroup before we call the two parents from the office sign-in sheet.” They set up on opposite sides of the large space.

A.L. dialed his first number. It rang twice.

“Hello.”

It was a woman. A.L. checked the name on his sheet. “Sarah Hewin?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“This is Detective McKittridge with the Baywood Police Department. I need to ask you a few questions about the Lakeside Learning Center.”

“Of course,” she said.

He wasn’t surprised that she didn’t ask why. The news would have spread quickly through the whole of Baywood, but lightning-fast through the parent group.

“Your child’s teachers are Kara Wiese and Claire Potter, correct?”

“Yes.”

“I have a sign-in sheet in front of me that indicates that you dropped Landon off at 6:42 this morning. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Was there a teacher in the room at the time?”

“Of course. Kara Wiese was there.”

“Okay, thank you. Just one more question. How did you know what time to write down?”

“Uh... I guess I looked at the clock on the wall.”

“Okay, thank you.”