copies of Animal Farm and Fahrenheit 451. “I didn’t really know her that well.”
Evan’s eyes started to scan the room.
“I’m sorry, Evan. But can I give you a piece of advice, as a friend? Don’t get involved in this. Wherever Emma went—if she actually did go somewhere, like you’re saying—it’s for a good reason. And it’s just not gonna be good for you to get involved. Trust me.”
Evan didn’t answer. Usually, when people said “trust me,” there was another S3—Intention involved.
“I’m sure she just went for a phone call or something, and she’ll be back as soon as she’s done. She used to talk on the phone all the time—”
“Talk to who?” Evan sat up. There was a phone number at the top of Emma’s list of names.
Zaza shrugged. “I figured you’d know. Since you guys were so close.”
Evan looked straight into Zaza’s eyes before his gaze fell to the desk, then to the chair in front of it. Hanging unceremoniously from the back was a dark-purple-and-yellow windbreaker.
Evan stared at it. Zaza had come to mass less than a minute before the service started, with mud on his shoes. One minute after that, someone else came back. “What about Neesha Shah?”
In the wind leaking in through cracks in the walls, the flame of the candle swung, and Evan could feel it passing onto and off his face, but his expression didn’t change. He hadn’t modulated his emotional performance since he’d entered the room.
Zaza shifted uncomfortably, but before he could answer, Evan’s watch started to beep.
Zaza smiled and nodded to the door. “Time’s up. Hope there weren’t any breaks in the pattern. Variables are a bitch.”
emma donahue investigation.
neesha shah—year 4.
transcription by MONKEY voice-to-text software.
YANIS (Administration) _ Hello. Checking. Checking. Checking. Good. There it goes. Please say your name for our voice-to-text software.
NEESHA SHAH (Student) _ Your what.
Y _ Voice to text. Look. It prints what we say. As we say it.
NS _ Okay. Nee Shu Shaw.
Y _ Huh. Bad spelling. How long were you roommates with Emma.
NS _ Just this year.
Y _ Did you know her before this year.
NS _ I met her in year one. But we didn’t talk.
Y _ Why not.
NS _ I don’t know. She hung out with cool people. I didn’t.
Y _ Who did you hang out with.
NS _ C School kids. I guess.
Y _ C School kids aren’t cool.
NS _ We had different social groups.
Y _ Emma had a lot of friends around school.
NS _ I guess.
Y _ It’s kind of amazing actually how many people she speaks to in the last week. One. After another. After another. Do you know why that is.
NS _ You said it. She had a lot of friends.
Y _ What is she like. Normally. I have never met her.
NS _ She’s nice. Um. She slept a lot. Sometimes she was really hyper and laughed at her own jokes.
Y _ What about the other times.
NS _ Other times.
Y _ When she wasn’t feeling hyper. What was she. Sad.
NS _ Not really. Just quiet.
Y _ When was the last time you saw her.
NS _ At mass.
Y _ And before this.
NS _ In our dorm.
Y _ Did you go to the mass together.
NS _ No.
Y _ Why not.
NS _ She had to make a phone call.
Y _ What phone call.
NS _ I don’t know. She just said she had to . . . What.
Y _ Seven forty five. Emma walks from dorm to chapel. No phone call.
NS _ She probably used the phone on the way. In the human lounge.
Y _ Nope. No phone call . . . You look surprised. Is that what she told you . . . Neesha.
NS _ No. I was just getting confused.
Y _ Okay . . . A few people who spoke to her this afternoon said she was distressed. Did she seem that way to you.
NS _ No.
Y _ Do you have any idea what might be the cause of that distress.
NS _ No. She didn’t say anything to me.
Y _ Is that unusual.
NS _ I guess not.
Evan.
ZAZA WAS HALF right about the sweeps. They were easy to navigate. Twelve instructors and maintenance workers were assigned to each of the five schools. But they didn’t walk with a codified pattern. Or at least they thought they didn’t.
The staff members moved using a form of discrimination learning called win-stay, lose-shift. If a system sees an action generate a desired outcome, it will stay the course. If the strategy is unsuccessful, it will shift. It was the reason