Chapter 13

Everyone still in the Media Centre sat down and introduced themselves. Then it was the stranger’s turn.

“Hi, I’m Senior Special Agent Daniel Hooper and I work for the FBI’s War Crimes Department,” he said. “We don’t get a lot of war crimes in the US, so my job is largely liaising with governments, police forces and interested non-governmental organisations to track down suspected war criminals living here. There’s a lot of travelling associated with my work and I’m currently squatting in the New York Office. I understand from Dr Langridge you have a video I ought to see.”

“I’ll play it for you,” I said. I held my smartphone up to the camera and played the video. The large screen certainly showed up the low resolution.

“That’s very interesting,” said SSA Hooper. “May I see it again?”

I played the video again.

“Good catch, Bob,” said SSA Hooper.

SSA Hooper obviously knew Dr Langridge outside of work in order to use his first name like that.

SSA Hooper continued, “If you listen carefully, there’s something slightly unusual about the way the girl says ‘dirty Jew’. It’s not how an English speaker would normally say it. In fact it’s as though a German speaker had translated the term to English but used the German intonation. In my professional opinion, the girl picked up the expression from a German speaker.”

SSA Hooper paused to let that sink in before asking, “Please may I have a copy of the video?”

“No,” I said. “As far as I’m concerned, Miss D’Angelou here is the victim and I’m making sure that I have the only copy of the video so it can’t be misused.”

Maria nodded and gave a weak smile. Terri looked away.

“An admirable stance, young man,” said SSA Hooper. “But did you know that the Nazis were as intolerant of homosexuals as they were of Jews?”

“Good thing we won the war then,” I snarked, being somewhat annoyed about his implication that I might be gay. I switched off my smartphone and sat down.

“What can you tell me about the girl, Bob?” asked SSA Hooper.

“I think I can tell you her name, Daisy Wilkins, since it’s common knowledge. But as she’s a patient of mine, everything else is confidential.”

“I see,” said SSA Hooper. “Well, that’s enough to start an investigation. Speak to you soon, Bob, and thank you to the rest of you.”

I suspected ‘soon’ meant very soon and Dr Langridge would be supplying SSA Hooper with Daisy’s personal details as soon as he was away from public scrutiny, but there was nothing I could do about that.

We said goodbye then I shut down the teleconference software and switched off the projector.

“Before you go, I expect you all to be very discreet about this afternoon’s events,” said Vice Principal Hinterberry. “I especially don’t want to hear anyone accusing Daisy of being a Nazi.”

“And I think you should also consider that Daisy too might be a victim,” added Dr Langridge.

Vice Principal Hinterberry handed out Authorised Absence slips to Terri, Maria and myself, then we returned to our lessons.

I was hoping to speak to Maria after school but she wasn’t waiting near the school gates. Instead I caught up with my nerd friends setting off towards home and found Michael and Dmitri exchanging high fives.

“What’s all that about?” I asked.

“You could easily have talked to whoever via Skype,” said Michael, “but Dmitri managed to bluff his way into using the Media Centre.”

“I like playing with the equipment there,” said Dmitri. “Who were those guys anyway? It was strange seeing you and Terri and Maria in Hinterberry’s office at the same time.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, “I made a promise not to talk about it.”

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” asked Dennis.

“No. Terri, Maria and I were helping with enquiries, so to speak.”

“Ooh, you’re a supergrass,” sniggered Michael. “Will you have to go into Witness Protection?”

“No, it’s nothing like that. We really were trying to help someone.”

“The plot thickens,” said Dimitri. “I’ll have to break into the Media Centre and download the teleconference logs”

I gave Dimitri my best attempt at a disapproving glare. “Actually there was something of interest in the meeting,” I said. “The man in Hinterberry’s office diagnosed me as gay as soon as he saw me.”