A few primary children were in the nearby sandbox when Mara arrived on her own side. Either they hadn't noticed her odd transit or simply didn't care. She moved to the bush where she had hidden her backpack. Surreptitiously, she concealed the file folder inside.
She looked at her watch. It was only 7:00 p.m., much earlier than she had anticipated since Dr. Akub had not wanted her to stay any longer. Mara went home and told her father that there had been enough school volunteers and she had been sent home before the pizza arrived. She warmed up a bowl of soup and took it to her room. She locked the bedroom door.
Studiously, she laid the folder on her desk and began to peruse its contents. Grigoras Vihesi was the subject—his life, his rise to political stardom, and his working-class roots. There was even a photo of Vihesi opening a new community centre. To his left stood his sister-in-law, Aurelia, with her infant son, Ignition.
Professor Akub had indeed put together an extensive dossier. He had even included photographs and names of people he listed as “Known Associates?” on a sticky note. Kip Tomiko and Lukas Johns were two such associates. They had been charged with manslaughter and extortion but had been released after a police officer perjured himself on the witness stand. The police officer had told two vastly different stories before and during the trial.
There was an article attached in which the very same officer's house had burned to the ground, with his wife and baby inside, two weeks prior to the court case. An anonymous do-gooder had whisked the child outside to safety. The woman had died in the fire.
Mara shuddered as she read about the fiery death. She could tell that Dr. Akub was trying to connect the corruption of the trial with the two men and Vihesi, but it wasn't yet making sense. Then she came across a story torn out of Home Living Magazine.
The article was called “Garden Party Paradise.” Last spring, the minister, who lived in a luxurious manor home, had opened his gates to a garden party of dignitaries. Two things struck Mara: in the background serving drinks stood Tomiko and Johns. The second point was that as Mara studied the house's setting, the long drive between columns of poplar trees, and the high turret on the house's right side, she had a dreadful sensation in the pit of her stomach that she had been there before.