THE PRICE OF FOCUS

CHAPTER 6: THE VANISHING

Principal’s Office – 8:15 AM

The principal’s office smelled of antiseptic and lies.

Daniel watched the security footage through a haze of sleep deprivation—grainy black-and-white images flickering like a dying pulse.

*02:17:03* – Evelyn entering the chemistry lab, a red cooler swinging from her left hand. The angle obscured its contents, but the way her shoulders strained suggested weight. Liquid weight.

*02:49:47* – Her silhouette paused at Emeka’s locker, fingers working the combination with intimate familiarity. When she withdrew them, they clutched two unlabeled vials.

*03:33:29* – The ranking board. Her scalpel moved with methodical precision, the blade catching the emergency lights as it carved through the #2 slot where her name had been.

Principal Adeleke dabbed his forehead with a monogrammed handkerchief. "Miss Carter withdrew this morning. Family emergency in Port Harcourt."

Daniel’s fingers tightened around the manila folder in his lap—Evelyn’s file, smuggled from records. The obituary notice clipped inside showed a car crash dated eleven months prior. No surviving relatives.

"May I see her locker?"

The silence stretched like a suture.

**Locker 217**

The metal door screeched open, releasing a wave of jasmine and formaldehyde.

Inside:

- A dissection kit, its #10 blade conspicuously absent

- *Gray’s Anatomy*, splayed open to page 217: *Cardiac Innervation*

- A sticky note in flawless cursive: *The best surgeons know where to cut*

Daniel lifted the note to the flickering fluorescent light. Lemon juice secrets emerged:

**YOUR TURN**

Beneath it, something glinted—a single ampule of succinylcholine, tucked behind the textbook like a lover’s memento.