Maggie parked in her usual spot, grabbed her book bag, and headed into the building. Unlocking the door to the Career Center, she noticed the lock didn't work well. She had to work hard to get the key into the lock. At first, she didn't think too much about it, but as she opened the door and found the office a mess, she realized that someone had broken into the Center. She went to her office and called campus security. She carefully avoided touching anything, but used the brief wait for security to look around and see what might have been stolen.
The computers were all tipped over, but they were still there. It looked like someone had broken into the office file cabinets and scattered papers everywhere. Someone must have been looking for some information and hadn't been able to find it, so they made a mess of the place before they left.
The school kept all student and employer information on their drive, so anyone accessing it needed a login. They would never find it, just going through the filing cabinets. Someone scanned all sign-in sheets from events and then shredded them to protect confidentiality.
From her first glance at the center, it didn't look like anyone had stolen or destroyed anything, just left a mess behind. The head of campus security arrived just minutes after Maggie's phone call. They talked for a minute or two and then he called the police. He also made a call to his assistant and had him go through the security tapes for the cameras just outside of the Career Center, hoping to find out who might have broken in.
Facilities were called to come and replace the lock on the door and make sure everyone with keys got new ones. They were going to limit who got keys to the center for a while just to error on the side of caution.
All Maggie wanted to do was clean up but was told she couldn't until after getting the go ahead by the police. A Center student worker arrived shortly after the head of campus security called the police, so she went out to meet them when they arrived and showed them into the center. While she waited for them to arrive, Maggie texted her boss. She wanted to let her know what had happened and that the police had been called. Perhaps that was something the head of Campus Security was supposed to do, but she had nothing to do, so did it. She let the Security team know she had notified the Dean of Students, and they were thankful for one less thing they had to do.
When the police finally arrived, most of the Career Center staff had also arrived. Someone sent the Career Center staff to a small conference room down the hall from the center so the police could work without so many people in the way. Maggie had to stay in the center because she had been the first one to arrive and had potentially contaminated the crime scene. She explained to three different officers that all she touched was the front door handle and her office phone.
"Why did you go into your office when you found the place a mess like this?" asked one of the police officers.
"I needed to call campus security, and I don't have their number on my cell phone." replied Maggie. "It's on speed dial on the desk phones, so I just punched the button for speaker phone and the one for campus security. I didn't even pick up the handset."
"And you touched nothing else?" he asked.
"No, I walked out here, looked behind the counter, then over to the computers and stood here and waited." She said.
The police took pictures of the center and documented everything they could. They had Maggie write out her statement and sign it, then they left, saying they would be in touch. She didn't feel too confident in the help they would provide in catching whoever broke into the Career Center.
After the police left and Campus Security gave the okay, Maggie collected the rest of the staff and began cleaning up the place. They began by setting the computers upright and turning them on to make sure they all still ran properly. Once they knew they all worked as they should, they started cleaning up everything else. They split into groups to cover more ground quickly.
One group started rearranging the furniture, another started picking up all the papers out in the open area of the center, and the last group gathered up the papers that someone had pulled out of the file cabinets. The task that took the longest was the papers from the filing cabinets. They needed to be picked up, organized and refiled, and there was a lot to do. Once the other groups finished with their tasks, they came to the front desk and pitched in with the sorting of documents.
To easily organize the papers, they created an assembly line of sorts to sort them. After sorting everything into like piles, they organized each pile by date or event. It took them just over two hours to put the file cabinets back together, with the six of them working together.
By lunchtime, nobody would have known about the break-in unless they had been told. Also, at lunch time four large pizzas arrived along with soda and cookies as a thank you from the Dean of Students for everyone's hard work in putting the Career Center back together. The Dean always knew how to take care of her people.
"Thank you, everyone, for all your hard work and for the focus you showed during this tough day. I am so proud of all of you. None of you freaked out over the break in. You were determined to get our center put back together, and you did a great job!" said Maggie to all the staff and student workers as they enjoyed the pizza and cookies.
"Oh, Maggie, you should have seen us when we were in the conference room waiting. We had our freak out then. But we decided that when we could come in here and help that we were going to be strong and work hard to put our center back together." said Marco, one of her newer student workers.
"Yeah, we freaked out big time!" said another student. "But we all agreed not to freak out in here. This is our space, and no one is going to mess with our center!"
"Well, I'm glad you are all here, and I am thankful for all you did to help today." Said Maggie as she took two small pieces of pizza and headed into her office to check her email for the first time all day.
Apparently, the news of the break in had spread across campus and she had several emails from staff that she worked closely with who wanted to make sure she and her staff were okay. They also offered to help with cleaning up if it was needed. All she had to do was ask.
There was an official email from the head of campus security detailing the break in information in a campus wide email along with an email from the Dean of Students with a more student developmental take on the situation. Both explained the situation and what was going to happen next, just in unique ways. Campus Security was very official and investigative, while the Dean's email addressed the emotional turmoil something like a break in could stir up on a campus.
She had a few emails from students about rescheduling the meetings they had set up with her today because of the break in. There were also a few emails from employers with new job listings that should have gone to the job board email address, but the employer insisted on sending them directly to her instead. Maggie forwarded that to the job board email and answered the students' email to reschedule for next week.
After clearing out her email, Maggie checked her voice mail. There was only one message. It was a male voice that was disguised just enough that Maggie couldn't tell who it was.
"Roses are red. Violets are blue. We got into the Center; next we'll get to you too!" said the raspy voice.
Maggie hung up the phone and called the police officer she had talked to last. He had given her his business card in case anything else came up regarding the break-in.
Her hands were shaking as she dialed his number. She could feel her throat tightening up while she listened to his voice mail message.
"Hello Officer Brighton, this is Maggie Mitchel at the Career Center. I just checked my voice mail, and I have a strange and threatening message on it. I think you should hear. Could you call me or come by? I will be here until 4:30 pm today. I'm really pretty freaked up by this message," said Maggie into his voice mail.
Next, Maggie called Campus Security and the Dean of Students. She wanted them to be aware of this fresh development with the break in of the Career Center. Now it seemed it wasn't about the center, but it was about her. She thought it was very strange. Who was she that someone would want to mess with her like this? She was just an ordinary person just trying to do her job.
While she waited for campus security to arrive, Maggie went back out into the center to check on her staff. The staff had finished their meal and were chatting. She sent all the student workers home for the day since they would not open for business as usual. She also wanted them to be gone when security arrived again. The strange phone message was not something they needed to know about today, or ever if she could help it.
When just Marta was the only staff person left, Maggie shook uncontrollably.
"Maggie! What's wrong?" asked a startled Marta.
"Whoever broke in left a threatening voice mail on my line." Maggie replied as she sat down heavily in the chair. "I've called the police and campus security and the Dean of Students. Campus security is coming back and is going to work with IT to find out where the call originated from. My guess is that they used one of the phones in here to call my desk."
"Oh, my God! That is terrible! Are you okay? What can I do? Do you need anything? Should I call Amelia and have her come over?" asked Marta.
"Just sit with me until campus security arrives. I just need to sit and not completely freak out, but I don't want to be alone," said Maggie.
"Of course, we'll just sit and be calm. Do you want a Diet Dr. Pepper? There are a few left from lunch. I also made the students leave at least one snicker doodle for you if you want a cookie." replied Marta.
"Both sound good right about now. The hell with my diet!" said Maggie as she accepted the cookie and soda.
Just as Maggie finished her cookie, Officer Brighton walked into the career center. He did not look happy to be back and dealing with a case that seemed to have no actual victim.
"Hello Ms. Mitchell. You said you received a strange voice mail?" he said, sounding less than interested.
"Yes, it's on my office phone. Follow me and I'll play it for you." She said as she got up from her chair.
Maggie showed him the way into her office and played the voice mail for Officer Brighton.
"Roses are red. Violets are blue. We got into the Center; next we'll get to you too!" said the raspy voice again.
As they listened to the voice mail, the head of campus security and the head of IT came in. They had traced the call to one of the table phones out in the work area of the Career Center. Video from the cameras in the hall caught two shadowy figures breaking into the center around midnight, but couldn't make out any distinguishing features, so they were of no use.
"Is there anyone you can think of here at the college or elsewhere that might hold a grudge against you? Anyone that would want to scare you or hurt you?" Asked Officer Brighton.
"No, I'm really not that interesting. I come to work. I help students get jobs as they graduate. My dog and I hang out at home. I'm pretty boring," answered Maggie.
"There must be someone that didn't get a job or an interview or something that blamed you for it," said the officer.
"I can't think of anyone. They usually blame their faculty for not teaching them well enough, not me for preparing them to interview well enough." Answered Maggie as she fought back tears from all the stress of the day.
"Well, if you think of anyone, give me another call," he said. "I'm not sure what I can do now because the call originated from inside the center. There are no leads to follow up on right now. Whoever it was knew we would get tied up like this and that's why they made the call from here."
"Thanks for coming so quickly. I'll keep you updated if I get another call or if anything else happens." replied Maggie, who was feeling disheartened.
After Officer Brighton left, Maggie looked at the head of security and the head of IT for their take on the situation.
"He's right. There wasn't a lot to go on because they made the call from inside the center. We traced the call. They made the call from one of your open lines that students can use for their job search. We can try to clear up the voice a little, but I can't promise anything." said the head of IT. "Maybe if we can take out some of the gravely sound you might recognize the voice, and we can put a name to the voice."
"There is something about the voice, or the cadence of how he speaks that seems familiar, but I can't put my finger on it," said Maggie.
"Keep thinking on it and we'll keep trying to clean up the voice and let you know what we find," they said as they headed out of the center.
As Maggie walked out of her office, Amelia rushed in and wrapped her up in a big hug.
"For goodness' sake woman! and you know I wanted to say something else, but we are at work, so I'm keeping it PG 13. What the hell kind of day have you been having?" asked Amelia as she finally let go of the bear hug. "First a break in and now a threatening voice mail? What the AF?"
"I know! My day has sucked beyond the telling of it," sighed Maggie.
"Let me hear this voice mail. I want to hear this jerk's voice," said Amelia.
"I want to hear it too! In case I recognize them." added Marta.
The three women when into Maggie's office, and she played the voice mail for them. They all agreed that there was some about the cadence of the speaker that they recognized but couldn't pinpoint who it belonged to.
Maggie's cell phone buzzed with an incoming text message. It was from her boss. She and Marta were to take the rest of the afternoon off. The day had been too stressful and then a threatening voice mail. Too much! Her boss ordered them to go home early.
She sent a two-word reply, "Will do!"
"Marta and I are going home. Orders from the big boss!" announced Maggie. "Gather your stuff, Marta, and we will walk out together."
"I want a text when you get home," said Amelia. "From both of you!"
"I don't have your number so I'll text Maggie and she can let you know I made it home safe and sound," said Marta.
"Or I can give you my number and you can text me directly!" said Amelia, being the bossy friend that she was.
She took Marta's phone and dialed her number, so it was on her phone.
"There, now you have my number, and I want a text as soon as you get home, Marta. No messing around!" ordered Amelia.
"I promise!" answered Marta, who was not used to Amelia's bossy ways being directed at her.
After sending Amelia back to her own office, Marta and Maggie closed the Career Center and walked out to their cars. Both were glad to have someone to walk with, even though it was in the middle of the afternoon. They said their goodbyes and headed home.
Maggie's drive home early on a Friday only took fifteen minutes. Later in the day, at her regular quitting time, it would have taken her closer to thirty minutes to get home on a Friday because of traffic. As she pulled into her parking space, Maggie had a strange feeling of foreboding. She wasn't sure where it was coming from, but something was off, and she didn't like it.
She usually checked her mail after work, but today she opted to go directly inside. As she approached her front door, she saw a package by her door. She had ordered nothing that was due to be delivered today, so she was cautious as she came close to it. It was a box of flowers with a card.
"Roses are red, violets are blue. We know where you work and where you live, too."