Chapter 638 Smoke and Mirrors

The students stood there, completely confused. They had just arrived and didn’t know what was really going on. And now Tommy was turning to them for help? Was he just panicking?

Wendy, on the other hand, was delighted. She hadn’t expected Tommy to crack this easily under pressure.

Emboldened, she was more determined than ever to drag him to the administration office. Just as the crowd began spilling noisily out of the supply room, a rush of footsteps echoed from the stairwell.

A group of security guards and police officers came charging up.

Everyone froze, staring at each other in stunned silence.

“Why are the police here?”

Wendy, as confused as the rest, looked around blankly – until one of the officers stepped forward with a stern expression. “Is there a fire reported here?”

Wendy blurted out instinctively, “No…”

“It was me. I triggered the smoke alarm.”

Tommy’s voice came from behind her.

Everyone turned to stare at him in shock.

But Tommy looked nothing like his previous panicked self. Now calm and composed, he said to the police, “Officers, I apologize for bringing you here this way. There wasn’t a fire. The alarm was my way of protecting myself.”

“I’d like to file a report. I was set up and slandered. The person who did it is her.”

He pointed directly at Wendy.

Wendy’s mind went blank.

It all happened so fast – she didn’t even have time to react.

“I remember now,” one student whispered. “The smoke alarms are connected to campus security. If it goes off for more than ten minutes, it automatically notifies the police.”

“Ohhh… Mr. Tommy knew the school might cover it up, so he brought in a third party. Makes sense – everyone knows how the school operates. Bad stuff gets buried, good stuff gets paraded.”

“Exactly. In cases like this, they either hush it up or punish everyone equally. Mr. Tommy’s sharp.”

As the murmurs spread, Wendy’s expression changed.

Meanwhile, the police were listening to Tommy’s account. Realizing it was one person’s word against another’s, they said, “Let’s go to the admin office and check the surveillance footage.”

Wendy smirked.

Let them check. The cameras here had been broken for ages. Did Tommy really think she’d leave evidence behind?

Everyone was taken to the admin office. The vice principal listened to the situation and turned sternly to Wendy. “Mr. Tommy is a teacher at our school. You really think he’d frame you? You say the one involved was Yunice. So where is she now?”

Wendy knew her uncle was putting on an act. If he was harsh with her, no one would suspect favoritism.

She put on a wounded look. “I already told you – Yunice ran off. If you don’t believe me, call her. See if she dares answer. See if she’s brave enough to come here and face me!”

“If she doesn’t pick up, that proves she’s hiding something!”

Yunice didn’t have her phone on her, and there was no way she could get a new number that fast. No way she’d be able to answer the vice principal’s call.

Sure enough, the vice principal dialed her number three times in front of everyone – and got no answer.

Wendy beamed. “See? Told you she wouldn’t dare pick up. And she” – she pointed to her lackey – “can back me up. The people in the supply room were Yunice and Mr. Tommy. Plus, my injury is proof! Mr. Tommy’s just accusing me to silence me!”

The vice principal turned to the police with a smile. “Officers, as you can see, we’ve mostly cleared this up. Why don’t we handle this internally first, and if that doesn’t work out, you can step in again?”

“Mostly cleared up?!” Tommy exploded. “Yunice isn’t even here and you’re already blaming her!”

The vice principal sighed, pulled Tommy aside, and whispered, “Mr. Tommy, be smart about this. You’ve got a good reputation here. The school won’t throw you under the bus. This could’ve been handled quietly, but you had to drag in the police…”

“If you want to come out clean, you have to pin it on the student. The school will frame you as the victim and won’t punish you.”

The officers frowned. Did they look like props?

“Find a way to contact this Yunice girl,” one officer said. “We need her statement for the report.”

Wendy sneered, “She won’t even answer her phone. Who’s going to find her?”

The officer asked, “Doesn’t the school have emergency contacts for every student?”

Emergency contacts?

Tommy immediately turned around. “Use the PA system. If Yunice is on campus, she’ll hear and come.”

“If you call her family and she’s innocent, it’ll just create misunderstandings.”

What Tommy was really worried about was this: Yunice had listed her husband as her emergency contact.

That would be a problem.

Best not to involve him.