The Missing Motive

By Lucille Skelton

Principal Tyler Chase and his team of staff members have worked hard to transform Perceptions High from a non-performing school to the top secondary school on the Caribbean island of Picture Cay. When a series of baffling incidents threatens the safety of various people associated with the school, as well as the staff's professional reputation, Principal Chase realizes that unraveling the mystery surrounding the motive behind the incidents will be a key factor in identifying and exposing whoever is responsible.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 23, 2005
• ISBN: 9781420800685

Lucille Skelton

Lucille Skelton lives in the Caribbean and teaches mathematics at a community college. An avid mystery reader, this is her first novel.

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© 2005 Lucille Skelton. All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 08/16/05

ISBN: 978-1-4208-0068-5 (e)

ISBN: 1-4208-0067-1 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2004097084

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

About The Author

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Prologue

The car moved steadily on the road, gaining in acceleration with each passing second. As the driver maneuvered a corner, tires screeched, protesting in response to the cruel handling of the vehicle.

The driver’s return to consciousness occurred as a sudden response to self-preservation. There was, after all, no reason to create an accident in this quest. Nevertheless, she had to be reached before it was too late.…

Chapter One

Tyler Chase surveyed the island as the jetliner made its gradual descent. He was returning to Picture Cay after a well-deserved, three-week vacation that had included a brief visit with a paternal aunt on the U.S. mainland. Even before the craft touched the landing strip, Tyler was engrossed in plans for jumping fully into activities when he returned to his duties as principal at Perceptions (of Success) High School in Picture Cay’s General Sector 3. The island was divided into eight such districts.

Tyler had been born to parents native to Picture Cay soil, and had spent his formative, primary, and secondary school years on the island before going off to a university on the mainland. Picture Cay, a U.S. territory since 1960, was somewhat different in terrain and larger than the latter part of its name implied, having many hills and mountains with occasionally interspersed valley areas. It was approximately 98 square miles in size, possessing along its coastline pristine, white, sandy beaches that were also characteristic of many of its neighboring islands. Located forty miles north of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, it was a collective mix of its own cultural, historical, and political heritage. According to legend, the island had received its name from a sixteenth-century explorer who, after coming upon it, had made it the backdrop of various paintings that he had been working on.

Already accustomed to U.S. influence from back home, Tyler had adapted easily to university life on the mainland. Always a brilliant student, he had acquired undergraduate degrees in both science and business. Immediately following this, he had applied to a graduate school and had been accepted, where he had earned an MBA. Throughout the course of his studies, though, he had made a keen effort to stay abreast of what went on back home.

The third summer after he had completed his graduate studies, he happened to be on Picture Cay for a visit when he encountered an old friend that lived in the island’s Sector 3. They had not seen each other for quite a long time, as the friend had only earlier that year moved back to Picture Cay after spending some years abroad, and they spent some time carrying out the cheerful reminiscing and catching-up that so often accompanies these types of meetings. Still, Tyler had sensed that all had not been well with his friend, and had eventually inquired as to the source of the problem.

I’ve just received my two children’s high school report cards for the school year’s end, the friend had replied. One child barely scraped through to the next grade, and the other has to repeat. None of the teachers can give me a reasonable answer as to why this has happened, and most of them seem to be more interested in getting on with their summer vacations than helping me to find activities to enhance my children’s learning abilities over the summer. It’s not as if my wife and I haven’t been working with our children over the school year, as we have come to realize that they need that extra bit of help in order to get on to the next level. It seems, though, that our efforts have not been matched by that of most of their teachers. We often hear at PTA meetings that teachers can’t do it alone. Well in this school’s case, the teachers need to understand that parents can’t do it alone! My wife and I are seriously beginning to consider other options for our children’s education.

Tyler had listened with growing consternation, and had imparted a few words of encouragement to his friend before they had parted. His friend’s dilemma, though, had stayed with him over the next few days and had compelled him to make casual inquiries about the school and its management throughout the community. When he had managed to converse with Edward Rigby, the superintendent of schools, at an informal gathering, the superintendent had wearily said, I’m well aware of the problems at Sector 3 High; and now to top it all off, the principal has resigned, and no one wants to fill the position. It was difficult enough filling it in the first place. The situation seems to be stacked with difficulties all around.

Somehow, the school’s difficulties had continued to stay with Tyler over the next few days. Finally, he had found himself at the superintendent’s office with a letter of application in which he had requested a try at the post of principal at General Sector Three Secondary, if only temporarily. In his letter, he had outlined that he was willing to rise to the challenge of instituting improvement, and that it would be a way of him contributing to the island community to which he had been born. It hadn’t been difficult to persuade the superintendent, particularly as this was a vacancy that no one else had wanted to fill.

There were those who had felt that Tyler had been allowed the position due to the influence of his maternal aunt Regina Andrews (a former principal herself), as well as that of his parents, Janet and David Chase (also prominent career achievers within the community), and that he would only serve as a figurehead leader until he found something better to do. After all, he had been previously working as an executive at a manufacturing firm in the U.S. Tyler, however, had had other ideas.

The school was enigmatically challenging, according to written reports. Students consistently underperformed compared to other schools. Parents were reluctant to enroll their children there or, for those with children already enrolled, often sought to have them transferred to other schools. Some even preferred to pay the cost of enrollment to the island’s private secondary schools to ensure that their children obtained a better quality of education. The high turnover of teachers also created an unstable situation at the school, particularly when, in frustration, some left in the middle of terms. The school seemed to never have enough resources, or resources available to it often were not put to effective use.

The school’s lack of resources was partly due to its having been stigmatized as a non-performing school for the previous few years, as because of this label, providing it with resources became less of a priority than with other schools, and a vicious cycle of scarce resources leading to poor performance and poor performance leading to scarce resources was maintained. Added to this was its inability to attract administrators who were willing to invest the effort it would take to bring it back on an even keel.

Another reason for the school’s lack of resources was its location. In many of the other general districts were community assets and developments such as agricultural and seafood harvesting facilities, export centers, prime land reserves, and tourist attractions that generated revenue. The schools in these respective districts were more often able to profit from the generosity of private district benefactors than the third sector’s high school, as this district had none of the developments previously listed.

Thus, the school, as well as the general district in which it was located, was regarded as inferior in comparison to others. Tyler had a plan to change all of that.

Tyler’s plan was simple. The school itself would become General Sector 3’s valuable asset. To achieve this end, he had mapped out a strategic plan that consisted of a series of short-term, segmented plans, each of which would be a building block to constructing and achieving the ultimate, tangible goal of creating an outstanding school. Using the overall format of a formal business plan, and carefully outlining all the necessary resources that he would require to achieve each short-term plan, Tyler had presented his ideas to the relevant authorities and obtained approval to proceed, at least for the first year.

He had begun by recruiting some of the best professionals necessary for a secondary school’s functioning that he could find. By selling his plan to educational professionals already in the territory, he was able to recruit or lure a few from other schools, while persuading a few others to come out of retirement to offer their services. Relying on the contacts that he had made while away at university, he was able to recruit a few classmates from his undergraduate days who possessed the particular qualities that were required in order to make his plan work. These classmates, in turn, had been instrumental in a few other recruitments. He was able to attract the recruits from the mainland not only with the anticipation of working with his plan, but also with the added bonus of being employed in beautiful and exotically tropical surroundings.

Tyler was not a conventional principal. His educational background and experience bore this out, but, additionally, he knew that there were educational administrators who believed that a firm foundation in educational studies was the most significant indicator of a true career educator, and he disagreed. Although he regarded such studies as an integral part of the equation, there was a certain element of drive and interest in success, as well as love for the job, that made an educator most effective. He knew that drive of this intensity is what propelled the most influential teachers to be continually flexible, innovative, and creative, bridging the gap through all facets of learning while keeping themselves from descending into monotony, boredom, and ultimately, lack of motivation. Tyler knew that this was the type of drive that allowed people to excel in their respective careers, teaching or otherwise.

Possessing the same type of drive himself, Tyler had a keen sense of perceiving it in others. Using his networking resources from long-distance business relationships with various people on the island from his days at the manufacturing firm, he had convinced a few members from a variety of other fields to take leaves of absence to