The eleventh grader who refused to name her baby’s father wanted to talk? Holly would gladly listen.
“It’s okay.” She mustered a smile. “Have a seat, Tasha.”
The teenager sank into the chair closest to Holly’s desk. She seemed to be searching for words before finally speaking.
“Mom and Dad want me to tell them who got me pregnant.”
Holly was well aware of this entire situation. “Honey, they can’t afford to raise your child, and his father should help. I’m sorry, but I think he should help, too.”
“He wants to.”
This was the first time Tasha even admitted the boy knew about the baby. “Why doesn’t he, then?”
Tasha raised a shaking hand to push a stray, auburn curl from her face. “He can’t tell…his mom and dad will be disappointed because they’re really wonderful parents. They raised him going to church, and he knew it was wrong—we both knew it was wrong, and we cried after it happened. It’s not like we’re a couple of partying kids sneaking around. It happened one time…one time, Miss Morris.”
“Tasha.” Holly didn’t have to tell her one time was all it took. “If his parents are Christian, they may be angry, and yes—disappointed—but they love their son and will forgive him. They’ll love their grandson, too. How much longer before he gets here?”
“Seven weeks.” The girl’s eyes welled with tears.
“Listen.” Holly stood and walked around to sit beside her student. “Just think about what I’ve said; talk to your baby’s father again…for your child’s sake. He’ll need a dad.” Tasha told her parents in no uncertain terms if they tried to make her give this baby up, she would run away. The situation was sad. “This is school, but can I pray with you right now?”
The teenager wordlessly nodded.
“Father, you know what is best for this baby, and for his parents. Please give everyone involved strength to love past pain and disappointment and forgive as you forgive us. I ask especially for you to calm this precious young lady’s heart and give her a peace only you can provide. I pray all this in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Holly looked up into tear-filled blue eyes. “Thank you, Miss Morris.” Then, without another word, Tasha stood and walked out of the room.
“I should have stayed home.” Even as Holly uttered the words, she knew they weren’t true. The young adults at this school depended on her to help them, and when she accepted the job, she accepted that responsibility.
A knock on the door brought her out of her musing. At this rate, she wouldn’t be surprised to discover Harriet Iverson was suddenly compelled to confess the meat in her meatloaf came from a can. A total of ten students ate a school lunch the last time it was served.
“Come in.” She stood and headed back to her chair.
“You gotta help me, Miss Morris.” Adam Mayes planted his hands on her desk and leaned forward. “Please, you can’t let this happen.”
Adam was one of Luke’s youth group boys and, while not an angel, wasn’t troublesome either.
“Have a seat and calm down,” she instructed firmly. “Then tell me—slowly—what’s wrong.”
“Mom got an e-mail saying I have to take summer school. That’ll make me ineligible for summer league baseball. Can you talk to Mr. Graham, Miss Morris? I’ll stay after school every day for the last two weeks, and I’ll come in on Saturdays if he’ll let me. I don’t want summer school. Please.”
“Why are you being placed in summer school?” Reasons varied; in Holly’s opinion, guidelines were too flexible and sometimes students were enrolled more for a behavior problem than academic.
“I don’t know. The e-mail didn’t say. It told Mom to come in this afternoon for a conference. She’s really upset, and with Ted—I just thought if I can fix it before she gets here, it’ll help.”
While summer league was undoubtedly the leading impetus, the teenager seemed sincere about not wanting to disappoint his mom. The thought niggled at her memory, but she pushed it away. “I’ll look into it, but a lot depends on why you’ve been registered. So, I’m making no promises.”
Following a busy morning of woes ranging from a boy’s locker plastered with photos and posters of some famous male pop star she understood to be quite unpopular at the moment to a diatribe on how the school should offer and mandate hourly administration of breath mints because everybody—and this particular student meant everybody—had bad breath, she decided to make Adam her first afternoon project. She typed in her password and pulled up Adam’s transcript and records on her computer. It was strange. He had been getting A’s and B’s during the first three quarters of the school year, and during this last quarter, his grades plummeted to D’s and F’s across the board. It effectively ruled out a teacher-student personality conflict, which happened more often than Holly liked.
“What happened, Adam?” she asked quietly. She needed to get him back in her office and talk to him again. The sooner, the better. She was a little aggravated none of his teachers notified her of the situation. His grades had undergone too drastic of a change in an unusually short length of time. It should have set off alarms for every one of them, even if each was unaware of his other class grades.
She was just picking up the phone to have his science teacher send him back down when a soft rap sounded on her door. Holly sighed as she replaced the receiver. Adam would have to wait.
“Come in.”
Billy Andrews walked in, quickly closing the door behind him.
“Good afternoon, Billy.” She hoped he was doing okay at his grandmother’s.
“Miss Morris, if I tell you something important, do you have to tell people I’m the one who told you?” It looked like the teenager was getting directly to the point.
Holly carefully considered her answer. “I guess it depends on what you tell me. Can you explain it a little more?”
Billy looked like he was about to turn around and head out the door, but slowly, resolve settled on his face.
“If I tell you some kids are going to do something wrong, and you tell Sheriff Landon, do you have to tell him I’m the one who told you?”
Billy thought this was going to require Mitch’s involvement? Again, she was careful to answer honestly. She was pretty sure what Billy was really worried about, anyway.
“I can’t promise not to tell Sheriff Landon, but I can promise nobody will tell the ‘kids’ you’re talking about it was you.”
Holly waited patiently while he stared at the floor and decided what he was going to do.
“I have to tell,” he blurted out, “or Mr. Roper will get in trouble for something he didn’t do.”
This had something to do with the maintenance man? “We wouldn’t want that to happen,” she gently agreed.
“I forgot my English book, so I had to go back to the locker room to get it.” Holly could see Billy was frightened by what he was telling her, but he continued. “There were some boys down there. They didn’t see me. I didn’t mean to listen. I was just waiting for them to get dressed and leave so I could go in and get my book. Seniors get mad at freshmen if we bother them in the locker room. They don’t like it ‘cause some of us have PE with them.”
“I understand. You weren’t eavesdropping.”
“They were talking about a room in the school’s basement. One of them said they needed to put the stuff back before somebody found out it was gone. But, another one said it didn’t matter. Everybody would just think Mr. Roper took it. Only he didn’t call him Mr. Roper.” He looked solemnly at her. “I can’t repeat the word he said, or you’ll have to give me detention.”
Holly was trying not to prod him, but this had to be something to do with the equipment missing from the supply room. Her heart sped up. “You don’t have to tell me exactly what he said.”
“Okay.” Billy took a deep breath. “They got into an argument. Some of them want to get more stuff out of the room. Just one says they should put some of it back. They told him to shut up becau
se they decided to sneak in tonight and get some more things.” He looked down. “I’m sorry I don’t know what room they’re talking about, or what they’re getting.”
Remain calm. “Billy, did they say how they were getting into the room?”
He frowned for a moment. “One of them said they had to put the key back in the desk tomorrow before his aunt found out it was gone.”
Billy didn’t know how much he already helped, but she still needed to know one more thing.
“Do you know the names of the boys you heard?” She decided to rephrase it. They were in the same PE class, after all. “Will you tell me their names, please?”
He looked into her eyes. “Can I write them down? Then nobody can say I told.”
Now was not the time to discuss semantics with this boy. Holly pulled a piece of paper off her printer and slid it and an ink pen across the desk.
“Just write them down.” She smiled encouragingly at him. “The sheriff might want to talk to you, but he won’t tell the boys it was you.”
Billy’s hand was shaking as he wrote on the paper and didn’t stop when he held it out for her to take.
A quick glance at the names was all she allowed herself for the moment. Right now, the young man in front of her was more important.
“Thank you, Billy.” Holly waited until he made eye contact again. “What you are doing is a brave thing, and I’m very proud of you.” This boy, with his far from happy home life, rescued her from Jack Wallace, and now he was helping keep Mr. Roper out of trouble.
“Let me sign your pass.” He reached into his jean's pocket and handed her a crumpled piece of paper. “Let’s get you back to class. Don’t say a word about this to anybody else. Especially Adam, and not even Ronnie. It’s too easy for people to forget they’re not supposed to say anything.” She did not want him hurt.
Holly waited until Billy left before she picked up the phone and called Mitch. It was time to put an end to the thievery of the five boys Billy named, two of whom surprised her. One of the struggles she’d gone through that morning had most likely been pointless.
Chapter 38
Luke stretched his leg as far as he could without making himself visible. He and Mitch had been sitting in the dark storage room of the high school for over an hour, and it was growing difficult to remain immobile.
He was grateful when Mitch arranged for him to be there. He still couldn’t believe how everything fell into place once the sheriff received a call from Holly. It all made sense. And then Mitch had come up with a plan.
They knew the boys were supposed to come tonight, but not what time. So, one of Mitch’s deputies and two state police officers were stationed at various points around the exterior of the building, hidden from sight. And the two of them were in the room.
When one of the state police officers expressed concern about letting a civilian participate, Mitch explained his reasoning. Luke was their target. If they saw him with the police, Mitch hoped it would startle them to realize they had been caught red-handed. Not just for breaking in and stealing things, but also for what had been done to Luke. The officer conceded, seeing there was no reason to suspect danger to Luke, and complimented the sheriff for his idea.
Of course, if Mitch hadn’t been able to leave Hank watching Holly, Luke wouldn’t have come. No matter how she felt, he still loved her. He couldn’t sit back and do nothing when she was in danger. He could have parked out of sight and kept an eye on her place himself.
Clarence wasn’t enough protection anymore, but Mitch said nobody wanted to point it out to Holly. Mitch just quietly extended Hank’s hours of protective duty. Luke figured Hank would have a party when the stalker was caught. The poor guy was working crazy shifts.
“I’m getting too old for this.” Mitch broke the cardinal rule of a stakeout and spoke. “My legs are cramping worse than they ever did when I played football.”
Luke kept his voice as soft as Mitch had. “I know what you mean. Where are these boys’ parents, anyway? They shouldn’t be out this time of night.”
“Two of them have good families. I’m sure they don’t know what their sons have been up to. It’s going to break their mothers’ hearts.”
Mitch had a list of who the boys were, but Luke hadn’t seen it. All he knew was they were all seniors. At least it wasn’t any of his youth group boys. He didn’t know how he’d handle that.
He just kept asking himself why. Why would five high school seniors steal equipment, and then single him out to vandalize? He never had run-ins with any kids, let alone high school boys. Sure, he’d been toilet-papered a time or two, and sicced Clarence on the pranksters. Even so, there had been nothing with results that would make boys want to get even with him.
Luke sighed. Hopefully, they’d have some answers as soon as they caught the young men. Which couldn’t be soon enough. His back was going to be stiff in the morning. He started to say something to Mitch, but hushed voices outside the door stopped him.
He watched as one, two...All five boys walked stealthily into the room. He held his breath as one of their flashlight beams missed landing on his foot by less than an inch. That’s all they’d need—him and Mitch with their stiff legs, trying to run down five teenagers.
The boys were well into the room when the dark shadow Luke knew to be Mitch stood and silently walked to the door. He reached out and touched the wall.
As the lights came on, the boys froze for a split second before they turned to run. Mitch’s large frame planted firmly in front of the door made them rethink their plans.
One of them assumed a cocky stance. “We ain't done nothing. You can’t arrest us.”
Luke stood but didn’t say anything. He was waiting for Mitch’s signal to make his presence known.
Mitch spoke loudly. “Rod Hirsh, Trevor Bayne, Dustin Gray, Sammy Lewis, and Ted Mayes...You’re all under arrest for breaking and entering, and stealing school property.”
The boys exchanged startled glances. They hadn’t been expecting the sheriff to know who they were. The one who appeared to be the ringleader spoke again.
“We ain't stealing anything. And we have a key. We didn’t break in.”
“You have the key you stole from your aunt’s desk, Trevor. And I know you’re in possession of chains, pulleys, floor jacks, and a very expensive piece of shop equipment. I believe the value of the stolen items might bring this up to a felony.”
“Wait a minute.” One of the other boys spoke up. “You can’t do anything to us. We’re minors.”
“You might only be seventeen, Dustin, but Rod, Trevor, and Sammy are eighteen. Besides, you’re all old enough to arrest.”
“You can’t prove we have any stolen property.” Trevor was starting to sound desperate.
Mitch nodded toward Luke, who stepped out of the shadows.
“I imagine if I look hard enough, I’m going to find all those tools somewhere on my farm. And they’ll be covered with your fingerprints.” For the first time, fear appeared in some of the boys’ eyes. One of them looked particularly familiar, but he couldn’t figure out why. He didn’t have time to dwell on it as the boys exchanged frantic glances with each other.
“I told you we shouldn’t do this.” The boy who looked familiar spoke to Trevor. “You just wouldn’t listen.”
Trevor snarled at him. “You needed the money just as much as the rest of us did, Mayes. We ain’t the ones with a pregnant girlfriend.”
Mayes. “You’re Adam’s older brother.” Luke spoke softly, but the boy’s reaction was immediate.
“My brother doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“So, why don’t you tell us where money is coming into this,” Mitch suggested. “You stole equipment and used it to vandalize Mr. Walker’s home. What does that have to do with money?”
“I’m not talking.” It was Trevor speaking again. “None of us is saying anything.”
“Fine.” Mitch spoke in a matter-of-fact manner. “We’ll just go on do
wn to the station, and I’ll talk to you there—after you’ve been arrested and processed.”
“We didn’t steal any money.” The boy with long, blond hair spoke for the first time.
“It was the man.” The Mayes boy ignored Trevor’s glare as he spoke. “He paid us to do it. We didn’t hurt anybody or anything. I even tied your dog to a tree when he wouldn’t stop following us. We just wanted to have fun.”
Of course. Clarence wasn’t around them often, but he loved children. He would have thought they were there to play with him. That explained how he got tied up the day of the reunion.
Mitch picked up his radio mike and called his deputy. “Wayne, we’re going to run these kids in. You and the other officers can come get them.”
“I don’t want to go to jail!”
“You should have thought of that before you stole something, Dusty.” Mitch showed no sympathy for any of them.
“Listen, it was a man.” Trevor was finally admitting to it. “None of us saw him. He called and told me if I got some guys together we could make some money.”
“What did you have to do?” Mitch asked.
“Just keep that guy working.” Trevor gestured toward Luke. “The man told us to have fun and keep him busy. He told us about the stuff in this room and how we should get the key out of my aunt’s desk.”
“How did he pay you if you never saw him?” Mitch looked skeptical.
It was Adam’s brother who spoke again. “There’s a storage locker at the bus depot. Number three-twenty-three. He left the combination in Trevor’s mailbox. We go to the locker every Saturday and there’s money in it.”
“How much?”
None of them answered Mitch.
“Sammy, do you want to tell me how much before, or after, I call your parents?” Mitch was addressing the long-haired boy. “This is going to mess up your football plans, buddy.”
“If I tell you, can we forget it?” Sammy looked desperate now. “So I can go pro like I planned.”
Mitch wasn’t making deals. “All actions have consequences. It just so happens stealing and vandalism have pretty big ones. Now, is somebody going to answer my question?”
Hidden in Shadow Page 20
