by Vicki Hinze
“He is agreeable to in-patient treatment.” If he disputed her, she’d call McCabe and that would be that.
“I’ll send an ambulance over for him right away.”
“Thank you. He’ll be sequestered in my office until they arrive to retrieve him.” Mr. Travis looked beaten down. She didn’t want to feel sympathetic toward him, but it flickered through her anyway. “Dr. Perez, keep him on a very tight leash.”
“I need a minute. Give me just a second.” Ana put her on hold. When she returned, she said, “Ten minutes.”
“Great.”
“I can’t expect he’s too happy with you right now. Are you safe?”
“I’m fine.”
“They’ve been dispatched,” Ana said. “Don’t let him get between you and the office door, and do not turn your back on him. Think caged animal.”
“I won’t.”
“When are they coming?” Travis asked.
“They’re already on the way,” Dana said. “Thanks, Dr. Perez.”
“I’d feel better if you’d stay on the phone with me until they arrive.” Ana spoke to someone in her own office. “Tell them to move it!”
“It’s not an issue,” Dana assured her. “Thank you.” She hung up the phone.
Travis was shaking all over. “You know, now she knows, and you’re going to tell the council. By tomorrow everyone on the lake will know.”
Humiliation was always a bitter pill to swallow. Life as Wade Travis had known it was over. “I have no choice, Mr. Travis. You know that. There are protocols.”
“Forget your protocols. This is my life.” Anger flinted through his eyes. “Some secrets are meant to be kept.”
“Not when they impact my students and my school.” The granite edge in her tone chilled him. “What did you expect would happen? You had to have thought about it. You had to know that one day you’d get caught.”
“I did get caught. And I paid a boat-load of money to make the problem go away.”
“Sylvia.” Dana felt her temper hover the stratosphere. “I’m not Sylvia, and you’re not sweeping this under any rug. You want to forget something, forget that.” She forced her temper to cool, afraid it would be the tinder that would knock him over the edge and into violence. “I am sorry, Mr. Travis. You have an addiction. While I am sympathetic to that, I will not—I cannot—let sympathy supersede my duty to the students.”
Pam opened the door without knocking. She’d been watching through the glass, standing back so Mr. Travis couldn’t see her. The armed school resource officer stood beside her. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said, sounding amazingly normal. “Two orderlies are here with the ambulance, they say, to retrieve Mr. Travis.”
He stood up. “You ruined my life, Dr. Perkins. I hope you’re happy.”
“You ruined your life, Mr. Travis.” Dana stood up. “And, no, I am not happy. This situation was needless and is tragic. As bitter and angry as you are, I promise you you’re happier than you would have been if you ever had touched one of my students. So count your blessings.”
One of the orderlies, a man well over six feet tall, came into Dana’s office. “Let’s go.”
Wade Travis walked out and got into the ambulance.
And Dana took her first full breath since he had walked into her office.
“You okay?” Pam asked.
Dana nodded. “I will be, after I talk to the Council.”
Pam groaned. “And the parents?”
“Them, too.” Shutter Lake was up to its rafters in secrets. While Dana wished this whole sordid mess could be one of them, it couldn’t. She had to know Wade Travis had been honest with her about the students. If he had behaved inappropriately toward one of them. Just one…
“Should I get Mayor Jessup on the phone?”
Dana checked her watch. After six. “No, I’m meeting him at seven. We’ll talk then.” She had to call Laney, and then alert the council. “Afterwards we’ll deal with the parents.”
“I’ll draft a note to them and text it to you.”
“That would be wonderful, Pam.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Thank you for dinner, Thomas.” At his side, Dana walked down the wooden dock back to shore.
“You ate like a bird.” He glanced out over the sun-spangled water. “Still upset over Wade Travis?”
“Yes.” She didn’t bother to lie. Thomas had been upset, too, but fortunately he had found no fault with the way she’d handled the issue thus far. “Thanks for notifying the council.”
“Just following protocol.” They reached the earthen bank of Shutter Lake, and he motioned toward a bench. “Shall we sit a while?”
“I’d like that.” She veered to the bench and then sat down. Sunset wouldn’t be for another forty minutes or so. It’d be soothing to see it tonight.
“Are you okay with their suggestions?” Thomas sat down beside her. The green in his tie was the same shade as his eyes.
“I think speaking to the parents of Travis’s students and them speaking to their children themselves is the best way to go about it. Easier on the kids, and the parents choose how much to say. It really should be their call.”
“I agree. Usurping parental rights is not what we want in this.” He looked up at the sky, watched a bird fly by. “When will they be notified?”
“Tonight.” Dana smoothed her black sheath skirt. “Hopefully, that will avoid criticism for any delay.”
“Dana, I hardly think they can complain about being notified within hours.” He covered her hand with his. “Every parent in the lake knows how protective you are of the kids.”
She hoped so. “I’ll speak to any who ask, of course, but I’m praying hard none of the students relay any improprieties.” Her face went hot. She’d handle it, but oh, it would be difficult.
“I know the council wasn’t exactly enthused about you reporting it to the police, but I’m glad you took the decision out of their hands. It was the right thing to do.”
“I’m legally obligated to report it to the police, and I thought the council might want to keep it private, which is why I phoned in the report on the way out here.”
“Hard with Zion Cole being on the council.”
Hard to discover your murdered daughter was blackmailing someone. Dana kept her thoughts on that to herself.
“McCabe?”
“No, he was out. Laney took the information,” Dana said. “She’s probably at the medical clinic talking with Travis right now.”
Thomas stretched his arms out across the back of the bench. “You don’t think Travis killed Sylvia, do you?”
It was a question, but it didn’t really sound like one. More like he wanted confirmation on what he already knew. Dana gave it to him. “I don’t think so. But I’m certain Vinn didn’t.”
Deep relief washed over Thomas’s face. “Thank God.”
“What?” Dana asked, a little taken aback at his relief. The lines of tension nearly disappeared from his face. “Thomas?”
He avoided her eyes. “I’m glad. Vinn…he’s a good kid.”
Definitely more than your garden variety relief. And now avoidance, pure and simple. Suspicion confirmed. Something here was very personal. “I never would have taken Sylvia for a blackmailer,” Dana said.
“Well, she was.”
She pivoted on the bench to look at him. “Spoken with the authority of one who knows, and without doubt.”
No answer. Thomas didn’t spare her so much as a glance, which troubled her.
“About Vinn,” she said, turning the subject.
He did look at her then, stared for a long moment.
“Thomas, don’t be shocked.” Dana let the hint of a smile curve her lips. “I’m fond of you, and have been for a long time, and I’ve seen Vinn at school every day for seven years. Did you really think I’d never noticed how much like you he is?”
“What does that mean?”
“It means he looks like you, he acts like you, even shar
es a lot of the same body language.”
“So you think he’s my son.” His jaw tightened, and he looked away.
“I have no idea,” she answered honestly. “But from your reaction, I’d say you think he is.”
Thomas let the silence between them stretch and yawn. Finally, he whispered, “Maybe.”
He didn’t know. “Connie Bradshaw was your teacher.”
He nodded. “Senior year. She married Vernon and had Vinn right away.”
Painful ghosts lurked in those words. Instinct and years of experience warned Dana to tread carefully. “You’ve thought all along that Vinn might be your son.” A thought struck her. “Sylvia did, too.” He would speak with authority if Sylvia had been blackmailing him and Travis.
“I didn’t know. I still don’t know for sure,” Thomas admitted. “Back then, I didn’t want to know. She was married to Vernon, I was on my way to college. We both had different plans for our lives, and we made different choices.”
“You never talked about it?” How could they never talk about it?
“No, we never did.” He paused, studied the water, then added, “Thought about it, but by the time I realized she was expecting, she was already married to Vernon. There was nothing to talk about then.”
If she was married to another man, Dana guessed any window of opportunity for discussions Connie had firmly shut. “So neither of you ever acknowledged the possibility, years went by and then Sylvia found out and blackmailed you.”
“That’s pretty much it.” He shrugged. “But I didn’t kill her, Dana.”
“I know.” She did know. Thomas Jessup would never tarnish his image or Shutter Lake’s image deliberately. He would leave first.
“Vinn is a good kid. He’s happy most of the time. Or he was, until all this happened.”
She clasped her hands together. “You’ve watched him.”
“I have.” Thomas nodded, dipped his chin. “I’ve never said anything to him, of course. I wouldn’t do that. Connie and Vernon are his parents. They seem happy together, and they clearly love Vinn.” Thomas rubbed at his chin, thinking. “But he’s in trouble now, and I have to say, it bothered me that Vernon didn’t even go into the police station when Connie lost it at the press conference. He stayed outside until Laney called him to come in.”
While Vinn screamed for McCabe to get his mother out of there, and she screamed to see her son. Recalling it gave Dana chills. Both she and Julia Ford had noticed Vernon’s staying outside and had thought it odd. “People often react to stress in strange ways, Thomas. It’s their body’s way of protecting itself.”
“His wife needed him.”
“But you were in there with them. Why?”
“They needed…”
“You?”
He shrugged.
“And because you might be Vinn’s birth father…maybe, you felt you needed to step up?” Did he even know why he did it?
“Someone needed to. Vernon was like a zombie out there.”
“I see.”
“You know when I ran into you at Dr. Perez’s office?”
She nodded.
“My meeting was to ask her about taking over Sylvia’s duties with the chamber. But I also talked with her about DNA. Vinn’s DNA I have. Mine, I didn’t.”
“So she’s running the test, to see if you’re his father.”
He nodded. “We’ll have the results back in a day or so.”
“And then you’ll decide.”
“Decide what?” He swept a strand of hair back from her face with a gentle hand.
“Whether to destroy the little left in Vinn’s life or to keep quiet and put him first.”
Thomas drew back, stiffened. “What are you saying?”
Dana placed a hand on his sleeve. “I’m saying Vinn has a mom and dad and, until this with Sylvia, he’s been happy and well-adjusted. They’re a family, Thomas. Now he’s lost everything except his family and you—who have never been more than the mayor to him—are thinking about telling him you’re his father.” She frowned. “Isn’t that just a little selfish?”
He stood up, strode a short path in front of the bench, then back to her. Stuffing a hand into his slacks’ pocket, he waited for two bikers to get out of earshot on the trail behind them running parallel to the lake. “I didn’t see it that way. I saw him as abandoned, and I wanted him to know he wasn’t alone.”
That redeemed Thomas in Dana’s eyes, except for one problem. “He isn’t abandoned or alone. Vernon and Connie go to the station to see Vinn every day. And tomorrow,” she said, sharing the news she had gotten only hours ago from Laney, “so am I.”
“How are you seeing him?” Thomas seemed happy but also confused. “McCabe refused.”
“He refused the principal,” Dana said. “Tomorrow, I’m going in as Vinn’s psychologist.”
“Oh, wow.” He stilled. “You’re protecting him. You think Vinn is innocent and you’re going to get him to tell you the truth to prove it.”
“I’m going to try,” she said. “I can’t do it alone, and I’m not sure he will help me. I’m hoping he will. I am certain he’s innocent.” She let her gaze drift. “But I’m also certain he’s covering for someone else, and that someone has a powerful, powerful hold over him.”
“Who?” Thomas sat back down on the bench.
“I don’t know.” She had been honest, as far as she’d gone. Her speculations were not facts. “But I am going to do my best to protect him from that person and from himself.” A cool breeze kicked up, chilling her. “The only thing that will help is the truth.”
“Thank you for this. I won’t forget it.”
“He’s my student, Thomas.” She would protect her students or die trying.
“So what you’re telling me is, whether or not I’m his birth father, Vinn doesn’t need me. He needs his family. That is what you’re saying, right?”
“I’m saying he needs his dad and his mom. The parents he knows and loves who know and love him.”
“You’re not going to tell Vinn about any of this.” Thomas looked deep into her eyes. “I mean, we don’t know, but either way, you’re not going to tell him.”
“I am not.”
“You don’t think I should either.”
“Typically, I wouldn’t share my opinion. But since you asked, no. No, I don’t think you should tell him.” She stayed serious, shifted perspective. “Put yourself in Vinn’s position. In his eyes, his world is in shambles. We don’t know why, and he might or might not know why. He thinks he does, which means he needs something to hold on to right now. Something he knows and that is comfortable. He doesn’t need his mother’s reputation trashed for her having an affair with one of her students. Vinn doesn’t need to know his mayor might or might not be his dad. And he really doesn’t need to know his father thought Vinn was his own son and now neither of them is sure whose he is, or what role they play in each other’s lives.”
“Whoa.” Thomas collapsed back, studied the deep water and its murky depths. “So I need to mind my own business and stay out of their family’s business—either way.”
“That’s my two cents.” She patted his hand. “Some secrets are meant to be kept.”
He grunted. “I guess that’s the price we pay for not stepping up at the time we create them.”
Maybe it was. Looked that way to her. Vinn had to come first. “Yeah, I guess so.”
“I don't think I want to know the test results.”
“Yes, you do.” Dana sat back, stretched out her legs and crossed them at her ankles. “Because until you know for sure, you don’t know how to feel about these things. And until you know how to feel, you can’t let go. You’re stuck in the past.” She looked at him, feeling tender. “I get it now.”
“Get what?”
“Why you’ve never married.” She thought it through. “That’s always puzzled me, I have to say. You’re the image perfectionist. It was a breach that you weren’t married with a couple of kid
s. But this explains why you never let a woman get close enough to snag your heart. You never let go, so in your heart, you’re already married to the mother of your maybe son.”
“I did the wrong thing back then. I should have spoken to Connie about it, but I didn’t.”
“Thomas, are you still in love with Connie?”
He shrugged. “Do you ever forget your first love?”
“No, but you do put them in the past where they belong. In your circumstances, I can see why you haven’t, but you were a kid and you made a mistake. You don’t need to pay for it for the rest of your life.”
“Maybe I don’t deserve a family, Dana. If Vinn is mine, I walked away.”
“Actually, I think you said you went to school one day and Connie was gone. Then you heard she was married, and then you saw her and she was pregnant. That’s not exactly walking away. She made all the decisions for both of you.”
“I never asked.”
“She was another man’s wife.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, stop waiting for her. Stop punishing yourself. Just stop, and go on and live your life.”
An older couple moved down the path, arm in arm. Dana and Thomas spoke briefly to them and they then walked on. The sun burned low, bright orange. Another few minutes and they’d see the sunset.
“I don’t envy your having to deal with the parents on this Travis issue.”
He’d had enough of burrowing into his past for now. So had she, not that Travis was an enjoyable topic. “I hate that this incident is going to shake their confidence in me, but I know it will.”
“Why should it?”
“In their eyes, he works for me.”
Thomas frowned. “How long did you know before firing him?”
“Three, maybe four—“
“Days or weeks?” he cut in.
“Minutes,” she corrected him. “Not one second of which was he out of my sight or did he interact with any of my students.”
“Were there any missed signs, warning you?”
“Before Sylvia’s death, no. He’s been upset ever since then, but so has everyone else.” She cleared her throat. “I thought it was all the focus challenges or something. Turns out, he was afraid that her death would trigger the release of her blackmail fodder.”
