by Robin Lyons
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think you could attend their funeral if there were one?”
“No. I. Can’t. Talk. About....” She began to take short fast breaths.
“Okay. It’s okay,” Monica rubbed her back. “You don’t need to deal with that now. Are you ready to go back to the DeSalvos?”
She nodded.
Monica took the suitcases she and Rae had packed into the living room. Rae followed.
“Brrr. It’s cold this morning.”
Rae didn’t respond.
Monica took out the trash which included pizza remnants, she assumed came from their last dinner together.
When she returned to the kitchen, Rae sat at the bar looking forlorn. Monica quickly closed the windows and patio door.
Rae looked into Monica’s eyes. “What happens to my house?”
“I’m not sure. Because you’re a minor, legal stuff will have to be decided by a judge. “I’m certain you’ll be advised of everything, whether you choose to be a part of the decision making or acquiesce to your uncle will be up to you.”
Chapter 13
Mac’s pledge to not get involved in personal lives fell apart on day one. He couldn’t say no to Brandi’s father when he’d asked him to find his daughter’s assailant. Now it was day three, and he had very little to go on.
Blackstone Academy’s front entrance door opened and Roni walked outside, bundled in a puffy coat and wearing gloves and earmuffs.
“Are you a cold this morning?” Mac chuckled.
“It’s freaking freezing out.”
Kids arrived at school. Parents in cars formed a line along the curb to drop off their children.
Mac saw Mrs. Jackson’s car several cars back in the line. During the break, Mac often wondered how things were going at the Jackson home with Kevin and his aunt. He doubted Aunt Jane knew her nephew was a bad seed.
Roni bounced next to Mac.
“Are you that cold?”
“Yes! I’m freezing.”
“Stand inside the door and watch from there. I’ve got this under control.”
“It’s okay. I need to toughen up if I’m going to be a cop. Cops don’t get to stay inside the patrol car while their partner responds to a call.”
“Good point.”
Brandi’s father sat in his car across the street. Mac assumed he watched the kids arrive at school. Probably looking for the one he wanted to strangle. He nodded to Scott, who reciprocated.
Mrs. Ross, apparently too cold to walk her kids to the front of the school, opted instead to drop them off at the curb. Teddy exited the rear seat first then his sister, Savannah. Mrs. Ross put down the front passenger window and hollered to her kids, “Have a great day!” And then said, “Hi, Marshal Mac.”
Mac nodded to her. “Morning Teddy. Morning Savannah.”
“Morning.” Savannah waved before she hustled into the school.
Mac noted, one positive outcome to winter weather was the kids hurried inside.
Teddy jumped mimicking Roni. “What do you get from a pampered cow?”
Roni bounced nonstop. “What?”
“Spoiled milk,” Teddy blurted out. He laughed as he jumped his way into the school.
“He’s such a silly, sweet boy,” Roni said to Mac.
“He is.”
Aunt Jane made it to the front of the drop-off line.
Mac watched with his full attention.
Kevin got out of the front seat and retrieved his backpack from the back seat. No hug for his aunt. No drama. By all appearance, he seemed like a normal groggy teenager arriving at school.
Mac made eye contact with Jane. She smiled. He smiled in return.
“Good morning, Kevin,” Mac greeted.
“F-off,” Kevin muttered as he walked by Mac and Roni.
“Cute,” Roni said.
Mac stared after him. “When he does stuff like that I want to haul his ass into the boss’s office. But nothing would happen. I’m trying hard to understand how to work with kids better, even the difficult ones.”
Mac sidled up to Roni, who finally stopped bouncing. Keeping his voice low, he said, “Hey. Do you know anything about the annual party the Collins’s have after Christmas?”
She shrugged. “I’ve been to it before. Whenever my parents went to dinner or a performance with Fred and Vanessa, I babysat Stu and Nate. For quite a few years my parents attended the party. I’d go with them, but then my parents socialized less and less with Fred and Vanessa. Why?”
“Perfect! Did you notice anything hinky going on at the parties?”
She raised an eyebrow. “Hinky?”
“You know, suspicious? Unusual? Weird?”
“Like how?”
“Can I trust you to keep this confidential? I mean tell nobody, not even your priest.”
“I’m not Catholic. Just kidding. Yes, of course, I won’t tell a soul.”
Mac watched the last of the routinely late parents drop off their kids. Thus, they had to run into school to avoid being tardy.
At the same time, Scott drove out of the visitor parking lot quite slow and traveled down the street away from the school.
“Let’s talk in my office,” Mac said to Roni.
They walked passed Marlene’s desk, and both called out a cheery, “Good morning.”
Mac unlocked the door and held it for Roni to enter.
She plunked down in the chair opposite Mac’s. She looked mesmerized by the wall of screens scrolling through the various camera locations around the campus.
“Those are so cool,” she said. “You forget cameras are watching.”
“That’s a good thing.”
“So, what’s up about the Collins’s end of year party?” Roni peeled off her puffy coat.
“Do you know Brandi Welch?”
“A little. Mostly I know who Brandi is, say hello in passing.”
“Her father asked me to help him figure something out. I could really use your help to get inside information from a female perspective.”
Roni perched on the edge of the chair and leaned forward.
“Brandi goes to the party every year because she and Stu have been friends since Kindergarten. This year, she went to the party with her friend, Simone Tate.”
“I know who Simone is.”
Mac told Roni what Brandi’s father shared with him.
“Brrr, it’s too cold to hang out in a car at night.” Roni gave an exaggerated shiver.
“Apparently, not that cold.” He shrugged. “Anyway, the next thing Brandi knew Simone was pulling up Brandi’s pants.”
Roni gasped. Her hand covered her mouth, and her eyes bugged out.
“Scott believes someone spiked Brandi’s soda pop and then sexually assaulted her.”
Roni’s head dropped to her lap where she cradled it with her hands. “Oh, my God! That’s horrible.”
She sat up straight and tensed her jaw. “Did they take her to the hospital and have a rape kit done? Did they call the police?”
“No. Scott doesn’t want the police involved until he has some solid evidence. Since the party was at Fred’s house, he feels he may not get a full investigation. More importantly, he doesn’t want people to know what happened to Brandi until the assailant’s arrested.”
“Does Marlene know?”
“Not that I’m aware. Please don’t say anything to Marlene. Not even if she brings it up. Act as if you don’t know anything.”
“Okay. Okay.” She scooted her chair closer to the desk.” So, what can I do? This really makes me angry. I’ll do anything I can to help.”
“Ask around about the party. You have an advantage since you’ve been before.”
She bobbed her head. “That’s good. I can do that.”
“Between the two of us, I’d like to create a guest list so we can see who was there.”
“I’m on it. And you can totally trust me. I will not utter a word about this assignment or the assault.” She sh
ook her head. “Poor Brandi.”
“Yes, the family’s pretty torn up about it. Whatever the guy gave Brandi, she has little memory of the assault.”
Roni said, “On another sad note, did you hear about the fatal accident on the highway?”
“I did.”
“Killed a husband and wife. I heard a rumor their daughter will be attending school here, at Blackstone.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You mean Marlene didn’t know?” Roni smiled.
Chapter 14
Crosby Nash sat behind the massive oak desk in his study at home while his very pregnant wife cleaned up after dinner. He had his laptop open, earbuds in his ears listening to the speaker club videos the kids had done over the break. He was pleasantly surprised by how many had been turned in yesterday.
“What are you doing?” His wife walked into the room and lowered her heavy body onto the worn leather sofa. “I feel so bloated. I can’t seem to take a full breath lately.”
Crosby had grown accustomed to his wife’s jibber-jabber about her pregnancy.
“The baby isn’t very active the last few days. I hope everything’s okay.”
“I’m sure the baby’s fine.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m watching the speaker club videos the kids turned in yesterday.”
She groaned and pushed herself off the sofa. “I want to see.” She dragged a chair over to sit next to him.
Her husband pulled the earbuds from his ears and disconnected them from the laptop. He turned up the speakers to enable his wife to hear the speech he was watching.
“It’s not very exciting. Two club members are interviewing a third club member.”
“You spend a lot of time watching them. I want to be with you. If it means watching the videos, I’ll give it a shot.” She smiled at her husband.
Crosby looked at his wife and returned the smile.
They had met in the middle of winter at Brookfield Coffee seven years ago. They each sat alone at small tables positioned side-by-side. Their laptops open and they clicked with lightning speed on the keys. He remembered how thin and beautiful she was with her long brown hair. They’d crossed paths at the coffee house several more times before Crosby had the nerve to ask her on a date. She accepted and after a short courtship they married.
Back then, they had similar goals and drive. Both wanted to travel more and see exotic places. They weren’t sure they wanted children.
Soon after they married, Kim decided she wanted to have a baby. She’d had a few miscarriages. He tried to be supportive, but if he were honest, he was okay with not having children.
Her body didn’t reject this pregnancy. However, she had a rough first trimester—morning sickness that occurred day or night. Their social life came to a screeching halt. Travel became a fond memory.
Something changed inside him when she hit the third trimester of her pregnancy. He felt disconnected. At first, he was afraid he’d hurt her or the baby if they had sex, so they didn’t. She’d assured him many times he wouldn’t hurt either of them. But if truth be told, there was more to his abstention. He was turned off by her enlarged stomach area. And her once voluptuous breasts positioned above her thin waistline were now humongous and grotesque.
She placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed. “Okay, roll ‘em.” She giggled.
He pressed play and watched two boys resume their interview of the third boy.
“Who—”
Crosby stopped the video and looked at her.
“Who are the boys? Who am I looking at? I’d like to know more about what you do at school.”
He pointed at the screen. “Todd Palmer and Alonzo Ramirez are the interviewers, and Stu Collins is the interviewee.”
She nodded. “Got it.”
He clicked play.
They sat quietly watching the interview for maybe five minutes.
“I have—”
He stopped the video again.
“I’m sorry. I have to use the bathroom. The baby’s pressing hard on my bladder these days.”
She stood to walk away and then turned back to her husband. “You’re right, the video’s pretty boring. I’m going to watch some TV instead.” She turned back around and left the study.
Crosby felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He leaned back in his chair, put his feet up on the desktop and clicked play on another video. Grading videos could take all night at the rate he was going.
Chapter 15
Mac walked through the campus, gathering the contents from the new BAT Boxes (Blackstone Academy Tips) mounted throughout the school. Since he came up with the idea, he’d agreed to add monitoring the tips to his duties.
So far, he’d received a few tips, some complaints, plenty of tattling, and of course whatever else could fit through the narrow slot.
He’d already been given a few baseball cards, Teddy regularly deposited jokes written in his nine-year-old scrawl. Some of the younger girls drew Mac pictures with crayons.
He found it easy to tell which contents came from what areas of the campus, upper grades versus low grades. The upper-grade boxes were empty most of the time, except for a few times when he found an unused condom, some cigarette rolling papers, and a nickel.
Teddy’s jokes always made Mac smile.
One by one, he logged the items onto his spreadsheet.
The first folded paper read—the staff bathrooms never have toilet paper.
And the next—Nate took my samwitch. Nate Collins, Stu’s younger brother, an up and coming bully.
Other than the trinkets, the boxes mostly held complaints.
He and the new boss had gotten into a rhythm of speaking when it was unavoidable. A quick email to him about the bathroom toilet paper issue would suffice.
The intercom on Mac’s desk phone buzzed. “Mac, Dr. Zita would like to speak with you,” Marlene said.
“Be right there.”
Marlene looked up from her computer and nodded as Mac rounded the corner. “Go on in,” she said quite professionally.
Mac saw another person in the boss’s office.
A female police officer sat across from the boss. A good-looking female officer. Nothing masculine about her other than maybe the duty belt around her waist. She intrigued Mac.
The new boss’s office gave off a completely different vibe. Dr. Sawyer’s books gone, no table and chairs on the patio. The two floral print wingback chairs that faced her desk had been replaced by gender-neutral tan leather chairs.
Dr. Zita, a.k.a. Victor introduced Mac to Officer Tanner.
Afterward, Mac sat down. “What’s up?”
“We’ll have a new girl transferring here on Tuesday. I’ll let Officer Tanner explain.” Dr. Zita motioned with his hand.
“She’s been attending Brookfield High School, but her parents were tragically killed in a car accident on Tuesday.”
“I heard about the accident. Sad situation and a raw deal for the kid,” Mac said.
The officer nodded. “She’s staying with foster parents who live in Blackstone Estates, which means she’ll transfer here.”
“Is that some rule or something? Seems like it would be better for her to stay where she’s comfortable.” Mac didn’t like the idea of uprooting the poor girl from her support system she most likely had at the other school.
There were a few seconds of uncomfortable silence.
The winter sun shined into the office from the empty patio giving the false sense of warmth outside.
“It’s a rule, and can be appealed, but it’s what her foster parents think is best for her.” Dr. Zita stared at Mac as if daring him to disagree.
The interim boss sure is cocky. He doesn’t seem compassionate toward the girl at all.
“Why are you telling me this?” Mac asked.
Officer Tanner explained, “Police Chief Contee wanted me to stop by and ask you to keep an eye on her. He said he’d appreciate it
if you’d take this girl under your wing, so to speak.” She paused. “He thinks highly of you.”
“Does the new girl have a name?”
“RaeAnn Bowen. I notified her of her parent’s death. She’s a bit lost and seems to trust me. I’ve told her she can call me anytime.” She handed him her business card. “Please let me know if she’s having a hard time adjusting.”
“Will do. Anything else?” Ready to stand, he grasped the chair arms.
The officer shrugged. “That’s all from me.”
The new boss shook his head, implying he had nothing more to contribute. Mac left the office.
Marlene swiveled her chair around. “What’s happening?”
“I thought you knew everything,” he teased.
She swatted her hand at the closed door. “Dr. Zita doesn’t tell me anything.”
“A new girl starts on Tuesday.”
“Oh, yes, I did know about her. Poor girl. It’s so sad. Was that it?”
“Yup.”
“I’ve been thinking about who you saw at Brookfield Coffee.” She jabbed her thumb like a hitchhiker and pointed at the boss’s office.
Her eyes darted left then right before she whispered, “I’m just going to say it—I think they’re having an affair.”
“Are they both married?” He looked nervously at Dr. Zita’s door.
“She’s single. Dr. Zita’s married,” she said with an air of disgust. “You do know that’s one of the reasons Dr. Sawyer’s on a leave of absence, don’t you?”
He remembered quite clearly that Dr. Sawyer and Mayor Eastland steamed up the windows of his parked car outside the Blackstone Gala in the fall. He only told one person, Maggie. And she had no reason to repeat the gossip to anyone. He decided to play dumb. “What are you talking about?”
“She and the mayor had an affair, well....” She looked to her left and right again. “They might still be for all I know.”
“Hmm,” Mac muttered, “They’re adults. I think there’s more to her leave of absence than an affair. That’s her personal business and has no bearing on her ability to perform her duties.”
“Well, yes, you’re right, but the superintendent has a clause in her contract about being a good role model, and she always represents the academy, twenty-four seven.” Marlene paused and held up her index finger. She cocked her ear toward the hallway to listen.
