Dark Mural by Rick Homan

Author:Rick Homan [Homan, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-23T22:00:00+00:00

Traffic streamed into Ada in advance of that afternoon’s game, but it wasn’t bad leaving town and getting on the freeway going south. We passed exit signs for roads and towns we had passed going the opposite direction about an hour ago. It felt like we were going in circles.

Meanwhile, inside me, my guts were twisting. I broke the silence. “That was not fun.”

“Which part?”

“Playing a trick on a student.”

“Well, Devon’s not having much fun either.”

“That’s not her fault.”

Abbie hummed for a few seconds as she thought about that. “It’s a little bit her fault.”

“How so?”

“She could speak up and clear him, but she won’t.”

“Yes, she could. So, why doesn’t she?”

Abbie tapped her fingers on the steering wheel while she thought about it. “You said she seemed afraid, right?”

“Definitely. Deer in the headlights. She said, ‘No. I can’t talk about that,’ and it wasn’t ‘can’t’ as in, ‘I don’t feel up to it.’ It was more like, ‘I’m not allowed to.’”

“So who won’t allow her to talk?”

“In her situation, most likely a parent.”

Abbie checked her mirrors, changed lanes, and passed a pickup truck loaded with furniture. When we were again cruising in the right lane, she asked, “Why would her mom or dad want her to keep quiet about a mildly embarrassing incident that happened a few years ago in high school?”

“I can’t imagine. It’s not as if she got pregnant or arrested for drugs, at least so far as we know.”

Abbie’s finger tapping reached a climax, and she hit the steering wheel with the heel of her hand. “Maybe it’s not about her.”

“What do you mean?”

“Does your phone get a signal here?”

I fished it out of my purse and checked. “It does.”

“You said she’s from Mansfield?”

“Yes.”

“See if you can find a website for the city of Mansfield.”

I typed the name of the town into my phone’s browser and searched. The town’s website was the first hit. “Got it.”

“Does it list the mayor and city council members—people like that?”

“There’s a city directory.”

“Do you see anyone named Zannetti?”

I did a quick scan. “Not on this page. Let me try a search.” I typed “Zannetti” into the search box and hit enter. “Nope. That name is not on the city’s website. What’s your idea?”

“If her dad is in politics, he might be protecting his reputation, not Teresa’s. The same would be true for her mom.”

“I see what you mean. Let me check something else. Mansfield is the County Seat for Richland County.” I went to the county’s website, searched for “Zannetti,” and saw a portrait of a middle-aged man in a conservative suit. “Here he is, Judge Thomas P. Zannetti. Court of Common Pleas.”

“Could be her father, but he could also be an uncle. See if you can find some local news stories with both her name and his.”

I searched, scanned the list of headlines that turned up, and read one of the stories. “Yep. She won an essay contest in high school. The end of the story says she is the daughter of Maureen and Thomas Zannetti.

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