Up Close by Danielle Girard

Author:Danielle Girard [Girard, Danielle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

Iver

Iver had never seen Ken Edmonds so angry. His upper body was hinged forward, his eyes narrowed and his jaw a hard line, he looked prepared for a physical fight. Iver leapt to grab hold of him, to keep him from hurting anyone, from ending up in jail. But Edmonds moved fast, darting past Iver’s grip. He rushed the detective who had come to meet him in the doorway and backed her against the open door by planting a palm on either side of her. His arms caged her in, and Iver felt a jolt of fear at what Edmonds might do.

“What are you doing to my kids?” he demanded.

Milliard glanced over the principal to catch the eye of Deputy Gilbert, already on his way toward them. “Please take a step back,” the detective said, her voice firm but clear. If she found Edmonds intimidating, she was doing a damn good job of hiding it.

Iver’s own heart was a wild beast stampeding on his ribs. “Come on, Ken.”

Senior Deputy Carl Gilbert stood beside Edmonds but didn’t touch him. A look passed between the detective and the deputy, some understanding. Gilbert stood without interceding. Iver edged to stand at Edmonds’s shoulder, ready to grab hold of him. When he found out what the detective was doing, he should have responded more firmly. He, too, was frustrated by the way she had orchestrated this intrusion into the sanctity of the school. The kids were supposed to be safe here from the outside, but Milliard and Gilbert were the police. It wasn’t like Edmonds could stop it.

Edmonds leaned in, only inches from her face. “I demand to know what you’re doing here!” Edmonds shouted.

“Ken,” Iver said again, trying to get Edmonds to step back from his anger, to see what he was doing. Where he was and who was watching. Even the students who’d been ready to leave the locker room, who’d given their samples, stood frozen and focused on their principal, their shoulders tense, eyes wide with alarm. He was scaring them. Surely, Edmonds’s furious outburst, his physical threat of the detective was as damaging as the legal-age students being asked to provide DNA.

The standoff between the detective and the principal held the room in a sort of stunned silence.

Kylie raised an eyebrow at the principal, almost as though she wanted Edmonds to explode. Why, he didn’t know. To let out some secret she thought he was keeping? To show the kids who was in charge? But Iver couldn’t let the principal lose his job. Without Edmonds, this job would never become permanent, and he needed that.

Iver got a hold of Edmonds’s arm. “Hey, let’s back up, Ken. It’s okay. No one was forced to give their DNA. The detective explained it and they volunteered.”

“Listen to Mr. Larson and back up,” the detective told him and, when Edmonds didn’t, Gilbert took him by the shoulders and yanked him back a foot. “Watch it,” the deputy warned.

Without looking away from the detective,

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