Lady Chevy by John Woods

Author:John Woods [Woods, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2020-06-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Paul should be in study hall, but he isn’t. Panic gnashes my ribs.

The halls become tunnels. Familiar faces pivot behind small windows, watch me pass from chambered classrooms.

Outside, the wind wraps me close. I run down the path just in time to see his truck speed from the parking lot. His taillights sink over the hill. I reach for a phone I don’t have.

I could chase after him, run to him. But how would that appear?

I should be in chemistry, but I have to see Sadie. I have to know.

Rachel Corbin sits outside the front office, a mousy girl who always has her head in a book. Sadie says she’d be pretty if she made the effort, did something with her stringy hair, took advantage of her top heaviness and lost the glasses.

I join her on the bench. She reads a book and thumbs the plastic cover, wipes at her nose.

“Don’t sit too close,” she whimpers. “I’m sick. My dad’s picking me up soon.”

I have a perfect view of Cooper’s shut door. “What’re you reading?”

She presents the cover, a white church with a steeple, a tidewater bay. “Ring Around the Rosary. It’s a murder mystery on an island in Virginia, back in colonial times during a typhus outbreak. A village minister’s killed. Abigail Washington tries to solve the crime.”

“You like that kind of stuff, huh?”

“Oh, yeah. I love it.” She coughs phlegm and swallows. “Gross. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Just spit it out. Your body’s trying to get rid of it.”

She fans the pages. “The best part’s the surprise. Just got to know what happens next, you know, trying to figure out which one of his parishioners did it.”

“A real whodunit.”

“Yeah.”

I try not to reveal her for the distraction she is. “So. All these people are dying, and this Abigail’s upset about the minister?”

“Yes. He was her friend, baptized her. His name’s Father Malone, and he taught her how to read. And, you know, there’s a murderer loose in the colony.”

“Everyone’s dying.”

“Yeah, a lot from the disease, not murder.”

“Right.”

“I just like the story. It’s a good story.”

An engine roars outside. Tires screech fast. A familiar SUV pulls up on the curb. Sadie’s mom bursts out. She races forward on high heels, a long, spindly gait with pumping arms. Empowered in her gray suit and white blouse, her business-lady coif doesn’t move in the wind, a shiny helmet of hard hair spray. She comes in so fast she doesn’t even see me, just charges into the front office and goes straight for Mr. Cooper’s door, throws it open and yells, “Sadie, not another fucking word!”

“Whoa,” Rachel says.

Mrs. Schafer pulls Sadie out by the wrist. The officers talk at her, but she moves too fast.

“Sadie!” I rush forward. “You okay?”

She is red-eyed and afraid. She mouths something to me. It looks like I’m sorry.

Her mom yanks her outside. “No, Sadie! Let’s go!”

Soon Sadie’s in the passenger seat, looking after me as they speed away.

“Amy?” Rachel says. “Are you alright?”

Cooper cleans his glasses with a tissue.

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