Schooled in Death by Kate Flora

Author:Kate Flora [Flora, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-947833-98-2
Publisher: ePublishing Works!

Sixteen

I’d interviewed many students at other schools as part of my efforts to be sure schools were taking proper care of their student population, but this felt different. There was something oddly uncomfortable about sitting in Gareth’s office and having a succession of students come in, tell what they knew, and depart. Like we were a review board or something. Or cops, like Miller and Flynn. My increasingly cop-like nature made it hard to back away, yet this task felt removed from my job of protecting Simmons. Sitting and asking questions, though I knew it was important, seemed like we were delaying the moment when we’d have to get back out there and resume the search for Heidi. I knew campus and local police were searching even as we sat here. But hours had passed since she disappeared and so far, we had no good clues about where to look for her.

Hours had also passed since Gareth had spoken with Heidi’s mother, yet there was no sign of Mrs. Norris. He’d called again, after our interview with Bella, and gone straight to voice mail. Worst case scenario, which I knew we were both imagining, was that she’d blown off their conversation and gotten on that plane to California. If what we’d learned from Jaden and Bella was true, she had good reasons to duck hard questions, especially questions from Miller and Flynn. Like many a mother before her, it sounded like she’d failed to protect a young daughter from predators in her own home. Predators she’d been complicit in bringing there herself.

If what we were hearing was the truth. It was frustrating to have such an information void on Heidi’s side. We couldn’t know whether she was telling the truth about being unaware of her pregnancy and about her stepfather and other men in the house, but it didn’t sound like something she would have made up, especially if she valued the Simmons culture as her friends said she did. The uncomfortable tale of her stepfather’s practice of deliberately walking in on her didn’t seem like something she’d tell to a boy, even one who was a friend, except in deepest confidence. And if she’d shared something so intimate, wouldn’t she also have shared her pregnancy, if she knew?

I wondered what Miller and Flynn were thinking, and where they’d want to go from here?

At the risk of sounding like the detective I wasn’t, I used the interval to suggest to Miller that they might find some items with The General’s DNA at the inn if everything hadn’t already been cleared away. He didn’t argue or even look at me funny, just nodded and left the room briefly to make a call.

There was another discreet tap on the door and Gareth’s assistant, Peggy, ushered in our third witness. If Bella had entered like a timid mouse, Ronnie Entwhistle came in like a German shepherd trained for crowd control. While his name suggested something from Hogwarts, he was more Refrigerator Perry. Angry, frustrated, concerned, and impatient.

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