by Claire Adams
"That little bastard. What was buying? Grass? Blow? I'll kick his damn ass when he gets back here. The drinking and the fighting and the vandalism and the stealing I can live with, but if he's getting' hooked on something like drugs, I'll crack that boy's skull wide open if it means some sense will get into it."
"I take it he's not here then," asked Ben.
"He hasn't been home since last night."
"Well, do us a favor, Mr. Stevens, please call us as soon as he comes back, okay? Here's my number, and here's Everett's cell number, too."
He took the paper with the numbers on it from Ben and stuffed it into the pocket of his grubby vest.
"Is that all?" he asked gruffly.
"Yes, that's all for now," Ben replied. "Thanks for your help, Mr. Stevens."
He didn't say anything else to us; he simply turned around and closed the door in our faces.
"Wow. If that's what he's like, I don't even want to imagine what his kid is like," I remarked.
"Like I said, he should have been expelled long ago. Anyway, come on, we have to get over to the Brownell house."
"Are they as nice as Mr. Stevens here was?"
"They've got a lot more money, but they might even be worse people than this slob, believe it or not."
"Oh boy. This is gonna be fun."
"Yeah. Well, you'll see when we get there."
"So, this kid, Leon Brownell, is he as bad a kid as William Stevens?" I asked.
"He doesn't have nearly as long a rap sheet, no. He was actually a pretty decent student for most of his school career. Got really good grades all the way through elementary school, was on a number of sports teams. The when he got to junior high and hit puberty, he seemed to do a 180. Started flunking classes, dropped out of most sports – except football. He was kicked off the team when he was caught doping, though."
"Doping, huh? What was he using?"
"An array of steroids. The kid's only 16, but he looks like a 30-year-old. It's pretty scary. He and Stevens have both been using steroids for a number of years, it seems. Probably contributes to their aggressive behavior."
"There's a pretty decent chance it does. Good thing I'm not scared of some puffed up steroid-popping punk kid."
"Yeah, because they need someone who isn't scared of them to put them in their place. Too many teachers are simply intimidated. These guys are big, strong and overly aggressive."
After another 10 minutes of driving, we reached the Brownell house. As Ben had said, it was a lot more upmarket than the Stevens’ residence. Indeed, it was downright fancy; almost a mansion. A gleaming new top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benz sat in the driveway, and the house itself looked immaculate.
We parked at the bottom of the driveway and walked up to the large, expansive porch that wrapped around the huge house. I rang the doorbell, and within a few seconds, a woman came to the door. She appeared to be in her late 40s, but that was a guesstimate considering she also looked to have had more than her share of plastic surgeries to maintain her youthful look...including enhancement to certain areas of her anatomy.
"Yes? Can I help you?" she said coldly, looking at us as if we were a couple of dirty, homeless bums begging for change.
"Mrs. Brownell, perhaps you remember me," Ben suggested.
"I don't think someone like you and someone like me move in quite the same social circles," she said snootily. "So, I can't think where I'd possibly know you from."
Ben drew a slow breath, doing his best not to lose his temper, and I couldn't blame him.
"I'm the assistant principal at JFK High," he said.
"Oh."
Her attitude remained aloof and cold.
"We're here to talk about your son," I said, interjecting. "My name is Everett James, and I'm the new principal."
"A high school principal?" she sneered the question as she gave me the once over. "You look like you're young enough to get out of such a financially unrewarding field. I suggest you do so before it's too late. Otherwise, you’re going to end up like your friend here – nearing retirement age, wearing a cheap, ugly suit, and scraping pennies together at the end of every month, and swirling around the dregs of the swamp with the rest of the lower middle class. "
Wow. When Ben told me these people were worse than Mr. Stevens, I kind of thought he might be exaggerating a bit. Seems this was something I had to see to believe.
"Well, Mrs. Brownell, that's kind of beside the point," I said, doing my best to be calm and civil in the way I spoke. I could see Ben quietly seething with anger, so I decided it was best that I do the talking.
"So, what is the point, Mr. James? Why are you wasting my time? Evidently, you don't know the adage, 'time is money', do you?"
"We're 'wasting your time' because your son was involved in a shooting this morning."
"My Leon? Involved in a shooting? Is he hurt?" she exhibited the first sign of compassion I'd seen.
"He was involved, Mrs. Brownell; he wasn't the victim."
"You must be mistaken. My boy isn't some inner-city thug. He may have had his growing pains, but he would never stoop to that level. I'm quite sure that you have the wrong person."
"No, I'm quite sure we have the right person," Ben said through gritted teeth. "Your precious boy was positively identified by the victim of the shooting."
"Leon didn't shoot anyone," I added quickly, before Ben got too worked up. "He was, however, buying drugs from the shooter."
"I would prefer it if you referred to the substances my son uses as 'performance enhancers.' He takes his bodybuilding very seriously, and these substances are not illegal in many other—"
"We're not talking about steroids," Ben interrupted angrily. "Leon was buying Rocket. It's a street drug, simple as that. Kids use it to get high – not to grow their damn muscles unnaturally large."
"But Leon simply wouldn't do that," she insisted.
It was clear this was a waste of time. Short of showing this woman the video footage of her son actually buying the drugs, I didn't think there was any way we could convince her of her son's guilt. I decided to cut straight to the chase.
"Listen, Mrs. Brownell, whether you care to accept it or not, Leon was involved in the shooting that happened earlier today. We need to know if he's here, and if he's not, we need to know if you know of his current whereabouts."
"He isn't here. He left this morning with some of his friends, and we haven't heard from him since."
"Is there a cell phone number that we could use to get hold of him on? We just want to make sure he's okay and see if he can help up find the shooter." I decided to try appealing to her motherly instincts since, no matter how snobby she was, she was genuinely concerned for her son.
"Well, I can give you his personal number, I suppose you could try that."
She gave me her son's number, which I saved on my phone.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Mrs. Brownell," I said. "We appreciate that. Now, if Leon does show up later, please give me or Ben a call right away, alright?"
I gave her my number and Ben's.
"Fine," she said coldly, glaring at us.
"Have a good day, Mrs. Brownell," I said.
"Bye," she muttered as she closed the door in our faces.
"Wow," I remarked. "I don't know who would be worse to be stuck in a room with – that plastic piece of work or biker Stevens. Jeez, with parents like that, no wonder the kids turned out like they did."
"Yep. But none of this helps – we still haven't been able to talk to either of them."
"Let's try to call Leon with this number," I suggested.
I dialed the number, and it rang for a long time, but nobody picked up.
"He's probably spooked," Ben commented. "Doesn't want to answer calls from numbers he doesn't know because he'll think it's the cops or something.
"You're right. So, we need to call him from a number he does know."
"Well, bitchzilla there – excuse my French – sure as hell isn't going to help us
, so we can't call from her number or the house number."
"Does this kid have a girlfriend?"
"There's a good chance he has more than one. I've seen him in the hallways at school getting up close and personal with one girl who happens to be a nice enough girl. Maybe we should pay her a visit."
"Let's go," I agreed.
Ben logged into the school's information database from his phone and looked up the girl's address.
"Megan Price. Found her," Ben said as he read me her address.
We got there after a short drive and went up and knocked on the door. Megan herself answered. She was a pretty girl who looked a little too innocent to be associated with the crap we were dealing with. As soon as she saw us, she blushed deeply, and a look of worry immediately crossed her face.
"Mr. Henderson, Mr. James... you guys are here about Leon, aren't you?" she said, her voice shaky. It looked as if she was on the point of bursting into tears.
"Your boyfriend has done some bad things, Megan. Very bad things," I stated.
"I'm... he's not my boyfriend," she managed to stammer, only just holding back tears. "He just... we just hang out sometimes. I don't...I don't know about the bad stuff he does. I'm...I'm not part of it."
"Relax, Megan," I said, keeping my tone gentle and reassuring. "We never said that you were. But today, he was involved in something much more serious than his usual stunts. Today, Leon and his friend William were involved in a shooting."
Her face went pale, and her jaw dropped with shock.
"Are... are they okay?" she gasped.
"They are, but a 10th grader, Kendrick Green, he got shot, and he's not doing so well. He's in surgery now," I informed her.
"Oh no... Kendrick is in my English class! He's such a nice boy! Is he... he's not going to... will he?"
"He's not going to die. He'll be okay, eventually, but it's going to take a while to recover."
Tears were forming in her eyes now. "D-did Leon sh-shoot him?"
"No, he didn't – but he knows who did. He and William know the guy, and they've both run off somewhere. Now we need your help. Do you think you can help us? All we want to do is find out from William and Leon who the shooter is. That's all. We're not going to do anything bad to them. Do you think you can help us with that?"
She nodded, biting her lower lip as she fought back the tears. "But, h-how can I help?" she asked.
"All I need for you to do is call Leon and ask him if he wants to come over here to hang out. If he does, great, we'll talk to him here. I suspect that he won't, though. So, just casually find out where he is, but don't ask too many questions about it, alright? We don't want to put any pressure on things between the two of you by letting him know you helped us, because he and William, they, uh, they might not be too happy about answering our questions."
"Alright... alright, I'll call him now."
"Thank you so much, Megan. You're doing a good thing here," I assured her.
She got out her phone and dialed Leon. Ben and I waited with bated breath, and then we both grinned as he answered, and he and Megan started talking. But before I could listen in on their conversation, my phone rang. It was Vivienne, so I walked out of earshot and answered.
"Hi, Vivienne," I said as I answered. "Is everything alright?"
"The hospital just called," she said. "It's about Jane. She's finally awake. She's asking for you."
Chapter Nineteen
Vivienne
"Alright... Um, damn, how am I gonna do this?" Everett asked. "I have to see Jane, obviously. She's my little angel, and I've been worried sick about her the whole time she's been in the hospital. We were just about to get info on where the two kids are hiding out – the ones we need to question about the identity of the shooter."
"Well, the hospital said that Jane wants to see you now," I replied.
" Alright. I'm going to take two minutes and see what info we can get right now, and then I'll call you back," he said.
"Sure thing."
I cut off the call and waited for Everett to call me back. After around a minute, the phone rang.
"The kids have skipped town. They're apparently hiding out in LA."
"So, what are you going to do?" I asked.
"Well, right now I'm going to go over and see Jane…"
"Can I come with you?"
"Of course. I'll pick you up on the way."
"Alright, see you soon."
I hung up the call and turned to Jimmy.
"Everett is on his way over," I said. "Do you want to stick around and say hi to him? He and I are going to the hospital right away, so there won't be much time to relax and talk."
"I need to have a few beers with him and have a good chat," replied Jimmy. "But I guess that will have to be another time. Still, I'll wait here until he gets back, and then I'll say a quick hi and bye, and after that, I'll head on home."
"Alright."
We carried on chatting until we heard Everett's truck pulling into the driveway.
"You stay inside," Jimmy instructed. "Remember, we don't know if Simon is watching the street. You'll have to be pretty secretive about things until he's caught."
"I know," I replied with a sigh. "It makes things difficult, though."
"Yeah, it does," he replied with a sympathetic look on his face. "But there really isn't anything we can do about that right now. Anyways, it was nice to meet you, and I'm sure I'll see you again soon."
"Likewise. Thanks for everything, Jimmy; I owe you one."
"Forget about it!" he said with a cheerful laugh.
He headed out, and I heard him and Everett talking in the driveway, and after a minute or two I heard Jimmy's car leaving. After that, Everett walked in. We stared at each other for a moment, and then I ran up to him and threw my arms around him. He wrapped his strong arms tightly around me, and I instantly felt safer.
"I'm so sorry about this thing with Simon," he said. "You must be feeling pretty on edge right now."
"I was ... until you came back. Now I feel safe and protected."
He smiled, and we kissed briefly.
"I'm glad you feel that way. And I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you safe from that maniac. I'm not going to let him get within a mile of you; I promise you that."
"Thank you, Everett."
"What do the police know about him? How much have you told them?" he asked me.
"I told them everything."
"All of it? About the name change and having to move across the state, all of that?"
"All of it. They seemed very sympathetic, and they assured me they'd pick him up and bring him in if he was seen anywhere, as he is now the primary suspect for the break-in at my daycare."
"Alright, good. But even though they're out looking for him, it doesn't mean you're safe. We have to take every possible precaution to ensure your safety at all times. We can't get complacent about anything."
"Believe me; I know that, Everett. This guy is very, very smart, sadly, and he'll be looking for any way he can to get to me."
"Well, I'm fairly intelligent as well, and with you and Jimmy on this as well, we'll outsmart this jerk, I guarantee it."
"I hope so," I sighed. "I really do."
"We will," he said, giving me a quick and reassuring squeeze. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yeah."
"Jimmy and I talked, and we think it's best that you—"
"Sneak in and out of the house, I know, I know," I said, completing the sentence.
"Okay, good. My truck is just in front of the garage. If you go around the back of the garage, you can get to the passenger's side without being seen from the street."
"Ugh, it's just so inconvenient and annoying," I said, rolling my eyes. “I can’t believe this asshole is still controlling my life like this.”
"I know. But we have to be cautious. I'll go start up the truck. When you hear the motor running, you can come out and go around the back of the garage. Remember to lock the door, okay?"<
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"Okay."
I waited for him to start the truck, and then I did as he instructed. As I got in, he turned and spoke to me.
"Okay, now you need to keep your head down until we're at least a few blocks away. If Simon is hiding out somewhere around here or has set up a few cameras, we don't want him seeing that there's anyone else in the truck. Soon he's gonna figure out that you're no longer staying at your house, and he's gonna start digging. But until then, we have to be secretive."
"Yes, I know," I said, shaking my head. Still, I did as he said and ducked down so that I couldn't be seen from outside the truck.
After we had driven a few blocks, I finally got up and sat normally, feeling relieved. I couldn't believe this was happening. How the hell had Simon found me after everything I'd done to keep my location and identity secret? I had thought that changing my name, moving and cutting off all ties from my old life would have been enough to stop him – but that didn’t seem to be the case. I honestly had no idea how we would go about stopping him, short of putting him in jail. But even if the cops did catch him, I wasn't sure how it could be proven that he had been the one who had broken into my daycare. The cops had combed the scene, and there were no fingerprints or other evidence that could link him to the crime. I was starting to feel hopeless about this; it was like living with a type of cancer that couldn't be treated. No matter what I did, I just couldn't live a normal life. It seemed like I would forever be doomed to an existence of hiding and running.
The thought was almost too crushing and depressing to handle. I struggled not to have a mental breakdown right there next to Everett in his truck – but somehow I managed to hold myself together.
We reached the hospital, and after Everett had parked the truck, we headed inside and went straight to Jane's room. She was in bed and didn't look so good, but at least she was awake. When she saw us, a huge smile spread across her cute little face.
"Daddy! Vivienne!" she cried.
Tears welled in his eyes as he looked at his little girl, and a surge of emotion crashed through me. I fought back the urge to tear up myself. He rushed over to her and picked her up carefully, cradling her in his arms.