Save Me

by Lisa Scottoline

  “How can I help you?” The voice went stone cold, and Rose’s heart sank.

  “I just wanted to let you know that Melly won’t be in today. I want to take her away—”

  “That’s fine. Thanks.”

  “I was hoping it could be counted as excused. Mr. Rodriguez said that if—”

  “Not a problem.”

  “I’m not sure how long I’ll be, maybe until the end of the week.”

  “Fine. If there’s nothing else, I have to go.” The line went dead, and Rose hung up. The secretaries and the rest of the office had heard she was suing. Her family had gone from outsiders to pariahs. Suddenly the house phone rang, and Rose checked Caller ID. Kristen Canton, it read, and she picked up.

  “Kristen, how are you?” Rose asked, grateful that she’d called. “Melly’s been asking about you.”

  “Sorry to call so early, but I didn’t want to let another day go by without talking to her. I thought I could reach her before she left for school.”

  “That’s okay, she’s not going today.” Rose’s affection for the teacher returned at the sound of her voice. “We’re taking a few days at the lake until things simmer down. How are you doing? Better, I hope.”

  “Finding my footing. Thanks.” Kristen paused. “Sorry I was rude the night I left. I was upset.”

  “Me, too. I’m sorry I was so tough on you, and that I’ve been calling your house so much. Were your parents annoyed?”

  “No, they’re fine with it.”

  “Are they upset that you quit?”

  “No, they get that, too, considering. They’re really supportive. I’m gonna take some time for myself, just kick back and let my mom pamper me.”

  “I’m sure she loves that.” Rose smiled. “Let me get Melly. I hear her padding around upstairs. Can you hold on a sec?”

  “Sure.”

  “Great.” Rose went to the base of the stairwell. “Melly, it’s Ms. Canton on the phone, for you!”

  “Yay!” Melly’s bare feet pounded on the floor in the upstairs hallway, then she hurried down the stairwell in Leo’s T-shirt, sliding her hand down the banister. Princess Google scampered behind her, feathery tail wagging.

  “Exciting, huh?”

  “Yes!”

  Rose went back to the wall phone and hit the SPEAKER button, like they did when Leo called. “I’ll put you on speaker, Kristen, and let you two yap away.”

  “Great. Melly?”

  “Ms. Canton!” Melly climbed into her chair, while Rose crossed to the back door, opened it, and let the dog out into the backyard. Then she went to the cabinet, took the box of cereal off the shelf, grabbed a bowl and spoon, and set it all down in front of Melly. She wanted to get an early start on the drive to the lake, which took three hours.

  “How are you, Melly?” Kristen asked, her voice sounding warm, despite the mechanical timbre of the speakerphone.

  “Good! Is your mom still sick?”

  Rose cringed, having forgotten that they’d lied to Melly about why Kristen had left.

  Kristen answered, “She’s doing better, thanks for asking.”

  “So are you coming back to school now?”

  “No, I have to stay at home. I don’t think I’ll be back again, Melly. I’m sorry, but I can’t help it.” Kristen’s voice went heavy with regret, and Melly looked disappointed, her lower lip buckling.

  “It’s okay,” she said anyway.

  “You know, Melly, I don’t have to be your teacher for us to stay in touch. We can email, and I’ll call you, and you can call me, too. I’ll give my cell phone number and my new email address to your mom before we hang up, okay?”

  “Okay. But I don’t have email.”

  “You can use your mom’s.”

  Rose didn’t interrupt to say that she didn’t have email, either. She went to the refrigerator, picked out the milk, and set it on the table.

  “Melly, tell me how you are. How’s school?”

  “Good.”

  “Everything going okay?”

  “Yep.”

  Rose noted that Melly didn’t mention the fight with Josh.

  Kristen said, “I hear you’re going up to the lake. It sounds like fun.”

  “My grandparents live there, not my real ones, you know, and there’s raccoons and foxes. I got The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I love it!”

  “I knew you would. What’s your favorite story?”

  Rose hadn’t realized the recommendation had come from Kristen.

  Melly answered, “I like ‘The Babbitty Rabbitty and Her Cackling Stump.’”

  “That’s a good one. My favorite is ‘The Warlock’s Hairy Heart.’”

  “I love that, too!” Melly said, quick to agree. “I like the part where…”

  Rose zoned out on the Harry Potter details and emptied the dishwasher, cleaned up John’s tray, wiped his face and fingers, let the dog in and fed her, turned off the coffeemaker, and nudged Melly to start and finish her cereal during a conversation about wizards, healers, magical fountains, giants, witches, sorcerers, kings, and charlatans, all of which left Rose to conclude that the most magical beings in the universe were teachers.

  Kristen was saying, “Melly, I’d better go, and I know you’ve gotta get to the lake. Rose, are you there? I’ll give you my cell and email.”

  “Right here.” Rose picked up her phone, but the battery icon had turned red and it needed charging. “Hold on,” she said, moving John to her other hip and finding a scrap of paper and a pen. “Go ahead.”

  Kristen rattled off her number and email, then said, “Well, good-bye, both of you. I’ll talk to you again, and you guys stay in touch.”

  “We will,” Rose said, buoyed. “Thanks again. Stay well.”

  Kristen added, “Melly, have fun at the lake.”

  “I will, I’m taking my Hermione wand!”

  “Good. See you!”

  Rose hung up the phone, then crossed to Melly and gave her a hug. “You know what I was thinking? Maybe for our next family vacation, we can go to the Harry Potter theme park in Florida. Would you like that?”

  Melly’s eyes lit up. “Is that a real thing? One of my friends in Club Penguin said they have that, but I didn’t think it was real.”

  “Sure it is.” Rose gave her an extra squeeze.

  “Yay! We can show Johnnie.” Melly boosted herself up in her chair and grinned at John, who leaned over and reached for her.

  “Then let’s go to the lake!” Rose felt her spirits lift, but three hours later, everybody’s good mood had evaporated.

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Rose was in the driver’s seat with Melly in the backseat, unhappy. John was gurgling in his car seat, transfixed by his amazing plastic keys, and Princess Google was curled up next to him. They were an hour from the lake house, stuck on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in rush-hour traffic when Melly announced that she wanted to call Kristen back. But Rose had left her cell number on the scrap of paper at home.

  “Why didn’t you bring it with you?” Melly asked, frowning.

  “I forgot, and it’s not in my phone because she called us on the house phone. Why do you want to call her back anyway?”

  “I want to tell her about the Kristenburgers and a drawing I made for her.”

  “We can tell her later, or email her.”

  “Do you have her email?” Melly asked, with hope.

  “No. It’s on the paper at home, too.” Rose couldn’t remember the email, which was an incomprehensible combination of letters and numbers, more password than email address. “We can write her when we get back.”

  “Can’t we turn around?”

  “No, honey. It’s too far.” Rose gestured at the traffic, red lights in a line like an airport runway, heat broiling from their hoods in wiggly waves. The clouds had cleared for another unseasonably hot day.

  “I really want to talk to her, Mom. She loves Kristenburgers. I told her I would make them.”

  “We can tell her another time.
”

  “And the picture I made for her, it was of Albus Dumbledore, and she loves him. I never got to give it to her.”

  “We can send it to her when we go home.”

  Melly looked out the window, quieting.

  Rose felt a pang. She knew it wasn’t really about the drawing or the Kristenburgers. Melly was having a hard time saying good-bye to Kristen. “You okay, sweetie?”

  “Fine.”

  “Wait, I have an idea.” Rose reached into her purse and extracted her cell phone. “I don’t need her cell phone. I have her parents’ number and I can call her at the house.”

  “Good!” Melly looked over, smiling. “But not while we’re driving.”

  “We’re stopped now.” Rose double-checked. They were not only stopped, they were practically parked. She thumbed to her phone log, got the Cantons’ home number, pressed CALL, and let it ring. The call was picked up almost immediately by an older woman, probably Kristen’s mother. Rose said, “Hello, Mrs. Canton?”

  “No, I’m sorry, who’s this?”

  “Rose McKenna, the mother of one of Kristen’s students. We spoke with her this morning, and I wanted to tell her one more thing. Is she in?”

  “Oh, you must be the woman leaving those messages.”

  “Yes, sorry, that’s me. Thanks for giving them to her.”

  “I didn’t. Is she the daughter?”

  Rose didn’t understand. She felt like they were having a conversation of non sequiturs. “Do you know where Kristen is?”

  “No, I never met her or the Cantons. I’m the housesitter. I was sent by the agency. They do the interviewing.”

  “Is this her parents’ home, the Canton residence?” Rose asked, confused. The address she’d written down the other day at school popped into her mind. “Roberts Lane, Boonsboro, Maryland?”

  “Yes, this is the Canton residence, but the professor and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Canton, are on sabbatical in Japan. I don’t know the family.”

  “But isn’t Kristen living there?”

  “No. Nobody lives here this year, but me and two cats.”

  Rose felt mystified. Kristen had said she was home with her parents. “Do you have any address or number for Kristen?”

  “No. You’re the second person who called for her today, though. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of something.”

  “Sure, thank you.” Rose pressed END, and Melly looked over, frowning.

  “What’s the matter? Did she go out?”

  Rose didn’t understand, and she didn’t want to tell Melly that Kristen had lied. “The woman said she wasn’t there.”

  “Maybe she went to her other house.”

  “What other house?”

  “Her house in Lava Land.”

  “What’s Lava Land?” Rose looked over, confounded. “Is Lava Land a real place? Is this a Harry Potter thing?”

  “No, Mom.” Melly giggled. “It’s real, it’s near a beach.”

  “Ms. Canton has a house at the beach? Where?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Rose gave up. It didn’t matter where. “How do you know about her beach house?”

  “She told me. She loves the beach. We talk about it. I like the lake, and she likes the beach. She says I’m a lake person, and she’s a beach person.”

  The traffic loosened, and Rose fed the car some gas, then braked, checking John in the rearview mirror. His pacifier had dropped out, and he was gnawing on his keys, but he looked happy.

  “Ms. Canton said we could come visit her in Lava Land, in the summer.”

  “Really.” Rose kept her foot on the brake. The traffic had stopped again. There must be an accident somewhere; lately, there was always an accident somewhere. Something had gone wrong with the world, and now Kristen was behaving strangely.

  “So how can we talk to her?” Melly asked.

  “I don’t know if we can. Let me think a sec.” Rose tried to process what was going on. She hadn’t realized how close Melly had gotten to Kristen. “You miss Ms. Canton, don’t you?”

  Melly turned her head away, to the window. “I’m fine.”

  “It’s okay to miss people.”

  “You told me that, about Daddy.”

  “Right.” Rose flinched. Melly could be so direct, sometimes it came out of left field. “Someone doesn’t have to die for you to miss them. It’s a loss for you, just the same. You don’t get to see that person, or hear their voice.” She was thinking of her father, whom she barely remembered, except for his voice. Low, deep, and gentle. “When you lose someone, it’s a sad thing, and it helps to talk about it.”

  Melly remained silent, and Rose drove forward.

  “Mel, what do you like about Ms. Canton? What will you miss?”

  “Everything. We like to talk in class, and at lunch.”

  “Lunch?”

  “Yes, like when she saw me in the handicapped bathroom. She would tell me to come eat and talk, with her.”

  “Over Kristenburgers, like on Fridays?”

  “Yes.” Melly nodded, still facing away. “She doesn’t have anyone to eat with then, and she’s left out.”

  Rose seized the proverbial teaching moment. “You don’t have to be a kid to be left out, huh?”

  “No.” Melly looked over, breaking into a rueful smile.

  “You don’t have to talk funny or have special needs or wear glasses. Anybody can get left out for any reason, anytime. Or even for no reason.”

  “Or a dumb reason. Like Ryan. Josh won’t play with him and calls him Rye Bread because of his name. How dumb is that?”

  “Dumb. Ryan can’t help his name, and he can’t change it.”

  “I know, right?” Melly rolled her eyes. “He teases you if you have diabetes, like Sarah. She has to wear a pump, she showed us. And he teases Max because he can’t eat peanut butter. He has an EpiPen all the time.”

  “See what I mean? That’s just dumb. We can’t control what people do or say, even if it’s dumb.” Rose hit the gas as the traffic started to move. They’d had some of their best talks in cars, and she knew other moms felt the same way. All across the country, kids were captive when that door locked, and cars became family therapy on wheels.

  “That’s what Ms. Canton says. I made a picture for her. Wanna see? It’s in my backpack.”

  “Sure.”

  “Wait.” Melly got her backpack from the foot well, extracted her binder, and slid out a drawing on a piece of yellow construction paper. “Look. It’s me, Albus Dumbledore, and Ms. Canton.”

  “Wow,” Rose said, looking over. Melly had crayoned two smiling girls, one big and one little, and they were holding hands with a figure in a peaked hat. “That’s a great drawing.”

  “Thanks. I made it for Ms. Canton, but I didn’t get to give it to her. The fire happened, and I didn’t see her.”

  “Oh, right, you see her in the afternoons, so you didn’t see her that day.”

  “Also she was sick. Mrs. Nuru said she wasn’t going to be in, and we’d have a substitute.”

  “Oh.” Rose had known that Kristen was sick the day of the fire, but she hadn’t focused on it before. Now she put two and two together. Marylou Battle, the substitute teacher who was killed, must have been called in to substitute for Kristen.

  “I’m worried I made Albus’s beard too long. It isn’t that long in the books.”

  Rose’s mind went elsewhere. “Melly, let me ask you something. When you and Ms. Canton eat the Kristenburgers, is it in the teachers’ lounge?”

  “Yes.”

  “It’s just you and she, because it’s on Friday and she’s on a different schedule from the other teachers?”

  “Yes.”

  Rose thought a minute. The substitute teacher had been killed in the teachers’ lounge, and the cans of polyurethane had been there, too. If Kristen had been at school that day, she would have been killed in the lounge. And if Melly had been with her, they both would have been killed. Rose’s fingers tigh
tened around the steering wheel.

  “Do you think his beard is right, Mom?”

  “Perfect,” Rose answered, but she felt unsettled, uneasy. Kristen had lied about where she was and had left Reesburgh in a hurry, claiming she was upset about the fire and the reporters. But maybe that wasn’t the real reason.

  “She’ll love this picture.” Melly placed the drawing back in her binder and slid it into her backpack. “We can mail it to her.”

  “Sure we can,” Rose said, preoccupied. The scenario was fishy, and a series of strange what-ifs popped into her mind. What if Kristen had known the explosion was going to happen? What if she’d made sure she wasn’t in school that day? What if she’d been involved somehow, and she’d quit and run away, to avoid being caught?

  “Are we almost there?”

  “Almost.” Rose returned to her thoughts, confused. It made no sense. A devoted teacher wouldn’t blow up a school full of children. But then again, Kristen would have known that the kids would be outside the building, at recess, at the time.

  “How long will it be?”

  “About an hour.” Rose would have thought it was crazy, except for the fact that Kristen had lied. Why would Kristen lie about where she was? And if she’d lied about that, what else had she lied about?

  Rose had an odd sensation that something was wrong. She couldn’t stop the questions from coming, and she couldn’t deny that there was one person who would know the answers.

  Kristen.

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Rose pulled into the driveway next to their cabin, a charming, three-bedroom Cape Cod with cedar shakes, which was nestled next to the Vaughns’ in the middle of an autumnal woods. Leo had bought the place as a getaway, and when they’d married, he’d called it his dowry. The memory made Rose smile, but she put it out of her mind. She didn’t want to think about Leo now.

  She cut the engine, parked the car, and waved to Gabriella, who was in front of her house, kneeling as she worked in a garden overflowing with pink asters, poppy-red anemones, and tall black-eyed Susans, their black centers like so many punctuation points. It made a gorgeous sight, but Rose was still preoccupied, her mind on Kristen.

  “Hey, Mrs. V!” Melly hollered through the open window, and Gabriella stood up, leaning on a bulb planter with a long handle.