by Vicki Hinze
“Before he can delete anything?” She swiveled to her keyboard. “I’m on it.”
Why would he delete anything? Dana hadn’t even considered… He had better not dare to delete anything. But if he tried... “Create a mirror of his hard-drive and note the time.” That would be faster and give them an exact image before he could get back to his classroom and log in.
“Covered. Already there and in progress.” She frowned. “What am I looking for?”
“Start in any personal files,” Dana said, shifting her thinking. When she’d told him to get the laptop, Travis had reacted strongly. His face had bleached. There was something on it he didn’t want her to see. No sense in speculating on what it was; she would know soon enough. Inside, she cringed at what that might be, but she would do what must be done. Protecting the kids. They always came first. Protecting her staff. Also extremely important.
“All right.”
“Thanks.” Dana didn’t have time to mince words or to reassure her. Having an efficient assistant was reason enough to be grateful. But having one who trusted you enough to do what you asked without a ton of questions was a divine gift.
Dana entered her office and closed the door. “So, Kristina, what can I do for you?”
She rocked on the edge of her seat. “I remembered something.”
No eye contact. It wasn’t a comfortable memory, that much was clear. “Okay.” Dana slid onto her chair behind her desk.
Kristina stood up. “I shouldn’t sit. Mrs. Windermere is waiting for me. We’re going shoe shopping.”
“Sounds like fun.” She’d get there. Hopefully sooner rather than later. “So what did you remember?”
“That night… The one when Sylvia Cole was murdered.” Kristina paused and waited for Dana’s acknowledgment, then went on. “Vinn and I met down the street from her house. I already told the police that, but I remembered I hadn’t told you. We didn’t do anything wrong. Vinn and me, I mean. We just talked. But he was there with me, Dr. Perkins.”
The time of death was narrowed to three hours, from nine to midnight. “How long was he there with you?”
“That’s not important.”
“It could be, if you are saying he couldn’t have killed Sylvia because you were together.”
“I know he didn’t kill Sylvia. Because of what I remembered.”
Dana honed her focus. “What did you remember?”
“I was walking to meet Vinn, and this man ran out of Sylvia’s backyard and down the street past me. He didn’t see me or anything. I was under the trees and it’s really dark out there at night.”
“A man.”
She nodded enthusiastically. “He wasn’t Vinn. He was…someone else. I don’t know who, but he wasn’t Vinn and he was running really, really fast.”
“And the police know this?”
Again, she nodded.
“And you’re sure—absolutely sure—he wasn’t Vinn?”
“Positive.” She shoved her backpack up on her shoulder by its sling strap. “Seeing that man running like that scared me, so I hurried up to the end of the street. Vinn was there waiting for me. He couldn’t have gotten there, Dr. Perkins. Not when the guy had been running the other way. He wasn’t Vinn.”
“So you think this man could be the man who killed Sylvia.”
“He was running out of her backyard really, really fast. Cutting through parked cars and everything.”
Dana worried her jaw. “So why is Vinn claiming it was him?”
“I don’t know,” Kristina said in a flat tone rife with irritation. “He was seriously angry back then. I mean seriously angry.”
“About what?”
“He never would say. I promise.” Kristina said. “But I think it might have had to do with his parents.”
“His parents?” Connie and Vernon might have the usual problems couples do, but they had to have it together to raise a kid like Vinn. That kind of rearing didn’t happen by accident. Vinn was a mama’s boy and everyone knew it. He adored her. What could Connie Bradshaw do to anger her son enough for it to last for weeks? Dana couldn’t imagine. But his father… Boys Vinn’s age always tested their fathers. Trapped between being a boy and a man, they pushed the boundaries, trying to find themselves and where they fit. It was a rite of passage thing. That seemed far more likely.
“I think probably he was mad at his dad,” Kristina said. “I can’t see Vinn getting and staying mad at his mom.”
“Me, either.” Dana looked over at Kristina. “But what would he be that mad at his dad about?”
“I asked, but he wouldn’t tell me. He said he would never talk about it. Not if he lived to be a thousand. It had to be really bad.”
Something in her tone set off a warning in Dana. “Why do you say so, Kristina?”
“Because I watched Vinn when the two of them talked. He looked at his dad like he hated him. It was so strong, Dr. Perkins. I’ve never seen Vinn do that before. He wasn’t just mad at his dad. Right then, he hated him.”
“And how did he look at his mother?”
“He was sad. Really sad. The kind of sad you feel when somebody you love dies.” She cocked her head. “You know, when it hurts so bad you can’t even tell where the pain starts or stops. It just hurts. That’s all you feel.”
The situation with his parents had to be the source of Vinn’s trouble at the time. This, for Vinn, wasn’t about something his father had done to him. It was about something his father had done that had hurt his mother.
Dana smiled at Kristina. “Thank you for sharing that with me. I really appreciate it, and I think it might just help.”
“Really?” Her face brightened.
“Really.”
“You will try to help Vinn, won’t you, Dr. Perkins?”
“You know I will.” She winked to confirm her promise.
And it was a promise Dana intended to keep.
Chapter Thirteen
Wade Travis and Kristina crossed paths, leaving and entering Dana’s office.
He’d just settled into the chair, clutching the laptop, when Pam stepped in. “Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Travis.” She pivoted her gaze to Dana. “Dr. Perkins, I need a moment, please.”
Pam had that look in her eye, and Dana’s stomach clenched. She’d found something in his personal files. “Excuse me a second, Mr. Travis.”
He didn’t respond.
Dana stepped out, and Pam shut the door to ensure their privacy. “You’re not going to like this,” Pam said, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I feel like I need to bleach my eyeballs.”
“What is it?”
“Porn. Lots and lots of porn.”
The fool had put porn on his school laptop. Dana’s heart rocketed and sank. “Students?”
“No, thank God. Grown women, but…very explicit.” Pam visibly shuddered.
Dana closed her eyes, steeled herself. “Okay. Okay, not a word to anyone.”
Pam nodded then returned to her desk, her legs a little wobbly.
That told Dana more than her assistant’s words. Pam didn’t wobble easily. But this had shaken her. With a deep breath, Dana turned the knob and opened the door, then stepped back into her office, closing the door softly behind her.
Without a word, she extended her hand for the laptop. When Mr. Travis passed it to her, she fought the feeling of holding slime. “When I look at the files on this piece of school property, what am I going to find, Mr. Travis?”
He slumped and the blood drained from his face. “Oh, God.”
Dana’s jaw clamped tight. “I sincerely doubt God has anything to do with this.”
He regrouped and let out a cackle. “It’s nothing, Dr. Perkins.”
That infuriated her. When she thought she had control of her voice, she set the laptop down on the credenza behind her desk. “Oh, I disagree,” she said. “This is something. You’re a teacher at my school, interacting with my students, Mr. Travis. That makes this nothing a big something.”
“You know.” The caginess in his eyes dimmed and went flat.
“I know.”
He lifted a hand. “I have never touched a kid in my life. I swear it. Never. That’s vile and disgusting.” He caught himself and lowered his elevated voice. “I love my students, Dr. Perkins. I would never—“
“Save it,” Dana interrupted. “Why do you do it? You know what you’re risking.”
“It’s an addiction,” he said without regret. “It’s vile and disgusting to me, so I can imagine how it seems to you. I swear every time I’m going to quit. It’s the last time. But…it never is.” He dragged a shaky hand over his bald pate. “I don’t know why.”
A puzzle piece clicked into place in Dana’s mind. “Sylvia Cole knew.”
“What?” He drew back, growled. “No.”
Dana didn’t believe him. “Yes. Sylvia knew and that’s why you’ve been so upset since her murder.”
No answer.
Dana glared at him in total silence.
Finally, he broke. “Okay, she knew.” He shook his head, “We were supposed to meet the night she was killed. But she didn’t show up.”
“You’ve told the police this, I assume?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He darted his gaze across the ceiling. “I was afraid to tell them anything.”
He hadn’t wanted anyone to know. Dana could certainly understand that. The man Kristina had seen running from Sylvia’s backyard. “So you went to her house and killed her to keep your secret.”
“I did not. I swear it.” He wagged a finger at her. “But that’s exactly why I didn’t tell anyone we were supposed to meet that night. I knew I’d be blamed for killing her, and I didn’t do it.” He planted his feet on the floor, pulled a man-spread and propped his hands on his knees. “I did not kill that woman, okay? She did find out about my addiction. And I did pay her to stay quiet about it. But I did not kill her.”
Secrets. Everyone had secrets. “So Sylvia was blackmailing you.”
“Yes!” Mr. Travis realized he’d shouted and schooled himself. “She called it buying her cooperative assistance. It was blackmail,” he said. “I paid her to keep my addiction to herself. But I swear I did not kill her.”
Dana frowned. “Was she blackmailing anyone else?”
“How would I know? Who’d want to know?” He shrugged. “That’s not the kind of thing you ask or go around talking about.”
True. Dana worried her inner cheek. “Tell me about Venezuela.”
He squirmed.
“I'm not asking for fun, Mr. Travis. You can tell me or I call Chief McCabe and you can tell him. Right now.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, and when he reopened them, resignation burned in their depths. “I knew she was going, okay?”
“Why did she tell you?”
His frown and resignation slid deeper, lining his face with long creases from the sides of his nose down to his mouth. “Because I’m the reason she was going.”
“Excuse me?”
He was extremely embarrassed and deeply annoyed. “Sylvia found the porn on my computer at home and confronted me. We argued.”
“Sylvia did your house herself?”
“Josie usually cleaned for me. But when she left so fast, Sylvia filled in, until she could fit me into one of the other girl’s schedules.”
Josie did his house. “So how does that tie to Venezuela?”
“I told you. We argued. Sylvia wanted more money. I refused. I told her I shouldn’t have to pay more when she could just get another girl from one of the porn sites like she had Josie.”
“What?” Genuinely shocked, Dana leaned forward on her desk.
“I saw her,” he said. “Well, I saw a girl on one of my favorite sites that could have been her. I’m not a hundred percent sure she was Josie. But they kind of favored. Anyway, Sylvia went a little crazy about it and started screaming threats at me. I told her if she said one word about my addiction to anyone, I’d tell everyone on the lake she was running porn stars through Sparkle.”
“You saw Josie on one of your favorite sites?” Dana’s mind whirled, refusing to wrap around this.
“I told you, I’m not a hundred percent sure it was her. But the girl favored her. I saw her more than once, but I’m still not sure.”
“How many times did you see her, Mr. Travis?”
“Five. Maybe a few more. Sylvia made me show her.”
“Did you?”
“No choice.” He nodded. “Sylvia wasn’t sure either, but she still went ballistic.”
Dana processed all that. “So how did Quentin and Kathleen Windermere get involved in this and maybe end up with a porn star as an exchange student?”
“I don’t know that they did. It might not have been her, and it seems unlikely the Windermere’s would be involved in something like that.”
“Yet Sylvia was going to Venezuela.”
“She wasn’t sure either,” Travis said. “But you know how protective Sylvia was about the people working for her. She swore that night she was going to find out and, if she was Josie, to get her back.” He rotated his shoulders. “I tried to tell Sylvia that the site was Viva Venezuela, but that didn’t mean anything.”
“What should it mean?” Dana had not a clue.
“They move all the time.” He lifted his hands. “Who knows where that girl is really?”
Maybe or maybe not actually in Venezuela. “What’s her…stage name?”
“Vivian. Viva Vivian.” He didn’t meet Dana’s eyes.
She jotted the site and stage name down on her Things to Tell Laney list.
“How did an exchange student going home on a family emergency end up in a porn film?” Dana said out loud.
“I don’t know that she did. But if she did, she probably got there the same way most do. Someone groomed her for it or snatched her and threw her into it.” He lost his animation and added, “Sylvia said if Josie had ended up a victim of human trafficking, she was going to kill the bastard responsible.” He flushed. “Sorry for the language, Dr. Perkins, but that’s what she said.”
“You had nothing to do with that transition, then?”
“No way. I watch. That’s it.” He raised his right hand. “I really don’t know if the girl was Josie, but a lot of women from her hometown do end up trafficked. She told me that herself once.”
What was he doing, having a conversation like that with Josie? “That woman was sixteen years old,” Dana reminded him.
“I didn’t know that when we had the conversation. I thought she was eighteen. And I thought it when I saw her on the site, too. I check for that. I don’t want anything to do with underage kids.”
“The trafficker lied.” And Sylvia might have been unsure Viva Vivian was Josie, but it looked as if she was determined to try to find out.
“I—I didn’t know it.” Travis’s eyes stretched wide. “I warned Sylvia against messing with those kind of people.”
He thought a trafficker had killed her. “Why didn’t she just call Josie’s family?”
“She did. But the number had been disconnected. She called the local police there, too. The family had moved.”
“Where to?”
“I don’t know. Sylvia didn’t say.”
“So was she still going on her trip?”
“I don’t know that either,” he admitted. “If she’d showed up that night, she might have told me, but she didn’t. Next thing I heard, she was dead.”
Dana shifted focus and pounded him with questions about the students for a solid hour. Finally, she felt satisfied he hadn’t compromised them, so she gave him a choice. “You can go to Dr. Perez and check yourself into the clinic for addiction treatment, or I’ll phone Chief McCabe and report all this right now. Your call.”
“No.” His eyes stretched. “I’ve told you everything, I swear. You do this, and I’ll lose my job. You can’t do this to me.”
“I’m not doing anything to you, M
r. Travis. You’ve done it to yourself. “ Dana stiffened. “Your job is gone. I can’t have you around the students. That is not going to happen.”
“But teaching is all I’ve got.”
It was, and he was good at it. But this…this was a bridge too far. He’d crossed it on his own. Now he had to live with the consequences of his actions. “You gave me no choice. My first responsibility is to the children.” She reached for the phone and pushed it toward him. “Make your decision, Mr. Travis.”
“If I go for rehab, afterward can I come back to teach?”
“No. I’m sorry. I can’t have teachers I can’t trust around my students. But the personal benefits to you of rehab should be self-evident.”
He let that sink in, then started to rise.
“Sit down.” She barked the order.
“I’m going to the clinic.”
“Stay in that chair. Don’t move again or I’ll have security restrain you. I don’t want to humiliate you, Mr. Travis, but I will.”
He sat back down but, not trusting him, Dana felt for the phone and dialed, maintaining eye contact the whole time.
“Shutter Lake Medical Clinic.”
“Dr. Perez, please. Tell her it’s Dr. Perkins.” Oh, but Dana hoped Ana was available.
A long two minutes later, Ana came on the line. “What’s wrong, Dana? Is it your stomach?”
“No. I need you to pick up Wade Travis as soon as possible. He’s in my office waiting for you.”
“What for? Is he injured?”
“No, he isn’t injured.” Dana regretted the indignity of this conversation but it couldn’t be helped. “He has a porn addiction and needs treatment immediately.”
“That’s not typically an addiction we treat in-patient.”
“Let me be clear, Dr. Perez.” Dana forced her tone formal. “He’ll be an in-patient or I’ll call Chief McCabe to take Wade Travis to jail.“ The object of the discussion flinched. “Those are his options. My students will not have to worry about this, too.”
“I understand.” Ana’s breath hissed through the phone. “Is he agreeable or hostile?”