by Jen Carter
“So you lured Fleming into the Old Everly Place and starved him to death?”
Xavier shrugged. “I was not particular about how we did it. Esther over here wanted him to suffer.” He inclined his head toward her.
“I’ve always been a sucker for symbolism,” she said.
The pure revoltingness of their crimes made me want to throw up.
“Enough small talk,” Xavier said to Esther. “What’s the plan? What are we going to do with these two now?”
Esther’s eyes darted from me to Nico to me again. “Well, we can do something Romeo and Juliet inspired. What about—”
“I’m tired of all this symbolic stuff,” Xavier said. “I just want to get it done.”
He lunged for the wine bottle in Esther’s hand. Shock colored her face as she let go, totally not expecting him to make the grab. Xavier swung the bottle at her head. I screamed as she crumpled to the floor.
Oh. No.
Impulsively, recoiling, I stepped back, losing all the ground I had made while inching forward.
“I’m done with her,” Xavier said. “She’s a worker bee and gets stuff done.” He stepped toward me. “But everything is always ten times more convoluted and difficult in the process.”
It was time to make a move. I grabbed a box off the nearest workbench and threw it at Xavier. The gardening gloves inside flew everywhere as Xavier deflected the box. I jumped over Nico and screamed. If I could just get to the door, if I could just pull it open…
But none of that was meant to be. Xavier was hot on my heels, and just as I shoved another box off a workbench at him, he reached for my arm and pulled me back. I screamed bloody murder again.
The shed door swung open. Standing there in the doorway was none other than my principal, Dr. Stevens.
“Xavier, no!” he yelled.
And then everything went black.
***
What happened next was a blur. I remembered waking up and seeing Xavier face-down on the ground with Dr. Stevens’ knee in his back. I remembered sirens and police swarming. Nico carrying me out of the shed. An ambulance ride. Stella and Aldo holding my hands while I lay in bed. Holly doing something to my toes. Painting my toenails, maybe?
But mostly I remembered waves of sleepiness forcing my eyes closed whenever I opened them.
It wasn’t until the next morning that I started to feel like myself. I awoke in a hospital bed, slightly shaken to find that those blurry memories hadn’t just been a horrific dream. Nico sat in a chair nearby, and the second I saw him, I started crying.
“Hey,” he said softly, standing up and approaching my side. “You okay?” He took my hand and squeezed it.
I nodded, trying to force back the tears. “But you, what about you? I walked us into a trap. I put us in danger, I didn’t know, I didn’t—”
He kissed me and brushed some hair away from my eyes. “I’m fine,” he said. “Esther didn’t hit me very hard. I think she was going for my head, but she got my shoulder. I stumbled and ended up on the ground because I tripped over something—maybe a box—and on the way down, I hit the corner of a table.” He pointed to a bandage on the left side of his head. “I might have blacked out for a couple seconds, but really, she didn’t get me very hard.”
“So you’re okay?” I said. I wiped my eyes with the back of my free hand.
He nodded. “When you were checking to see if I was breathing, I came back around. But I was a little dazed, and once I got my bearings, I realized I couldn’t just jump up and get us out of there. We were in the dark and couldn’t see anything. I also didn’t know what Esther had hit me with or if she had anything more dangerous with her. So as she confessed, I listened and tried to figure out what to do. Then crazy Xavier turned on the light, put his two cents into the confession, and went after Esther. When she was down and he came after you with the wine bottle, I grabbed his leg. He still got you, but the doctors think it could have been much worse.” He tapped my temple lightly. “Looks like everything up here is going to be fine.”
Well, that was good.
“The last thing I remember before everything gets foggy is seeing Dr. Stevens.” I paused, trying to pull the memory into focus. “Was he there? Or was that not really a memory at all—maybe a dream?”
Nico shook his head. “Not a dream. As Xavier went for you, Dr. Stevens swung open the door and attacked him with pepper spray. I’ll let him give you his side of the story. It’s wild. By the time I got to my feet, Stevens had Xavier pinned to the ground. He didn’t need my help, and seconds later the police arrived. I got you out of there, we were taken to the hospital, there were a lot of tests, and here we are now.”
“So Dr. Stevens helped us get out of there,” I said.
Nico nodded.
I felt an odd mixture of gratitude and dread. Of course I was grateful that anyone would help in such a scary situation. But Dr. Stevens. Of all people. He was the last one I wanted there. I was sure he’d find a way to put me down for what had happened. He’d probably work it into a teaching evaluation as a black mark against my sense of responsibility.
“I had a long talk with him last night, Jill,” Nico said. His face suddenly turned apologetic, just as Amy’s had when she told me that she liked Stevens.
Oh no, here it came.
“I know you hate him,” Nico said. “But he might not be a bad guy.”
“Why do people up here think that?” I asked. “It makes me feel like I’m crazy. But I know I’m not crazy because the staff in Carlsbad feels the same way. It’s just the people up here who love him. I don’t understand.”
“He knows that the staff in Carlsbad doesn’t like him. I don’t think it’s entirely his fault, based on some of the remarks he made last night. Some of this is coming down from the district office and the people there wanting him to make changes at the school.”
I gave Nico a look that said I don’t buy it.
“Okay,” he said, “Stevens knows that he’s made some mistakes in trying to implement change. He’s seeing that now.”
The I-don’t-buy-it look remained on my face. “Why? What would bring about that reflection suddenly? And more importantly, does that mean he’ll stop being such a jerk?”
“I don’t know how his approach is going to change. But I can venture a guess about why a change might be coming.”
I raised an eyebrow. Oh? I silently inquired.
“Sandie Oakes,” Nico said. His face broke into a grin. “They’re dating.”
I drew in a long, loud breath. My eyes grew. “What? When? How do you know?”
“I don’t know specifics. You can ask him if you want.”
I rolled my eyes. Like I’d ask Dr. Stevens about his love life.
“Amy told me last night. Apparently, Dr. Stevens and Sandie met through their shared love of old books, they became friends, one thing led to another, and here we are.”
“Sandie’s got to be at least twenty years older than him,” I said. “I thought she might have a thing for Aldo.”
Nico shook his head. “Nope, she definitely doesn’t have a thing for Aldo. And at some point in life, age is just a number. You know that. Sandie and Stevens also both lost their spouses to cancer, so that probably brought them together, too.”
I let Nico’s words sink in.
I knew that Sandie lost her husband to cancer, and thinking about the pain so clearly still gripping her made my heart hurt. But Stevens also lost his spouse to cancer? He was so young. When did that happen?
“Apparently that’s why Stevens took a job in Carlsbad,” Nico continued. “His wife was a teacher in the district up here, and he needed to get away from the memories. He was planning to put his house on the market and move south if the school year in Carlsbad ended on a good note. But now that he has Sandie up here, he might not.”
Again I let Nico’s words sink in.
“Stevens told Amy all this? And then she told you last night?”
Nico shook his head.
“Sandie told Amy. I don’t know when. And Amy told me last night.”
“I think I’m on information overload,” I said. “It’s so much to take in.”
Nico kissed me again. “Just rest. We can talk more later.”
That was a good idea. But first, I needed to know one more thing.
I pulled the covers off my feet. Sure enough, my toenails were painted purple.
“Did Holly do this to me?” I asked, wiggling my toes.
Nico smiled. “Yes. I think she was in the middle of painting her own nails when she got the call that you were here. Without really thinking, she put the nail polish bottle in her pocket and raced over. So, you know, once she got here, found out you were okay and realized she had the nail polish, she figured she’d put it to good use.”
And with that, the biggest mystery of the morning was solved.
THIRTY
The next day, Livy called an extra play practice.
Of course she did.
Now that Esther and Xavier had been apprehended, we had to make up Friday’s missed practice. Never mind that it was Sunday. Or that we still had weeks before the kids had to perform. Or that the start date could be moved if the kids weren’t ready since the play was only being informally done in the park.
Livy wanted to practice.
And who was I to argue? Truth be told, I was just glad to be alive.
Ten minutes before my shift in the tasting room ended and I’d be on my way to make up play practice, none other than Dr. Stevens walked in.
Great.
Since Nico told me yesterday what had happened and how great Dr. Stevens was, I knew I’d have to face him sooner or later. Best case scenario, I’d put it off until afterschool Monday. Worst case scenario, he’d show up at the tasting room before play practice and want to talk.
It looked like we were going with the worst case scenario.
My boss walked up to the bar, and I gave him a big smile. “Hi, Dr. Stevens. Interested in tasting some wine?” I placed a wine glass in front of him.
“Hi Jill,” he said, pushing the wine glass back toward me. “No winetasting for me today. I was hoping we could have a minute to talk. I thought it would be best to get everything out in the open before school resumed tomorrow.”
Ugh.
Okay.
Holly appeared behind me and leaned her chin on my shoulder. “Why don’t you just take off now, Jilly Bean? You only have ten minutes left in your shift anyway.”
My sister. Always helpful.
“Let’s go outside,” I said to Dr. Stevens.
He nodded and waited as I came around the bar. Together we walked to the door. There were a couple open tables on the patio, and I chose the one closest to the street.
First things first. A show of appreciation and gratitude was in order.
“Thank you,” I said, sitting down. “I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t tackled Xavier.”
“It looked like you and Nico were handling it when I arrived,” Stevens said, also sitting down. “I suppose you’re wondering why I was there in the first place.”
I nodded.
“I’ll be brief. I heard your play practice is recommencing this afternoon.”
I nodded again. “In about ten minutes.”
“Yes, well then. To give a little background, I started working at Temecula Hills as an assistant principal when Xavier and Esther were seniors. Esther was a very serious student, quiet, and deeply involved with drama. Xavier was also deeply involved with drama, but he was a troublemaker. He bootlegged wine from the agricultural department, he played practical jokes on the teachers, he crossed lines right and left. A couple parents tried to sue the school district for shenanigans he pulled at the Old Everly Place on the weekends, but they never got anywhere since schools have no control over what students do on their own time off campus. In general, Xavier was a huge headache, but he got away with more than he probably should have because he was charming.”
Dr. Stevens leaned back in his seat and glanced toward the street as though taking a moment to collect his thoughts.
“Marcus Fleming, on the other hand, wasn’t charming. He seemed like a fine teacher at first. Until I discovered some inappropriate behavior. You probably heard from Lucy Argyle that I tried to fire him, which was true. Did you know that Lucy was also in Xavier and Esther’s class?”
I shook my head. She graduated with Xavier and Esther? Small world.
“She was a pain, too,” Stevens said. “She was then, and she is now. I believe you and I have both been victims of her twisting our words for newspaper articles. She did that to me when there was a fire here months ago, and she just did it to you when Fleming died, correct?”
Oh. It hadn’t occurred to me that Dr. Stevens’ quote in the paper after the fire could have been twisted. I thought he was just being his normal mean self.
Another reason to hate Lucy.
“Anyway,” Stevens continued, “After discovering Fleming’s behavior toward some students, I wanted him removed from the classroom. But there was little I could do when the mistreated students wouldn’t give formal statements. At that point, the quality of his teaching dropped dramatically, but again, I had little recourse. I’m saddened that Fleming met such a terrible fate, but the biggest regret I have in my career is being unable to remove him from the classroom. Maybe if I had managed that, he wouldn’t have ended up the way he did.”
I felt like a completely-egocentric child. It had been so easy to assume Stevens didn’t have feelings.
“So how did you figure out what was going on with Xavier and Esther?” I asked.
“At first, it was just a minor suspicion. I immediately thought of Xavier because of the Old Everly Place. Plus, I knew through Victor that Xavier was unhappy with how his life turned out and blamed Fleming for it.”
“Did you suspect Esther at first, too? Or was she a surprise?”
He shook his head. “I knew she and Xavier were friends in high school. But I didn’t connect her to any of this. She was one of the students who wouldn’t come forward and make a formal complaint against Fleming, in fact.”
“She was hoping he’d get her a job,” I said.
“Nico told me about that last night. He also told me that she was responsible for those literary quotes sent to us.” He looked at his watch. “Do you need to get to play practice? I can walk over there with you.”
I nodded and stood. As we crossed the patio toward the street, I said, “She’s a really good actress, too. She even faked that note to herself and then pretended to be so upset about it. I had no idea.”
“A really good actress, yes. And scary. She was a master at overhearing conversations and using the overheard information against others. I’m certain that’s how she decided which quote to send to which person. I had a conversation with your friends Livy and Amy last night, and we figured out most of it. Esther likely overheard you talking about Sonnet 94 in play practice, which apparently you talk about a lot. And she likely overheard Livy talking about canker-blossoms at practice. Livy remembered telling some kids a story about how she liked using that word as an insult for her own arch-nemesis in high school.”
Canker-blossom was a fun word to use.
We crossed the street toward the closest park bench. I noticed the Council of Elders doing their laps, but there were only three of them. Aldo was missing. Hmm. Maybe he had given up and confessed to his friends that he preferred donuts over power walking.
“Then,” Dr. Stevens said, “Esther went to school with Lucy, and that’s probably where she found out that Lucy’s deathly allergic to beestings. I’ll never forget my first day as an assistant principal at Temecula Hills because Lucy was stung by a bee and we almost lost her. I bet Esther knew about it and decided to send Lucy the wasp quote as a result. She probably knew something about your friend Jules from high school as well, but we could only speculate about that.”
Whoa. I didn’t know what to say.
Dr. Stevens paused before going on. “And then, Esther didn’t like that I was snooping at the high school this week, asking my former colleagues questions about what had happened. She didn’t like that I brought Sandie with me once, either. So she sent quotes that surely would stab at us.”
We sat down on the bench.
“So how’d you figure out that your initial suspicion about Xavier was right?” I asked.
“Victor came to me. He had suspected his brother from the very beginning. In fact, he was afraid that Xavier was setting him up by daring Victor to go down into the Old Everly cellar, fully aware that there was a dying man behind the false wall with loose bricks. I’ve known Victor since he entered high school, and he’s not a bad kid. He’s struggled against his brother’s reputation and finding his own way in the absence of good parental supervision and guidance. He came to me often when problems arose in school, and when he thought Xavier had something to do with Fleming’s death, he found me again. After Livy went missing, he was certain his brother had something to do with it. Xavier got home late that night with cuts and scratches everywhere. Victor felt certain that Xavier had been down in that ravine with Livy and Esther. And he was right.”
“Really?”
Xavier confessed to that last night. It was another one of Esther’s complicated set ups. At the end of play practice on Thursday, she slipped an herbal extract in Livy’s afternoon green drink and stayed nearby until it took effect. Then she drove Livy to the hardware store—using Livy’s car. She even ‘borrowed’ Livy’s phone to text Hunter about the errand. Xavier met them there in Esther’s car, which they then used to drive her to the ravine behind the Old Everly Place. Esther called the girls to help her ‘find’ Livy there, and then made sure that the girls wouldn’t be able to find her. She thought no one would suspect her if she faked an injury while looking for Livy. If you and Nico hadn’t shown up, who knows what would have happened.”