by David Gane
“Sure, if you want,” Charlie replies.
Laura looks at me. “Or your parents?”
I shrug—they just want a reaction—but with all the questioning they’re doing, it occurs to me that they might be able to help.
“Do you guys know what happened with Harriet last year?” I ask.
Maxine gets a gleeful look and Gretchen rolls her eyes.
But Elaina says, “That was downright creepy.”
“How so?” Charlie asks.
“All of it. Harriet for doing it and Autumn for letting it happen.”
Maxine pipes up. “No, it was Autumn staying after classes to begin with.”
Laura sighs, like this is a disagreement they’ve had many times. “That’s just bullshit. No one saw any of that.”
“It wouldn’t surprise me if Harriet made the first move,” Gretchen says.
“Why’s that?” I ask.
“He’s gross. Always had an eye on girls in class,” she says.
“He’d stare?” The things I’m oblivious to. “Would he do anything more?”
Gretchen glances at Maxine, then Laura and Elaina. “Well, not to me.”
“Not to any of us,” Elaina quickly adds.
“But you’d hear stories,” Maxine says. “Shauna said he once flirted with her after class.”
“Supposedly Bianca once found his number in an assignment he marked,” Gretchen says.
“It was always just rumours though. No facts. No proof,” Laura puts in. She’d be an excellent amateur detective—if it didn’t feel like she was so judgmental about what we do, that is.
“The piece of paper with the number?” Charlie asks.
“Never saw it. I don’t think anyone did.”
“So, Harriet might be a sleazeball?”
Elaina answers this. “It was always just a feeling. Like, you believe he could do it, you know? You could believe all the stories had a grain of truth.”
“It was enough to make you cautious and want to keep your distance,” Laura says.
“But he was married,” I say.
Laura laughs. “When has that ever kept a guy from trying something?”
Maxine adds, “Never kept him off of Statten, did it?”
Wait, what?
chapter 103
Charlie and I glance at each other.
“Back the truck up,” he says. “What are you talking about?”
Maxine’s eyes light up again, realizing she’s got goods to share with us. “Harriet and Statten were a thing.”
“You’re not serious?” I say.
I can’t picture it. How out of it was I last year?
“Oh, they tried to keep it on the down-low, but we started figuring it out.”
“How?” Charlie asks.
“People caught them together in classrooms,” Gretchen says.
“Doing what exactly?” He’s doubtful too.
“I don’t know—”
“Making out? Fooling around? Having sex?”
“Well, no—”
“Then how do you know they were together?”
“Have you ever heard of LockerBuzz?” Elaina asks.
I shake my head, and Maxine says, “It’s like Jodel.”
“Or Yik Yak,” Gretchen adds.
None of this means anything to me, but Charlie seems to get it.
“Anonymous texting. You write whatever you want and share it, but it never tracks you. There’s a ton of these apps around.”
Laura continues, “LockerBuzz is the best one right now.” She swipes opens her phone, brings up an app, and hands it to me.
It’s exactly as they’ve described: a bunch of anonymous messages ranging from
Party this weeknd
I feel the need for weed
wanna hook-up?
to
mrs johnson sucks butt
Beside each, there’s a place to vote it up or down, or reply.
“What’s this have to do with Statten and Harriet?” I ask.
Elaina replies, “There are whole threads of students outing teachers’ possible hook-ups.”
Maxine puts in, “Like, if you see two teachers, you hashtag the school and their names with the when, where, and what. After a little while, these things start adding up.”
Laura takes her phone from me and types #stattenandharriet into the search. Dozens of entries come up.
She passes it back to me and I look through it.
Statten’s room spare #stattenandharriet
gym after school #stattenandharriet
saw #stattenandharriet at Mannie’s Pizza!
Harriet’s room lunch #stattenandharriet
#stattenandharriet PARK!!!
“All that’s here are times and places. But no details,” I say, handing it over to Charlie. “How do we know they aren’t just friends?”
Laura looks at me. “You’re saying you don’t know anyone who was attracted to someone they hung out with?”
She’s referring to her and me.
“Fair enough. But it’s still not concrete proof.”
“No,” says Elaina, “But where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.”
I glance over at Charlie and I know he’s not convinced either. Being seen together by students doesn’t make them a couple. They could just be friends.
But I can tell by Charlie’s look he’s also thinking what I’m thinking. If even one of those postings on LockerBuzz is true, why did she deny they were close?
chapter 104
By the time the warning bell rings for period four, Charlie and I know we need to go back and speak with Statten. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough time before class.
“You could go on your own in your spare,” I offer.
“Nope, Elaina says Statten’s got Psych 20 then.”
“Then we leave it until tomorrow?” I hate thinking this is our only option.
He pulls out his phone, tapping out a message. “Let me see if I can buy us some more time.”
I look over and see him texting Dad.
Can I stay and edit my doc
for an extra 30 minutes?
We wait patiently for a response, knowing the final bell will ring any moment.
Finally, Dad starts typing:
Fine.
You and Anthony be at
the door right at 4.
It’s like he knows we’re standing beside each other.
The bell goes and we have to split.
“Meet me at Statten’s room at 3:30,” Charlie says as he backs away down the hall.
chapter 105
I can’t get over the irony that the last hour of my day is spent waiting impatiently through what was once Mr. Harriet’s biology class. I feel sort of bad that Mr. Hall has to put up with me—he’s told me to focus a couple of times now on my notes—but I can feel the rush of adrenaline that comes from closing in on a mystery.
When the bell rings, I don’t wait, and slip out of the room quickly. I rush toward Statten’s classroom, only to find the door closed and lights off.
Charlie’s there, standing still amid the sea of students rushing to get out of here. “She’s already gone.”
“Teacher’s staffroom?” I ask.
He nods and we push our way through the crowd toward the main office, but when we arrive, it feels like everyone is trying to clear out of here too, like the whole school is a sinking ship.
“Is Ms. Statten in the back?” Charlie asks Mrs. Opal.
Mrs. Opal asks the English teacher, Mrs. Dafoe, who says, “She just left.”
“I can page her, if you’d like?” Mrs. Opal offers.
Waiting around to see if she’ll return the page means we’d risk missing her if she’s
already left the building.
Charlie and I rush out of the room, with Mrs. Opal yelling at us to slow down.
We race to the teacher’s exit and burst outside.
Statten is halfway across the parking lot.
“Ms. Statten? Ms. Statten!” I call out, and as soon as she turns and sees us, her face falls, and we know she’s figured out that we’ve made the connection.
chapter 106
Statten’s leaning against her cherry Mini Cooper. Our very presence seems to have kicked the shit out of her; she seems sapped of her confidence.
I feel horrible, but I’ve got to have answers.
“Why didn’t you tell us the truth?” I ask.
It always feels weird demanding answers from an adult, especially a teacher I’ve sincerely liked over the years. It’s a real shift in the dynamics of the relationship and, once crossed, I know we’re never going back.
“I don’t know. I hoped, maybe, that if I didn’t say anything, it would just go away—”
I can see by her grim expression that even she didn’t believe this naive thought.
“I knew there was gossip, that people had their suspicions of what was going on. But since none of it was true, I hoped it would eventually blow over.” Her face is pained, her arms crossed. She could do a whole psych class on this moment alone.
“Will you tell us what really happened?” I ask.
She shifts against the car, looking up into the sky. It’s another warm day. In a couple of weeks, the trees will start budding and spring will be in full swing. I think Statten would like to skip ahead to that moment and avoid all this.
“Tom—Mr. Harriet—and I were friends.” She pauses before quickly adding, “But not anymore.” The notion seems to upset her.
“Only friends?”
Another troubled look clouds her brow, and she nods.
“What happened?” Charlie asks.
“We started teaching here the same year. Both new, both having taught for only a couple of years. We turned to each other for support, for encouragement.”
“Nothing else?”
Statten shakes her head, but it’s wistful. “No. He was married. Carol, his wife, was wonderful. Caring, supportive. They met at university, in the education program.”
“So she’s a teacher too?” I ask.
“Over at Cornwall High.”
Charlie asks, “Are they both from here?”
Statten shakes her head. “Not originally. She’s from Winnipeg and he grew up on a small farm north of the city.”
“Did you know her well?” Charlie inquires.
What’s he getting at?
She smiles, reflecting fondly. “The three of us would get together on weekends and drink wine and tell stories. There was never any animosity between us.” Statten shakes her head. “Carol even tried to set me up a couple of times, usually with another teacher, but it never worked out. Half the men out there have so much baggage there’s no room for a relationship.”
“But it was Carol who did the matchmaking?” Charlie pries. “Tom didn’t try to set you up?”
Statten’s tone is biting. “No, Mr. Harriet didn’t.” Her face softens as she pauses.
I urge her to keep going. “It became obvious he was interested in you, didn’t it?”
She nods. “He’d come by my classroom, and we’d visit over spares or lunches, or we’d stay around late, chatting after school. It never crossed my mind—”
“Did he ever try anything?”
She shakes her head again. “No, I never realized any of it until after his divorce.”
I feel like she’s still not telling us something.
“Were you ever interested in him?” I ask.
“No—not really,” she amends. Thinking about it seems to frustrate her. “I don’t think so. Maybe I wondered. But he was married.”
“So if nothing happened, why deny the friendship?”
Statten’s struggling with something deep, scrutinizing us.
“Did he do something?” I’m really pushing now, but I have to.
She begins to shake her head, letting out a short, sharp laugh. “When I first moved here, I had an apartment downtown. It was a crappy place. There were always incidents. Cars broken into, strangers being buzzed in that weren’t supposed to be.”
Having taken advantage of this tactic ourselves, I glance at Charlie. He ignores me.
“I knew I was going to move out at some point,” Statten says. “I was just trying to get settled in the city.”
It hadn’t occurred to me that maybe Statten isn’t originally from here either.
She’s still talking. “Well, eventually, I had a break-in—”
“When was this?” Charlie asks.
“About two years ago, over the summer.”
“Were you home when it happened?”
“Oh God, no, thank goodness.”
“Did they take anything valuable?”
“My computer, money, jewelry—” Another rueful laugh, another shake of the head. “My complete sense of security.”
I get it, all too well. After last summer, I didn’t feel safe for a long time. Even though we can lock the doors at night and set the alarm system, it’s not enough; if someone wants to get in, they’ll find a way. All that keeps a person out of your home is their own moral choice not to enter.
“Anyway, after that I asked Tom to help me out. He was handy that way. We deadbolted the door, added a safety bar, and installed a security camera.” She hesitates, considering the past. “If there was a moment when our friendship truly began—and possibly an inkling of interest from him—it would have been that day.”
“You grew closer after that?”
She nods. “That’s when the work-time visits started.”
“Do you think Tom’s—Mr. Harriet’s wife suspected he was growing interested?” Charlie asks.
“Probably. That was about when Carol started inviting me over to the house.”
“You said you aren’t friends anymore. What changed?”
“You mean who,” she says, and there’s regret in her voice.
“Autumn?” I ask.
She nods. “The accusations hit, and his life went into upheaval. At the start, things were pretty damning, but it was more rumours than facts at that point. He denied everything, yet some teachers pressured the administration to fire him, and eventually he was put on paid leave until they could sort things out.”
“But you said you thought there was something to it.”
“I don’t know what exactly happened with Autumn, but I tried to help. Tom and Carol were my friends, for God’s sake. Then one night I got a call from Carol, accusing me of sleeping with her husband—”
“Why do you think she did that?” Charlie asks.
I answer with a question, “Autumn again?”
Statten nods. “It seemed the most reasonable possibility. She was stirring up so much trouble during that time. It was like she intended to leave nothing but scorched earth when she was finished with him.”
“Why do you think—?” I start to ask.
Statten cuts me off. “Because I think it was true.”
“He actually did text her?” Charlie asks.
“I think he did it all,” she answers. “I think he slept with her. I think they had a relationship, and that he thought he could keep it all quiet and hidden.”
“But he didn’t know he was playing with the devil,” I say.
She agrees, adding, “He was his own worst enemy, though, and Carol used it against him. Credit card bills showing up with mysterious charges. Strange texts to his cell. There were just too many things coming up through the cracks.”
She pinches the bridge of her nose and drops her head. She’s been holding it in for so long an
d now she’s letting it all out. “People abandoned him. Teachers steered clear. He was always in a miserable mood. Suspicious of everyone.”
“Why?”
“Always said none of it was his fault. His anger grew—”
“At who?”
“Everyone. The administration. The women in his life. He didn’t trust anyone. He wanted recompense, reparation for everything that had been done to him.”
“Revenge?” I ask.
She nods once more, and we stand there in silence. It sounds like we might know who to blame. Not all the pieces fit, but we’ve at least got the edges of the picture in place.
I think we’re done, but Charlie isn’t quite finished. “You’re still not telling us something.”
I look between him and Statten, and it isn’t until she sighs that I realize he’s right.
“After Carol left, I tried to be there for him. A shoulder to cry on. I tried to do the right thing.”
“He wanted more, but you weren’t interested.”
“The friend I had known was gone,” she says, with exasperation and regret. “He was an angry, bitter man.”
“Something happened,” Charlie states. It’s not a question. “He did something.”
“Once, while we were still close.” Her whole body pulls tight at the thought. “I said no. He got aggressive …”
“Did he hurt you?” I ask.
“No,” she says quickly, then rethinks it. “Almost.”
“Was that the end of it?”
She shakes her head. “It was for me, but not for him. He started following me. Showing up where he shouldn’t be.”
“You had another break-in,” Charlie says, and I look at him, confused.
What’s he talking about?
Statten, however, simply answers the question. “The second time was in the fall.”
“But you were home this time?”
She nods again. She’s exhausted. Our questions have taken everything out of her.
“Was it him?”
“I don’t know,” she says quietly. “He wore a mask. He seemed taller, but I was terrified. I’ll never know … ”
“What happened?”
“Charlie, stop.”
“Did he hurt you?” he persists.