“Yes, you do. Your pal. Rikky – up at the burger van.”
“What’s he got to do with…?” said Callum.
Sarah gave them all a wave.
“Well, anyway – see you again, guys.”
Then she turned, winked at Jack, and they headed for the stairs together.
***
Outside in the sunshine on the deck of the pub, Jack turned to her.
He could see she’d enjoyed herself up in the pool room.
“Must say, nicely done, Sarah.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I couldn’t really warn you. But the instant I recognised the taller one – I just felt there was some kind of connection with those guys up at the burger place.”
“I think you nailed that,” said Jack. “There’s a kinda thread forming here. Rikky, Ted, these guys, Josh… Wish we knew where it led.”
“But Jake in particular – no big fan of Josh – he could have been the one who spiked his drink that night.”
“Pub packed. Sure. Easy,” said Jack. “Could have been any one of them.” He took a breath. “So you’re thinking, what if someone’s using the burger van to bring in drugs?”
“Could be Rikky himself,” said Sarah.
“Then kid brother somehow connects to the raves. That’s a mighty big market.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Jack saw the guys from the pool room emerge from the side door of the pub.
“Look,” he said.
They both watched as the three young men walked into the car park and up to three dirt bikes parked by the hedge.
They put on helmets, fired up the engines, then sped across the car park, motors whining.
“If I’d been quicker, I’d have followed them,” said Jack. “I think that speedy departure may have had something to do with us, you know.”
“What now?” said Sarah.
Jack looked up to the afternoon sky, dotted with clouds.
Warm and wonderful.
“I think it’s time you introduced me to Louise James,” said Jack. “I know she wanted us to stay away from the students, but I don’t think that’s possible…”
“Time we had a look at those lockers for ourselves too – don’t you think?”
“Exactly. I got work to do on the boat this afternoon,” said Jack. “How about tomorrow? You think Louise works Sundays?”
“Right now, I’d bet on it,” said Sarah.
“Want a lift home?”
“On a day like this? I’ll walk, I think, thanks,” said Sarah. “See you tomorrow.”
Jack gave her a smile, and headed over to the Sprite, looking forward to an afternoon sorting out the boat.
PART THREE
Secrets Revealed
27. Sunday School
Jack had insisted they take the Sprite.
“After all,” he said, “another amazing summer day. Car was made for this.”
And Sarah didn’t protest; she was thinking more about how their meeting with Louise would go.
The head had been friendly enough in their first meeting. But she also seemed tough – the type of person to get a school and its staff into shape.
“Jack – just so you know – I think we’ll need to tread carefully here.”
Jack had pulled the Sprite into a spot reserved for the teaching staff – the car park deserted, apart from a lone Range Rover in a nearby slot.
Say what you want, Louise James was certainly dedicated.
As he parked the car, and turned the engine off: “You mean, tone down my usual inquisitorial demeanour?”
She had to smile at that.
She probably didn’t need to worry, Jack could read a room and people (and situations) like no one else she had ever met.
“Yes. Precisely.”
“You got it, boss–”
***
Louise dragged a second chair to her desk, and Sarah saw Jack quickly jump in to help her.
“Quite the piece of furniture,” he said, sitting back in the old leather wingback.
Louise smiled. “Back in the day, they knew how to make things to last. I imagine.”
“Exactly the kind of chair I’d like in my office…” he looked up at Louise, “if I had one.”
A charm offensive in motion, thought Sarah.
“I can rustle up some tea, if you like.”
Sarah looked at Jack. “I’m good actually,” she said.
During the week, Sarah knew the head would have her secretary ferry tea to her from a little kitchen down the hall somewhere. No need to have Louise do that now. They really needed to get to the matter at hand.
The suspense of waiting for Louise’s reaction had Sarah feeling nervous.
“Okay – then please sit. How have things been going?”
Sarah quickly brought Louise up to date on what they had found out, and what it might mean, while Louise took notes.
She didn’t omit the attack in her new house.
“Good Lord. That’s terrible!” Louise looked from Sarah to Jack. “Maybe you two shouldn’t be doing this? I mean…”
“If we can help the school – my kids are here too – then, well, it’s what we should do,” Sarah said.
Louise nodded.
And then, it was time to get to the thing that worried Sarah, and how Louise would react to it.
***
The head put the pen down.
And her face looked anything but friendly.
“You spoke to students?”
Louise turned away, and Sarah looked at Jack.
This didn’t look good.
Then, like a searchlight slowly turning its beam back, Louise looked at both Sarah and Jack.
“I specifically told you that I did not want you to speak to any students. Do you remember that?”
Sarah nodded.
A tough cookie indeed.
“And yet, you did?”
Jack looked at the head, nodded, then walked to the great windows that looked out to the rear of the school, and on to the football pitches in the distance, and beyond them the line of hills.
And at the window, he stopped and turned around.
“Louise, I want you to know we didn’t go looking for students to talk to.”
He waited. And Louise did as well.
“We went to the Ploughman’s and we literally bumped into them – Liam, Jake, Callum – playing pool.”
“In a pub? Drinking? I’ll have that owner–”
Jack put a hand up.
Sarah watched him. Usually she felt he could handle any situation. But this? She wasn’t so sure.
“They were having shandies,” he smiled, “whatever they are.”
And Sarah saw, through the corner of her eye, a slight smile break the head’s facade.
“They were at the pub. So we just… asked them about that night. We did not,” now stepping back to his chair, “seek them out. Sarah and I didn’t set out to violate your wishes.”
Louise nodded.
Then the head picked up her pen.
A sign that the storm had passed.
“I hope,” Jack said gently, “that you can accept that.”
Could go either way, Sarah thought.
But…
“Okay. Thank you, Mr. Brennan.”
“Jack…”
Of course.
“Jack. And since you asked them about that night, maybe you can share with me what they told you.”
Jack, sat down again, and looked right at Sarah.
My turn to pick up the ball.
But first, Sarah gave him a small smile.
As in… well played indeed.
And she began:
“We asked them about that night, about Josh Owen… and what they saw.”
“They denied drinking that night, I expect?”
“Yes.”
“But they saw Mr. Owen in that… state?”
“Yes,” Sarah said. “But that’s,” a look to Jack, “not what we found – well – of concern.”
/> “Go on.”
“Two of the boys seemed to have history with Josh Owen. They were really angry with him.”
Louise nodded. She was back to taking notes. Then the head spoke.
“Callum Brady especially, I imagine. And–”
“Um, well, no, actually.”
And Louise stopped writing.
“Hmm?”
“Callum hardly said a word the whole time we were talking to them.”
The head looked away, her expression confused.
“Interesting.”
Jack responded first…
“Why’s that?”
“Because that just doesn’t make any sense at all.”
28. A Sweep of the Lockers
Jack waited, so Sarah followed suit.
“Here I’m going to break a rule of confidentiality. I know – surprising, considering what I told you about protecting my students.”
Louise looked to the windows, as though this was, indeed, difficult for her.
“But I think what you two are looking into here is important. And well, what I am about to tell you might be significant.”
“I appreciate that,” Jack said.
Now it seemed like Louise was addressing her words just to Jack. In just the little time they’d been here, Jack had won her confidence.
And wasn’t that the case with everyone who met Jack?
“A few weeks before his accident, Josh had a run-in with Callum. The boy was smoking inside the building, and Josh said he’d be reported. An offence that is always met with exclusion, I’m afraid. At least for a few days. But it didn’t end there.”
Louise now looked to Sarah.
What made this even more interesting, more unusual for the head, Sarah guessed, was that she was telling this to a parent.
“Callum turned violent. Lashed out, pushed at Josh. Mr. Owen was able to defuse the situation. But when he spoke to me about it – when we discussed suspension – he said he didn’t want to do anything about the physical attack. You understand – that could have had major repercussions for the boy.”
Sarah looked at Jack, head nodding. “So, Callum was suspended by a well-loved teacher. And yet, when Liam and Jake were complaining about him to us…”
“Precisely. You said he was ‘mum’. And that doesn’t make sense at all to me. If anyone had an axe to grind, it was Callum.”
And Sarah felt a sudden chill then.
They had been in that pool room with the kid, nearly as tall as Jack, really more of a man.
And now the thought… could he have spiked Josh’s drink?
Set him up to die?
But then – a big question – would he do that simply in revenge for an exclusion?
She looked at Jack. She had an idea.
“Louise, first – thank you for telling us this. Though,” another look to Jack, “I’m not at all sure how it fits in… or even if it does.”
“I know. I wish I could be of more help.”
“But I was wondering… the search of the lockers… perhaps we could go take a look? I used to have a locker down there ages ago, too, you know.”
The head smiled.
“It would be good to see them. In case somehow the lockers were a factor.”
“Factor?”
“In whatever drugs came into the school. Who brought them into school…”
And Louise finished the last part herself.
“And how they came in? We felt the lockers played a role. But we found nothing we could trace to any particular locker.”
Louise stood up. “Of course. I imagine there’ve been some changes since you were here. But it should be pretty much how you remember it.”
The head walked from behind her desk and then led them out of the office, out to the great hallway and the stairs down to the basement of the school and the lockers below.
***
“I remember this,” Sarah said, looking at Jack. “Mine was…” Sarah hurried down one aisle, then turned a corner to another row of cream-colored lockers. “Right here, close to the end. A prime position!”
“Think they’ve added a few more rows since you left,” said Jack.
Sarah looked around. Though Chloe and Daniel were at school here – and Sarah was often in the main building – she hadn’t come down here in twenty years.
The underbelly of the school, where kids had their own domain. A world of trainers, sports gear, books, musical instruments, and the smell of whatever lunch hadn’t been eaten.
Probably a universal smell.
And she remembered what she and her friends would get up to down here.
The pranks, the fights some of the girls had, the tears over potential boyfriends, and the plans for parties, for drinks, for–
All of which Chloe must be going through.
And she realised that maybe amidst everything she had been too unaware of her daughter’s world, a changing world.
They were overdue for a big talk.
It’s important – to keep those lines of communication open.
She made a promise to herself: to correct that, ASAP.
“Memories?” Jack said, as if picking up on what Sarah was thinking.
“Yeah,” she said simply.
Then he turned to Louise.
“The sweep… when all the lockers were searched. How was that handled?”
“Well, for their own security, teachers are paired and assigned different areas – some to the boys, some to the girls. The sports lockers are searched as well, and even the backstage areas of the school hall.”
“So any place,” Jack said, “where someone could hide drugs?”
“Yes.”
“No security cameras?” he said, scanning the ceiling.
“Next year,” said Louise.
“Shame,” said Jack.
Then he turned back to the lockers, impersonal in their muted colour, the vents to let God-knows-what breathe.
He’s thinking of something, Sarah guessed.
As to what, she’d have to wait.
She saw him reach up, and touch one of the metal lockers.
Then he turned back to the school head.
“I have a question.”
Sarah waited for Jack to ask something that she felt – that she knew – was going to be very important.
29. The Birdwatcher
Jack scratched his head.
“You say the teachers did their sweep in teams?”
“Yes. The leadership team – assistant heads, year heads.”
Jack looked at her. He felt he knew what the answer to his next question would be.
“And do you know who was teamed with whom?”
And Louise’s brow furrowed, as if she didn’t see how that mattered.
“Um, no. I mean, I left that to one of the assistant heads.”
“Right. And who was that?”
“Hilary Tradescant.”
“Oh,” Sarah said. “Miss Tradescant. She was here when I was!”
“Yes, she’s one of the longest-serving members of staff, I believe. She will have made the pairings. I imagine, quite arbitrarily.”
Quite arbitrarily…
Well, Jack thought, that could be true.
But he well knew that often luck, chance, all sorts of arbitrary things end up playing a decisive role in bad things happening.
Bad things. Deadly things.
“I think,” he said, “we’d like to talk to Hilary. See who those teams were.”
“Um, well today is Sunday, you know. And I can’t simply give you her number. I mean, that wouldn’t be appropriate.”
“Of course,” Sarah said. “Could you perhaps contact her? Ask her to ring one of us up?”
“Certainly. I do know she is an avid birder. A day like this, she will probably be hiking somewhere, binoculars in hand.”
Hmm, Jack thought, the head not here for long, and she already knows what a staff member does in their free time. Impressive.
&n
bsp; “Well, whenever you can get her, maybe leave our numbers,” said Jack.
“Of course. And Callum. The way he was with you. Would you like me to arrange for you to meet him again? In my office, of course.”
Sarah turned to Jack.
And he thought… Big question there. Callum could fit into this.
But – his best guess – until, they knew more, better not to play that card.
“Think we hold on that. For now. Sarah, do you agree?”
He saw her thinking it over.
“Well, there might be something there. But, yes, until we know more…”
Louise nodded.
“Okay then. I will call Hilary. And you two, well I don’t envy the work you’re doing. Must be so hard.”
Jack smiled. He liked this woman. Strong, straight-shooter. Cares about kids, the school. Smart.
“Oh, there are perks. And, we have a good batting average in piecing these things together…”
“Batting average!” Louise said. “You know; I love American baseball. Those great baseball movies too.”
And Jack laughed. This might be the first baseball conversation he’d had since coming to Cherringham.
Will wonders never cease?
“How about them Mets…” he said.
And all of them laughed for the first time in the meeting, as Louise turned and led the way back to the staircase, and on up to the school entrance.
***
“What do you think?” Sarah asked.
She waited while Jack nodded, then looked out at the lush lawn of the school, the nearby football pitches and beyond, the woods that served as a buffer between the school grounds and the village.
“Beautiful place here.”
“It certainly is, Jack. You don’t have this in the states?”
He turned to her, and shook his head.
“No, I mean, not really.” He smiled. “We have schools. Then there are the ultra-expensive private – I mean, public – schools. If you can afford it, they capture a bit of this.”
Sarah looked around as well.
She had gone here, and, like any kid, never realised that someday… you move on. And all you have are those memories, never pausing to just enjoy being young, being with friends…
And, she thought, being safe.
And yet, this bucolic school – such a perfect place – felt anything but safe these days.
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