“Yes. I think that maybe Connie has had a hand in this too. I’m not sure what she’s been up to, but she and Aster have had their heads together.” He didn’t ask them. He was sure whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be too terribly helpful. And he also had a feeling he was going to be owing the Bruces rather than just having this go away. It was the way things usually went for him. “I’m about as ready as I can be.”
“But you’re not happy about this.” He shook his head, then realized that she couldn’t see him and answered her. “You’re not without resources you know. I mean, you have money now, and if you want to pay them off, we can do that.”
“But it won’t end there. In a few years, less I bet, they’ll come back and try this again. And again until we’re both drained from it. And they’ll continue to watch over and hurt children.” He shifted on the chair and thought about the night he’d left. “Steele met that boy that helped me. His name is Garth Bell. We’re going to find his body when this is over and bury him in the little cemetery on the property. I hope you don’t mind, but I said we’d pay for the marker.”
“I think that’s a wonderful idea. Will he be able to go there and see it?” He told her he would. “Good for him. And for you. To get to meet the person that saved you that night must be scary and nice. You can thank him, like you told me you wished you’d done all those years ago.”
But no one had been there to save Garth, and that saddened him even more. After Vinnie went to rest, he went into the yard to meet with the rest of the men. They were headed out again, this time across the United States. There had been a few scary things going on at a high school out there, and they’d been called in. Ray was heading this one up.
“Nine children have reported seeing some unnatural behavior in the school yard. While they are assuring everyone that it is not of a sexual nature, not one of them has been able to tell us just what is going on. Or they won’t…we’re not sure which right now. Then a teacher was murdered on the grounds and all hell has broken loose.” They were each handed a picture of the woman as the plane jetted them across the states. “Her throat was cut, and she was also shot several times in the head and groin area. There are some saying that it was to cover a rape, but the man who they have in custody says that not only does he not remember doing it, but he had no idea who the woman was.”
“Was she hurting the kids?” Ray told Hugh, who asked, that it had not come up that she had. “But we’re not ruling it out then.”
“We’re not ruling anything out.” Ray handed them all a second picture. “This is one of the kids that hung himself a few months ago. There wasn’t a note left and so far none of this is really helping his parents or the people closest to him. What they have been able to find in notebooks and such was garbled as well as choppy, very unlike the young man, they’re saying. He hung himself on the school grounds using one of the few trees that are in front.”
“Did he and the teacher know each other?” Ray told him that it was a small school, and it seemed that everyone knew everyone in some way or another. “What have the parents said, anything?”
“So far they’ve not been involved in the death of the teacher.” Another file. “This will give you all the school transcripts of the young man who hung himself, as well as anything the police found in his room that they took in the form of evidence. I’m not sure what they might have needed his grade school yearbook for, but they took that as well. Nothing has been returned to the parents as yet.”
“What is it you think is going on?” No one said anything, and Mitch looked up at Ray when he didn’t answer Landon. Ray looked...well, he looked like he might know something but didn’t want to say it out loud. Mitch thought that was pretty telling in and of itself.
As soon as they landed, he and Steele went to the house of the boy. Steele wasn’t sure this was the way to go, but Mitch had a feeling the kid had something there, but as yet, it hadn’t been found. Or the boy hadn’t wanted it found. The mother let them in, and Mitch saw Jeremy was there with her.
“I don’t know what you might think you’ll find here. They took it all from me.” Steele nodded and told her he’d work on getting the things back. “The only things I really care about are his letterman coat and his class ring. I know they’re not going to honor him at graduation in a few weeks on account of him not really graduating, but I’d like to have them all the same.”
Jerry, as his friends called him, sat next to his mom when she started to cry again and looked right at him. He felt the connection right away, and Jerry asked him if he could see him.
Nodding, he pointed to the hallway and to where he thought the bedroom was. Jerry led him down the hall to his room and Mitch closed the door behind him. They might need it to be quiet for a few minutes.