Principal Stewart looked like he was going to have a heart attack.
But Ethan shook his head. “No,” he said mournfully, then spun his overexcited gaze back to Jason. “She said I couldn’t come over. She said it would be too
“What else did Mrs. Jones say about her husband?” Warren asked.
The boy shrugged. “Just things. Stuff. But she didn’t have to say everything. I could see it for myself. She was so lonely. Sad. One day, she even started to cry. She wanted away from him, I could tell. But she was scared. I mean, look at him. I’d be scared, too.”
Everyone dutifully turned to Jason, his shadowed eyes, his heavily bearded face. He looked back down at the floor.
“Ethan, it sounds like you and Mrs. Sandra talked a lot. Did you maybe e-mail her, or call her on her cell phone, or contact her some other way?” the sergeant asked.
“Yeah. Sure. I guess. But she told me not to call or write too often. She didn’t want her husband to get suspicious.” Another furious glare.
“So you and Mrs. Sandra would meet outside of school,” Principal Stewart asked now, looking gravely concerned.
But Ethan shook his head. “I already told you, we met during her free period. And Thursday nights. At the basketball games.”
“What else would you do during the basketball games?” Warren asked.
“What do you mean?”
The sergeant shrugged. “Did you go for walks together, maybe around the school, or sit and talk in a classroom, or anything else?”
The boy frowned at her. “Of course not. She had her daughter with her. She couldn’t just wander off and leave Ree all alone. Mrs. Sandra is a very good mom!”
Warren slid Jason a glance. “I work Thursday nights,” he supplied quietly. “So yes, she would have Ree with her.”
The sergeant nodded slightly and he could see her debating the same questions he was debating. Ethan Hastings clearly thought he had a relationship of some type with Sandy. Just how far had this relationship progressed? A genuine physical relationship between teacher and student? Or just wishful thinking on the part of one socially awkward kid?
In retrospect, Sandy’s bright blonde hair and youthful features appeared not so dissimilar to other young, pretty blonde teachers recently arrested for their inappropriate relationships with teenage students. And Ethan probably hadn’t missed the mark-no doubt Sandra felt lonely, neglected, overextended by the demands of juggling work and motherhood. Obviously Ethan was an adoring audience, quick to shower her with praise and attention.
But he was still a boy. Jason would like to believe that if his wife had betrayed him, it wasn’t with a thirteen- year-old boy. Then again, the other husbands had probably thought the same.
There was a discreet knock on the office door again. It cracked open enough for Adele to appear. “Ethan Hastings’s parents are here,” she said.
Principal Stewart nodded and the door opened wide enough to reveal two very shocked and distressed parents.
“Ethan,” the mom cried, pushing her way past the standing adults to her son. Ethan flung his arms around his mother’s waist, instantly converting from budding Don Juan to frightened little boy. They had the same hair, Jason thought idly. The mother’s short, reddish blonde bob blending in with her son’s disheveled carrot top. They were two peas in a pod. A perfect fit.
He forced himself back into the zone, that magic place where nothing could hurt.
“I don’t understand,” the father started, then noticed the bandage on Jason’s face. “He assaulted you? My
“He has a promising right hook,” Jason offered, and then, when the man blanched, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to press charges.”
Sergeant Warren regarded him with fresh interest.
“Ethan was upset,” Jason continued. “I can understand that. I’m not having a very good week myself.”
The father appeared even more confused, but Jason didn’t feel like explaining anymore. He’d hit the wall. That was it. He was going home.
He didn’t bother with goodbyes, just exited the office while behind him Principal Stewart started explaining the “alleged incident” and the discipline ramification to two parents who probably never imagined their computer-nerd son so much as swatting a fly.
Sergeant Warren caught up with him in the school entryway Jason wasn’t surprised. He was tired and ragged, so of course she was going to press her advantage.
“Leaving so soon?” she called behind him.
“I need to get my daughter.”
“You finally found someone worthy of babysitting?”
He turned, keeping his face composed, refusing to rise to the bait. “She is with the home ec class. I understand they’re baking cookies.”
“She misses her mother, doesn’t she?”
He didn’t say anything.
“Gotta be tough. Being only four years old, and the last one who saw her mother alive.”
He didn’t say anything.
D.D. crossed her arms, moved closer to him now. She had an aggressive walk, with her long, denim-clad legs. An alpha, sizing up game. “How’s your cat?”
“Very cat-like.”
“Mr. Smith’s reappearance must’ve made your daughter very happy.”
“Actually, she cried for her mother.”
“And there goes your one line of defense-that a warm, loving father such as yourself would never harm his child’s pet.”
Jason didn’t say anything.
D.D. moved two steps closer, jerking her head back toward the principal’s office. “So what do you think of your competition? He might be young, but apparently Ethan Hastings spends more time with your wife than you do.”
“You should talk to Mrs. Lizbet,” Jason said.
“Oh yeah? She knows about Sandy and Ethan’s relationship?”
“The true nature, yes.”
“And what is that, Jason?”
“Student crushes are an occupational hazard. Ask any teacher.”
“Sounds like more than a crush to me.”
“Maybe for Ethan Hastings it is.”
“You find out, Jason? Get jealous? Feel a need to put Sandy in her place?”
“I can honestly say I am not the jealous type.”
D.D. arched a brow, openly skeptical. “Everyone’s the jealous type. Even thirteen-year-old Ethan Hastings, to judge by the lump on your head.”
“He had a textbook,” Jason said automatically. “He caught me from behind.”
D.D. smiled at him now, the very picture of friendliness. “Come on, Jason. This has gone on long enough. Tell us what happened Wednesday night. Couples fight, we all understand that. Especially a young couple, juggling work, parenthood. And of course Sandy, being young, beautiful, and very alone most nights… So you got mad. Maybe said some things you shouldn’t have said. Maybe did some things you shouldn’t have done. Sooner you tell us, sooner we can put an end to all this. Get some closure for you and your child. Imagine how scared Ree must be feeling right now. Imagine what it must be like, waking up each morning with her mother’s last words running through her head…”
He didn’t say anything.
D.D. stepped closer, until he could smell the scent of the soap she had used for her morning shower. She had blonde curly hair, not unlike Sandy’s. Beautiful hair, Ree had said, no doubt already missing her mother.
