mosquito and this little flying bug wore his collar backwards, the dean thought wryly. Oh, he didn't think that the young chaplain posed any kind of a real threat to their little sex club but it really ticked him off to think that a little nobody, a minister who had been at Craven for only one month would even dare to suggest that an investigation of sexual practices be launched. Why the whole thing was an open secret and it didn't involve any kind of coercion or rape or any of those things.
Christ, Reverend Bradley Corman was straight out of the nineteenth century with his quaint ideas about the kids of today. Why a lot of those little teenaged nymphets couldn't wait to get it on. These youngsters didn't want to fuck around with the boys their own age, either. They wanted men and if the men were able to bestow certain favors on them so much the better. A lot of the girls found out about the goings-on up at the School Board and volunteered to be part of the festivities. Sure, some of them needed a bit of gentle persuasion, the dean thought, but for the most part they were ready, willing and able.
Well, I don't think that crusading chaplain is going to be able to stir up much interest from other members of the Board but perhaps it would be a good idea if I did alert some of the old boys, he thought. Especially, as tonight a transfer student at the school was going to come to the offices and uh… perform. The poor kid needed to pay for dancing lessons and she was talented. The members of the board would be more than happy to pay for the fourteen year old girl's lessons in exchange for certain, uh… favors…
The Dean had seen the girl in the hall a couple of times and he had made a point of making the youngster seem welcome at Craven and had spoken to her in a fatherly tone. When he'd seen her earlier today, he'd invited her to a performance. The girl's name was Marilee and although the dean suspected that she was more in the know than she let on, he didn't think that the kid realized that she was going to be the performance.
Well, there'd be an exhibition, all right. And it was going to be live. And little Marilee what's-her-name was going to be the star. Dean William Lowell licked his lips lasciviously at the thought, then bent his head over his desk.
Arlene Lowell was dressing when the dean arrived home.
'Dinner ready?' he asked.
'What am I a Goddamn cook or something?' she snapped, admiring herself in the mirror and dabbing some perfume behind her ears. 'I'm just on my way out, I don't have time to cook.'
Lowell sighed. He was a big man all over town and with everyone except his wife. Arlene was always going somewhere and the dean suspected it was often with some pretty rough company. Their marriage had disintegrated to the point where it almost seemed a nuisance to get a divorce so she continued with her affairs and he continued with his little pursuits with young girls. Once in a while she would involve herself in one of his activities if it seemed sufficiently sordid or amused her in some way but for the most part she was content to go her own way.
Arlene knew that Bill would probably have stayed home if she were interested in being a model wife. But she wasn't, not by a long shot. Why there were still cocks in the town she hadn't tasted and she certainly wasn't going to get her full share sitting on her butt and waiting for her husband to come home. She had her own allowance from her father's estate so she didn't have to feel guilty about not providing any services for her husband. He was a big boy. He could fend for himself as far as she was concerned.
Bill found a cold chicken leg in the refrigerator and made himself a sandwich wishing that he was sitting down to a home-cooked meal for a change. He couldn't remember the last time Arlene had prepared anything. It wasn't that he couldn't afford to go out for a meal but somehow eating in restaurants all the time was not the same.
He heard the door slam and knew that Arlene had gone off to meet her latest paramour. Probably some farm worker or unemployed dishwasher, he thought with disgust…
Lowell quickly showered and changed his clothes and drove over to the School Board building. The building was on a small estate and there were iron gates at the entrance. He hopped out of the car and turned the key in the lock and drove right up on the circular drive.
'Evening, Mr. Lowell,' the caretaker Jud Farber greeted him.
'Hi, Jud, any of the others here yet?'
'They're upstairs. I'll get Milly to get them.'
The Dean waited in the office that was now converted into a bar for the other members of the board to come down. He had decided to tell them about Corman. He didn't think it was any big deal but he felt they had a right to know. Anyway, another plan was forming in his mind. He was going to fix Reverend Uptight and fix him good. He'd make sure that the bastard kept his nose in the Bible where it belonged, not in the lives of others. God, he couldn't see what the sense of having a chaplain was anyway. No one at the school was religious in any way in fact, they were more atheistic if anything. It was really just for form's sake that they had anyone and up to this minister they had all taken a back seat and kept their noses out of school business. It was up to Lowell to make sure that he did. He was not about to change his life for this jerk's misguided morals.
'Hey guys,' Lowell greeted Mitch Bryant and Dave Hudson as the two men strolled into the bar. Both men were in their fifties and exuded a cool demeanor that suggested power.
'What's up, Bill?' Dave said.
'I hope nothing, yet,' the dean said. 'We could have a little problem though with that new chaplain we have over at Craven. It seems some anonymous caller… probably some asshole who didn't get his rocks off… told him about our little happenings up here and he's all gung-ho to do an investigation of some sort.'
'Christ, there's always some do-gooder throwing a monkey wrench in the works,' Mitch muttered.
'Maybe not,' Lowell paused here for effect. 'Maybe we're going to throw the first monkey wrench.'
'What are you talking about?' Dave asked.
'On occasion my wife speaks to me and I've decided to enlist her aid in my little plot.' The two men snickered at Lowell's comment about his wife for Arlene's exploits were well known in the small town. 'Arlene doesn't know it yet but she's going to seduce the reverend's wife and he's going to watch the whole thing. He'll be our invited guest. With a bit of luck we can get his daughter up here too.'
'Jesus! You don't leave any loose ends do you?' Dave said whistling under his breath at the audacity of the dean.
'Look, I don't have to put up with any little snot-nosed member of the God squad coming on to me about my sexual preferences. At first, I was almost amused by his righteous indignation but then I got riled and I'm going to get the little bastard. No one interferes in my business. I've got too much at stake here.'
A few other men came in, all old friends of the men still sitting at the bar. They ordered drinks, finished them and ordered more. At one time or another all the men present had been either on or associated with in some way, the School Board. Some of them were retired principals and administrators and it was obvious that the older men were becoming impatient. Finally, a really old man croaked up. 'Aren't we havin' a show tonight?'
'It could be going on right now, Jay,' the dean spoke up. 'Let's go up to the conference room and take a peek.' He led the others from the bar and into a darkened room. They seated themselves around a table and Lowell pressed a button. Almost at once the mirror on the wall lit up, and then, as they watched, they saw the room behind it light up, too. Everything was as clear in front of them as if they were in the same room.
Dave Hudson was talking to a young girl… Marilee what's-her-name… who was nursing a drink she held in the glass between her hands. At his urging she finished it, and then took the cigarette he handed her. They seemed to be in deep discussion although from the other side of the mirror the voyeurs could not hear what was being said. The girl inhaled a few times and it was obvious she was not used to smoking for she coughed a couple of times.
'Come on, Dave,' Mitch urged even though his cohort couldn't hear him. 'Get the kid naked.' He licked his lips in anticipation of seeing the young girl naked standing before the mirror, unaware that she was performing for an audience.
Even though the fourteen year old girl had not taken off a stitch, spirits were high in the conference room and breathing began to get labored as the men prepared for what they thought would be an interesting show.
For a time they were silent, watching with rapt attention as Hudson spoke rapidly to the girl, gesticulating
