Schooled in Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

done. His friends called him Looie. The less kind in the opposing faction tended to call him Looie the Loon.
    Carl Pinyon, he of the travel chart at the meeting, and Basil Milovec, another leader of the suckups, followed in Looie’s wake. Milovec was in his late twenties, black hair in a jumble of natural ringlets the envy of women in both factions. Most days of the week, he wore tight black jeans that emphasized what a stud he thought he was. He was thin and scrawny with a scruffy goatee which he let students tease him about relentlessly. He was a taciturn young man given to reciting Wordsworth in the faculty lounge at lunchtime. He believed that teaching teenagers poetry was the way to save their souls. Probably better than drugs, but I wasn’t sure by how much.
    They marched up to us. “I heard you people,” Looie screamed, then banged his fist on the table. “I heard you people. You were saying terrible things about Mabel and Gracie.”
    Morgan said, “How long have you been standing out there?”
    “Long enough,” Looie said. “They’re all true,” Brook said.
    Did anybody really think this was a good time for a fight? Obliviousness in the face of tragedy was more than simply a presidential failing.
    Listening outside other people’s doors was a tactic some of the more immature members of both factions had adopted. It was depressing. Many of us wound up talking in whispers in the middle of rooms. I would never admit to deliberately leaning over to a colleague and whispering a string of nonsense words when I thought one of the suckups was trying to listen.
    Jourdan barked. “Lower your voice. Be a professional.”
    Mistake.
    Schaven went nuts. He roared at full volume. “We’re the ones who are professional. We’re the ones who are trying to make this school better. You’re the ones who are trying to destroy children.”
    Jourdan said, “And sucking up is the way to be professional? Spying on the rest of us is the way to be professional? Sucking up and spying help children how?”
    “We’ve never spied on anyone. None of us would do that.”
    Luci said, “I walked in on Gracie Eberson going through my files. I saw her. She didn’t notice me at my classroom door. She was going through everything. She made some lame excuse and left. When I checked the computer, I found it had been tampered with. Not hard to figure she was up to something.”
    Milovec spoke for the first time, “Exactly what good would that do?”
    Luci said, “Precisely. She wouldn’t need to use my computer to get on the Internet. Why bother? There was no point in hunting in my stuff. She couldn’t have been looking for curriculum materials. All she had to do was ask. There was nothing in those files.”
    “So what’s the problem?” Milovec asked.
    “Snooping on other people’s computers, hunting through other people’s files and desks is okay with you?” Jourdan asked.
    Schaven banged his fist on the table. “You have to stop talking about Gracie and Mabel.”
    Jourdan said, “We still have constitutional rights. You Nazis aren’t in charge yet. Who are you going to report us to? Gracie’s dead and Mabel’s been arrested.”
    Milovec said, “Mabel was not arrested. They’re just taking some time to ask a few more questions.”
    “Yeah, right,” Brook said.
    Schaven said, “There are laws about slander.”
    I had heard more than enough. I stood up and said, “I’ll see you all later.”
    This brought proceedings to a halt.
    Carl Pinyon said, “We’d like to talk to you.”
    “All three of you?” I asked.
    “It’s a union issue,” Pinyon said.
    I agreed to speak with them.
    The others began to stand up and clear their places. While I was washing my cup at the sink, Jourdan sidled up next to me and said, “Can I talk to you?”
    I was going to have to give out numbers like at the deli counter. I told him I’d see him after I talked to the suckups.

6
     
    Once out in the hall, Schaven said, “Let’s talk