Troubleshooters 16.8 - Free Fall Read Online Free PDF Page A

her pathetically low public educator’s salary. Oh, honey, no . . .
     “I’m Ms. Quinbey, the vice principal. Are you Mr. Gillman?” she asked, her voice clipped with her implied disapproval of his F-bomb.
     “No, I’m a family friend,” Adam said, standing up, resisting the urge to alliterate further as he introduced himself. Quinbey was taller than he was, and she stood like a former ballerina, shoulders back, head high. “ Petty Officer Gillman is currently out training with his SEAL team. As is Petty Officer Zanella, Ben’s other legal guardian. Their wives, Jenn Gillman and Eden Zanella, are out of town. That’s why they asked me to come.”
     The football boy laughed snarkishly at that, and when Adam glanced at him, the boy said, “At least I have real parents. Christ.”
     Dan, Jenn, Izzy and Eden had all worked liked hell to get Ben away from his abusive “real” parents, and Adam found himself looking at those scars again and wondering how many of them this boy’s “real” father had caused. But that was neither here nor there.
     “There should be a letter on file giving me permission to sign Ben out,” Adam told the stern woman again, “or do whatever it is I have to do to take him to the hospital so he can get properly checked. Have you seen the bump on his head? It’s not my place to make decisions about things like this, but I’m sure Ben and his family will be having a discussion about whether to press charges for assault.”
     Them was fightin’ words, and the football player shifted uneasily at that.
     But right on cue, as if he’d seen the good-cop-bad-cop script Adam was using, Ben spoke up. “No one’s pressing charges,” he said. “Adam, that’s insane. Wade and I had an . . . um . . . a disagreement that . . . got out of hand.”
     “A disagreement?” Adam repeated. Of course Football’s name was Wade . “About what?”
     Ben hesitated, looking over at the football player who was now looking back at them with the tiniest spark of something in his otherwise dead eyes. It might’ve been hope, but it was probably just more fear.
     “That’s between Wade and me,” Ben said. His voice was even but he was looking pointedly at Football while he said it. “It was between Wade and me. Very unmistakably between Wade. And me.”
     No doubt about it, Ben was talking in code to ol’ Wade here. It didn’t take much for Adam to guess exactly what had been “between” Wade and Ben as they’d fought. But even though Wade’s face was turning red, Ms. Quinbey remained clueless, so Adam kept his face impassive, too.
     But he couldn’t wait to tell Eden. Our little Ben was cool as ice while he blackmailed that bully motherfucker, right in front of the vice principal! I was so proud . . .
     “But I’m willing to just let it go and not talk about any of it,” Ben continued, stressing that any . “Provided that, in the future, Wade keeps his distance from my friends and me. In return, I’ll keep my distance from him. I’ll never talk about him—in fact, I’ll never even think about him again.” He aimed his words at Wade. “Does that sound fair?”
     Wade nodded almost jerkily, but Quinbey was not having it. “School policy requires at least one mediated meeting for the two of you, with our guidance counselor, before readmission.”
     “I don’t have anything to say,” Ben repeated. “But if we have to, we’ll go to the meeting and even sing Kumbaya.” He looked at Wade again. “You’ll have to take the high harmony.” Back to Quinbey. “But there’s nothing to talk about. We’ve resolved our issue, and we’re not going to fight again. Right, Wade?”
     Wade found his voice, cleared his throat. “Right,” he said, looking up at the vice principal. “Ma’am.” But the look he then gave to Ben was not one of thanks.
     The phrase shooting daggers sprang to mind.
     But Ben’s eyes were narrowed as he gazed back at Wade—this kid wasn’t