one_tough_cop (one_tough_cop) wrote in free_form2, @ 2008-02-22 17:42:00 |
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Current mood: | aggravated |
Some Son's Mother
The school building looked perfectly normal and serene from the outside, but with over twenty years as a cop under her belt, Starnes knew that when things looked normal and serene, the reality was all too likely to be something much different. And besides, the letters on the car seat next to her bore witness to the fact that something was going on in there.
She had run Laura Anderson's name through the computer at work and discovered that the woman was legitimate, at least as far as her credentials went. But her conversation with her daughter prior to that had been the first clue that something was amiss. The letters had been the second. She had caught Denise rummaging around in Ryan's room while the older sibling was out of the house, and the lecture had only been forestalled by the proffering of about a dozen sheets of folded paper. "I found them under his mattress," the fifteen-year-old had mumbled, as if she'd discovered something obscene lurking under her brother's bedclothes.
A brief read sent the detective's blood pressure up, and her daughter's rambling explanation about Ian Weathers and the steam room at her school had only added to her suspicions. Her son came home at six, the door opening and closing almost exactly on the dot, and before he could even put his backpack down, the Voice of Motherly Doom spoke to him from the den where his father usually spent weeknights going over lesson plans. "Ryan? Come in here, please. Now."
, long hours spent in places she never wanted her children to see, but Jesus Christ, Ryan had been so vulnerable since getting clean. If this started to threaten his drug-free state.... Starnes rolled her shoulders and got out of the car, putting on a pair of sunglasses against the glare of the mid-afternoon sun. Technically she was on duty, and her gold shield was in full view on her belt, her service revolver in a holster on the opposite side. Just checking in, wanting to make sure everything was all right. As a concerned parent.
As the detective walked up toward the school, eyes watched her every move. A police officer was just the sort of thing Ms. Anderson had wanted them to keep an eye out for. A runner was dispatched to the Athletic Wing.
The receptionist had disappeared weeks ago, and the position was filled by trusted seniors on a period by period basis. Sally Jenkins was the latest occupant of the chair. The teenager twirled a lock of blond hair around her finger as she chatted on the phone with one of her friends. "...Uh huh, I know...yeah, he's really built isn't he? Uh huh...yeah?...oh wow..hang on."
She put the phone on hold and looked up at Starnes, the expression on her face definitely one of grugdingly degining to do her job. "Can I help you?"
"I'm sure you can," the cop answered with a polite smile, and she removed a notebook from her jacket pocket to flip it open. "I'm looking for Ms...Anderson? Laura Anderson? I believe she's the physical education instructor here. I need to speak with her about a matter concerning a student." My son.
Starnes had yet to take the dark glasses off, and she glanced down at her watch. Twelve-fourteen. Lunchtime for the faculty as well as the students? She directed her gaze over the blonde's head so she could see the hallway leading to the classrooms, then looked back down to face the girl. "Would she be in the teachers' lounge at this time of day? If you could just point the way, I'll let you get back to your phone call."
Her expression turned expectant, and she wondered when they had started letting students monitor the front desk anyway. Was it some kind of brownie points thing? "It'll only take a sec, and then I'll be out of your hair."
"Ummm..." Sally's expression changed slightly and she picked the phone back up. "Missy, I'll have to call you back."
She put a phone call into the teacher's lounge. "Yeah, is Miss Anderson in there? No? OK, thanks."
The girl looked back up at the detective. "She's not there. I can page her if you want."
"That would be fine. Sorry to disturb the routine of things here, but its very important, possibly a police matter." Starnes kept her expression non--confrontational, but she did indicate the badge on her belt. "I'll try not to take up too much of Ms. Anderson's time."
As she waited for the page to be completed, the detective took a slow breath. Something was definitely not quite right here, she just didn't know what it was yet. She had managed to have a short conversation with Dorothy Weathers, and according to her Ian had also been distant and moody at home, but there had been no explanation for his behavior. She had been hesitant to bring up the subject of the letters, not wanting to start a panic, but if this interview didn't go well she might point the woman in this direction. If enough people started asking questions, something was going to come to light.
While she continued to wait, she noticed a group of male students wandering past the closed office doors, the glass window giving her a view of their varsity jackets. About four or five of them, big boys, strong boys. Boys who should not have been meandering down the hall as if they were cruising the nearest shopping mall. Starnes frowned.
When the girl was finished fiddling with the intercom system, the older woman said, "Can I ask you a couple of questions while I wait? Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary around here lately? I can tell that you're pretty on top of things, has anything come to your attention that might not be exactly...appropriate?"
Sally looked up at the woman with wide eyes. "Not appropriate? I don't know what you mean by that. Things have been kinda different this year, students have been given more responsibility in the school, but we're expected to act appropriately. Maybe if you could give me an idea of what it is you wanted to know I could give you a better answer."
The girl knew very well what side her bread was buttered on, there was no way she was going to rat out Ms. Anderson unless it was obvious she was going down. The jocks worshiped the ground the hot teacher walked on, almost literally, and she wasn't going to get them mad at her.
She hoped Ms. Anderson would get here soon.
Maybe I could give you a dictionary so you could look up the word 'appropriate'. Starnes held the smile with an effort.
"There's been some talk," she said in a confiding tone, noting the way the girl was dressed. A halter top and what looked like those awful Daisy Duke shorts? In February? "Some of the parents have been very concerned lately. Its probably just left-over panic from those disappearances that happened a few months ago, but it seems as if some of the student body is displaying odd behavior while away from campus. There have been rumors of drug use, especially among the sports teams. You know how these things can snowball, I'm sure. Rumors and gossip start to spread, and the next thing you know someone's called the police because they believe there's a Satanic cult being formed under everyone's noses."
Including hers, if her gut was right in what it was telling her. Had she been so wrapped up with work that she just hadn't noticed, the same way neither she nor Drew had noticed when Ryan started getting high? The shoemaker's kids going barefoot, and all that. Jesus.
"A locker search has been suggested." A casual enough statement, but the cop was watching the girl like a hawk. "The more prominent students first, and then whoever else might fall under suspicion. Followed by phone calls to their parents, to make sure everything's all right in their home lives." Careful pause. Three, two, one... "Provide that the police have to become involved, that is."
"Oh my..." Sally's mouth opened and closed as she stared at the police officer. Call her parents? There was no way they'd understand what was going on at school. Not to mention what might be found in her locker...
"Um..." The girl fidgeted and looked past the officer toward the athletes. Ratting on Ms. Anderson could get her in deep trouble with the Jocks, and with the teacher herself. There was something different about Ms. Anderson, she couldn't put her finger on it, but she definitely could get males to do whatever she wanted.
Before she could say anything else, the woman in question appeared at the door. To Sally's now experienced eye when it came to the teacher, she'd been interrupted in the middle of something since the woman's hair was just slightly mused and a button not in it's hole on her blouse.
"Sally," Ms. Anderson greeted the girl with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "What did you need?" She noticed the woman standing in front of the desk, and the badge got her attention.
"Can I help you officer?"
"Let's hope so."
Starnes took a moment to size the younger woman up, her expression flattening out into a professional cop's mask, and she removed the badge from her belt to hold it up for closer inspection. "I'm Detective Michaela Starnes of the Las Vegas police department. I'm sorry to have called you away from lunch, but I need to ask you a few questions. It won't take more than fifteen minutes, I'm sure."
She looked at the girl behind the reception desk out of the corner of her eye, noticing the fidgeting, then altered her posture. She was very conscious of the folded letters in the inside pocket of her jacket. "I'm also Ryan Starnes' mother," she added deliberately. "You must know Ryan, I'm sure. He's mentioned you a couple of times, I think. You wouldn't mind giving me a few minutes of your time, would you?"
Say no, I dare you, the detective thought. I'll get a warrant for a search of this entire building, including your office and the grounds. What have you been doing to my son? And why do you look like you just tumbled out of a bed?
Leah smiled, though the hybrid was thinking furiously about how to get rid of the detective without tipping her off anything was amiss. She hadn't known that Ryan's mother had been a cop, if she had she might have kept him out of her inner circle. The boy was an enthusiastic lover though, and surprisingly skilled for his age.
"Oh how nice to meet you Mrs. Starnes, Ryan is such a pleasure to have in class I'm sure you're very proud of him." It never hurt to butter up the parents.
She gestured toward the small, sparsely furnished conference room in the office. "Why don't we step in here?"
There were three chairs and a table in the room, along with a water cooler, but Starnes did not take a seat. She glanced around the room, then closed the door behind them. To keep little ears from overhearing any of this in case it got ugly.
"Its nice to meet you too, Ms. Anderson," she responded. "Again, I'm sorry to disturb you in the middle of your day, but this is a very important matter. Call it over-active gossiping, but in the wake of the disappearances from before every little thing is being more carefully scrutinized lately. I'm sure you understand."
She allowed a practiced pause to come and go, then continued, "The parents have been talking. It seems as if there's been some odd behavior among the students lately; distracted attitudes at home, distancing themselves from their parents, lack of focus on schoolwork. There have already been several inquiries about the matter, but no answers have been forthcoming."
The older woman looked at Ms. Anderson again, saying, "I spoke with the mother of another of your students, Ian Weathers. She's incredibly frustrated with her son's grades of late, and she mentioned to me that it could be drug use that's caused the change in his behavior. I was wondering if you've noticed anything as being amiss lately? Anyone hanging around the school that shouldn't be, possibly someone older? Usually when drugs start to show up in an academic setting, there's only one or two suppliers. Have you been made aware of any of this?"
They'd get to the letters in a minute. As soon as she ruled out any other possibility.
Leah did her best to keep her expression composed and not give away her frustration. She'd warned her followers about not giving things away to their parents, it was too early to try and recruit the fathers yet and the mothers would be suspicious. And yet they hadn't listened.
So it went. As long as she could keep her true identity concealed and keep as much suspicion off her as possible she'd just have to deal with the rest as it came.
"I've heard rumors, but the students haven't confided anything to me specifically. What information I had I've passed along to Principal Gereheart, but I really don't know if he's done anything to address it." The principal, along with the rest of the male staff, was directly under her control, and she'd been careful to marginalize or eliminate the female teachers.
"Ryan and Ian seem to be good boys, but they do tend to be class clowns."
She was playing the 'naive new teacher' role to the hilt and hoping that the other woman bought the act.
"Who was the other boy in the steam room with you? The one with you and Ian, I mean. Denise couldn't remember his name, only that someone else was present. Is he in school today? If so, I'd like to speak with him as well."
It sounded plausible to say that Ms. Anderson wouldn't know everything that was happening on school grounds, but this whole situation felt very hinky to Starnes. Maybe she should run the teacher's name through the federal database when this little interview was over. The older woman shifted closer to one of the chairs, took hold of the metal back of it.
"And yeah, Ryan and Ian are both good kids," she affirmed. "I know that my son can get a little difficult to manage sometimes, but he isn't a natural trouble-maker. I guess he told you about his trouble with drugs before. I'm hoping this possible problem isn't doing anything to upset his balance as far as staying clean goes. His father and I are both very concerned. You're an educator, you must know how it is when both parents in a household work. But we do try to keep an eye on him."
"I enjoy his participation, even though I have to slap him down every now and again." Leah allowed a little of her fondness for her worshiper to show through. "I know he and Ian are just being teenagers trying to have fun, it hasn't been that long ago since I was a high school student myself. It would be a shame if he got involved in drugs again, Ryan has been trying so hard to stay on the football team."
She was breathing a little easier now that the officer seemed less suspicious but she wasn't about to drop her guard.
"I think Jeffery is at lunch, I can have him paged for you if you like."
Did she know a Jeffery? Did Ryan know a Jeffery? "That'd be great, thanks," Starnes said with a nod, still pondering. Nope, she didn't like this at all.
She waited for a few minutes, waiting for the page to be heard through the intercom, and she almost too casually extracted the folded letters from her jacket pocket. "I found these in Ryan's room," she said, and paper crinkled quietly as she opened one to look at the words that had been written there. Omitting Denise's role in unearthing them because that was family business and not for other ears. "Under his mattress. I've spoken to him about them already. He's on restriction until I get to the bottom of it."
The cop cleared her throat, raised her eyes briefly to look at the other woman. "'Dear Laura, I'm sorry I wasn't able to see you after practice today, Coach kept me for so long that it was almost dark and I had to get home before anyone got suspicious. I had planned to ask you to come to McDonald's or something, but I guess maybe next time. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Ryan.'"
Flip, flip.... The rustle of paper. "'Dear Laura, I was very happy to be able to spend some time with you yesterday. I guess those sessions with the weights really have helped me bulk up, ha ha. I'm so jealous of everyone you talk to, its like you're the only person I can see. I'll call you tonight if that's okay, but later when everyone in the house is asleep. Hope you're having a good day. Ryan.'"
Flip... "Dear Laura, I'm very sorry that I got so mad before practice the other day. I know I'm not supposed to be checking up on you, but you haven't had much time for me lately. I guess it made me get a little crazy. Please talk to me. Please. I'm sorry, it'll never happen again. I miss touching you. I'll wait for you after school today if that's all right. I haven't said a word to anyone and no one suspects. I'm sorry. Ryan.'"
And if her voice was rising just that little bit, well, that could hardly be helped, could it?
FLIP! "'Dear Laura, I can't tell you how happy you make me. I keep trying, but it gets stuck in my throat before I can say it. Guess that's why I keep writing it down, like if I practice I'll be able to really say it one day. Practice makes perfect, that's what you keep saying, right? So I'll keep practicing, both that and that other thing, and maybe one day I'll have the right words. I love you. Ryan.'"
Long pause, and Starnes very carefully folded up the sheets of paper before tucking them out of sight with a ridiculous amount of care. She had a gun. Could she get away with it? Would it matter as long as she finished this right now, here in this room? "As I said, his father and I are very concerned," she told Ms. Anderson, her voice deceptively even. "We're thinking maybe we aren't spending enough time with him lately, that's why he's developed some kind of fantasy where he's in love with you. I've had a long talk with him, and I intend to have another with Ian Weathers' parents to see if he's got the same...delusion. Maybe its like mass hysteria, communicable. You're a very attractive woman, Ms. Anderson, I guess I can see where young, impressionable kids would get ideas."
Another silence. "Maybe quite a few of these boys could use a lot more at-home-time. What do you think?"
She'd had a long talk with Ryan? What the hell did that mean, Leah wondered. What had the boy told his mother? Not everything obviously, or there wouldn't be a conversation. Starnes would simply have shot her.
The idiot! The expression of shock on her face could be interpreted as stunned surprise about Ryan thinking that he was in love with her, but what stunned her was the fact that he'd written letters. She'd told them! They weren't supposed to do anything outside of school that would attract the attention of their parents.
It was too soon!
The hybrid composed herself and looked evenly at the detective. "I absolutely agree, I had no idea that Ryan or any of the others were so smitten. I thought it was just a harmless crush..." she hoped the woman bought what she was about to say next, or at least didn't think she was outright lying. "I can assure you that I've never done anything to your son or any other student."
"Mmm." Starnes looked the other woman over, her arms folding over her breasts. Giving her a cop's stare, a cop's stare mingled in with a mother who didn't know what was really going on here, only that she didn't like it. Wondering if she could pretend she believed that her son was stretching the truth.
"I took the liberty of running your name through the local database," she said. "As a precaution, you understand, to make sure that you were legitimate and that I wouldn't have to get something inconveinent like a search warrant. You have no prior record that I've been able to find, nothing except for a few old traffic tickets. As far as I've been able to tell, you're clean."
Pause. "My son has been very troubled in the past. We threatened him with military school if he didn't straighten up, because we were at the end of our ropes with him. I can't...I can't imagine what I would do if I thought that someone was hurting him. Taking advantage of him for their own purposes. Using him." Letting it sink in, because by God she suddenly very much did not like this woman. "You're obviously not a parent, so maybe you don't understand, but Ryan is always going to be my son. I'll always protect him if I can."
Another silence. "But we don't have to worry about that, do we? Because you haven't done anything wrong. Nothing I'd have to protect him over, hmm?"
"Of course not," Leah responded, trying furiously to keep her temper under control. She didn't like the detective, not just for trying to separate her from the proto-worshipers but the way the other woman stared at her as if she were lower than dirt.
"I have not been using your son or any other student." Leah walked stiffly to the door and swung it open. "I think we're done here."
"Yeah. Yeah, we're done." Starnes nodded and put her hands into her pockets, walking past the teacher with her shoulders squared. She was going to have to put in an effort to monitor this situation if she could, not let Ryan go unchecked. And she would be having that next conversation with Dorothy Weathers, just to make sure things evened out on the other woman's homefront as well. Sometimes mothers had to band together, be the glue that kept things in one piece.
"Hope you enjoy the rest of your day, Ms. Anderson. Sorry to have kept you for so long. Have a nice afternoon."