Page 110 of A Scandal in Homeroom
I could make out certain words.
Dump.
Puzzle.
Solve.
Boyfriend.
I moved my finger out to the edges of the page, up and down, right and left.
Sincerely.
Don’t.
Please.
Irene.
Finally, it was done. A simple message written across the entire page.
Please don’t dump me, Irene. You’re the only puzzle I ever want to solve. Sincerely, Your Boyfriend.
I smiled. It wasn’t stuffed bears and rose petals in my locker, but it was very much Locke. I turned the page over and gave him my reply.
I’m not a puzzle. I’m a girl who doesn’t like to see her new satin dress ruined. So maybe, just maybe, I didn’t get a chance to say thank you for saving me from Moriarty. Sincerely, Your Girlfriend.
I folded up the note and tossed it over my shoulder. I heard the crinkle of the paper, then what I thought was a sigh of relief.
“You mean it?” he said, leaning forward over his desk to whisper in my ear. “You’re not done with me?”
I leaned back and tilted my head. “Locke, I’m never going to be done with you. After all, I need your help if I’m ever going to understand how to balance chemical equations.”
“I see. So your plan is to use me. Very well. Consider me your servant.”
I smiled, then tried to focus on the teacher. Not very well at all. And when the bell rang, Locke stood behind me, waited for me to stand as well. Then he took my hand and together we walked the halls of Haddonfield High, a united couple.
* * *
Fairton Federal Prison
New Jersey
“You got a visitor,”The guard announced.
Roger Bennet looked up from the bunk on which he sat in his cell. “My lawyer?”
The guard shrugged. “Guy looks a little young to me, but what do I know?”
The guard opened the cell door wide, and Roger stepped out with an impending sense of dread. His lawyer was a man in his fifties. Maybe he’d sent someone with a message?
Or maybe he should have been expecting the person sitting on the other side of the visitor’s window, the phone already pushed up against his ear.
Roger lifted the phone on his side of the glass and pressed it to his ear.
“Hello, Dad.”
Roger scowled. “Don’t call me that!”
