Page 34 of Peak Suspicion
“I haven’t said a word to anyone,” he said. He eyed the whiteboard. “We need to clean this up. We canceled the fourth period Spanish I class but we need this room for the rest of the day.”
“It would be better to move to another classroom until we can get this processed,” Ryker said. “And we’ll need the footage from all the door cameras. We should talk to the students, too, and try to determine if any of them saw anyone suspicious around this classroom while Ms. Veronica was at lunch.”
“We have almost a hundred students enrolled,” he said.
“We’ll need to talk to all of them.”
“You’re going to disrupt classes for a prank like this?” Principal Martin looked alarmed.
“Maybe the principal could make an announcement, asking if anyone saw someone near here at lunch, to report to the school office,” Mira said.
Ryker considered this, then nodded. “We’ll try that. It would be better to talk to each student individually, but I’m not sure we have the staffing for that.”
She stood, feeling stronger. “I can use the robotics lab for the rest of my classes,” she said. “Mr. Connors doesn’t have classeson Fridays. I’ll put a sign on the door to direct students there.” She looked to Ryker. “If that would be okay.”
“That would be fine,” he said. “We’ll try to be as unobtrusive as possible.”
“Thank you. I appreciate that.” The principal turned to Mira. “In the future, you should lock your classroom door when you leave, in order to prevent more incidents like this.”
She wanted to point out that she wasn’t the one who scrawled a threatening message on her whiteboard, but merely pressed her lips together and nodded.
Somehow, she made it through her final two classes of the day, dodging students’ questions by telling them the sheriff’s department had asked her not to discuss the situation. This was probably only going to inflame the gossip more, but she was too emotionally drained to come up with a better answer.
At the end of the day, Ryker stopped her in the hallway. “You can have your classroom back,” he said. “We went ahead and wiped the board so students wouldn’t see it.”
“Thanks. Did you get any information from the security cameras?”
He shook his head. “We didn’t find anyone sneaking in or acting oddly. A couple of students came forward to say they saw a couple of kids in this area during lunch, but they turned out to be German Club students putting up posters about a fundraiser they’re having. Someone said they saw Coach Anders here, but he was looking for his father, who was supposed to meet him here. Apparently, his dad had a physical therapy appointment at the clinic down the street and he walked down to ride home with his son. He’s done that before. We saw him on the camera—he entered by the front door. His walker set off the metal detector but someone helped him around it and he obtained a pass from the office.”
She couldn’t see how Mitch or his dad had had anything to do with this. Maybe it really was a student who had heard about the accusations against her and decided to stir up trouble. “Thank you for your response,” she said.
“Let us know if anything else happens,” Ryker said.
“I will.” Though she prayed nothing would happen. She didn’t know how much more of this harassment she could take.
All she needed was to relax, she decided. She’d go home, grill some chicken for dinner, have a glass of wine and a bubble bath. Curl up with a good book. Maybe paint her nails. A little pampering would give her a better perspective.
She was walking in the door of her apartment when her phone rang. A picture of her mother’s smiling face appeared on the screen. “Hello, Mama,” she said.
“How are you doing,hija?” her mother asked.
“I’m good,” she lied. She was not going to tell her mom about her anonymous harasser. She wouldn’t put it past her mother to send her father and at least one brother to Eagle Mountain with a moving van to bring her back to Santa Fe. “How are you?”
“I’m doing okay. Missing my girl.”
“I miss you, too, Mama.” As much as she valued her independence, it would have been nice to have her mother here to coddle and reassure her. She hoped she was never too old for that kind of comforting.
“I wanted to tell you about the cutest little house that just went up for sale on the next street over from ours,” Mama said. “It’s that little rosy pink stucco with the courtyard and the sunburst design on the front wall? Do you remember?”
“I don’t, but I didn’t travel down that street very often.”
“They just listed it today. The woman who owned it passed away and her daughter wants to get rid of it quickly, so it’s listed at a very good price. I’ll email you the listing information so you can take a look.”
“I’m not interested in a house in Santa Fe, Mom.”
“Even if you don’t move into it now, it would be such a good investment,” her mother said. “And my friend Carmen Peralta tells me Our Lady of Sorrows School is going to need a new Spanish teacher next semester. Sister Theresa who has taught there for years is finally retiring.”
“Mom, I don’t know that I’d like teaching at a private school.” She had flashbacks of the stern-faced nuns who had ruled her parochial school. “I like my job here. I like Eagle Mountain.”
