Lucky Thirteen (3 page)

3

Thirteen

R
a
y
inhaled deeply as he stood. He still felt as if he might vomit at any second. He opened his locker and found a clean white golf shirt on the top shelf. He could not remember the last time he had actually hit a golf ball, but at least the shirt was clean. Chris’s hand fell over his shoulder. It held a can of Axe and a bottle of Visine. She confided, “I commandeered the spray from Baker’s locker. The eye drops are from my purse.”

He smiled.
“I guess I don’t really have time for that shower and shave, huh?”

“Not right now
. Maybe after we talk with the woman up front.”

Ray and Chris walked
to their shared office space after he doused his musty smell with the Axe and dropped some of the redness remover into each eye. A woman of about fifty with short salt-and-pepper hair fidgeted in a chair beside Ray’s desk. Her dark eyes studied the framed documents on the wall behind the desk as she waited. Chris made the introduction, “Dr. Fairchild, this is Detective Reynolds. He’s in charge of investigating this horrible ordeal. Ray, this is Dr. Rona Fairchild, the principal at St. Ignatius. She has come to report a missing teacher and is terrified the young woman might be number thirteen.” Chris finished with a scowl.

Ray shook the short, stocky woman’s hand
. “Dr. Fairchild, why do you think this case could be related to the others?” He sat in his chair as Chris pulled another from the corner.

Dr. Fairchild gushed like a severed artery, “Because Larkin Sloan never misses school, her car is in the school parking lot, she doesn’t answer her home phone or her cell phone, and she didn’t answer the door when I went to her house after she failed to show up for school today
. Larkin has missed four days of school in five years and only because she had strep throat. She was named teacher of the year last year. She loves her job and her students. She’s the most dedicated teacher I’ve ever had. She had a really
bad
day yesterday, but she would never neglect to call in unless something was seriously wrong. I just feel it, Detective. I’m terrified.” The older woman started to cry.

Ray handed her a tissue from his desk drawer
. At the same time he snatched his notepad and a small recorder. Dr. Fairchild sniffled. “Thank you.” She dabbed her honey-brown eyes. “I’m sorry to fall apart on you, but Larkin Sloan is very special. I love her as if she were my own daughter. We’ve spent a great deal of time together in the last five years. I never told her how I feel about her.”

Ray patted the distraught woman’s hand
. “I’ll do my best,” he replied, his voice sounding hollow. “You know, adults are usually not considered missing until they’ve been gone for forty-eight hours, but under the circumstances, I’m not taking any chances. Now, Dr. Fairchild, what happened yesterday to make things different from any other day?” He touched the recorder. “May I?”

Dr. Fairchild
nodded. Ray pressed the record button as the woman began to speak. “Larkin was physically assaulted by the new student in her class. Mr. Manning, my assistant principal, took her to the emergency room at Catholic Charity Hospital for stitches after the boy threw a book at her and hit her in the face. She told him she would grab a cab back to school, so he left. I already called the ER, and Dr. Bixby, who attended her, said she left in a cab.”

Ray wrote in his notepad.
“What about the kid who assaulted her? Do you think he did something else?”

“No
. He was in lockup and still is.”

“All right
. We’ll need to talk to him anyway. Is he a juvenile?”

“No
. He’s eighteen. Dupree Parks. He’s in the parish holding facility.”

“At least he’s easy to find
. We’ll also talk to the ER personnel and try to find the cabbie. What can you tell me about Miss…Mrs. Sloan?”

“Miss
. She’s not married, not seriously involved with anyone that I know of.”

“All right
. Tell me about Miss Sloan.”

Dr. Fairchild smiled sadly
. “She’s brilliant. All her colleagues love her, as do most of her students. I already told you she was teacher of the year last year. At St. Ignatius, this is a 50/50 vote between students and teachers.”

Ray smiled as he thought
Dr. Fairchild’s view of Larkin Sloan had to be skewed because of her obvious emotional attachment. He prompted, “Dr. Fairchild, what makes Miss Sloan so brilliant?”

“Larkin is from a small town in Mississippi
, called Soso, if you can believe that. She’s an only child. Her parents were killed in a car accident when she was five, and she lived with her maternal grandmother until the grandmother died when Larkin was thirteen. Then, she lived in the Mississippi Baptist Children’s Home until she went to stay with a Pastor Eric Moore and his wife, Emily. They died in a house fire during her senior year in high school, and she became an emancipated minor. As far as I know, she has no family.”

Ray furrowed his brow
. “Sounds as if she might be a survivor. Tell me more, Dr. Fairchild.”

“Rona, please.”

Ray nodded.

“Although she had a rough childhood, she turned out great
. She has inner strength and a deep faith. She graduated high school valedictorian. In high school she was a member of the drama club, the choir, the newspaper staff, and the soccer team. She sang the female lead in the high school production of
My Fair Lady
, was editor-in-chief of the paper, and captain of the soccer team.”

Chris cut her eyes at Ray
. She asked, “She was a busy kid. Isn’t that a lot to take on?”

“
Participation in four major extracurricular activities is a lot,” Rona admitted. “I would never advise a student to do more than three, but Larkin is driven. She pushes herself to the limit.”

Ray asked, “Is it possible she pushed someone too hard yesterday?”

“Not at school.” Rona immediately jumped to Larkin Sloan’s defense. She clutched the tissue as if she wanted to break something.

“All right,
Rona,” Ray said in an attempt to placate the woman’s protective mode. He could sense she really did have a motherly affection for the young teacher. “You were telling me about Miss Sloan’s background.”
I can’t imagine her singing the lead in a musical having any bearing on the case. I don’t recall any of the others having a talent like that
. He said, “Continue.” He made a note to check for special artistic talents for the other victims.

“She attended Mississippi College on full scholarship
.” The woman’s voice took on an air of fantasy in Ray’s mind. He and Chris exchanged looks.

Chris was tempted to tell the woman to stick to the facts of the day before, but she bit her tongue and let Dr. Fairchild ramble just in case she shared some small tidbit of importance
. “She worked as youth minister at Cornerstone Church, a nondenominational church, while she was in college. She majored in education and double minored in literature and history. She graduated Summa Cum Laude.”

“Summa?” Ray
asked. He leaned forward and scribbled a note to himself.
Check other women’s GPA. Maybe killer hates smart women
.

Chris said what Ray thought, “With all the other stuff she was involved in, she graduated Summa
? She must be a genius.” Her voice held a note of cynicism. “Go on.”

“She
is
very intelligent,” Dr. Fairchild reiterated, drawing her mouth into a thin line as she turned to face Chris. “Everything she endured was what swayed me to hire her in the first place. I thought if she could handle all that, she could deal with juvenile offenders. Larkin came to St. Ignatius the fall after she graduated. She has been with me five years. While here, she has taught ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade English; journalism; social studies; creative writing; drama; music; and gifted, believe it or not, we have some gifted kids with serious behavioral or legal problems.”

“All of those different subjects
? How?” asked Ray.

“Not all at the same time, of course
.” Dr. Fairchild gave the detective a scornful look. Her tone made Ray cringe inside. He could feel the wooden ruler the nuns used smacking the palm of his hand. He felt seriously reprimanded. “She now teaches English, all four levels, journalism, and choir. She has started a newspaper and a choir. Our classes are quite small, so we don’t have the population to even consider sports, or I’m sure she would’ve pushed at least a soccer team to coach. She coaches at the Y. Larkin believes that although these kids are in an alternative school setting, they should have opportunities to shine. Her strategies have been very successful. Most of her students have gone back to regular school and eighty percent have gone on to graduate. I told you, she’s
brilliant
.”

“She sounds too good to be real, Dr. Fairchild,”
Chris said from behind Rona.

“In some ways she is,” admitted Dr. Fairchild
. “She’s not perfect. I’ve seen her throw little tantrums when she thought nobody was watching. She has a temper and is stubborn. She kicked the copier yesterday because it was broken.”

Ray chuckled
. “It’s good to know she’s human,” he said. “Please, tell us whatever else you think we should know.”

Chris, her eyes stretched wide
, gave him a look that said—
Cut to the chase
.

He knitted his brows together and barely shook his head
. Chris narrowed her eyes to slits and clenched her jaw. Ray could almost hear his partner’s teeth grind.

“Very well,” said Dr. Fairchild, oblivious to the silent communication. “She received her Master of Education from Belhaven College by taking courses during the summer, and we’ve discussed her getting her doctorate.

“I know she attends Charity Chapel, a nondenominational church where she works with the kids’ Sunday school program
. She lives in an antebellum house that she bought and is restoring. The house was wired for electricity in the 1950s, and nobody had lived in it for ten years before Larkin bought it.” She passed Ray a piece of paper with the address on it. “Her roommate is named Cyclops. He’s a scarred, one-eyed black cat she rescued from an animal shelter after Hurricane Katrina. He was scheduled to be put down, but stole her heart, just as Larkin has stolen all our hearts at St. Ignatius.

“She doesn’t have a steady boyfriend although she’s absolutely beautiful
. I happen to know she does go out from time to time. She loves seafood, Mexican food, and margaritas.”

“Can you write a description for us?” the detective asked.

“I can go you one better. I brought her picture from her ID badge that stays on file in the school system’s computer data base.”

Ray took the picture, and the strangest thought occurred to him
.
If this woman is this pretty in a mug shot, what does she look like in person?

Ray brought himself back to reality
. “This is quite helpful. We’ll get Miss Sloan’s picture circulating immediately. Chris and I will start talking to people as soon as I shower and shave. I must look a fright to you, Dr. Fairchild, but I’ve been working almost around the clock. I apologize for my appearance.”

“Detective, I understand
.” With her hand that clutched the Kleenex, she pointed toward the photographs of graduations and awards, along with diplomas on the wall. “You seem to be pretty driven yourself, B.S. in Criminal Justice from LSU, Master’s of Sociology from Southeastern Louisiana.”

“That was online,” he hastened to say.

“Still, you did the work. Plus, you got an EMT certification and a commendation for valor. Were you shot?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Chris noisily slapped her notepad on her lap.

Dr. Fairchild scowled at her
. “Do whatever it takes to get Larkin back safely. If you need to speak to the other teachers, let me know the day before you come, and I’ll get a floating sub so you can to talk to everybody.” She wadded the tissue Ray had given her earlier and dropped it in the wastebasket by his desk. “If you need to speak to the minor students, let me know so I can have parents or guardians present. But I don’t think your criminal is among us.”

Chris asked
, “Dr. Fairchild, honestly, what does her background have to do with her being missing now?”

“I don’t know
. That’s your job,” Rona spat. “You told me to tell you what I thought was important.”

“How is what she did as a teenager important to
this
case?” Chris pressed. “Give me something current. A name. Anything that pops into your head.”

Rona
creased her brow. “Maybe I’m overly attached. I’ve never been able to have children. Larkin’s the daughter I never had.” She sighed. “I know you two must be grasping at straws. She’s gone out several times with a guy named Brad Tisdale, but I don’t think anything will come of it.”

“Thank you,” said Chris
. “That could be a starting point.”