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  “Is Jean not coming over this morning?” Josie asked.

  “I don’t know, sweetie. I haven’t heard from her since yesterday. She had called a few times, and when I tried to call her back last night, she didn’t pick up. She might be busy,” I said, then added: “Eat your breakfast. I’ll stay till the bus comes if she doesn’t show up.”

  “Who’s gonna look after Mom?” she asked, concerned. “If Jean can’t come today? She usually takes care of her till she needs to go to work.”

  I sighed, not knowing what to say. My dad could come over, but I’d have to change her feeding tube and catheter and turn her in the bed to prevent pressure sores. After that was done, my dad could easily take over.

  But that meant I’d be late for work. It wasn’t going to make me popular.

  “I hope she’s all right,” Josie said and finished her orange juice. “She usually always comes over in the morning, even when she’s worked night shift.”

  I nodded and took a bite of my pancake as well. “I know. It isn’t like her. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m sure she’s all right, though.”

  But you do know, don’t you? She kissed you, and the way you reacted scared her off. What if she never comes back?

  Barely had I sent Josie off with the bus when I received a text from a number I didn’t know. It said:

  I AM READY TO TALK. JAMES.

  Chapter 37

  I skipped Covington’s house completely and drove directly to Howard James’s address. It was close to the school, and that’s where William was going to be in a few minutes anyway. I drove onto the driveway and parked, then rushed up to the house. I knocked, but no one answered. I grabbed the door handle and opened the door, then walked inside.

  “Howard James? It’s Harry Hunter. I came as soon as I got your text…”

  I walked into the living room and found someone sitting in the kitchen.

  “Howard James?”

  The guy didn’t look up at me. He stared at the tabletop in front of him, his head bent, his shoulders slumped. I walked up to him and sat down in a chair across from him. He finally lifted his glance and looked at me.

  “They can never know.”

  “Who? Your family?”

  He nodded. “Julia and the kids can never know.”

  I shook my head as my eyes fell on a picture of him and his family on the wall. The kids could be no more than three and five years old—two beautiful girls with light curly hair and broad smiles.

  James grabbed my arm with his left hand and clenched it, a desperate look in his eyes. His right hand, he kept under the table.

  “You must promise me they’ll never know.”

  I looked into his eyes, then nodded. “Of course.”

  James eased up slightly and let go of my arm. Tears sprang to his strained red-rimmed eyes. He looked like a man who hadn’t slept in weeks. He looked like a broken man about to fall apart.

  “Just tell me,” I said. “You need to get it off your chest.”

  He stared at me like he was still undecided whether he could trust me or not, then wiped his nose with his hand, sniffling.

  “You’re not gonna like it,” he said.

  “I’m sure I won’t, but right now, keeping this a secret is making you sick. You can trust me.”

  He gave me another suspicious look, then made his decision. He leaned back with a deep sigh.

  “I don’t know exactly when it started. Or who came on to whom. But it happened. The very thing that can’t happen when you’re a teacher.”

  “You fell in love with a student?”

  He exhaled, then nodded. “Yes. But I never wanted it to happen. You must trust me when I say that I never meant for it to go this far. It just…”

  I closed my eyes briefly, thinking about my Josie. I didn’t know what I’d do if I found out a teacher had…I couldn’t even finish the thought.

  “How far did it go?” I asked, even though I desperately didn’t want to know the answer.

  He gave me a look. “Too far. It went way too far. We started meeting up in secret and…”

  “You slept together; I take it?” I asked.

  He swallowed, then looked away.

  “Okay,” I said. “And I take it that William Covington found out somehow and used it against you?”

  “Yes, but it’s more than that. I didn’t find this out until later, but he arranged the entire thing. He set me up.”

  I wrinkled my forehead. “How so?”

  James breathed raggedly. He was a desperate man at this point.

  “He…he…forced her to…to pretend like she wanted to be with me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “He saw how I looked at her in class, and he told her to play along. She told me this later on when we were alone, and she broke down and cried. He pressured her to sleep with me. He knew a secret of hers that would be so devastating to her and her family that it would have destroyed her life. She never told me what it was, but it was enough for her to do as he said. He trapped me, so I’d do as he told me to.”

  James spoke through gritted teeth, and I sensed his anger from where I was sitting.

  “I’m not justifying what I did,” he continued. “I knew what I did was wrong. But to find out that it was all…based on a lie? That got me so mad.”

  “Only now, you can’t do anything about it because William Covington knows.”

  “He has pictures. He hid in the room. We were in her parents’ house when they were out of town, and he was there too when we…and he took pictures with his phone that he has kept.”

  “And now he’s blackmailing you? What does he want you to do?”

  “Let him pass my class,” James said. “It’s as simple as that. He was failing, and he went this far just to pass. He’s that despicable. Just for a passing grade.”

  “But I’m guessing he’s not stopping there,” I said.

  “No. That was just the beginning. Now, he just enjoys torturing me for the fun of it. He shows up here and acts like he owns me. He gets me to fail people he doesn’t like, or to get him stuff that he needs like alcohol, sometimes weed, stuff like that. I’ve become his darn puppet. That’s all I am. And it won’t end.”

  “And you can’t tell the police because they’ll arrest you for having sex with a minor,” I said. “Why now? You know I’ll have to report you after this.”

  Tears rolled down his face while his hand moved under the table. His eyes looked at me, pleading.

  “Stop him, please. I made a mistake, and now I’m paying the price,” he said, sobbing. “My family will be destroyed, and so will I. But he can’t hurt anyone else. Please, stop him, please.”

  Seeing the deep desperation in this man’s eyes almost made me lose it. “I…I can’t…I mean…”

  James shook his head, tears running across his cheeks. “You can’t stop him, can you?”

  I felt paralyzed. I had no idea what to say to him. Should I just tell him the truth, that a guy like William Covington was hard to stop, especially when no one would stand up to him and tell the truth? When he ran a regime of terror that was built on destroying everyone around him?

  “If you come forward,” I said. “If you tell the truth, then maybe others will…”

  I said the words, but he knew I didn’t believe them. I had barely finished the sentence before he shook his head, crying hard, then pulled out his hand from underneath the table. It was too late when I realized it was holding a gun.

  Chapter 38

  James placed the gun on his temple and pulled the trigger. It all went by so fast; I hardly even managed to react. The bullet blasted half of his face to pieces, and he fell to the table with a thud, slamming what was left of him into the wood.

  I was paralyzed with shock.

  I was barely breathing.

  Just like that, a life was over. Just like that, two children were fatherless, and a wife had become a widow.

  It was unbearable to even think about.

>   I stared at the body in front of me, then down at the blood that had sprayed my shirt and my hands. I was shaking, trembling, half crying, half choking. I was hyperventilating, my eyes staring at Howard James lying there, lifeless.

  Oh, dear God, no.

  When I finally was able to gather myself, I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and called for first responders, frantically tapping the display, speaking through tears as the call finally went through.

  It took less than twenty minutes before Fowler was standing in the doorway, looking at me. I had been talking to the paramedics until then, and now my colleagues entered.

  “What the heck do you think you’re doing?” Fowler asked, raging. “Where’s the boy? Where’s William Covington?”

  “He’s at school up the street. I was here to talk to…one of the teachers. He had something he needed to talk to me about. It was important.”

  “Important enough for you to leave your post?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  Fowler growled. “Need I remind you that you’re not working a case here?”

  “No…but…”

  “You’re in the business of protecting. Why are you interviewing teachers?”

  I stared at him, then shook my head. “You know what? I just watched a guy, a father, take his own life. I am not going to stand here being talked to like I’m a baby,” I said. “Fire me if you have to.”

  I pushed myself past him, out the door, while he turned to look after me.

  “You bet I will. You’re out, Hunter!”

  I paused, took in a deep breath, and closed my eyes for a brief second. I wondered if there was anything I needed to say…if I should ask for his forgiveness for the sake of my family’s survival, but then decided against it. I was done with this game. I didn’t owe him anything. Instead, I continued on my way outside. The sky had grown dark, and black clouds had gathered above me like they knew how I felt.

  I was angry. No, it was more than that. I was good old fashioned pissed off. I was sick of this boy and what I had learned about him. I was done with protecting him. And I was going to make sure he was done terrorizing people. Fowler had fired me. I had nothing more to lose.

  If I was going down, then I was taking him down with me.

  Chapter 39

  I drove away from the scene after giving my testimony to one of my colleagues, telling him the details of what had happened. Then I rushed back to my car and took off. Luckily, I had a jacket in the car that I put on to hide the blood on my white shirt. I didn’t want to scare people. I then walked into the school and into the front office. I showed the lady sitting there my badge. She stared at it, startled.

  “I need to see William Covington. Now, please.”

  The lady behind the desk nodded nervously, then grabbed the phone and called a number.

  “Yes, could I have William Covington come to the front office, please? There’s someone here to see him.”

  I stared at her round face and narrow-set eyes as she listened, then nodded. “Okay, I see.”

  She hung up and looked at me. “William left early. No one has seen him since third period.”

  I lifted my eyebrows, surprised. “He left early?”

  “That’s what they said. He didn’t sign out with me, though, as he is supposed to. He’s not allowed just to leave.”

  “So, you don’t know where he is?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “I’m afraid not.”

  “And he couldn’t be in some other class?”

  “He’s supposed to be in Math, and he wasn’t. When the teacher asked about him, someone said William left after third period. That’s all I know.”

  I exhaled, confused. “Okay. Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, my pulse quickening. Something wasn’t right here. I could sense it; something was awfully wrong.

  I thanked her again, then left, rushing outside. I was on my way to the minivan when I thought of something. Call it instinct or maybe just a hunch, but something seemed to be very off here. There was one thing I needed to check before I left. I hurried across the parking lot, where I found William’s Range Rover still in its usual spot.

  “That’s odd,” I mumbled, then walked up to it, thinking maybe he was still sitting inside and hadn’t taken off yet. Or perhaps he had just come back from doing whatever it was he was up to. The driver’s side door was left ajar, and I pulled it open. I took a glance inside and spotted something on the seat that made my blood run cold. I picked it up and held the chess piece in the air.

  “The Queen? And just what is that supposed to mean?”

  I looked around me. The school parking lot was eerily quiet. A flock of pelicans floated above my head while my head spun with the many thoughts rushing through it. Where could he have gone? Why hadn’t he taken his car?

  Had something happened to William Covington? Had something happened to him while I was supposed to have been protecting him?

  Chapter 40

  Help!

  Jean had been in the trunk for what felt like an eternity. The car had stopped moving and had been parked somewhere for a long time while Jean was left in there for hours and hours. At first, she had tried to make noise and knock against the lid of the trunk, but the struggle had been so exhausting that she had fallen asleep at some point. As she woke up again, she was still in that small compartment, and fear spun through her body as she suddenly believed she had been left there so that no one would find her before she died from thirst or starvation.

  Please, someone, find me; Lord, please, help me!

  Jean kicked and moved around the little she could when she accidentally kicked the back of the compartment, and something came loose. A speck of light came in through the crack she had made in the old car, and she could peek into the cabin.

  She heard noises from outside of the car, then lay completely still, barely breathing. She heard footsteps approaching, and someone was whistling. Then the door to the car opened and the radio was turned on again, music filling the car.

  Jean squirmed up toward the crack she had made in the back seat and managed to peek into the cabin of the car. The person sitting behind the wheel was whistling along with the song on the radio, and the car took off down the road. The light blinded her slightly at first, but as soon as her eyes got used to it, she recognized the face of the doctor she had seen by Sophia’s bedside.

  Only this was no doctor.

  The car took a turn, and Jean managed to squirm around even more, so she could get a better look. She then waited until the car came to another stop at a red light before she made her move. She kicked the seat hard, and it burst open. The driver still didn’t hear anything over the loud music. It wasn’t until Jean reached over the back of the seat and wrapped the rope used to tie her hands together around the driver’s neck that she was finally seen.

  A half-choked gurgling sound of surprise emerged from the driver’s throat as Jean tightened the rope around the driver’s neck. As the driver eased the foot on the brake, the car started to roll slowly forward into the intersection. The driver squirmed and fought for a few seconds before the body grew limp and lifeless. Jean managed to pull the body back into the back seat, then squirmed into the driver’s seat, slid into position, and grabbed the wheel with her tied up hands, then placed both of her tied up feet on the brake just as the car was about to knock into a street sign.

  Jean turned the car to the side, then managed to slide her tied up feet toward the accelerator and sped up. She maneuvered the car back onto the road and continued, then took a turn.

  She drove the car through heavy Miami traffic while people swerved around her, honking loudly, some giving her the finger, her mouth still gagged, her hands and feet still tied together. Then she found a parking lot in front of a school and drove into it and parked the car, breathing with relief.

  She then turned her face to look at her attacker, lying lifeless in th
e backseat. She reached her hands up and tried to pull the gag out, but it still wouldn’t move. Panting behind it, she squirmed across to the passenger seat and managed to open the glove compartment, then sighed with relief as she pulled out a fishing knife. Holding it between her two hands, she reached down and cut her feet loose. The rope used was thick, so she had to grind it for what seemed like forever.

  Jean groaned behind the gag when finally, her feet came free, and she could move her legs properly again. She then had to turn the knife toward the rope holding her hands. It was a lot harder than she had expected, and the knife kept slipping out of her hands, but finally, she succeeded, and soon, she could move her hands again. She then lifted the knife to the rope strapped tight around her mouth and neck, holding the gag in place, then cut it, and finally could take out the nasty cloth. She spat and gagged as it was removed, suddenly feeling the pain in her jaw from being in the same position for hours and hours. She took a deep breath, then looked back at her attacker again. She turned around, reached into their pocket, and pulled out a cellphone.

  She dialed a number, praying he’d pick up for once in his life.

  Chapter 41

  I had barely gotten back into the minivan when my phone rang. I pulled it out, then picked up.

  “Hunter.”

  “I’ve seen the girl,” a voice said on the other end. I recognized it immediately as T-Bone’s.

  “Lucy Lockwood?” I asked.

  “Yes. She was just seen in Coconut Grove. I’ll give you the address once we’ve negotiated a price.”

  “Coconut Grove? What’s she doing there? That’s where her parents live. Why would she go back there and risk being seen?”

  “Listen, man; I don’t know. But one of my buddies saw her drive into an address there and told me about it. If you want the address, then you have to pay up.”