Background

You glance at Brian and get an uncertain look back. You look at Holly not feeling reassured by her pretty smile.

"Questions about what? We've been there less than 24 hours, and you've just told us more than we could possibly know."

"Questions like 'Who interviewed you?' 'How did you hear about the job openings?' 'What's your first impression of the school?'," she smiles. "Pretty basic stuff."

"Maybe not," you answer. "I'm not sure you've told us everything you know, and I'm not sure it's a good idea to have my name in a newspaper story about the school."

"So you want to be off the record? I can do that."

"I'm not sure I want to talk at all," you answer. "There are only four male teachers. If a story appears with unattributed quotes from one of them it won't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out which one it was." You see Brian frowning and nodding beside you, as though he hadn't considered that.

"Ok, then on background? No quotes, no 'sources close to' none of that. Just fill in some blanks for me and it may give me some leads." She sees your deepening frown and gives you a look of appeal. "Look Mr. Carter, something went on there last spring. Something bad. Maybe something evil. And one person is dead and another disappeared and a blanket was thrown over it because these are wealthy and powerful people. If you want to help them cover it up, that's your business, but you're the one who has to live with yourself."

"I'm also the one who has to have a job to keep eating," you answer. "Why don't you talk to some of the teachers who have been there a while?"

"Perhaps I have. Perhaps they don't want to talk, or are scared. Perhaps they're the source of what I've told you. Look, you and Mr. Watts, plus Mr. Sharp and Mr. Hawkfeather, you're a new factor at the school. First just because you were hired at all, second because you, or some of you at least seem to have been recruited specifically. Targeted so to speak. That seems pretty unusual to me and well worth investigating."

You think back to the letter you received, inviting you to a job interview for a position you didn't know about and hadn't applied for. The interview with three members of the Board of Regents that focused on your teaching credentials and made only passing reference to the firings that had resulted from your drinking. As if they wanted you to know they knew, and that they were throwing you a lifeline anyway.

A lifeline you were only to grateful to grasp, you remember, and without asking too many questions about why it was thrown. You look at the pretty young reporter and consider your response.