Teaser. Burt Weissbourd
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Teaser - Burt Weissbourd страница 14
Название: Teaser
Автор: Burt Weissbourd
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Триллеры
Серия: The Corey Logan Novels #2
isbn: 9781940207841
isbn:
“My real dad.” Maisie felt the adrenaline kick in, just saying it.
Amber put a finger in the air before Verlaine could speak. “What do you want to know?”
“Everything.”
“I see,” Amber said, folding her napkin, working to slow down.
Verlaine sat back, crossed his legs.
“How about who he is? What he does?”
“I don’t know that, Maisie.” She looked at her daughter. “I’ll tell you what I can. A lot of it you know already. All of it is ancient history.” Amber’s face softened then reformed in an earnest expression. “I met Dave in San Francisco. I was a graduate student at Berkeley studying computer systems and theory. Dave was a gifted computer programmer working at the computer science center. He was, well, a charmer, in a bad boy sort of way. Smart, good looking, and sensitive when he wanted to be. Dave was a risk-taker. He, well, he just swept this aging Jewish intellectual right off her feet. I was already thirty and, at the time, Dave was pretty much irresistible.” Amber shrugged.
She looked over at Verlaine, who was watching Maisie, his steepled forefingers touching his upper lip, before continuing, “Anyway, over time, Dave grew more and more frustrated with his work. He wasn’t well-paid to begin with, and when he developed an early pattern recognition program, he deserved a bonus and at least some kind of an acknowledgement for his accomplishment. Instead, his boss took the credit. He got into a fight with his boss, they were shouting at each other in the hall. His boss threw a punch, then Dave broke his boss’s nose. His boss swore that Dave threw the first and only punch. They fired him from the school, which made him virtually unhireable. He taught martial arts off and on—Dave was big, and good at karate—but he couldn’t make a go of it. Then he drifted from job to job. Before you turned four, he was dealing drugs. At first it was just marijuana, but soon he was dealing whatever he could get his hands on.”
“Whoa. You never told me this.” She thought about it, gently pulling at the ring in her eyebrow, a thing she knew irritated Verlaine. At least it explained why Verlaine wanted her head shrunk. He was afraid she was a bad seed. Nice.
Verlaine uncrossed his legs, pulled his chair forward. “Perhaps we should have,” he offered.
Amber frowned. She wasn’t sure. “In any case, it gets worse,” she said. “Dave was arrested. He was in jail for more than a year. When he came out, he was cynical and mean. He went back to dealing, with a vengeance. We started fighting a lot, and somewhere along the way, he developed a drug habit. I took you and moved out. Less than a year later, I took the job in Seattle. We lost touch after that. When I got the divorce, I made contact through a friend. Dave was hiding from the police. That’s all I can tell you. I haven’t heard from Dave in, oh, it’s at least nine years.”
“Do you have any idea where he lives?”
“No. He could be anywhere. Why, honey?”
Maisie looked at Verlaine. He needed stroking. “It must have something to do with reading Oedipus, don’t you think?”
“I was wondering that myself,” Verlaine said, smiling at his step-daughter.
On Sunday mornings Corey often cooked pancakes at a downtown outreach program. On her way out, she stopped at Billy’s door, which was cracked open. She watched him, sleeping soundly, his youthful face carefree.
She was worried, she realized, about Billy and his friends.
CHAPTER FIVE
The “campus” of the Olympic Academy covered almost two acres, on Tenth. The centerpiece was the arts and humanities building, a five story, 50,000 square foot affair. The outside of the building was teal green, with over-sized windows strategically placed to reveal classrooms, a dance studio, the wood shop, and a group of Plexiglas teachers’ offices. Inside, the supply lines were Plexiglas so a person could trace the wiring, plumbing, heating and so forth. All except the sewage lines, of course, which were painted sea blue.
Corey arrived at 9:50 a.m. Monday morning for her 10:00 a.m. parent conference with Will’s advisor. The design committee had probably specified relaxed and welcoming, but they’d ended up with specially-milled, wide-planked, hardwood floors, stone water fountains, ancient Asian tapestries, and stark white, space-age security panels. Corey found the place stiff and self-conscious. She stopped, confused by a poster for a film series with admission restricted to people of color.
Will’s advisor’s office was on the fourth floor. Through his Plexiglas walls, she could see Tom Gleason, a history teacher, grading papers. She watched him—so serious—before she knocked.
“Hello, Tom.”
“Nice to see you.” He shook her hand. Tom had long black hair, a neatly trimmed mustache, and a kind face. She liked his colorful hand-woven tie, worn without a jacket. He was openly gay, no nonsense, and, Corey thought, easy to talk to.
“Can I let my hair down a little—off the record?” she asked.
“Depends.”
“I want to talk about a couple of Billy’s friends. I don’t want them to know—or Billy to know—that we talked.”
He scratched his head, weighing this. “I can do that.”
“Here’s the deal. I’m pretty sure Aaron Paulsen and Maisie Daniels are doing drugs. It may be just marijuana, it may be more than that. The thing is, they’re lying to their folks.”
Tom nodded, just barely.
“The drugs by themselves aren’t the problem. They’re hanging out with an older girl—Will said ‘at least twenty’—and I think she’s been into the hard stuff. Look, I trust my instincts on this. Something’s wrong.”
He looked at her, making a decision. “Let’s ask Toby to join us.”
Corey hesitated. “If you think it’ll help.” It couldn’t hurt, she reasoned. At least it would get his attention.
Tom receded to a corner when Toby Paulsen arrived. He leaned against the Plexi wall, a watcher. Corey understood that.
Toby paced the floor in Tom’s cube, listening to Corey’s concerns. When she was finished, he turned to her. “Corey, I spoke with Aaron last night. He and Maisie are in love, he was articulate and sweet about that. And yes, they may have cut some classes, but that’s something I know how to handle. He’s a responsible young man, and he’s old enough to manage his own love life. Even make a mistake.”
She looked right at him. He didn’t get it. “Toby, please…‘Letting them make mistakes’ doesn’t work with opiates.”
Toby raised his bony fingers, a give-me-a-chance gesture. “Aaron promised me he wasn’t doing anything more than a little weed. And last night, he promised to lay off that, too. I believe him.”
“Maybe.” She hesitated, wanting to get this right. “But Star’s streetwise, and there’s a reason she’s hanging out with sixteen-year-old, private school kids. Maybe it’s sex, СКАЧАТЬ