Really?
No way.
Disbelieving, Jules stared at the computer as a serious, deep-timbered announcer gave some information about the institution, including the Web site and phone number. “If your teen is tr
oubled, call Blue Rock Academy. It’s a phone call that could save your marriage, and your child’s life.”
“Oh, give me a break,” Jules said, rolling back her desk chair as music resumed. There was something about the radio spot that felt false, a facade. She thought of Shay, probably already touching down on the campus of the academy tucked into the southern Oregon wilderness.
What was it about the place that bothered her? Why couldn’t she just accept it as the haven for at-risk teens it was touted to be?
She turned back to her keyboard and clicked on a link to the school’s Web site. On Blue Rock Academy’s home page, she viewed pictures of cedar and stone buildings flanking the shores of a pristine lake—Lake Superstition, said the caption. Teens smiled as they canoed through the sapphire water. A large church dominated the landscape. Its windows rose to the high peak of a sharp roofline, and the framework of those glass walls was supported by beams in the shape of a magnificent, three-storied cross. Snow-laden mountains rimmed the campus, their spires sparkling in sunlight.
In a montage of photographs, groups of laughing teenagers were photographed doing a variety of activities: astride horses on wilderness trails, navigating challenging whitewater rapids in rafts, pitching tents near glowing fires, or strumming guitars at sing-alongs under the stars. In the winter shots, some students snowshoed while others skied cross-country.
Blue Rock appeared a veritable Eden.
Of course, there were serious shots of earnest teachers leaning over students’ shoulders as they sat in front of computers. Other pictures of teens avidly studying test tubes and peering into microscopes. Still others were seated in a large carpeted pit in front of a massive stone fireplace. The students cradled open books, camaraderie evident among the good-looking, clean-cut kids. Bibles were in evidence in several of the shots, and not one tattoo or pierced body part or colorful Mohawk was seen. No, sir.
Everyone in the pictures was model-beautiful, teachers, students and aides alike. There was a politically correct mix of Asian, Hispanic, and African American students and staff.
Most of the photos could have been published to advertise a resort rather than a school. The buildings were new and clean, the grounds well kept, the entire campus surrounded by pristine forest. Jules half expected to see a couple of Bambis and Thumpers peering curiously from the woods.
She clicked to the preapproval questionnaire and quickly skimmed some of the questions and answered them aloud as she thought of her sister.
Yes, Shay was angry.
Yes, she disrupted the family.
Hell, yes, she’d threatened a family member, more times than Jules would care to count.
Yep to Shay being in trouble with the law as well as using drugs and alcohol.
Shay had admitted as much. Had she made statements about suicide?
Only to get Edie’s goat.
All in all, there were thirty questions, some general, some specific, all, when applied to Shay, answered with a big yes.
Maybe she shouldn’t be so jaded. Maybe Blue Rock was on the up-and-up. Maybe the counselors there would get through to Shay.
“I hope so,” Jules said to Diablo as the cat trotted into the room and hopped up to her lap. “But I just don’t believe it.”
CHAPTER 4
Trent watched the seaplane descend.
Engines roaring, the aircraft landed noisily. It bounced over the roiling water of Lake Superstition, then motored over to the dock. Steely dark clouds reflected in the shifting water as the pilot, Kirk Spurrier, cut the engine and climbed out of the cabin. With the help of an eager student who’d been summoned by Reverend Lynch, Spurrier tied the plane to the cleats at the end of the dock. Once the plane was secured, Spurrier ducked back inside and Blue Rock Academy’s newest student emerged.
The muscles in the back of Trent’s neck tightened.
Sure enough, Shaylee Stillman, Jules’s younger half sister, was Blue Rock’s new student.
Bad luck all the way around.
Trent hoped Shay didn’t recognize him. If she did, he was counting on her to keep her mouth shut until he had a chance to speak with her alone.
What a damned small world, he thought as he stood with seven of his colleagues on the beach that rimmed the lake. In matching Windbreakers emblazoned with the Blue Rock Academy logo, they were an impressive group: Reverend Lynch was in the lead, with Dr. Burdette a step behind him. Dr. Tyeesha Williams, the women’s counselor with a doctorate in psychology, stood with her arms folded, blinking against the wind. Rhonda Hammersley, dean of academics, spoke quietly with Wade Taggert, a psychology teacher, and Jacob McAllister, a youth minister. At the end of the line, Jordan Ayres, the school’s nurse and medical authority, waited to greet the newest student.