“Mom, slow down.” Jules had expected the call, though she could never be totally prepared to handle Edie. “Take a deep breath.”
“I can’t calm down! Your sister is at Blue Rock Academy, and there was a murder down there!” She was ranting, barely stopping to draw a breath. “Didn’t you see it on the news?”
“Mom, I know,” Jules said calmly. “I talked to Shaylee.”
“Oh, my God, did she know the victims?”
“Yeah. I’m not sure about the boy, but the girl was her roommate.”
There was a squeak on the other end of the phone.
“But Shay’s all right for now. Shaken up, of course, and she wants to leave. But as I understand it, that’s impossible not only because of the court order but also because right now there’s an investigation by the local sheriff’s department. They’re interviewing all of the staff and students.”
“Oh, my God! Oh, my God!” Edie was nearly hyperventilating. “I thought I was doing the right thing. I thought she needed the structure of that school. I thought … Oh, Lord, Jules, I know you tried to talk me out of this, but I believed Reverend Lynch and Analise and—”
“Mom, it’s okay,” Jules said, though she knew it wasn’t. The only good news was that Edie possessed a scintilla of maternal love. “Shay is fine for now, but maybe you should lay the groundwork to get her out of the school.”
“I can’t do anything. It’s a court order.” She let out a long, trembling sigh, and Jules imagined her chewing on the end of a brightly tipped fingernail.
“Then talk to the judge. Get the attorney back.”
“First I need to talk with Reverend Lynch. I tried earlier but couldn’t get past his secretary.”
Charla King. Jules had met her in passing.
“Keep trying, and even if you do get through, don’t be talked out of it. Have your attorney file a motion or something.”
Edie was calming down a bit. “And then what? Where will the judge send her? Juvenile detention? A psych ward?”
“Maybe she can attend some kind of day facility in a place where kids aren’t getting killed,” Jules said, trying to get the seriousness of the matter across. “Mom, you need to get Shaylee out of Blue Rock as soon as possible.”
“You’re right. I’ll call Max,” Edie decided.
“He hasn’t exactly been the most dedicated father,” Jules pointed out.
“Oh, I know, but he certainly has the money to … what?” Her voice softened and was suddenly muffled as she tried to disguise the fact that she was talking with someone else in the room—no doubt Grantie-Boy, the latest sycophant in her life. “Oh, sorry,” Edie finally said, her attention returning to the phone conversation. “Did Shaylee leave a number where she could be reached?”
“No. You know the school doesn’t allow calls normally.” Jules walked to the tall windows overlooking the campus. Outside, the night was quiet, though she spied a deputy standing near the gazebo. “But she did say that Blue Rock had beefed up security and that there were officers from the sheriff’s department at the school.”
“Thank goodness! That makes me feel a little better. If she calls again, have her phone me, would you? And I’ll keep trying to reach Reverend Lynch.”
You and every other decent parent of the kids here, Jules thought, hanging up and letting out her breath. Dealing with Edie had never been easy, but it was worse in times of crises. It crossed her mind that Edie, if and when she ever got through to Tobias Lynch, might learn more than she bargained for. Especially if Lynch got on his soapbox and started telling her about how the school was coping, providing grief counseling and new security measures, how they’d even recently hired a new teacher in a never-ending quest for quality education, Ms. Julia Farentino …
For now, Jules would have to take that chance. Looking outside again, she saw a deputy in his car smoking a cigarette, the tip glowing red while the heavy snow continued to fall, as if to bury all the secrets of Blue Rock Academy.
Over the years, Shay had lost a lot of faith in her older sister. In many ways Jules was a screwup. She’d messed up her marriage and jobs, and Jules just never seemed able to get her act together. She was always nursing migraines and complaining of sleepless nights; she’d seemed weak to Shay, or at least a victim of her own neuroses, the kind of person who always shot herself in her own foot.
Incompetent.
Too nice. Too worried about what other people thought. Too much like their mother.
But, Shay had to hand it to her older sister. When push came to shove and Shay was in trouble, Jules came through. Who would have thought she’d have the nerve to lie and find a position at the school?
Certainly not Shay.
Not that Shay was convinced Jules could do anything while employed at Blue
Rock. So she was here—to do what? Jules was planning to play some kind of detective to prove that the school was shady? First, Jules was not a crafty liar. And second, well, the school was already on shaky ground with some serious security problems right now. A girl had been killed. What more did Jules need to prove that Blue Rock wasn’t a safe place?