“Of course he isn’t getting special treatment. Why would he? No one is. His father being an actor doesn’t make him exempt from what happens here.” And Chase’s parents hadn’t asked for it either, if they even knew about it. But they never asked favors of the school.
“I just wondered,” Joe said gruffly. “It’s a hell of a thing to happen,” he admitted, shaken by it too, and he felt sorry for the girl and her parents.
“Yes, it is,” Taylor agreed with him, as his secretary slipped him a note that Shepard Watts was on the phone, and he nodded to indicate that he would take the call. “I’ve got to go now. There are two detectives here who came up from Boston, from the juvenile rape detail. Keep in touch.”
“Yeah, I will,” Joe said, sounding off balance after his initial attack, and Taylor hung up, and switched to the line Shepard was holding on.
“Hi, Shep. It’s crazy here. What can I do for you?” Before he could say another word, Shepard unleashed a torrent of fury into his ear. How dare they fingerprint his son. He was the head of the board, Jamie was their best student, and finest athlete, Taylor knew the whole family, they were friends, what the hell was wrong with them, didn’t Taylor have any notion of propriety and courtesy? Any loyalty to them? His son wasn’t a rapist. The idea that his son was being fingerprinted had driven him into a frenzy, and Taylor spent fifteen minutes calming him down, and finally had to cut it short. He got back to the two detectives with Nicole, looking harassed and even more stressed than before, after talking to Gwen and Dom about what lay ahead.
“The parents are starting to call and complain about their kids being fingerprinted,” he said, looking tired. Charity was right, it was getting worse before it got better.
“I guess everyone here thinks they’re special,” Gwen said quietly. “That must be hard to deal with at a time like this.” Taylor nodded agreement.
“They’re all special, but no one gets special treatment. It wouldn’t be fair to the others.” Listening to the headmaster, Dominic decided he liked him. He was conservative and traditional, but he seemed honest and sincere, and genuinely wanted to find the rapist, whatever it took.
“Why don’t I take you over to where the seniors are now,” Nicole suggested, as much to give Taylor a break as to accede to their requests.
The police had set up shop in the auditorium, and there were three long lines of seniors waiting for their turns, talking quietly among themselves. Nicole left the detectives to their own devices then to go back to her office.
“You know where to find me,” she told them before she left, and Gwen noticed a number of the students staring at them, wondering who they were. The process was moving relatively quickly. The policemen filled out a card with their name and date of birth, their class at Saint Ambrose for reference, fingerprinted them, and they were done. It was a painless process, but the implication of it was unpleasant, that among them was a rapist, whom the police were determined to find. And for lack of information, no one was above suspicion.
Jamie passed Chase in the line on his way out. They had gone in separately, and had made a point of not spending too much time together for the past two days. Chase had already asked him what had happened to the bottle, and neither of them could remember. No one knew, except Taylor and Nicole, that it was in the hands of the police, and they had lifted prints from it. Chase and Jamie were extremely nervous, and Rick had said earlier that he had been throwing up for two days. He didn’t know if it was alcohol poisoning or stress. When Jamie turned to leave, he saw Gwen Martin watching them and he had no idea who she was. She didn’t look like a cop, but she didn’t look like a teacher either. She looked out of place in her jeans, sweatshirt, and sneakers. And the man with her was badly dressed and looked bored.
Gwen wanted to ask someone who the two handsome blond boys were, but there was no one around to question. She would find out from Nicole later. They were distinctly good-looking and confident. She watched the lines continue to move forward, and by lunchtime, they were finished with the seniors. The juniors were going to be told after lunch that it was their turn.
Gwen and Dominic stayed until after lunch, and then Gwen told her partner she wanted to drop in on Vivienne.
“Is she up to a visit?” he asked her.
“I think so. She talked to the local guys yesterday. Let’s find out.”
They drove the ten minutes to the hospital, and when they got there, the nurse at the station on her floor pointed to her room just down the hall. Her parents weren’t there, which was convenient. The nurse said they had left for lunch. Vivienne was awake when Gwen knocked and walked into the room. She left Dominic in the hall. Vivienne looked startled to see her. She didn’t know who Gwen was. Gwen gave her a sunny smile to put her at ease. “Are you up to a visit?” She wasn’t sick or injured, but she was still a little under the weather from the effects of the alcohol poisoning.
“Sure.” Vivienne smiled back at her. She thought she was a worker from the hospital, or maybe another shrink. She had already seen one that morning.
“I’m from the Boston Police Department,” Gwen said as she sat down, and Vivienne’s face tightened immediately.
“I talked to the police yesterday,” she said in a plaintive tone, and suddenly acted as though she was in pain. “Actually, I have a headache.”
“I’m sure you do. So do we, Vivienne. We want to help, but we don’t have much to go on. Do you think you can jog your memory a little, and try to remember something, anything that happened that night, even way at the beginning of the evening, someone you saw hanging around?”
“I told them yesterday, I drank a lot of tequila and passed out.”
“But you don’t remember who you were drinking with?”
“No, I don’t. I didn’t know them well. What difference does it make? I was just drinking with a bunch of girls.” She had come up with a great cover story. She was too drunk to identify them, didn’t know the boy who raped her, and passed out while it was taking place. “My mom and dad will be back in a minute,” she said as though that would put Gwen off, but it didn’t. Nothing ever did. She was dogged in her pursuit of the truth.
“I’ll just keep you company till they get back.” And then Gwen had an idea. She wanted to know anyway, and Vivienne was as good an information source as any. “I was watching them fingerprint the seniors today,” she said casually, as though it was an everyday occurrence like PE.
“They’re fingerprinting them?” Vivienne looked surprised.
“They’re fingerprinting the whole school, it’s just routine in a case like this. Even the headmaster.” Vivienne smiled at that. “I noticed two really handsome tall blond boys in the line of seniors. Friends of yours?”