“I’ll have to.”
“I don’t envy you,” Dominic said sympathetically. “That can’t be easy, particularly in a school like this.” But they both knew that any parent in any social stratum would have been terrified for their child in a situation like it. And at least Saint Ambrose parents could afford powerful lawyers, which others couldn’t, and some of their parents couldn’t either, like the scholarship kids. “We’ve got six sets of prints that are a match with the bottle, other than the victim’s. James Watts, Gabriel Harris, Steven Babson, Richard Russo, Thomas Yee, the boy with the violin, and Chase Morgan. Those are the six.” Taylor was sitting with his eyes closed, feeling sick as he listened.
“Those are some of our best kids. Our three top students in fact, and Chase is the son of Matthew Morgan, the actor, which means we’ll have national media coverage if it goes farther than underage drinking at a crime scene, and even that will drag all the press here for weeks. We’re in for a tornado, Detective Brendan.”
“We might be. It could turn out to be a tropical storm, not a hurricane. Let’s hope so. Is eight A.M. too early for you?”
“We’ll be ready for you. And thank you for calling me first. See you in the morning.”
“We’ll run them in to the hospital first, it’ll just take a few minutes. It’s a cheek swab. Do you have a vehicle for them?”
“We’ll bring them in one of our vans.”
“Detective Martin and I will follow you. Good night.”
When Taylor hung up, his hands were shaking. Charity walked into his office where he’d taken the call and saw the look on his face, and walked over to him.
“What happened?” She was worried about him. He was deathly pale. This was one of the greatest challenges he had faced in his career, or even in his life.
“Six senior boys are a match with the fingerprints on the tequila bottle found at the crime scene. Some of our best boys.” His lip was trembling as he said it and there were tears in his eyes, thinking of what lay ahead if it turned out to be more than drinking on campus on Halloween. If the DNA matched one of them, the boy would be prosecuted, and if convicted, he would go to prison. He couldn’t even imagine it at seventeen. He looked at Charity then, he trusted her completely with all his secrets, even this one. “Steve Babson, Rick Russo, Gabe Harris, Tommy Yee, Jamie Watts, and Chase Morgan.”
“Oh my God,” she said and sat down next to him. “Are you going to call their parents tonight?”
“I’ve been told not to. They’re taking them in for questioning and DNA tests tomorrow morning. They asked me to wait to call the parents until after that, since Nicole and I will be there with them in loco parentis.”
“Should you call Shep as head of the board?” She looked worried, for all of them.
“I can’t. I have to follow what the police want. They’re afraid that they’ll run. And I agree with them. I think some of them would. And Nicole is worried about Tommy Yee. We don’t want a suicide here on top of it. I think after tomorrow it’s going to be open season in the press. I just hope we come through it, and the boys will be okay. Whoever committed the rape deserves to be punished, but the others could be prosecuted too.”
“You just have to ride the wave now. It’s all you can do.” She kissed him, and they walked slowly to their bedroom together. She put him to bed like a child. She knew he’d have to be strong tomorrow, and she was willing her own strength into him, as he cried in her arms, and she held him tight.
* * *
—
Adrian Stone was in the infirmary that night. Betty Trapp wanted him where she could keep an eye on him in case he had another asthma attack. The doctor had prescribed some pills to take along with his inhaler, and Maxine Bell, the school counselor, had dropped by to see him. He was happy and relaxed, watching TV and eating dinner on a tray.
“How is he?” Maxine asked the nurse when she came in, before she went into the other room to see him.
“He seems okay. He was very agitated when I saw him earlier, and he seems anxious.”
“Have his parents filed any new court orders against each other? That usually does it to him.”
“Not that I know of. I asked if he’d heard from them recently, and he said not since school started.”
“That was two months ago,” Maxine said with a frown. “Wonderful, concerned parents,” she said to Betty in a whisper. “They drag him into court every chance they get, in order to punish each other, but they don’t call or write just to see how he is. Did you call them today after his attack?”
“I have orders only to text them, so I did. I texted them both. I said he was doing fine, told them about the medication Dr. Jordan added, and neither of them responded. I guess they figure he’s okay, and we’re watching him here.” Maxine nodded, and went in to visit Adrian, who seemed fine. He was a slight boy, short for his class, and had been too thin since he got there. In his pajamas he looked more like twelve than sixteen, and had barely gone through puberty yet. He had the faintest shadow of fuzz on his upper lip and nothing more, and his long hair made him look younger too. Some of the boys in his class already shaved.
They chatted for a little while, Maxine didn’t want to interrupt his show, and left him to have a cup of tea with Betty, who was happy for the company. Betty had come to be the nurse at the school when her husband died. She had no children, and it seemed like a perfect solution to her new situation. And Maxine had never been married, and had enjoyed working in boarding schools for thirty years. Both women were in their fifties and had become good friends, and both were dedicated to their jobs, and the children at the school.
“I got an email a few minutes ago that we don’t have to be fingerprinted tomorrow. Anything new there?” Maxine asked her.
“I got it too. There was no explanation, it just said it was canceled.”
“I hope they figure it out soon. All the kids are tense right now, and a lot of the girls are scared.” They talked of other things then, and Maxine went back to her suite of rooms near her office on campus a little while later. They had already agreed to spend Thanksgiving together and were going to New York for the weekend, for the theater, as they’d done before. It would be good to get away.
* * *
—
Vivienne lay in her bed at the hospital that night, after her parents went back to their respective hotels, and she thought about what Gwen had said to her, about making the boy who’d raped her accountable for what he’d done. And she hadn’t lied about her headache, it really was worse. She believed that if she told the truth and made all of them accountable for their part in it, especially Rick, their lawyers would somehow make her look like a slut in court, and her parents would be ashamed of her. She knew she’d been wrong to be drinking with the boys, but she had never expected it to turn out the way it had. For just a minute she had liked the feeling of both Chase and Jamie wanting her, and then Chase had gone crazy, he and Jamie got in a fight, and everything got out of control when Rick had sex forcibly with her, and after that she passed out.