Save Me - Lisa Scottoline [73]
“Bbsbb,” he gurgled, with a wet grin that revealed a white flash of tooth nugget on his lower gum.
“A new tooth!” Rose hadn’t noticed, with all the horrible stuff going on. She walked toward the school, reached the concrete ramp, and went inside through the door signed, ALL VISITORS MUST CHECK IN. It was the only door open to the public, and she thought of Tom. She couldn’t imagine filing suit against the school, shook it off, and entered the office. The room was large, with a sunny panel of windows, soft blue walls, and matching patterned carpeting. An oak-like counter divided the office lengthwise, and the front part served as a waiting room, containing four blue-cloth chairs, an end table, and a wire rack with tri-fold brochures for the PTO.
“Hi, Jill.” Rose slid her sunglasses onto her head and walked to the counter. The main secretary’s desk was on the other side, a petite, friendly woman named Jill Piero.
“Hello, Rose.” Jill looked up from her keyboard with a smile that hardened like ice. “How’s Melly?”
“Fine, thanks.” Rose wasn’t completely surprised by the cold shoulder. “I was wondering if you could help me. Melly was really close to Kristen Canton, and she’s so sad that Kristen’s gone.”
“Yes, it’s too bad.” Jill pursed her lips.
“Kristen said she’d call us to say hi to Melly, but so far she hasn’t. Do you have a number where I can call her?”
“I don’t know if we have it, but even if we did, I wouldn’t be permitted to give that out.”
“But Kristen was close to Melly, and she wouldn’t mind.”
“Sorry, no can do.” Jill glanced behind her at the other secretaries, but they were both on the phone at their desks.
“Then can you call Kristen and ask her to give us a call? I’ll give you my cell number.”
“If we have a number for her, I will. I don’t even know if we do.”
“Can you check?” Rose thought a minute. “Or if you have a home address for her parents, I’d take that too. Then I could send her a note or maybe Melly could send her a card.”
“Hold on.” Jill turned and went behind the wall, which connected to the hallway to Mr. Rodriguez’s office.
Rose could hear talking, but couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. She waited a minute, but sensed where this was heading and decided to get proactive. She went to the right, down the hallway, about to find Mr. Rodriguez and ask him herself when she spotted the teachers’ mailboxes, to her left. Neat oak slots lined the wall, and each one was open, many with mail.
Rose scanned the nameplates, in alphabetical order, and reached the C’s. Kristen Canton. Her mailbox was lower than eye-level, and there was a thin packet of mail inside. The school must have been accumulating mail, to forward it when they had enough. She slid it out quickly and read the forwarding address, printed in ballpoint pen next to the crossed-out school address. 765 Roberts Lane Boonsboro MD. She committed it to memory, went back to the counter, and waited for Jill, who returned after a few minutes.
“Sorry, we don’t have her cell and we can’t give out her parents’ home address.”
“Thanks for trying, bye.” Rose left the office, flipped down her sunglasses, walked from the building, and slid out her phone, adding the Cantons’ address to her list of contacts, so she wouldn’t forget it. She started to go back to her car with John, but it was too nice a day to sit in a car, until dismissal. On impulse, she walked to the back of the building and through the teacher’s parking lot, shaking off some unhappy flashbacks.
Here’s the ambulance!
She went around the back of the building and ended up on the far side of the school. The township parking lot lay to her left, and the school buses sat parked against the cyclone fence like a row of yellowed teeth. She passed the grassy stretch of athletic fields, with their soccer goals outlined, and approached the cafeteria from the other side.
She was downwind, where the breeze