Without Mercy - Lisa Jackson [61]
Shay! Her heart stopped. You’re too late! Something horrible has happened to your sister!
“I don’t want to alarm you,” Hammersley went on.
Too late!
“But I was afraid you might hear it on the news, so I wanted to tell you that one of our students has died, and another is in critical condition at a nearby hospital.”
Jules let out a little squeak of protest.
“The doctors are not certain that he’ll make it.”
Not certain that he will make it, Hammersley had said, meaning a boy. Not Shaylee.
Hammersley cleared her throat as Jules’s mind raced with scenarios of horrid accidents befalling her sister and a friend. Boating, horseback riding, wilderness hikes, rock climbing—all dangerous. All potentially deadly.
“Who?” Jules forced the words out as she noticed a turnout for a logging road and pulled the car onto the frozen shoulder. Her tires slid to a stop, and she pushed the gearshift into park.
“I really can’t give out the information until next of kin has been notified. School policy.”
“But I’m on the staff,” Jules said, panic blooming in her chest, her heart thudding out of control. Not Shay, oh, please God, not Shay!
“Don’t worry, you’ll hear everything when you get here. You’re on your way?”
“Yes, not far…maybe twenty or thirty miles, but it just started snowing.”
“Yes, there’s a storm hanging over the mountains. Take it slow. Did you bring chains?”
“They’re in the back.” But Jules had never used them. She wasn’t even sure how to chain up.
“You’ll need to park in the lot near the gatehouse,” Hammersley said. “There’s an area marked for all staff vehicles. I’ll have someone meet you at the gate, get your name on the clearance list, and make sure you get in without any trouble.”
“Thank you,” Jules said weakly. She hung up and let her shoulders sag as she drew in several deep, calming breaths. The windows of the Volvo had fogged during the short conversation, the white hills closing in. Half an inch of snow already coated the hood of her car. Apprehension and isolation tugged at her, and she tasted fear, so bitter on the back of her tongue. Even if Shay wasn’t hurt, one student was dead, one was hurt; two families would be as frightened as she was now.
As frightened as Shay was to be shipped off to the academy?
With trembling hands, Jules pushed the gearshift lever into drive and pulled onto the road again, her tires sliding just a bit. What, she wondered, had she gotten herself into?
Rhonda Hammersley walked into the rec hall where the students had been asked to assemble. The detectives from the sheriff’s office wanted to talk to each of them, and while deputies did the first round of interviews, separating the wheat from the chaff, the rest waited.
The room was somber and ghastly quiet. No one cracked jokes. No one strummed a guitar. All the students sat with books open, though the dean suspected that no one was studying.
Who could blame them?
Beyond the windows, snow floated down as it had all day. Big, fluffy flakes swirled lazily from the heavens, adding a serene blanket of white to the grounds, capping the trees, coating the walkways.
The campus looked idyllic and peaceful, though it was anything but calm. The students were freaked, and already, Charla King, the school secretary, reported that a few frantic parents had phoned. Someone had leaked the information. Perhaps it was an employee of the school, the sheriff’s department, or the hospital where Drew Prescott now lay in critical condition.
Whatever the source of the leak, the word was out. Hammersley had helped Reverend Lynch field a few calls from the media. One television van was parked at the main gates, and if the weather improved, helicopters would be buzzing overhead, trying to film the campus. In fact, the weather was the one thing staving off eager reporters, terrified parents, and scads of law enforcement agencies. Old tragedies like the Conway girl’s disappearance and Maris Howell’s alleged sexual involvement with a student would be revisited.
Dark times ahead for Blue Rock.
Worry consumed her as she walked across