Angel Among Us Read Free Page A

man with soft round hands that looked like a woman’s. He sat at his desk, unable to move, unable to act. Occasionally, his secretary would look in on him, then close the door, leaving him to his indecision. If he dithered this much about every matter, the school was in trouble. Once or twice, he started to reach for the phone but held back.
    I could not understand what had him so worried. As lunchtime came and went, he still did not move. He went back to work on other papers of inconsequential nature. It was not until early afternoon that he phoned the police.
    Two cops I did not know arrived quickly. The school was served by a new substation I had never visited. One cop was young, skinny and white. His partner was an older Hispanic man putting on weight in his middle age. Both seemed bored with their assignment, especially since the principal did not help his case. Whatever was bothering him, he was having trouble spitting it out to the cops.
    His secretary, who had been listening in at the door, finally took matters into her own hands. She entered the room and interrupted her boss’s utterly baffling attempts at explaining what he feared.
    â€˜Sir,’ she said to the principal, ‘I apologize for interrupting, but the other teachers and I have discussed the situation and I feel perhaps I could add some information here.’
    The two cops looked as if she had about thirty seconds before they shut their notebooks and left. So far, they had learned nothing from the principal to make them the least bit concerned about the teacher who had failed to show that morning.
    â€˜We have long noticed that Arcelia was afraid of something,’ the secretary explained. She patted her hair anxiously. ‘There were times when it seemed as if she was in physical pain, as if it was difficult for her to move. We thought she was suffering from some illness, but then one of the teachers suggested that maybe she was being, well, abused.’ She exchanged a glance with the principal, who had flushed red at the idea. ‘She hasn’t been married long. I think maybe two years or so. She’s been working here for a year now and, to be fair, she’s never said a word about her husband being abusive in any way. But once we started watching her more closely, it did become obvious. Arcelia was afraid of someone and she was often in physical pain.’
    â€˜Now, now, Mrs Trafton, everything you say is simply hearsay,’ the principal said. ‘There is no proof that her husband is doing anything to her.’ He looked up anxiously at the police. ‘I have been through this before,’ he sputtered. ‘I lost the best teacher I ever had due to unfounded accusations. It was awful. I simply cannot let that happen to another person.’
    Mrs Trafton wasn’t buying it. ‘The police need to know,’ she said firmly. She faced the two beat cops and took a deep breath. ‘Arcelia is married to the mayor’s son.’
    The youngest cop dropped his notebook and his partner looked at him in disgust.
    â€˜Are you telling me that the missing teacher is married to Mayor Gallagher’s son?’ the older cop asked. He turned to the principal in exasperation. ‘Couldn’t you have told us that right away? Don’t you think that was important?’
    The principal looked stricken, but no one was paying attention to him any more. The news that the missing teacher was married to an important man’s son took precedence.
    That was my town for you. There were the men who were elected and served in obvious seats of power. And then there were the men who knew better than to run for office, who understood they could hold power longer if they simply controlled those who did. Mayor Gallagher was the latest in a long line of local leaders controlled by men in my town who, I suspected, live here so that they can launder money for even scarier men who lived a few states north. No one who