The Word of a Child Read Free Page B

window turned as Mariah entered.
    Her breath escaped in a gasp and she stopped halfway inside,
clutching the doorknob.
    As the big man with short, reddish-brown hair faced her, his
light gray eyes widened briefly just before his expression became utterly
impassive.
    Anyone but him, she thought wildly. His voice would live
forever in her nightmares and as the kernel of her guilt. If it had occurred to
her he might be sent… But it hadn't.
    She heard herself say hoarsely, "I'm sorry, I
can't…" as she began to back up.
    Noreen Patterson half rose from her chair behind the desk.
"Mariah, what is it?"
    Her wild gaze touched on him. She was
breathing like an untamed creature caught in a trap. "I … I just
can't…" she said again, her voice high and panicky.
    He said nothing, only waited at the far end of the office. A
nerve spasmed under one eye, the only visible sign he understood her distress
or felt it.
    The vice principal had reached her. Gripping her arm, he
said, "What is it? Are you sick, Mariah?"
    Sick. She
seized on an excuse no one would dispute.
    "Yes." She swallowed. "I'm sorry. I'm not
feeling very well."
    Detective Connor McLean abruptly turned his back so that he
looked out the window rather than at her.
    "The flu is going around," Ed Lamarr said.
"Here. Why don't you come in and sit down."
    In? She couldn't.
    But it seemed she could, because she allowed herself to be
led to the chairs facing Noreen's desk. Sinking into one, she tried not to look
at the broad, powerful back of the man gazing out the window.
    The principal sank back into her seat. "Do you feel
well enough to talk about Tracy for a minute?"
    Mariah breathed in through her nose, out through her mouth.
Slowly, carefully. She could be strong. He had never threatened her, never
raised his voice.
    He had only destroyed her marriage and her belief in both
her husband and herself.
    No. Her fingernails bit into her thighs. Be fair. It was
childish to hold him responsible. He was not the accuser. If he had not come,
it would have been someone else. He was only the messenger. The arm of the law.
    Lily Thalberg's voice.
    As now he would be Tracy Mitchell's.
    "Yes." Miraculously Mariah heard herself sound
calm, if far away to her own ears. "I'm fine."
    "Ah. Well, let us know if it gets the best of
you."
    Mariah sat with her knees and ankles together, her spine
regally straight. Poised. A lady, who would never let anything get the best of
her. "Of course," she agreed.
    "Then I want you to meet Detective Connor McLean of the
Port Dare Police Department."
    Had he recognized her, or only seen that the sight of him
upset her?
    He turned.
    She said stiffly, "How do you do." He nodded.
"Ms. Stavig."
    Noreen smiled at Mariah. "Tracy Mitchell chose to come
to Mariah. She tells me 'everyone' says you can be trusted."
    Mariah focused fiercely on the principal, blocking out her
awareness of the police officer.
    "In this case, of course, I couldn't keep what she told
me confidential. In the future, students may not think I can be trusted."
    "She understands that you did what you have to
do."
    "Did she ask you to keep what she told you
confidential, Ms. Stavig?" asked Detective McLean.
    Mariah stared fixedly at the pencil cup on the principal's
desk. It was a crudely made and glazed coil pot, a child's effort.
"No," she said. "What Tracy wanted, I think, was for Mr. Tanner
to be fired. She must have realized I didn't have the power to accomplish that.
She did get somewhat upset at the idea of the police becoming involved, and
particularly that she might have to testify in court."
    From her peripheral vision, she saw him pull a notebook from
an inside pocket of his well-cut gray suit coat. "Will you repeat what she
told you to the best of your memory, Ms. Stavig? I believe she may have been
more expansive with you than she was with Mrs. Patterson."
    "Yes. Okay." Mariah took a deep breath and began,
at first disjointedly, feeling herself blush at the recitation of