Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Bexley
T ony’s list said to get canned beans.
That was it: canned beans .
Did he mean baked beans, Mexican salad mix beans, red beans… Why were there so many types?
While I waited for an answer to my frantic text asking for clarification, I walked around the store doing what everyone does at some point—picking up shit I didn’t need but wanted to have in the pantry just in case.
The floor guy was coming in two days, so I had to be smart about what I bought. The problem was, now that I’d successfully cooked one meal, I wanted to make more.
Ooo, a Crock-Pot, I need one of those .
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” an angry voice hissed behind me. “Teaching kids about rape and how it’s funny?”
Turning around, I took a step back when I saw how closely Piersville’s mayor, Dirk Kirkwood, was standing.
“I didn’t teach them that. I taught them about a book called The Rape Of The Lock and stressed how different society was back then to now. ”
His lip lifted in a sneer as he looked at me from head to toe, making me feel dirty just by looking at me. “I’d have thought that your grandpa and parents would have raised you better, but obviously, they aren’t what we thought they were.”
“Mayor Kirkwood, I had written permission from the parents before even mentioning the book due to the controversy of the title. But if you’d just let me explain why we were teaching them that, I’m sure you’d understand and appreciate the weight of it. I can also promise you that my grandfather and parents, as well as myself, are upstanding citizens who only—”
“I have complaints, Mizz Heath, from the parents your purportedly got permission from. Some of them even state that their kids are idolizing rape now, thanks to you.”
“What?” I breathed, my heart plummeting into my feet. That wasn’t the object of the lesson. Why would that be what they took away from it?
“I’m also in discussions with a highly respected judge to have your grandfather’s remains exhumed and banned from being buried in the town.”
Could they do that ?
In just a few allegations, my world was literally crashing down around me. Pops loved our town. My whole family loved it. Why would they want to remove his body from his grave?
I couldn’t breathe.
“Well, Mayor Kirkwood,” a deep voice said beside me, and I turned to see Hurst Townsend standing with his grandson Cole. “Fancy bumping into you here.”
“I need to get groceries just like everyone else,” he sniffed, just as Cole moved in next to me and squeezed my shoulder.
“Wait for it,” he whispered, confusing me.
What more could there be ?
“Now, did I hear right, or are my old ears deceiving me?” Hurst asked, tapping his chin thoughtfully. “There are complaints against Miss Heath about a class on an old piece of literature? ”
“It fantasized about rape,” Kirkwood replied, glaring at him. “It also made it sound like it wasn’t as severe a crime as it is. What kind of teacher tells the youth of Piersville, impressionable young people, that?”
Holding a finger up, Hurst pulled his phone out of his back pocket and touched the screen. “ The Rape Of The Lock , a satirical piece published by Alexander Pope, satirizes the cutting of a lock of hair from a woman and compares it to something akin to the tragedies outlined in the mythologies of the Gods. Pope used the vapid nature of society to emphasize the triviality of the situation.” Then, lifting his head, he asked, “Do you wish for me to continue what the book is about?”
“That’s not the point,” Mayor Kirkwood snapped, pointing at me. “She told them that the word meant nothing, so they now assume that rape isn’t a disgusting crime.”
“Actually, I said the opposite of that,” I told him quietly, still feeling sick over it. “I said that today rape is something horrific and that Pope managed to stress that to the society around him by comparing their reactions to a lock of hair being cut off to an atrocity like that. The only reason I even did that was to assist Miss Waite with educating them on how words have power, so they should choose their words carefully. It’s a lesson based on making them better people and not following the teachings of the internet on how to conduct yourself.”
Hurst had been watching me carefully throughout my explanation, and when I finished, he added, “I agree with that. Those two students who tried to commit suicide after following a random account who told them to do things to join up to an anonymous club could’ve done with being taught what Miss Waite and Miss Heath have been teaching. Did you hear about the attempted suicides? How about that group of kids who did whacked stuff because a guy calling himself Blue Elephant Boots online told them to? ”
“That’s not what she did, though,” the mayor argued. “I have statements from parents who—”
“Well, I’d like to see those,” Hurst interrupted. “If Miss Heath is being accused of something like that, surely showing her the statements wouldn’t hurt. I mean, if this goes to court, she’ll hear them straight from the parents.”
It looked like Mayor Kirkwood recoiled into himself, like a snake about to strike. “I will do no such thing. That’s a violation of their human rights.”
“What?” Cole chuckled. “You of all people are talking about violations of human rights—which is a weird thing to just throw in at this point, by the way—when you’ve also threatened to exhume the body of Bexley’s grandpa?”
“It’s pertinent to the case,” Kirkwood sniffed.
“It’s pertinent to jack shit apart from whatever scam you’ve got running, man,” Hurst said loud enough to get people's attention.
Once he made sure we had enough people around us, he added, “Now, I’m going to personally get statements from the students and their parents about the class. I’ll make sure to be thorough, don’t you mind.” Then, he said quickly as Kirkwood opened his mouth, “No, you’ve had your say, now we’re having ours, so shut up.”
“You can’t talk to me like that—”
“Just did,” he threw back. “Now, where was I?”
“You’re getting thorough statements from the students and their parents,” someone shouted. “I’ve got two kids who went to those classes and said they learned something big to take away with them. Never mentioned condoning rape or anything like that, so I’ll start by giving you mine now.”
“Me, too,” another voice called out. “My kid read the book and said it taught him about society today, too, and that we need to focus on what’s important. I’ve been trying to tell him that for years, so I’m happy he finally got the damn message.”
“Well, this seems like a good place to start,” Hurst mused, looking at me out of the corner of his eye. “And I’m also going to get a lawyer to look at your threats toward the body and final resting place of Lawrence Heath, ‘cos that shit’s just messed up.”
“You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, and your language is disgusting,” Kirkwood sneered. “Did you even go to school?”
“Yeah, it was back in the day when they had to chip away at stone to write it all down, but he went,” Cole snickered, ignoring the glares from both men. “Looks like he came away with more than you did, though.”
“And finally,” Hurst said, taking a step closer to Kirkwood. “I’m going to run for mayor. For years the people have been running this town, doing the work you wouldn’t do unless it benefited your family. I’m sick and tired of doing your job for you, so I’m going to run for the position. And I will beat you.”
“Well shit,” Cole muttered, his voice only just audible over the cheers and noise coming from our spectators and his body shaking with laughter. “I don’t think he meant to say that, but I’m glad he did.”
“You can try, but it won’t happen,” Kirkwood tried to fire back confidently, but his body language screamed he was far from it.
Then, giving us a scathing glare, he left his cart with items in it and walked away, leaving me staring at Hurst in shock.
Moving over to join Cole and me, Hurst patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, that bullshit is just that—bullshit. My daughter-in-law is on the PTA, and when they were discussing your lecture on the book, they sent out a questionnaire to parents whose kids had been in the classes. All but two of the parents said they appreciated the comparison and the use of an old piece of satirical literature.”
“And the two missing ones?”
“They came in themselves to discuss it and concluded that they wanted to establish a classical literature after school club.”
“So where did he get the complaints from?” Cole asked, looking through the groceries Kirkwood had left behind. “Oo, what do you think he uses this for?” he held up a bottle of lube to show the stragglers from the crowd who all wrinkled their noses at it.
Glaring at his grandson, Hurst shook his head. “I dunno where we went wrong with this one.”
I don’t know if I’d say they went wrong, but he was definitely unique.
“Could have used this when Louis went through the wall,” Cole said, throwing it in the air and catching it again. “Squeeze some on his arm, and pop , it would have been easy getting him back out again instead of calling the Fire Department.”
I couldn’t help it, I had to ask. Who wouldn’t? “Why was he in the wall?”
“Father of the year here decided to put mattresses on the stairs and make a slide. His kid went down faster than he expected, and his arm went through the drywall and got stuck.”
“It’s online,” someone shouted out. “Piersville Fire Department also released footage of them cutting him out. I think the moment he goes through the wall is a gif on social media, too.”
“It is,” Cole confirmed. “He’s really proud of it.”
How could I go from feeling suffocated to feeling uplifted?
What had just happened to me was something every teacher was scared about. Added onto that was what he’d threatened to do to Pops? I’d covered my bases and explained in a lengthy letter to the parents why I was bringing in a piece of literature with that title. They’d had the option to either not allow it or for their kid to attend a study period in the library.
“Don’t worry about it, Bexley. The PTA is very thorough with things, and you gave parents enough time to read through what you sent out and to look up the book and what it was about. No one reported any issues back to Colette, and she set up a special meeting online after the class just in case,” Hurst said as he picked up some spaghetti and threw it into his cart, almost like nothing had happened. “And Lawrence is just fine where he is. If someone tried to exhume him, I’d let my bull loose on them, and then I’d let my grandsons loose on them.”
“Could they do that, though? What if a kid was affected by the book and class like he was saying?”
“The answer to the first is no, and the answer to second is that I’m going to press him for copies of the complaints. I’ll also get Colette to speak to the principal to see if he’s had any complaints, and…” he trailed off, wincing at whatever had occurred to him. “Ah, hell. I’m going to have to tell Lindee I’m running for mayor.”
“You’re a dead old man walking, Gramps. She’s going to be pissed,” Cole snickered as he walked up to us and threw a can of beans in my cart. “Saw the list in your hand and recognized it, but you didn’t have the beans for chili taco casserole. There you go.”
Then, both men walked off like nothing had happened.
“I wouldn’t worry, honey,” a woman called Evita, who I recognized as one of the parents who collected one of my eighth grade students, Cody, said softly as she walked past.
“I know for a fact that if anyone had complained like that, you’d have been hauled into Ross Teller’s office and had your ass handed to you. He’s one of my neighbors, you know. We’ve only been living next to each other for almost three months, but even he said he was impressed with how you got through to those kids.
“It scared the hell out of me when I heard about those two kids who tried to kill themselves. I’ve been lecturing Cody about not listening to crazy stuff online for years now, but short of changing the password to the internet, I had no clue how to get through to him.”
She looked like she was close to tears. “Thank you for getting through to my son. For that, I’ll never be able to thank you enough, but I’ll try. If Kirkwood even goes near your grandpa’s grave, I’ll smack over the head with Cody’s baseball bat. Alex will probably give me hell for even saying that, but I’d do it for you and your family in a heartbeat.”
Then, not giving me a chance to say anything, she walked away .
Pulling my phone back out, I rang my dad to warn him about the mayor's threats and ended up holding the phone far away from my ear while he ranted down it.
Because the alarm system was fixed, school was back tomorrow, but I wasn’t sure I could face it. I felt like I’d failed the kids and let down my family.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Dad yelled. “Put this phone back to your ear this instant, young lady.”
Doing as I was told, I stared blindly into my cart, preparing myself for a lecture like when I messed up as a kid.
Instead, he blew out a breath to settle himself. “I’m so angry right now, Bexley, that I’m struggling to find the willpower not to go over to Kirkwood’s and punch him in the face.
“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong. You’ve got a gift with kids and teaching, one that you knew in your heart and went after. I don’t believe for one second that you described it in a way that made rape sound good or took away the power of how grotesque it was.”
My lower lip started shaking, but I was determined not to cry in the middle of the store.
“Now, Logan will be able to confirm this, but I know for a fact that Kirkwood’s in deep shit right now, so he’s trying to take everyone down with him. He’s hoping that if he upsets us, we’ll distract Logan away from his part into the investigation into him.”
Looking cautiously around me, I whispered, “What are you talking about?”
“Right, he can’t talk about it,” Dad murmured to himself. “But I guess I can. So, the Kirkwoods and Ingleston are in shit. Something about bribes, drugs, and shootings. He’s hoping to buy himself time to hide whatever they could find on him, so he’s trying to distract everyone. Well, how do you distract a young man from his job? You go after his woman.”
Holy shit. Drugs ? Shootings ?
“Is this about that man and woman on the news? The ones who were shot?” I hissed, looking around me again and relieved when I didn’t see anyone.
“Think so, they’re the only shootings I’ve heard about. Anyway, somehow it all leads back to the Kirkwoods, and now they’re saying Ingleston’s been in on it for years, too.”
“How do you know all of this?”
Clearing his throat with a cough, he rasped, “Never you mind—” My betting was that Hurst had told Logan’s grandfather, Bill, who’d then told Dad “—but I’m betting his goal was to distract Logan with you and us with Pops’ grave. Well, we’re too smart for that.”
“What if there were complaints against me?”
“You hear from Teller yet?”
“No?”
Dad sighed impatiently like I was being dense. Maybe I was, but I’d just been thrown into a situation that made no sense to me and scared the ever-loving God out of me.
“If he had complaints about something like that, trust me, you’d know by now. Ain’t no way he’d be letting you near the students tomorrow, and he’d have to tell you that and why. Now, no news is good news, so you get on with what you were doing and leave the rest to us.”
And then he hung up, just like that, leaving me open-mouthed in the middle of the store.
Somehow I managed to get everything else I needed—and a lot I didn’t need and didn’t remember putting in the cart—and got back to my car. My baby had arrived this morning along with the boxes of stuff I’d brought with me that were now neatly stacked in the last available spaces in the garage.
I’d only just turned the engine on when a shrieking noise sounded, scaring the shit out of me. The Bluetooth connection between my car and phone had synced automatically, meaning that my phone was ringing through it—and the volume on it was all the way at the top.
With my left hand, I hit blindly at the button to answer it on the steering wheel while lunging to lower the volume with my other hand.
“Hello? Hello?”
“Why do you sound like you just got caught doing something?” Logan’s deep voice asked, sounding amused.
Explaining what had happened, I managed to smile for the first time in ages as I listened to him laugh. I was going to have to ruin his day by telling him what else had happened, but just for one minute, I wanted to enjoy this moment of calm before the shit hit the fan.
“I was just calling to—” A voice behind him said something, cutting him off. “One second, baby.”
Backing out of the spot I’d parked in, I went to take the turning that would take me home but decided to go left instead, which would take me past P.V.P.D. where he was. I was using the extra time to figure out how to tell him what’d happened, and maybe if I was in front of him, it would make a difference?
Not once in all of it did I think that in small towns, news traveled quickly. I really should have, though.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Logan’s voice roared into the car, making me squeak. “He threatened you? He threatened Pops?”
I was three minutes away from his building, but I needed to calm him down now. “Only a little?”
“A little?” he snapped, sounding incredulous. “He tried to imply that you’d advocated for everything to be cool and well with rape.” Eh, that was about right . “And then said he was exhuming Pops out of his final resting place, and he couldn’t be buried in the town limits. Are you seriously telling me that’s a little ?”
Hitting the indicator to pull into the parking lot in front of the department, I wiggled my head from side to side, like I was thinking about it. He was right, but we couldn’t figure this out if he was heated.
“From what I can tell, he can’t do anything,” I told him as I cut the engine and picked up my phone now that the call wasn’t coming through the speakers. “I know you can’t talk about it, but—”
Another voice called his name. “One second, baby. Mark needs to tell me something.” He was back almost instantly. “You have a Prius ?”
I’d just been getting out of the car when he asked it, so I looked up expecting to see him, but he wasn’t there. “Where are you?”
“Please tell me you don’t drive a Prius.”
“It’s good for the environment and drives like a dream,” I said defensively, rubbing the top of the car. “Plus, I got it in black, so it looks badass.”
When he didn’t say anything back, I checked the screen and saw he’d ended the call.
“Well, that wasn’t nice.” Yes, I spoke to my car.
“Why didn’t you tell me you had one?” Logan asked, making me jump until I saw his reflection in the window of my car.
Spinning to face him, I crossed my arms over my chest. “What difference does it make? It’s environmentally conscious, and I’m afraid to have an electric car in case I forget to charge it. Do you know how many times I forget to charge my phone? What if I left a light on by mistake when I parked it? So I did the best I could and bought Ho-Baggins.”
“Ho-Baggins?”
Pointing at the object the argument was about—my car, a Prius called Ho-Baggins–I nodded once. “Yeah, because it suits him, and he gets a lot of attention, so he’s a ho.”
Rubbing his face with both hands, he glared at the car and then aimed the full force of it on me. “For the record, I don’t approve of your vehicle. Also, for the record, I will never refer to it as Ho-Baggins. And finally, let the record also note that no matter what color you got it in, it’s definitely not badass.”
Then, grabbing my hand, he gently pulled me into the building. Going from the heat outside into the air conditioning felt amazing, but I was also glad I’d worn a slightly padded bra. Hey, my nipples chose the life they lead, not me.
As we walked over a specific area, I had a vivid memory recall of the time I booped Logan on the nose and then knocked on his head and felt my cheeks start burning. Why must I do dumb shit like that ?
Glancing over his shoulder, the grin Logan shot me showed he remembered it as well. “Think about it every day when I walk right here.”
Damn it. Could I not be remembered for something that wasn’t embarrassing?
Apparently not, because as we walked past the desks, the officers that could make a show of eating bananas did just that.
Figuring that keeping my head down would be a better option, I looked down at the floor, not realizing where I was going until Logan started speaking again.
“Okay, guys, she’s here. Mark’s going to take her statement while we do Hurst and Cole’s. Alejandro says he’ll deal with talking to the people y’all said witnessed it. We need to get every single detail of the incident, and then—”
“We’ve done this before, Richards,” DB interrupted, sounding amused. “But I get it—it’s different when it’s your woman.”
Pulling me next to him and putting his arm around me, I got to see the occupants of the room. DB, Hurst, Cole, and Mark all waved at me like nothing was going on.
Then, Logan said something that made my mind go blank.
“She’s not my woman, DB, she’s my everything. Nothing hurts her, nothing upsets her, nothing gets to her, and I’m going to make sure of it.”
Forgetting people were watching us, I grabbed the collar of his uniform and pulled him down so that his mouth was above mine. “I fucking love you.”
Unfortunately, with the hail of emotions from what’d just happened clashing with the feelings what he’d just said had brought forward for me, it came out loudly. So loud the desks closest to the door heard it, and it sounded aggressive, like a threat.
One day I’d have a memory from here that didn’t make me wake up in the middle of the night.
But today was not that day.
I wanted to kiss him properly, but I’d already embarrassed myself enough, so I kept it PG and pulled away quickly. It was only as I took a step back that I noticed the state of his uniform.
“Um, did you go pig wrestling?”
I’m not at all ashamed to admit I had a mental image of Logan rolling around in the mud naked as I asked it.
It was a fabulous fantasy, but the gruff tone of his voice when he replied told me it wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. “Something like that.”