Chapter 56
THEN
Brother Stanislaus didn’t give us all the gory details, just that Mr. Loukas had been changing the tire on his Datsun when the jack tumbled out and the car crushed him. He died instantly, we were told, and wouldn’t have felt pain.
“Good riddance,” Daphne said under her breath.
I stared at her. It was an odd comment. Daphne didn’t know about me and Mr. Loukas. Why would she say good riddance?
“What did you say?”
“I didn’t like him,” she said. “Call it a gut instinct.”
“Shhh,” one of the teachers said to us. “Brother Stanislaus is talking. Heads to the front.”
We looked to the front. As I sat cross-legged on the gymnasium floor, I realized Daphne’s instinct was right. Mr. Loukas wasn’t the great love story I’d dreamed of. He was a teacher having a relationship with a student. I wasn’t even the first.
I’m not going to lie, it was some consolation to me that now, I knew I’d be the last.
Cess and Ness practically pounced on me the moment I got in the door after school. I was still holding my schoolbag.
“Mabel, will you come in here, please?”
They were in the front room, to the left of the foyer, both standing. It was early for Ness to be back from the library. I decided there was no point beating around the bush.
“You heard about Mr. Loukas?”
Cess nodded. Her posture was tight—her shoulders raised, her body stiff. “It was on the radio. He was your history teacher, wasn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“I know you liked him. You must be upset.”
Cess spoke lightly, carefully. As if every question contained another question.
“I guess I am.”
I don’t think I’d ever felt as uncomfortable in Cess and Ness’s presence before.
“His fiancée was interviewed,” Ness said. “She was sobbing about how they were about to start their lives together. How they’d been looking forward to starting a family.”
I’ll admit, this stung. I thought of Tessa glaring at Mr. Loukas, her French manicured nails digging into my arm. My expression must have betrayed this, but Cess did away with her light tone.
“Where were you last night, Mabel? And don’t play me for a fool.”
She watched me carefully. When I didn’t respond, she added: “You came home late, covered in dirt, with no good explanation. Your shoes are scuffed to the high heavens and you have scratches on your forearm. The next thing I hear on the news is that your teacher was found dead last night. The one teacher I’ve ever heard you mention. ”
There wasn’t a question. So I didn’t respond.
Ness took over, more softly. “Did something happen between you and this teacher? Something more than a normal teacher-student relationship?”
I jumped at the opportunity to turn the questioning around. “What are you suggesting?”
Cess threw up a hand. “I think you know what she’s suggesting.”
They waited, but I was mute. Finally, Cess sighed. “Darling, if something did happen between the two of you—”
“Something did,” I said. “I was with him last night. The scratch is from his fiancée’s nails, where she grabbed me after finding out. I thought he loved me. But she said I wasn’t the first student. Apparently, he liked them young. Apparently, the last one was prettier than me.”
It came out as a long stream. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. I was crying. Cess closed her eyes.
“I didn’t kill him,” I said. “I promise. But I’m delighted he’s dead.”
Ness inhaled deeply and started pacing. Cess’s shoulders dropped. Finally, Cess shook her head, took two steps toward me, and hugged me, hard. “I suppose I’m delighted too,” she said into my ear. “Otherwise, we’d have had to kill him.”