Permanent Detention
Chapter thirty-three
WRAITH
The emergency school board meeting changed my mind about Mark Bentley's future. Kara revealed a pattern of mishandling and hiding reports about bullying traced directly back to him.
Whether he did it to make it look like he was doing a better job than he was, or to curry favor with rich and influential parents doesn't matter. I don't care why he's a conscienceless asshole about the children under his care, only that he is one.
How many kids has he allowed to be hurt on his watch? How many little girls and little boys didn't get the protection they needed and deserved because of his willingness to toady to the richest and most powerful parents?
My phone rings. It's Mick.
"Yeah, boss?" I greet him.
"Make it look like suicide."
I don't ask what. Or who. Mick is scarily canny about reading people, even emotionless bastards like me. He knows I decided Mark Bentley doesn't deserve a second chance to damage more lives.
"Copy that."
"He failed your kid." It's more than I expect Mick to say.
"He failed a lot of kids."
"More than Kara mentioned in tonight's meeting. There was a boy at his last school who killed himself after being assaulted by a classmate. Bentley swept the inciting incident under the rug."
"He was at an elementary school before coming to St. Patrick's Preparatory," I say with horror I didn't know I could still feel.
"That kid's parents deserve a measure of justice."
"Agreed."
I'll make sure Mark Bentley leaves behind a handwritten letter apologizing for his egregious dereliction of duty and naming the parents he prioritized as influential contacts over the safety of the children he was supposed to protect.
It won't undo the damage he's done in his long career in education, but it's something.
I add one more name on the list of vermin I need to exterminate, along with the members of the Hollow Point Kings.