Chapter 5: The Open Door

The board president called again at six-thirty the next morning, and this time I picked up.

"Audrey, I am sorry to ring you before breakfast."

"Go ahead."

"Mrs. Staniforth phoned my home last night. She says a parent at Cedar Hill kept her daughter out until all hours and turned her against the school."

"I fed her grilled cheese and drove her home at seven," I said. "She had taken two buses to find us."

The line was quiet for a second.

"That's not quite how she put it."

"I expect not."

"She didn't say who the parent was," he said. "She doesn't know, does she?"

"She does not."

"Good God," said the board president, and I could hear him sit down. "Do you want me to say something?"

"No. Please don't say anything to anyone yet."

He sighed.

"You have a gift for making a man nervous, Audrey," he said. "I'll hold the line until the board meets next Thursday. After that I won't be able to."

At eight o'clock I walked into Ridgeline Middle School in the gray coat, with no badge, no lanyard and no briefcase.

I signed the visitor log as Audrey Lund, parent.

The same secretary sat behind the same glass window.

She was a thin woman with a cardigan and a nameplate she had turned face down.

I knew her voice at once.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No."

"Principal Haskins is in a meeting."

"I'll wait."

I sat in the hard plastic chair by the trophy case, with Ruby's old attendance award three shelves down.

The secretary typed.

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