A Life Beyond Us novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: Monday Morning
Maura's POV
The school board met in a beige room with a long table and a flag in the corner.
Tom wore his funeral suit.
Hugh and I sat on either side of him in the second row, and nobody had asked us to leave.
At nine sharp, the president of the board came in with a folder, took the center chair, and looked down the table at the principal, the two board members and the lawyer who handled their contracts.
"This is a closed personnel conversation," she said. "Mr. Poynter asked that his wife and his friend sit in. I allowed it. Mr. Poynter, play me your recording."
Tom took out his phone and set it on the table.
The little speaker crackled with Darcy's voice.
"Nothing happened."
The lawyer stopped writing.
"I want it noted," the president said, "that I heard the other one too. Saturday. In front of a hundred witnesses."
"Yes, ma'am," the principal said. His eyes were red from lack of sleep.
"I'll tell you what I did yesterday. I read the employee code, front to back. It has seventeen pages. It says a lot about conduct with students, grades, drinking on campus." She turned a page. "It says nothing about whom a teacher's wife has dinner with."
One of the board members cleared his throat.
"The community may have views," he said.
"The community may have all the views it likes." The president closed the folder. "My concern is a woman who threatened to send a doctored recording to this board in exchange for an overnight stay in a motel. That is blackmail. I have already spoken to the county prosecutor."
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