Innocent in Death (In Death #24)(32)

“We’ll start with why you were there.”

“Show and Share Day. Em wanted to take Butch in for it. Our African Gray. Parrot?” she explained. “He’s a big guy. She couldn’t handle his cage herself, so I carried it to class for her.”

“You signed in at eight-twenty, didn’t sign out until ten-forty-two. How far did you have to carry Butch?”

“It’s a big school,” Hallie said, coolly again. “Are you interrogating all the parents?”

“It’s not so big it took you better than two hours to deliver a parrot. Did you see or speak with Mr. Foster yesterday?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“But you’ve had occasion to see and speak with him in the past.”

“Sure. Em had him last term. He seemed like a good one. She did really well in his class, and he showed a lot of interest in her.”

“Did you have any interest in him?”

Hallie drew a breath. “I don’t hit on Em’s teachers, and if I did, I’d go more for the little blonde who runs the Drama department. I’m g*y, for God’s sake.”

“You have an assault on your record, Ms. Wentz.”

“Fuck that.” Temper sparked like flying embers. “That idiot son of a bitch deserved the broken shoulder, and a hell of a lot more. You know what he called my Em? Lesbo spawn.”

She sucked in another breath, held up a hand until she got herself under control. “He said that to me, so all I did was warn him to knock it off. But he kept it up, and started calling out things during the game. He called her a dyke. As in, ‘You can’t hit for crap, you little dyke.’ It wasn’t the first time he’d tossed out ignorant homophobe comments at a game, but they were tossed at me, not shouted out so she could hear. Nobody talks to my kid that way. I’d had enough.”

If the rundown were true, Eve was surprised the woman hadn’t aimed for the ass**le’s skull rather than his shoulder. “Did Mr. Foster have anything inappropriate to say to your daughter?”

“Hell no. He was a decent guy, as far as I know. A good teacher, made his class fun for the kids. Emily liked him, a lot. She’s upset and confused over this. I don’t want her to be any more upset and confused than she has to be.”

“Then tell us why you were on school grounds for two hours and twenty-two minutes.”

“Jesus. I hung around in the class awhile, talking to some of the kids and Janine—Mrs. Linkletter—about Butch. Getting him to talk for them. Then…Listen, does this have to go on the record?”

“It depends on what ‘this’ is,” Eve told her.

“It doesn’t apply to what happened, so I just want you to say—if you agree it doesn’t—it doesn’t have to get around.”

“All right.”

“I slipped down into the kitchen. Laina Sanchez, the head nutritionist, moonlights for me. She’s not supposed to take outside jobs. I don’t want her to get in any trouble.”

“She won’t, not over that.”

“We just talked about an event we have coming up next week. A change in menu the client wanted. I had a cup of coffee while I was there. I didn’t have a meeting until eleven, and it was only a couple blocks away, so I hung. That’s it.”

“Okay. She’ll verify that?”

“She will, but listen, don’t ask her about it at the school, okay? Mosebly gets wind, she’ll come down on Laina.”

“Are you and Laina involved?”

Hallie relaxed enough to grin. “Not like that. I used to date her sister, a half a million years back. I helped her get the position at Sarah Child when they needed a new nutritionist. She’s got a two-year-old kid to feed, and another well on the way. She and her husband need the money I can toss her.”

“We’re not looking to jam her up.” Something more here, just a little more, Eve thought. “Did you see anything or anyone out of the ordinary?”

“I didn’t. Classes were just starting when I went down to the kitchen. Second period would have been going on when I left. I’d help if I could. Something bad like this happens around my kid, I want to know who, what, and why. I can’t protect her otherwise.”

Maybe protection was an angle, Eve mused, as they traveled the block and a half to the next name on the list.

“She goes after a guy with a bat because he calls her kid names.”

“You’d have done the same,” Peabody pointed out.

“Hard to say as I’m not a lesbian and don’t have a kid, but, yeah, the guy sounds like he earned his knocks. What might a parent do to protect? Maybe it wasn’t a parent or a teacher Foster had something on, if indeed he had something on anyone. Maybe it was a kid.”

“What can you have on a six-to twelve-year-old?”

“Naive Free-Ager. Kids do all sorts of sticky things. Maybe he caught one of them stealing, cheating on an exam, giving out bj’s in the bathroom, dealing illegals.”

“Jeez.”

Eve worked it through. “Calls the parent in for a little chat, warns that this will have to be reported. The kid will require disciplinary action, counseling, maybe expulsion. One of the top schools in the state, according to Straffo’s annoying kid. You don’t want your kid kicked out or something dicey going on the record. It can’t be reported if Foster’s dead.”