Stalking Death Read Online Free Page A

her well-being. You don't want to do something which will blow up in your face."
    "Blow up? How?"
    "She could go to the press with her story. It's the sort of thing newspapers love. To the police, since stalking is a crime. Or hire a lawyer and sue the school or her alleged stalker."
    He blinked in surprise, as though his only concern was discharging his responsibility to the bill paying segment of his community by sending out an appropriate letter, not the state of things on his campus. Maybe I was misjudging him, but he seemed surprisingly unconcerned with the delicate matter of managing the student whose claims to being a stalking victim he wanted to label lies and paranoia. Or with the potential effect that declaration could have on the rest of his female students and his applicant pool, 50% of whom were presumably female, and most of whom had mothers. Parents take safety seriously and stalking sounds threatening and unsafe.
    Maybe he hadn't listened to the news, but it seemed likely to me that if the abduction of a young girl in this part of New Hampshire made the national news, it would add new dimensions to parents' concerns about a potential stalker.
    "I'd like to deal with this letter first." He snapped the paper loudly. "Then if you have other questions, we can discuss them. It's all here anyway. We conducted an investigation and determined she was making it up. There is no stalking problem on this campus."
    This wasn't a chicken and egg problem. I couldn't evaluate the letter without knowing who the girl was, what she'd claimed, how they'd handled their investigation, and why, if there was no evidence of stalking, the students were upset and talking about it to their parents. Nor could I predict the risks of any steps, such as this letter, St. Matthews might choose to take.
    I looked at his stubborn face, tinged pink with frustration, and somewhere above my slow but still competent head, a lightbulb began to glow. Chambers didn't want advice about a letter or his campus crisis. He only wanted the imprimatur of EDGE Consulting on this mess so he could show his trustees and the independent school world he'd done his best. He'd wanted one of us physically here so he could say he'd brought in the experts to be sure he was doing it right. Was the silent woman sitting behind me there as a witness?
    Keep the incredulity off your face, Kozak, I told myself sternly. This isn't the first time you've been used. You ain't no babe in the woods. Well, this babe wasn't leaving without making a sincere effort to get the facts and give my reluctant client the services he needed, even if they weren't the services he wanted.
    Calmly, I pulled paper and a pen out of my briefcase and gave him my best professional smile. Once you've been executed by the right wing militia, an evasive, slightly truculent headmaster isn't so daunting.
    "I can't help with the letter until I have all the facts. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?"
    "The facts are that the girl is crazy," he said, giving his papers a frustrated shake. "Dangerous and crazy."
    I waited.
    "She's impossible."
    I still didn't say anything.
    "Don't you understand," he said, exasperated. "I have to stop this right now. Discredit her and reassure my parents. I can't let her go on. She's trying to destroy everything I've planned for this school."

Chapter 3

    For a full five minutes after he'd declared his student crazy, he sat silently, looking anywhere but at me, twiddling his pencil, shuffling his papers and occasionally tugging on his ear. I'd never seen a grown-up professional man tug on his ear before. It fascinated me. I'd seen little kids do it. I'd seen women touch their earlobes quickly, checking for earrings, but this was serious tugging, as vigorous as pulls on those old-fashion bell ropes the rich used to have in their drawing rooms.
    What was he summoning. Ideas? A coherent version of the story? Another way to con me into approving his letter? It was possible he