Schooled in Murder Read Online Free

want me there?” he asked when I finished.
    “Let me see what happens.”
    “You want me to call our lawyer?”
    “Might not be a bad idea.”
    “You sure you’re okay?” he asked.
    “So far.”
    Scott asked, “They were making out in the storeroom? Isn’t that kind of 1950s behavior? What if kids had walked in?”
    “Maybe they could have gotten extra credit for their sex education classes?”
    “And Benson is married?”
    “Yep, to a female woman of the opposite sex.”
    “How well do you know those two guys?”
    “Benson is in the department, so I sort of know him. Frecking I’m aware of from being on a cross-curricular committee with him.” During the meetings Frecking had never saida word and spent his time surreptitiously reading a sports equipment catalogue he’d hidden under the table.
    “Be careful,” Scott said. “Don’t trust anybody. This is murder.”
    I told him I’d be more than careful.

4
     
    I diddled and dithered and wondered what the hell was going on. I graded a few papers. One of my
Lord of the Rings
posters was starting to come loose from the wall. I retaped it.
    I poked my head outside my door. Various members of the rival factions had clustered at opposite ends of the hallway. I made my way to the teachers’ lounge for some coffee. I’d have preferred to go home. It was near seven. I was hungry. Not hungry enough to snarf past-its-sell-by-date candy the machines in the lounge disgorged. Someone had started a new pot of coffee. I washed a cup and poured. I took a seat at a table near the back.
    Morgan Adair entered a moment after I sat down and joined me. He was in his early thirties and a friend. He was one of the youngest members of the non-suckup faction. The factions didn’t break down strictly along age lines, although the suckups did tend to be younger.
    Morgan said, “This is awful. I heard you found the body. Are you okay?”
    “It’s not something I’m looking forward to having happen again.”
    He leaned close and said in a breathless whisper, “I’ve got to tell you this as long as no one else is here. I know what happened to Gracie is awful, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to you in the past couple days.”
    I raised an eyebrow.
    “I met a guy.”
    “Congratulations,” I said. I tried to work up an “I care” look. I must have been successful, because I didn’t detect a dampening in his headlong gush about his new love. I was tired and out of sorts. Hot new boyfriends and dead bodies were not a good mix. Morgan had been trying to find Mr. Right since he got out of college. The long series of tales of his dating woes could fill a season at the Lyric Opera. Morgan was tall with dirty-blond, short, spiked hair.
    He burbled into my ear. “And he teaches right here at Grover Cleveland. He is a hunk.”
    “Oh, really?”
    “He’s a stud. I’m not supposed to tell anyone. He’s very closeted, but I know I can tell you.” I got an awful feeling.
    “Steven Frecking. We met in Chicago at a bar last Friday night. We were both surprised to find out we taught in the same school. I sort of recognized him. He’s sweet and funny. We’ve been out twice since then.”
    The arrival of two more of our colleagues spared me the choice of whether or not to tell him he was dating a philandering boob.
    Luci Gamboni and Jourdan Chase entered and joined Morgan and me around the table. Luci Gamboni said, “You really found her with an eraser crammed in her mouth?”
    “Yep,” I said.
    Gamboni held her hand in front of her face. She had straight black hair that hung down to her ample bosom.
    Jourdan Chase said, “It’s not funny.”
    Gamboni said, “It is, in a sort of a Chuckles the Clown kind of way. I mean, I’ve been hoping someone would shut that cow up since the day she was hired. You know what Gracie said to me the day she was hired? She said, ´Why do you have the honors classes?’ She claimed they should be spread out among all the teachers. Me!