"Chief, you won't believe this!" exclaimed Eve.
"Why not? Mrs. Mallone is not the first wife of a rich man who feels neglected or bored," Ironside answered coolly.
"?"
The pretty policewoman needed a second to regain her composure. "How did you guess that, Sir?"
Ironside put on an air of Mr. know-it-all: "That's not guessing, that's pure logic. I sent you to investigate Mrs. Mallone. You would not have barged in like this and have asserted that I would not believe you if you had found out that the Mallones are a picture-perfect family, would you? What could you have found out to be wrong then? Mrs. Mallone having an affair, most probably. Who is it, the chauffeur or the tennis instructor?"
"The physical therapist." She looked somehow numb. With all the worldly wisdom she liked to demonstrate she was nonetheless a sheltered girl who was still shocked about the imperfectness of the human race.
"Come here," said the Chief. She sat down at his side and he laid his hand onto her arm.
"You think that rich people carry a responsibility and that they should be examples to others. That's what you expect from yourself and from people like you. But not everybody can live up to these standards. Money tends to have the opposite effect."
Eve nodded, sighing. "She has her own money, she is financially independent from her husband."
"You see, that's one of the problems of gender equality: As soon as women are emancipated, they become sinners like us men," he tried to make light of the situation.
She threw him an angry look, but only because she thought that he would expect that from her. "Do you suspect her of being behind the attack and the threatening note?"
"It could have been just about anybody. I had the threatening letter analyzed. We will have to wait for the results."
On the third day teacher Grey took precautions: He organized the key to the door of his classroom. When his three 'special customers', as he called them secretly, didn't show up on time, he closed the door to the classroom.
Twenty minutes into the math lesson someone banged against the door, but he didn't care. His students were somewhat confused, but then they concentrated on their binomial formula.
"Tomorrow there will be a test on what you learned today," Grey announced before dismissing class.
And that was what he did. The three latecomers were on time, but they failed the test miserably, while all the others did just fine.
"I will tell my father and you will lose your job," threatened Pierce Mallone.
"No, I won't," the teacher answered sedately. That much was for sure. But the thought of a snotty brat being able to cause a teacher to lose their job alarmed him. What kind of world was this?!
Yet from then on every student was on time for Grey's lessons.
Author's note:
Only a short chapter – but a great effort from my beta!
Thank you, my dear Lemonpig!
