LEARNING AT SCHOOL
Chapter 3
It was spring vacation so the halls of the elementary school were empty when Bobby and Alex entered. There were open doors to some of the classrooms and a few held people either decorating the walls or sitting at desks working. Mitzzis teacher was a young woman with red hair braided and pulled up over her ears, giving her a Swedish look. She didn't seem too surprised at the appearance of two people in her classroom and she recognized Bobby and Alex immediately. She also seemed anxious, a bit defensive and not a little guilty as to why they were there.
"I expected you sooner." She said.
"You know why we're here?" Alex demanded.
"I'm guessing it's about the gun lecture." She said. "You're one of the last ones to come in."
"We are?" Bobby's eyes narrowed.
"Yes. Most of the students ran right home and told their parents about it. I'm surprised, as upset as Mitzzi was, that she didn't tell you right away."
"Our daughter is no tattle tale." Alex informed her crisply.
"Sometimes she keeps things too much to herself." The teacher agreed. "Look, I didn't know that he was going to say those things. I tried to shut him up before he went into his tirade, but he was so full of himself that I had to practically throw him out of the room because he was upsetting the children."
"What did he look like?" Bobby asked.
"I have it on tape if that would help."
"We'd like to take the tape to the station as evidence. Did he talk to any of the other classes?"
"Someone from the organization talked to a few other classes. There were four of them all together. We all heard the same basic lecture. I talked to the other teachers and they all reported a hard line from the people. We've all heard from the parents of the kids that were here that day."
"We'll need a list of the kids in your class and their parents names."
"The office will have all that information. And they have a copy of the tape of the lecture."
"What about the other classrooms?" Bobby asked.
"I'm afraid I'm the only one who tapes the classroom every day. I'm working on my Masters degree in teaching so I tape the classes and I'm using the tapes to improve my teaching technique."
"You need permission to do that, from the parents." Bobby said.
"I have it. From the papers that were signed at the beginning of the year the consent was in all the folders."
Alex glanced at her husband. "I don't remember signing anything like that."
"You'll be able to see that in the office if you ask. Would you like me to go with you to the office?"
"Thanks, we can find it." Alex told her. They walked into the hallway and started for the office. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That these people are goading kids into revealing which ones of them have parents who work for the NYPD? And they just made a critical error in judgment." Bobby agreed.
Teresa Pick was a school principal with principle and she was incensed that her school had been used by gun protesters and was absolutely livid that they might be using her students to find a way to kill parents who were cops. Alex was of the opinion it was the parents she was more concerned with than the fact that they were cops.
Pick nearly turned herself inside out getting the information for them. She seemed to find Bobby fascinating. She kept talking to him, nearly ignoring Alex in the process. Alex found this mildly amusing, Bobby wasn't as comfortable.
It took them an hour to leave the office, but they had a thick file of information. "She really liked you." Alex teased.
"I've caught my limit. She-She ought to be more circumspect considering she was hitting on the parent of one of her students, with you in the room."
Alex grinned. "But it's got to be nice that someone besides me finds you irresistible."
"You and only you interest me. And you know it. How about we drop these off at the bull pen and I'll buy you breakfast. With a lot of coffee."
"Oh, I like the way you think." Alex oozed with a smile. "You do know the way to a womans heart."
Captain Ross had other ideas, however. "I thought you two were going to come in right from the shooting." He demanded as soon as he saw them.
"We were chasing down a lead." Bobby told him with a frown.
"Then you can chase down this one too. We had another incident."
"Someone else got killed?"
"No, thank God. Shot at, wounded but not dead. She's in the hospital as we speak. You need to go interview her. I want you two wearing vests. It seems everything is pointing to someone after you two. I swear I'm going to send both you and Wilkes and Wesson out West just to get a good nights sleep."
Bobby's glance met Alex's. "Are they having the same trouble out there?"
"I just got off the phone with Sackett. It seems there was a shooting there last night. The victim was built like you, Goren, with a suit and a trench coat, early morning and several shots to the body. Wilkes and Wesson went out to the scene. It was an off duty patrolman. As of right this minute, you have no other cases."
"We'll get right on it." Alex promised.
"I'll go get breakfast and bring it in." Bobby told Alex.
"I'll get started on this information." Alex agreed taking off her jacket.
TBC
