Chapter Ten:
Calling The Operatives
Alex's POV
"So, you gonna ask me any questions or just continue to stare at me like this until you get bored. Cuz I'm already there and gone." When neither man answered I sighed and leaned back in my chair while sitting in a classroom, setting my sock covered feet up on the table in front of me. "Because you two may not have anything to do but I have a class to teach at five-thirty."
Both men opened their mouths and asked me a question at the same time.
"Where are your shoes?" Came from the older guy.
And, "What do you mean 'five-thirty'? In the morning?"
I smirked and answered both. "I wasn't expecting police officers so I didn't bother to pull on my fuzzy bunny slippers." Without pause I went on. "I teach a P.E. class of sorts early in the morning. It starts around five-thirty depending when everyone wakes up."
"Ahh," The younger man nodded and scribbled something down in his notepad.
"Humph," The older man grunted and frowned scornfully at me.
"Now that I've answered your questions are you going to answer mine?" I asked, not expecting to get an answer.
Right as usual, both men once again continued to ignore me.
"Well this is fun," I mumbled under my breath as I glanced at the clock on the wall that showed it was after nine.
"Are you having or have you ever had sex with a student?" Officer Cavell blurted out of nowhere.
Since I'd gone through strict interrogation training I was prepared to answer. "No." My voice was even and my face calm.
"Really, all that power... and you've never once thought about using it?" Officer Gram practically purred and my gaze shifted to the young man's face. His expression was far easier to read, full suspicion and scrutiny. As where the older man was obviously more experienced and I was having a harder time getting a read off of him.
"No. Why would I need to hook up with a teenage girl, a student, when there are literally thousands of women that would die to even get me to glance in their general direction?"
The older man snorted while the younger guy looked away, but not before I caught his look of jealously.
Officer Gram cleared his throat and returned his gaze to my face. "Then are you involved with anyone? Have a girlfriend?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." I replied and stood up halfway causing both officers to jump and tense. "Here's a picture of her." I pulled my wallet out of the back of my jeans and withdrew a photo of a young woman who I'd never met but knew everything about.
"What's her name?" Officer Cavell asked as he took the photo then handed it to his partner.
"Janie Jones-Smith. Well, actually her name is January but she thinks that the stupidest thing she's ever heard of so we call her Janie." I recited with false casualness.
"'We?'" Both officers asked at the same time and I bit back a grin, knowing they'd fallen for my trick.
"My family, our friends."
"And her family?"
"No, they insist upon calling her January." I wrinkled my nose in fake distaste.
"Ah, so how long have you two known each other?"
"Our whole lives. We grew up down the street from one another, my closest in age sister was her best friend."
"How many sisters do you have?"
I leaned back in my chair, dropping my feet. "Let's see, one, two, six, seven. Seven but one died so I guess six." I finally finished.
"Your sister died and you can talk about her death that easily?" Officer Gram seemed shocked but I figured it was actually skepticism.
"Infant death syndrome. It was before I was born." I explained easily.
"Are you the oldest, a middle child or the-"
I cut him off. "I'm the absolute youngest. Once my parents got their son they quite popping out kids."
"So I suppose you're the favorite then." Officer Cavell stated and wrote something down.
I pretended to be uncomfortable. "I suppose you could look at it that way. I've never felt that I was loved any more or less than my sisters."
"How old is your oldest sister?"
"God, I don't know! Um, maybe thirty-nine?"
"You don't know." This time Officer Gram didn't even bother to hide his skepticism.
"No, I don't really know any of my siblings 'cept Carissa whose only ten months, or something like that, older than me."
There was a long silence before Officer Cavell finally asked another question. "What's Jim short for?"
I did my best to act aloof and defensive towards the question. "James Saunders the fourth. But I've always gone by Jim other than the brief period before I could speak when everyone called me J.J. Jr."
"Who was the first person to call you Jim over J.J. Jr." Officer Gram looked pained having to say my original nickname.
"Janie." I whispered, putting as much pretend love and affection in my eyes and voice as I could.
"Janie." Both men said together. "Got her number by any chance?"
"Of course." And I handed it over, knowing that the MI6 agent would cover for my perfectly while deciding whether to connect me to Jones or not. In this case, I figured she'd probably decide to put me in touch with the superiors.
Rachel's POV
"Do you think he touched Cammie? Or any other girl for that matter?" Joe asked softly, coming up behind me in my office and placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder.
I sighed and turned towards him, wrapping my arms around his waist for reassurance. "No. But he is a very good liar."
Joe nodded. "But is Cammie?"
I thought about this for a moment before shaking my head. "Yes, but not towards me. I've always been able to read my daughter. I believe she is telling the truth. I am even very close to believing Jim's theory about the teenagers trying to get back at him."
"Well, you have to admit it has a high likelihood percentage."
"Yes, well, I don't really want to believe that children could be... be so... so awful!" I exclaimed thumping Joe on the chest in anger.
He accepted my outburst without objection and hugged me close when I'd calmed down. "For what it is worth, even though Jim Saunders is a jackass I don't think he's a child molester."
"That's the other thing, Joe, Cammie turns eighteen soon. Soon she won't be a child, legally. Soon..."
"Hush, Rachel, nothing is going to happen to your daughter as long as we both still have life in our bodies."
Cammie's POV
It was the next morning when I climbed out of bed and dressed in my sweats and a t-shirt. I jogged all the way to the barn; fearful I'd be late considering I hadn't been getting up at the crack of dawn lately.
"Cammie?" Macey's voice questioned loudly as she was the first to glance up and spot me.
"Cammie!" Liz squealed and flung her arms around me.
"What am I, chopped liver?" A haughty British voiced from behind our trio and we turned to face Bex.
"It's good to have you back in class, Rebecca, Cameron." Mr. Saunders called from the corner where he was kneeling next to Jessica who had her shapely leg bared well past decency.
I frowned and quickly assessed the situation. Mr. Saunders appeared to be tightening the knee brace the girl was wearing. "You okay, Jessica?" I called back.
This caused Mr. Saunders to glance up for the first time since Bex and I had entered the barn. His frown was offset by the fact that his eyes stayed happy.
Wrong. Very, very wrong. I thought decisively.
"I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Jessica called back, her annoying voice filled with a tone telling me very clearly to back off. Whatever she was doing, or trying to do, she didn't want to be interrupted.
It is obviously not common knowledge what happened last night. And that was when I realized I hadn't even told my friends. I glanced at the three of them and slowly lifted my hand to rub a spot on my brow just past the right eyebrow.
Macey's trademark blue eyes widened.
Bex grinned like a cat spotting it's pray.
And sweet little Liz immediately started going through all the information in her head trying to figure out exactly what was going to be discussed.
The operatives had been called.
