Director Piggot's hand tightened on the phone in it to the point the casing creaked dangerously. "Would you please repeat that?" she asked with eerie calm.
"Sophia Hess is at the 9th street precinct being charged with possession with intent to supply illegal drugs, specifically cannabis resin," her deputy's voice said, sounding disgusted and furious. "She was caught in school with three ounces of the stuff in her pocket."
"I see," the woman replied, still with that totally calm tone.
"The reason she was caught is almost funny," he went on. "Apparently she tipped off the school administration that another student had the drugs in her locker. Principal Blackwell called the BBPD, who sent a drug sniffing K9 unit out to check." Renick chuckled darkly. "Poor mutt probably nearly passed out two blocks away. That place is guaranteed to be so coated in narcotic residue I could smell it. But I guess they're trained to ignore small quantities, they'd pretty much have to be around here. Anyway, turns out the student in question didn't have anything in her locker, it came up clean in the search. But the dog alerted as it was walking past Hess, who of course was standing there watching."
Piggot pinched the bridge of her nose with her free hand and exhaled slowly, feeling her blood pressure climbing. "Let me guess. The little shit tried planting the drugs on someone, and somehow forgot to actually plant the drugs. Then looked surprised when she got caught."
She could almost hear the shrug. "That would be my guess, yeah. Or she had more and didn't think to get rid of it, put the stuff in the wrong locker… Who knows. She's swearing blind that it was nothing to do with her and everyone is going to regret everything, but the BBPD literally caught her red handed with enough resin to keep five Merchants happy for a week. And they're going to do a blood test, which is probably going to show she's clean herself, which in turn will just make them convinced she was dealing and not using. Although at this point I wouldn't be hugely surprised to find out she was using the stuff. It might explain some of her less rational decisions."
"Fuck."
The PRT ENE director leaned back and rubbed her forehead in utter exasperation combined with a really intense feeling of dislike for that specific girl. Sophia Hess was a public relations nightmare, a positive liability in many other ways, and generally a very unpleasant individual even past that. The only reason she was in the Wards in the first place was due to people higher up the organization than her insisting that her abilities were too useful to lose, over her and Armsmaster's objections. Admittedly, when the fucking girl didn't go off script she was quite effective, but she flat out would not follow orders when she decided she had a better way to do things, no matter how much she got shouted at.
And now this.
Emily had little trouble believing that the idiotic girl could both attempt to set up someone she didn't get on with and simultaneously fail in the attempt. Thinking things through from one end to the other wasn't one of her notable strengths. Although this particular episode was as spectacular an own goal as anything she'd ever encountered. The problem was that it ultimately became her problem, and she already had far too much on her plate as it was.
Typical fucking Sophia Hess, in a word.
"She's also facing a charge of resisting arrest, since she bolted and the officer tased her before she made it four steps. And I wouldn't be surprised if they toss in any other charges they can think of on general principles. She doesn't leave a good impression most of the time," he added after a few seconds of silence while she thought. "A friend of hers, who by the sound of it was in on whatever stupid plot they had going up to her neck, got arrested for interfering with a police operation, assault on a cop, and I'm pretty sure just being annoying. The Barnes girl."
"Barnes." She sighed heavily. "Of course she did. But both she and her father signed the NDAs, right?"
"Yeah, during the whole mess that got us Hess, Barnes was a character witness, and he and his daughter know Hess is Stalker. We made sure they knew to keep their mouths shut about it. Sounds like the girl ended up a close friend with Hess. Close enough to kick a cop in the face when she got arrested, at least, which to be honest isn't the smartest thing to do."
Piggot almost smiled for a moment. Almost. "I somehow doubt that helped her case… But we can expect Alan Barnes to get involved now, which is only going to make things even more complicated than they already are."
"Probably. He's only a divorce lawyer, but all lawyers think they know more about every part of the law than anyone else." Renick sighed a little. "So we're going to have to deal with him as well, sooner or later."
"Damn it all," she grumbled, tapping a finger on the desk as she considered the situation. "All right. Get Hess's caseworker in here, find out what she knows and if someone has been playing fast and loose with the truth in the reports. I highly doubt that the girl went from happy and well adjusted to planting drugs on other students in one operation. That's the end result of a pattern, I'll put money on it. And if so, someone hasn't been entirely accurate with keeping us in the loop." She nearly snarled that part. "Have someone get down to Winslow and check out the truth, get statements from anyone who witnessed this shit-storm, talk to Blackwell, all the usual stuff. Call Legal and get an undercover team over to the BBPD, extract Hess, and bring her back here. I want a word with that little bitch."
"It might be tricky getting her out considering the charges," he cautioned. "BBPD isn't our biggest fan in the first place, and the PRT being interested in one teenaged drug dealer is going to send up warning flags."
"Can't be helped," she replied with a groan. "That girl is a loose cannon and the longer she stays in their cells the more likely it is she'll do something stupid that really causes problems." Thinking over her words, she added viciously, "More stupid, I mean."
"Got it. And the Barnes girl?"
"Not our problem right now. If Barnes Senior causes a stink we'll deal with that later. Let her parents bail her out. At this point in time I just want Hess in our hands where she can't cause any more trouble while we figure out what the hell is going on. And get some of Armsmaster's anti-Stalker tech ready to contain her. I wouldn't put it past the little idiot to run again."
"Understood. I'll keep you updated."
"Thank you." Putting the phone down as gently as possible, despite an urge to smash the handset on the desk until one or the other broke, the director glared at it. "Fuck me, you stupid little cunt, can't you just learn to not be an idiot?" she muttered, turning her attention to her computer keyboard. Shortly a whole series of angry emails were being sent to quite a few people.
Stabbing the disconnect icon on her phone with a forefinger, Zoe Barnes dropped the thing to the table and put her face in her hands. Then she squeezed. Hard.
"Jesus Christ Emma," she snarled through her fingers, absolutely furious with her youngest child. "What did you do?" Eventually she recovered enough from the phone call to lower her hands and just stare blankly across the room, trying to think what the next move should be. Alan was away in San Francisco on a business trip for the next three days, and even if she called him immediately he wouldn't be able to get back for at least twelve hours. In practice, probably longer. So while she'd let him know that their daughter was currently residing in a cell courtesy of the BBPD, she wasn't going to do it just yet, as she had more immediately important things to arrange.
'Assault on a police officer?' she thought with disbelief. 'What the fuck, Emma?' The girl could, admittedly, be something of a hothead at times, but this seemed out of character. On the other hand, her friend Sophia was certainly someone Emma appeared almost too attached to and if the other girl had got into trouble, Zoe could see something stupid happening in the heat of the moment.
She missed having Taylor around to moderate Emma's behavior… And once again wondered why the other girl hadn't been to their house for nearly eighteen months. The death of her poor mother had caused both Taylor and Danny some severe problems, she knew that all too well, but the girl at least had seemed to be improving the last time they'd met. Which made it all the odder that she'd abruptly stopped coming by…
Yet again she felt she should investigate just why that had happened. The Heberts had been very close friends since Emma was born but the loss of Annette, someone she keenly missed, had certainly caused their families to drift apart. Even so it seemed odd in retrospect. But every time she determined that she'd put in the effort to check on the Heberts, something seemed to come up and take all her attention. Which was a poor excuse, she knew, for people she'd known for so long, and she felt guilty about it.
And now she was going to have to go and deal with the most severe issue yet. Emma, despite her sometimes fiery nature, had never been in trouble with the cops before. But she seemed to have gone for the prize right out of the gate in this case.
Zoe almost laughed, admittedly bitterly. If Annette had still been alive the other woman would certainly have been able to help. She had all too much experience with disorderly conduct and police involvement, although no one could ever prove it… Shaking her head she got up and wandered over to look at one of the pictures on the wall, showing both her and her deceased friend standing next to each other with their arms over the other's shoulders, smiling happily. It had been taken at the beach six years ago, in happier times. Gently running a finger over the image, she smiled sadly.
"I miss you," she murmured almost silently.
Sighing in melancholy remembrance for a moment, she shook her head and turned back to the table, retrieving her phone and weighing it in her hand as she tried to think who to call. She needed some sort of legal representative, and was reluctant to call Alan's firm as there would certainly be a certain level of conflict of interest there. It would probably be best to talk to someone entirely unconnected with her husband's practice which eliminated his colleagues, unless she couldn't work out an alternative. But at the same time she didn't want just any random public defender as she had a pretty good idea, based on things Alan and Annette had both said, that you were unlikely to get a particularly good legal representative in that case.
Going into the kitchen she made a cup of coffee then sat drinking it, thinking and looking out the window into the snow-filled back yard. More snow was lightly sprinkling down out of a dull late morning sky, and it looked like this was set to continue all day. After a couple of minutes she leaned sideways to grab a pen and a pad from the counter beside her, and started making notes to help get her thoughts in order. When she'd finished the coffee she had also produced a page of information, mixed with questions. Tapping the pen on the paper she mulled over her options.
Eventually an idea hit her, about the only one that seemed vaguely plausible, and one that might solve two problems at once. Sighing a little as she expected that this was likely to be a somewhat awkward conversation for several reasons, she picked up her phone and scrolled through the contact list before finding the number she was after. Taking a breath, she pressed the dial icon.
When the call was answered by a familiar if long-missed voice, she smiled a little hesitantly. "Danny? It's Zoe. I need some advice…"
Taylor looked down as her new phone vibrated in her pocket, interrupting her sandwich eating. Wondering what her Dad wanted as it could only be him calling, since no one else had the number, she swallowed then pulled the device out of her pocket after looking around to make sure none of the usual problems were anywhere near. Since both Emma and Sophia had been dragged off screaming in fury by the cop, who'd ended up calling for backup when Emma kept kicking him from what she'd overheard, the whole school was in a very funny mood. Madison and some of the other lesser annoyances were constantly huddled together whispering and looking worried, many of the ones she was almost sure were gang members seemed torn between confused and upset, and even the staff appeared to be thinking very hard about life in general.
It rather amused her, and her recorders had caught some interesting comments. She herself was keeping to herself as always. Now, she prodded the call accept button and held the phone, a fairly cheap but good flip type, to her ear. Keeping an eye on the surroundings from her position as far away from everyone in the cafeteria as she could manage, she said, "Hi, Dad. What's up?"
"I just had a very odd phone call," his voice said, sounding bemused, concerned, and just a hint of trying not to laugh. She looked at the phone in confusion, lowering it for a second, then put it back.
"Odd how?" she probed.
"Before I say, what actually happened at school this morning? I've heard a bizarre story…"
Taylor sighed faintly, checking around her once again to be sure no one could overhear. "I came in and it was obvious there was something up because nothing happened," she began. "That's always a bad sign. Anyway, long story short, the principal turned up at my locker with a cop and a drug dog. Apparently they had information that a locker had drugs in. Guess which one?"
She could hear his teeth grinding quite clearly. "Ah. I think I am beginning to understand."
"Yeah. Funny thing is that when the cop searched my locker, they didn't find anything." Trying not to smirk at the memory of Sophia's expression, she added mildly, "The oddest part was that Sophia apparently had a fairly large amount of hash in her pocket…"
There was a long pause then a guffaw, causing her to grin momentarily. "Oh, Christ. OK, I have a pretty good idea what happened now."
"Thought you might. The cop wasn't impressed, he tried to get Sophia to come quietly, Sophia being her ran for it, and she got tasered in the ass. Which was fucking hilarious, I can't deny."
He was still chortling in her ear.
"Then he cuffed her, which was a bit difficult because Emma went nuts and kicked him. I left at that point but I heard she got arrested too." Taylor shrugged with an internal sense of great satisfaction. "Her dad will probably get her off, and Sophia too, but they're at least out of my hair for now. And it's really satisfying knowing it happened to someone who deserved it like that. Finally."
"I can imagine," he replied when he stopped snickering. "I assume the school is in cover their ass mode?"
"Looks like it. There was a staff meeting about half an hour ago, and all the classes were canceled so we could have an early lunch. Lots of people running around looking upset." Taylor glanced around the room seeing that Madison was huddled with Julia and some of the others of their little clique, none of them paying attention to anything else. From what she could see they were having a pretty vigorous discussion. "Principal Blackwell was on the phone as soon as Sophia got zapped, so I'd guess she was trying to get a lawyer or something."
"Probably," he agreed. After a moment, he added slightly tentatively, "All right. I'll tell you what happened to me. Try not to get too upset immediately, OK?"
She felt puzzled, as he sounded a little worried. "OK..." she replied cautiously.
"I got a call from Zoe Barnes," he said in a rather subdued voice. Taylor's hand clenched on the phone before she could relax it.
"Go on," the girl said with icy calm. Her father sighed faintly although audibly.
"Don't freak out until I finish." She nodded automatically. After another pause, he went on, "Alan is in California, on business, and won't be able to get back until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest. Zoe got a call from Emma, her free phone call I guess, from the precinct house where she and Sophia got taken. From what she said the girl is terrified and not in a good place. And before you say it, I know. After what she's done, you owe her nothing. I get it. But as far as I can tell Zoe doesn't know anything about what's been going on. The poor woman is at her wit's end by the sound of it. She doesn't think that Alan's firm is the right one to call to get Emma legal help, which she's definitely going to need. Assaulting a police officer is a pretty serious charge, and they've got the whole thing on his body camera."
Taylor breathed in through her nose, very slowly and calmly, then out through her mouth. Repeating this a couple of times, she finally said, "I see."
"Yeah. It's ridiculous, but there you are. Zoe didn't want to just leave it in the hands of a court-appointed defender, that's a good way to end up with a very bad legal position. Alan would probably jump in with both feet to defend the girl, which might well make things worse, as it's not really his specialty and you know what he gets like at times…"
The girl sighed. "So she called you because the Dock Worker's Association has several pretty good lawyers and knows more, since there's been all sorts of legal issues in the past with people there."
"Yeah. Basically that." He sounded tired. "I know what Emma did to you, Taylor. Honest, I understand that you have a better reason than almost anyone to tell them to take a long walk off a short wharf. But… The Barnes' were friends since before you were born, they helped a lot when I was… indisposed… and Zoe at least doesn't have anything to do with all that shit. I'm sure of it. I know the woman, not as well as your Mom did, but well. She'd have kicked Emma's ass around the block a dozen times if she'd found out what was going on. I wasn't looking forward to having her find out the way we'd planned."
Taylor rubbed her eyes under her glasses with two fingers, feeling very conflicted. She remembered Zoe Barnes with enormous affection even now. The older woman had been very close to her mother, and her, for as long as she could remember. But at the same time Emma had done everything in her power to burn every bridge in sight and befouled the memories of better times rather too well. "So what do you want to do?" she finally asked quietly.
"Your well-being takes precedence, Taylor, never doubt that," he assured her seriously. "I've talked to Michelle and she says that this incident is more than enough to be a perfectly valid reason to pull you out of Winslow, on top of all the other crap. I've been tempted to do that for weeks, but… as long as you could handle it, which you've done really well, and gather more evidence, it all helped. Now, though, with one of them trying to set you up for a drugs charge? And probably with at least a suspicion who was behind it on Blackwell's part, if not collusion… No, fuck that, you're out and we're going to drop the hammer on the entire school. And I don't give a crap about what happens to Sophia Hess. On the other hand…"
He fell silent for a moment or two while she closed her eyes and considered his words.
"I think it's pretty obvious that Emma needs help. I mean, actual mental help, by a professional. Zoe coming to me like this is probably actually a good thing. If we'd gone to Alan, like I said, we'd have had trouble getting him to listen and not just react badly, which would make things much more complicated than we want. But if we tell Zoe about what's been going on, get her on our side, by the time Alan comes back tomorrow there won't be a lot he can do about it. And our fight is really with the school, because it's their literal job to stop what's been going on from happening." He sounded annoyed now, although not at her.
"I don't like it, I have to admit," she commented.
"I know, and I don't blame you for that. It pisses me off every time I think about it. But on the other hand you could probably make the argument that in some ways Emma has also been let down by the school, since they should have stopped her before it escalated to this level. They've fucked up by the numbers from day one, for whatever reason they have, and while it doesn't excuse her behavior in any way at all, it might be that we should concentrate on shutting them down first. We can handle the Barnes problem after we get the school bent over a sawhorse and make it beg for mercy."
She couldn't help snorting with laughter at his comment, even as she was angry about the whole situation. However, he did, as much as she didn't like it, have a point. And she had no real ax to grind with the Barnes family other than Emma.
In fact, she should probably have gone to Zoe ages ago and talked to her about all the shit Emma was doing. She had no idea, thinking back on it, why she hadn't at least tried. But then she was aware that she, like her father, had been suffering from stress and depression, so it wasn't completely impossible to work out.
Some ten seconds passed in mutual silence as she thought. In the end she said, "Fine. If this goes wrong I'll blame you though."
"I know you will, Taylor," he chuckled sympathetically. "So will I. But it's worth trying. Worst case we're more or less where we were, since they'd find out pretty quickly as soon as we filed the case, but if we can get Zoe at least on our side we'll probably have a much easier time of it. Michelle agreed it was worth a shot."
"What do you need me to do?" she asked.
"For now, nothing. Just go about your day as usual, and come home normally. I'll get the process started to withdraw you from Winslow, and the various papers filed tomorrow. We'll arrange to home-school you for now but with a little luck we can force the school board to get you into a better place. Arcadia, perhaps, or one of the other ones that's not a gang recruitment facility."
Taylor rubbed her eyes again, feeling that things weren't quite going as she'd pictured, but possibly would still produce a result she could live with. Honestly, what she mostly wanted was for the abuse to just stop. Punishing those responsible was certainly a bonus, and it seemed likely that the staff were going to have a very bad time, but could she live with Emma getting away with it?
After a second more thought, she came to the conclusion that her former friend wasn't likely to actually get away with things. One way or the other she was going to find herself having a hard time in the near future, that much seemed certain. Hopefully Sophia would have a worse one. And perhaps she could take the high road, rather than pushing for maximum revenge.
She growled under her breath, then brightened up slightly. There was, of course, no reason to assume revenge couldn't be arranged later if required…
Her mother had always taught her it was best served cold, after all.
"Being mature sucks," she grumbled into the phone.
Her dad laughed again. "Yeah, it does sometimes. I'm proud of you, Taylor, always remember that. I'll see you tonight."
"OK." She hesitated, then added, "Give Aunt Zoe my best, and tell her I'm sorry, for what that's worth."
"I will," he replied with a smile evident in his voice. She pressed the call button, flipped the phone shut, and slipped it into her pocket, before raising her sandwich to her mouth again. Madison was watching her from the other side of the room at the moment. Taylor raised an eyebrow just a little and the girl flushed and quickly looked away, causing a certain amount of inner amusement. The petite little pain in the ass was nothing without her enablers, it appeared.
As she finished her lunch, then got out a book to read while everyone waited for the staff to get out of their meeting and either go back to what passed for teaching here or kick them all out, she thought back to the expression Sophia had worn when she'd found herself in front of an annoyed cop holding the little present she'd tried to leave for Taylor.
It was a memory that was going to warm her inside for quite a long time.
Danny glanced at his companion as he pressed the doorbell, Michelle Lichfield, the lawyer from the Union, looking back. She smiled briefly. Both of them turned their attention to the door as it opened to reveal a stressed-appearing Zoe Barnes, who stared at him for a moment before leaping forward and hugging him. "It's so good to see you again, Danny," the woman mumbled into his shoulder. He patted her back a little helplessly.
"It's good to see you again too, Zoe. I'm sorry we… fell out of touch."
"You had your own problems, Danny. I should have made the effort myself." Releasing him she smiled for a second, not looking happy but certainly appearing relieved. He knew she wasn't going to be feeling that shortly and hid the wince that went through him. "Come in." Standing aside she admitted both of them, then closed the door before walking around to lead them into the living room.
"This is Michelle Lichfield, my legal specialist," he commented as they all sat, Zoe facing them on one of the two opposed sofas around a low coffee table. "She's one of the best the Union has."
"It's nice to meet you," Zoe replied. "Coffee? I need something myself, I've got a pot ready in the kitchen."
He glanced at Michelle. The other woman nodded. "That would be nice, thank you." Zoe got up and disappeared into the hallway for a couple of minutes, as he looked around. Nothing much seemed to have changed since the last time he'd been in this room, all too long ago in better times. His eyes drifted across the photos on the wall, remembering where quite a few of them had been taken, and he sighed wistfully when he spotted Annette smiling out at him. Averting his gaze as it hit too close to home he caught Michelle looking at him and shrugged, the lawyer nodding in understanding.
"Here we go," Zoe said as she came back in, carrying a tray of coffee and some cookies. He got up to take it from her, putting it on the table then sitting again as did she. "Milk and sugar too," she added, pouring coffee into three mugs. A few seconds later they all had a drink and she sipped hers, before putting it down and scrubbing her face with her hands. "Sorry," she apologized when she lowered them. "I've had a very bad morning."
"Understandable," Michelle commented. She bit off a piece of the cookie in her hand and didn't add to the conversation, leaving it up to Danny as they'd agreed. He suppressed a sigh, then leaned forward.
"Have you found out any more of what happened?" he asked.
Zoe winced visibly. "Some. I called the cops and they told me a little more detail. Apparently a friend of Emma's got arrested in front of her and she… didn't take it well. Emma…" She swallowed. "Emma decided it was a brilliant idea to try to stop the officer putting cuffs on her friend, and it got physical. Which didn't help at all, of course. Emma is hardly a fighter. I can't work out why she'd even try something like that. We taught her better, or so I thought." The woman shook her head in confused sadness as he watched her. "I blame her friend. I never did entirely trust that girl, she's too… aggressive."
"That would be Sophia Hess?" he queried. She nodded, looking at him a little oddly. "I've heard of her from Taylor," he added. "I heard quite a bit about her, in fact. They don't get along."
Which was the understatement of the century, of course.
Zoe half-smiled. "I can understand that, she's definitely an acquired taste, if you want to put it like that."
Danny finished his coffee then put the cup down. "I know some things about what happened that by the sound of it you don't," he said evenly. "But you're not going to like it, or anything else that's going to come out of this. I think you have the right to hear it though."
She stared at him wide-eyed. "That sounds… ominous," she eventually replied, trying for a laugh and failing rather sadly.
He sighed heavily. "It's not good, Zoe. Hopefully we can get things to be better, but it's definitely not good."
Zoe swallowed, took a deep breath, and looked him directly in the eyes. "Tell me," she said. "I trust you."
"I sure hope so," he mumbled. "OK. This all started just under eighteen months ago, when Emma made a new friend, and told Taylor she was useless and should never talk to her again…" he began. Thirty seconds into his explanation, Zoe had her hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.
By the time Michelle had played some of the recordings of both girls, and their hangers-on, saying things to Taylor's face that would have resulted in a fist in the mouth if they'd been said to any dock worker he knew, her face had hardened.
And by the time he told her the story related to him by his daughter about what had led to her daughter being arrested for assaulting an officer of the law, she had a cold fury about her that took him right back to his wife when she was on one of her crusades. It brought with it a certain amount of nostalgia, he had to admit.
When he stopped talking an hour later, and she'd had time to calm down, she was in a brittle state of absolutely steaming with anger, most of which was directed at Winslow with a large helping left over for one Sophia Hess. And a bit reserved for Alan, who Danny had a shrewd idea was not going to have a happy return home…
Zoe looked at him wordlessly for some time, then read some of the documents Michelle had passed over, before nodding. "Danny, I apologize without reservation for what my own daughter has done to someone she's known her entire life. And if you need anything from my family to help with fucking Winslow into an early grave, you tell me and you have it."
"Accepted on my side, but Taylor's the one who has the final say," he replied.
"Of course. I owe her a bigger apology than I can possibly manage, but I'll try," the furious woman sighed, shaking her head. "And I look forward to seeing the entire administration of Winslow crash and burn. I'll piss on the ashes with glee." He chuckled, causing her to look embarrassed, but not all that much. "All right. I think it's time I went to pay my youngest daughter's bail. We need to talk." She looked at the laptop Michelle was putting back into her briefcase, the one she'd played the recordings from. "A lot."
"Want me to come with you?" he asked after a moment's thought and a glance at Michelle, who indicated acceptance with a small nod. "I know quite a few cops down there. We Union people stick together."
She smiled at him in a somewhat angry manner, although he could tell it wasn't aimed in his direction. "Thank you, Danny. That might help." Getting up she stormed upstairs, coming back a minute later with her handbag. "Shall we?"
"After you," he replied, waving her to the door. With her head up she headed out, he and Michelle following after a glance at each other.
The woman was definitely not pleased with what she'd learned, he thought to himself. And, as he'd hoped, was certainly not against him or Taylor.
"This should be interesting," Michelle commented as she stepped outside, Danny pulling the door shut behind them. Zoe was in her car already, starting it a moment later.
"Yeah," he agreed. Both got in, and soon they were heading to retrieve a particularly idiotic teenager from the consequences of her actions.
"The following students are to report to the Principal's office immediately. Taylor Hebert, Julia Colson, Kelly Smith, Greg Veder…"
Everyone listened as the list went on to about fifteen or sixteen names. Taylor recognized most of them from the incident earlier and guessed they were rounding up witnesses. Even odds, she thought, that they were going to be threatened to keep their mouths shut.
Which wasn't really going to work. Certainly not in her case, and she suspected few of the others would not talk as soon as they left the place. Sighing, she picked her backpack up and slid the textbook and some other stuff off her desk into it before standing. Mr Quinlan, who'd come back from the staff meeting with a troubled expression he hadn't lost yet, merely nodded her towards the door along with Kelly, a girl who she wasn't all that familiar with aside from being a third-order idiot. One of those girls who followed those who followed Emma and her cronies.
Neither said anything to each other as they headed through the school to the administration area. Several of the other students joined the group and when they reached the office they found the rest inside, with the exception of Greg Veder, who came panting through the door moments later. The secretary glared at him, causing him to swallow whatever he'd been about to say. "Sit," she instructed, pointing at the chairs on the other side of the office.
"Am I going to need to call my dad for this?" Taylor asked, without moving.
"No. Just sit down, Miss Hebert. You'll be called in one at a time."
Sighing under her breath, and feeling that this whole thing was probably going to be a waste of time, Taylor pulled one of the chairs a little away from the rest and dropped into it, her bag on her lap. Greg opened his mouth to say something as he sat next to her, only to stop when she gave him a look of distaste.
She was almost sorry for that, as he looked like a puppy that had been kicked, but the thought of how incredibly annoying he was kept her from relenting. And she didn't really want to talk to anyone anyway. Hopefully this, whatever it was, wouldn't take too long and she could go back to waiting for the school day to end, with any luck for the last time here.
A couple of minutes passed in silence aside from Julia and Kelly whispering to each other, at least until the secretary gave them an unfriendly look, until the door to the corridor opened again. Principal Blackwell, looking flustered and not a little worried, hurried in followed by two other people, a man and a woman, both in suits and about thirty or so from what Taylor could estimate. She could also tell at a glance that they were something official, as could everyone else. If nothing else both her upbringing and time at Winslow had given her a talent for spotting such people at fifty paces.
"I assure you, Lieutenant, we had no idea that anything like this was going on in the school," Blackwell was saying as she walked briskly across the room to open the door to her office, waving them inside. As it closed, Taylor heard her add, "I'm sure this is just a misunde…" before the sound was cut off.
She shook her head. Blackwell was definitely covering her ass like crazy, and was probably going to toss Sophia under the bus to save her own skin.
It wasn't like anyone who knew about Winslow would believe for a second that drug dealing didn't happen here. The only surprising thing was that it was Sophia who got caught. Taylor smirked internally, feeling that Papa would have approved, based on his writings.
Settling back in the chair she waited patiently, expressionless and as motionless as long practice could let her be. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Greg fidgeting, and a couple of the other students exchanging notes. Several others seemed to be asleep, which she could admit was probably about as good a use of time as anything else they could do right now.
Eventually the door to Blackwell's office opened again and the woman called, "Taylor Hebert. In here, please." Taylor stood and walked over, moving past the woman as she held the door open, then closed it with her on the inside. Pointing at a chair in front of her desk she commanded, "Sit there, and answer the questions you'll be asked."
Taylor sat, examining the sandy-haired man and blonde woman who were off to one side of Blackwell's desk, behind which the principal then sat. Both were, as she'd noticed earlier, wearing suits, and the woman was watching her closely, even as the man was doing much the same thing to Blackwell. Both were holding small recording devices. "This is Lieutenant Christoff and Sergeant Halden from the BBPD narcotics department. They want to learn more about what happened this morning."
"You mean when Sophia Hess tried to get me in trouble with the cops and screwed it up?" she queried innocently. "Because she told you I had drugs in there, but she had them in her pocket?"
"The identity of the informant is not known," Blackwell snapped stiffly. "And clearly they were mistaken."
"Clearly," she agreed. Blackwell glared at her, although the male cop barely stifled a small snort of humor.
She examined them again. Both returned her gaze. "OK, what do you want to know? And just to let you know, I'm recording this as well." She flicked the card around her neck with one finger.
"Miss Hebert, will you please cease your little act," Blackwell sighed. Taylor glanced at her, then looked back to the other pair, who had exchanged looks.
"You're recording audio?" the man asked, leaning forward to read her badge.
"Yep. Have been for weeks now." She smiled at him, in a slightly disconcerting manner. "I've had some problems here and this is evidence."
Blackwell sighed loudly, but the male cop gave her a look and she subsided, with a long-suffering expression on her pinched face. "I see," he replied slowly. "All right, then, let's leave that for now and go back to the event outside your locker at…" He checked his notepad, then carried on, "Eight nineteen this morning. Just tell me in your own words what happened."
"OK," she agreed, as it wasn't really worth arguing about. "I got off the bus about quarter past eight, and noticed immediately that something was going to happen, since no one tried to trip me or any of the usual stuff." They exchanged looks again, then peered at Blackwell, who rolled her eyes. "That normally means there's something set up to cause trouble," she continued. "I assumed it was probably my locker again. And when I got there, there were a couple of dozen students 'casually' standing around very carefully not looking at it." She made little sarcastic finger quotes as she said the word. "So I knew that I was right. Same as last time. I was just about to open it and duck when Principal Blackwell turned up with a cop, a dog, and a pair of idiots."
She shrugged as Blackwell started to snap something again and once more got wordlessly deflated, this time by the blonde cop. "I'll admit planting drugs on me is a new one. Although you'd have expected Sophia to at least, you know, plant the drugs. Leaving them in her pocket was just stupid, but then she's not the smartest person I've ever met." She smiled mirthlessly, feeling rather pleased about being able to turn the screws a little bit.
"The cop searched my locker, didn't find anything, apologized, and was leaving when his dog started growling at Sophia. He made her empty her pockets and she had a whole pile of hash on her, as it turned out."
"You know what that looks like?" the blonde cop asked curiously. She gave the woman a look.
"Of course I do. I live in the docks, and I go to Winslow. Everyone here knows what half a dozen drugs look like I guarantee it," she replied calmly even though Blackwell was looking worried now. "There's probably enough stashed away in lockers around the school to make the ABB look pleased. Not to mention guns and knives, and probably a lot of stolen stuff too." Taylor made a motion of resignation. "That's Winslow for you."
Blackwell was trying to burn a hole in her head with her gaze by this point.
Neither cop said anything for a moment, although both took notes. "All right… Would you say that Miss Hess having possession of narcotics was out of character?"
Taylor shrugged again. "I never really thought about that. She's violent and unpleasant, that's all I really know. I can't help you with the drugs, and I have no idea where she got them from. Looked pretty high end to me, if that helps. Not the sort of thing the kids here smoke around the back of the gym. That's mostly just weed."
Blackwell sputtered and everyone else ignored her entirely.
"And is it a common occurrence that Miss Hess would, as you put it, try to set you up?" the woman asked.
With a sigh, Taylor lowered her head. "They've never done that before but they'd done near enough everything else, so I can't honestly say I was all that surprised. It was just them escalating the bullying, I guess. Could have been worse, at least this time I didn't get covered in paint. And they didn't manage to do anything other than fuck themselves up for once, so…" She lifted a hand, then dropped it. "At least they're out of my hair for a while."
The pair leaned towards each other and whispered for a moment, the man nodding a couple of times. Blackwell was watching them, sweat beading on her brow, and Taylor just waited, thinking. After a few seconds they separated again. "I think that's all we need for now, Miss Hebert. Thank you for your time." He looked again at her badge. "May we have a copy of your audio record?"
"I'll have to check with my dad," she said as she got up. "But if he thinks it's a good idea we could arrange that, I suppose."
The cop handed her a card with his name and an email address on it, which she looked at then put in her pocket. "We'd appreciate it."
Blackwell was looking put out now, as she clearly still didn't believe Taylor was actually recording anything. Which in some ways the girl found absolutely hilarious especially when she pictured the face the woman would make when she found out the truth. Nodding to the cops, she left the office, walked across the outer room without stopping, and went into the corridor. As she headed back to math class, she wondered why a pair of PRT agents were pretending to be cops and were interested in Sophia…
Because about the one thing she was sure of was that they were not BBPD no matter what their ID said. Their suits were way too expensive, they didn't carry themselves with the same absolutely done with this shit attitude that every cop she'd ever seen in her life did, and both of them had been wearing very tiny, very high end, very discreet devices in their ears.
Not to mention the three separate, and not at all normal, cell phones they'd each had on them.
So either FBI or PRT, and PRT seemed much more likely. Which in turn led her thoughts down some paths that she hadn't expected… Thoughts that were threatening to make her rather irritated if she was right.