The Suicide Club

“You think this is what they’re doing because we’ve got patrols on the churches? Putting snakes in clothes hampers.”

Rick sounded amused, which she resented. “Not exactly.” She hesitated to put into words what she had been thinking. But since she’d started this…“I think when they saw me with Nolan, they thought I’d sold them out.”

“You know something about the fires you haven’t told us?”

“Of course not. Until Jace said it, I’d never had any reason to think about my students in connection with them.”

“Jace?”

“Nolan,” she amended, catching the look in Rick’s eyes. “I had dinner with the guy. During the course of the meal, we exchanged first names. It’s…” She shook her head, realizing she’d gotten off track. “Look, I probably wouldn’t have put any of this together except yesterday my seniors made such a thing about seeing me with him.”

“Give me some names, Lindsey.”

“I’m not saying there’s a correlation with the kids who brought it up. They were just the ones who saw us. But you know how things like that get talked about. And then tonight…Tonight, when every kid in that high school knows where I’m going to be and when I’m going to be there, I come home and find a rattler in my laundry basket. I can’t help thinking—”

The front door opened, and the deputies and the guy with the sack and the pole came out. Although she didn’t want to look at the bag, Lindsey could tell there was now something inside.

As the older man headed toward his pickup, one of the deputies started across the lawn to where she and Rick were standing. On the way, the deputy nodded to her neighbors, slowing to answer a question one of them asked, before he continued toward her. Neither she nor Rick said anything as they waited for his arrival.

“I don’t think you’ve got anything else to worry about, Ms. Sloan. We poked around in there pretty good.”

Despite the cringe factor inherent in having people look through her closets and less-than-orderly cabinets, she had pleaded with them to check out the rest of the house. While that wasn’t as reassuring a message as she’d hoped for, they’d probably done all they could tonight. Whether that made her comfortable enough to go back inside and crawl into bed…

“She thinks somebody put the snake into that hamper.” Rick raised his brows, shrugging slightly. “I don’t see how it could have got into a closed basket otherwise.”

In spite of her own conviction that that’s what had happened, hearing him put it into words created a sickness in the pit of Lindsey’s stomach. Never in her life had anyone deliberately tried to hurt her. To think that one of her students might be involved in this made her question every day of the ten years she’d spent in the classroom.

“You see any sign of forced entry?” Rick asked.

“No, but we weren’t looking for them, either. You got any idea who might have done something like that, Ms. Sloan?”

She remembered what Shannon had said. In a town like this even the suggestion of wrongdoing could taint a kid’s life.

“No.” She didn’t dare look at Rick.

“Lindsey.”

She turned her head, meeting his eyes. “I don’t. I told you I don’t have a name. Anything else is just speculation.”

“I’d say it’s a little more than that.”

“Not really. Besides, what I’m willing to tell you as a friend is very different from what I’m willing to put into a police report.” She looked back at the deputy who’d responded to her call. “Thanks for taking care of the snake and for searching the house. If I think of anything, I’ll call you.”

“You teach at the high school, don’t you?”

“That’s right.”

“Think this could have been some of your students? Some version of the old puttin’ a frog in the teacher’s drawer.”

She should have expected the question, once the subject was broached. “I can’t think of a child I teach who’d do something like this.”

She heard Rick’s snort of disbelief, but she wasn’t being dishonest. Whether she bought into the idea that her students were involved in the fires or not, she couldn’t believe any of them harbored this kind of animosity toward her.

And toward Jace Nolan?

“Okay, then,” the deputy said, sounding relieved. “If you think of anything else or if you want us to check out the whereabouts of any of your students tonight, let us know.”

She knew where her kids would say they’d been. Either at school or at home, while she and their parents had been at the PTA meeting. And very few of them would be able to produce any witness who could verify their presence there.

“Ma’am.” The deputy touched the brim of his hat before he turned to join his partner who was waiting in the patrol car.

“You want me to come in with you?” Rick asked.

The idea was appealing, but Rick had obviously just finished his shift. He was probably tired and wanted to get home to his own bed. It must be nearly midnight by now. If the other deputies and the snake hunter hadn’t found anything…

“I’ll be okay. But thanks. I appreciate the offer. And thanks for coming by. I appreciate that, too.”

“You call me if you need me, Linds. I mean that.”

“I will.” She leaned forward and hugged him.

His arms closed around her, squeezing hard. When he released her, there was an awkward silence. Despite the number of times she’d been around Rick while he and Shannon dated, she’d never thought of him as a friend. He had been tonight.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he told her. “We’ll get to the bottom of this. I’ll do some looking around on my own. Talk to a few of the kids.”

“I don’t want to accuse my students and then find out I was wrong. Something like that can follow a kid for the rest of his life. Shannon will tell you that.”

“Maybe you and Shannon ought to be more concerned about yourselves. That wasn’t a frog in your hamper. You remember that.”

She nodded, unable to dispute his assertion. She was lucky she wasn’t at the emergency room being treated for snake bite. And she knew it. “Thanks again.”

“I meant what I said. Call me if you need me.”

“I will.”

“You going to school tomorrow?”

“It’s a little late to get a sub.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t say anything about this. Not to the kids. Just watch how they act around you. See if you see anything that sets off alarms.”

“Like what?”

“Someone who seems a little strange. They may not, but you never know. Especially if you act like nothing happened.”

“You know how long it will take for this to get around,” she said, glancing back at her neighbors who were still standing in the middle of her yard.

“Not by tomorrow morning. Just keep your radar up. Whoever did this is probably going to be looking to gauge your reaction. Maybe you can tell which kid that is.”

She nodded, even though she wasn’t convinced she’d be able to tell anything by the way her kids acted. Between hormones and football, anything approaching normal was a crapshoot.

“You want me to let Nolan know?”

Rick’s question caught her off guard. It was logical that he’d want to tell the guy in charge of the church fire investigation that she was wondering if this were related.

“Do what you think is best,” she said finally. Jace had a right to know. And he was bound to find out anyway.

Was letting Rick tell him the coward’s way out? Maybe. But right now she didn’t want to have to face Jace and confess that she was wondering if he’d been right. Let Rick convey her doubts. In the meantime, she needed to try to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow.

“You gonna be okay?”

Rick’s question brought her eyes up. “Of course,” she said with more conviction than she felt.

And if she wasn’t, she would deal with it in private.

Although she’d resisted the impulse to pack a bag and spend the remainder of the night at her parents’ house, she hadn’t been able to just crawl into bed and go back to sleep.

She’d settled down in the den instead, the light beside her recliner on so she could see most of the room. And if she occasionally thought she caught motion in one of its shadowed corners, that was only to be expected.

She had always functioned okay in college after pulling an all-nighter. She’d be all right at school. Then if she still felt that she couldn’t sleep here tomorrow night—

The doorbell interrupted the endless cycle of trying to deal with this. She looked down at her watch and found it was almost two. If they thought she was going to be stupid enough to open the door after what they’d done—

The bell rang again, strident and demanding.

Maybe the deputies had come back. Maybe they’d already discovered something. As appealing as that thought was, she was still reluctant to face anyone right now.

When the bell rang once more, she righted the recliner, slipping her feet into her shoes. As she headed toward the front door, she turned on the lights in her path.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Jace. Let me in.”

She wasn’t prepared to deal with him right now. That’s why she’d agreed to let Rick tell him what had happened.

“Lindsey? Open the damn door.”

The air of command she’d previously classified as arrogant was suddenly appealing. Jace sounded furious. As if he were prepared to kick someone’s ass. And right now, that was exactly how she needed him to feel.

She slipped the chain out of the slot, then threw the deadbolt and turned the handle. The porch light verified her initial impression. Jace was furious.

“May I come in?”

“Of course.” She stepped back, allowing him to enter. Before she turned to face him, she secured the locks on the door. The process not only occupied her trembling hands, but it gave her a moment to get her act together.

When she’d seen him standing outside, she had wanted to throw herself into his arms. It was a feeling that made no sense. If anything, she should be angry at him for putting her in this situation. If he hadn’t singled her out, both at school and at the game…

Taking a steadying breath, she turned to face him. It was the first time she’d seen him in casual clothes.

The black T-shirt emphasized the muscles of his chest and upper arms, which had up until now been camouflaged by the suits he normally wore. The worn material of his faded jeans was almost as revealing as the knit shirt. And the five-o’clock shadow she’d noticed Friday night was much darker now, giving him a hard, almost sinister appearance.

“What happened?” he demanded.

Without any hesitation, she told him what she believed. “Somebody put a rattlesnake in my clothes hamper.”

“Somebody?”

She’d already been through this with the neighbors and the deputy. As convenient as it might be to accept the theory that the snake had enclosed itself in that basket, the explanation didn’t fly. And she was tired of trying to convince people who should know better why it wouldn’t.

“Somebody,” she repeated. “They came into my house while I was at PTA and dumped a snake where they knew I’d find it.”

“Any signs of forced entry?”

“No, but I found a window in the study that wasn’t locked. They may have used that.”

“So how could they be sure you’d open the hamper?”

“Chances were good I was going to undress tonight.”

“You always put your clothes in the hamper.”

“Of course.”

There was a visible relaxation of his tension. “Most people don’t, you know.”

“Don’t put their dirty clothes in the laundry?”

“The snake might have died of old age at my place.”

“Anybody who knows me—”

“Knew full well you’d open that hamper tonight.”

She nodded and then realized she’d made his point.

“You want to show me?”

“The hamper?”

“Eventually. The window first.”

“All right.”

She moved past him, leading the way toward the back of the house. When she’d bought the place, she’d turned one of the two generous-size bedrooms into an office, which was where she’d discovered the unlocked window. It was one of the few that hadn’t been painted shut.

When she’d worked in there last spring, she had opened the window and turned on the ceiling fan, allowing it to pull in the scent of honeysuckle along with the cooler night air. It had been too hot and humid to do that this summer, of course, and although she found it hard to believe the window had been unlocked for months, she couldn’t deny the possibility.

“In here.”

Jace stood in the doorway of the room she’d indicated, a hand on either side of the frame. “They dust for prints?”

“I didn’t find this was unlocked until after they’d left.”

He walked across the room, looking intently at the carpet, which, chosen for its tight weave and durability, didn’t show footprints. Then he leaned forward, making an inspection of the sill. “I’ll get someone out here.”

“What for?”

“To dust for prints.”

“Does it have to be tonight?”

He turned, eyes examining her face. “Were you asleep?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

She laughed. “Call it residual snake phobia.”

“You don’t like them.”

“No better and no less than the average person.”

“Yeah? They give me the creeps.”

His honesty surprised her. Most men she knew, even if they felt that way, would have been reluctant to admit it.

“He strike at you?”

She nodded, crossing her arms over her body as she remembered the near miss.

“So how come he didn’t hit you?”

“I don’t know. I heard him. But first…”

“What?” he asked when she hesitated.

“I remembered something my grandmother told me when I was a little girl.”

“Your grandmother?”

“We used to pick blackberries every summer when we went to visit her. Snakes love to hide in the vines. They stink—like goats, my grandmother told us—and that if we ever smelled that, we should run.”

“Goats?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know what goats smell like. This was…rank. Unpleasant. I smelled it when I leaned over the hamper. Actually, I smelled it when I came into the bathroom, but I didn’t know what it was. Not until I heard the rattle. By that time…” She shivered, the image of that lethal, arrow-shaped head shooting out of the basket in her mind again. “In the middle of lifting the top off the basket, I just suddenly knew what was inside. I jumped back and let go of the lid. It fell on the snake. I don’t know whether that distracted him or whether he wasn’t long enough to get to me. And I didn’t stop to figure it out.”

“At least he warned you.”

“I wondered if that was deliberate.”

“On the part of the snake?” Again, there was that hint of amusement in his voice.

She found she didn’t mind it, even if it was at her expense. “On the part of whoever put it there.”

“You think…they didn’t intend for you to get bitten.”

“Wishful thinking?”

“Maybe. If this was a prank, it was a dangerous one. And they went to a lot of trouble to carry it off.”

“I don’t think it was a prank.”

“Yeah? Neither do I. For what it’s worth.”

“My kids knew we had dinner together.”

“So?”

“It was discussed in my senior English class yesterday.”

“And you think this is related.”

“Don’t you?”

“You first.”

“Maybe I’m too prone to look for symbolism, but…” She took a breath, steeling herself to say it. “I do believe it’s related. Somebody thinks I’m helping you.”

“So they put a snake in your house.”

“Snake in the grass,” she said softly.

“What?”

“They’re saying I’m a snake for helping you.”

“Sorry. A little too much symbolism for me.”

“Even the kind of snake they used, notorious for warning about its intentions to harm.”

“So…you think this was a warning?”

“Don’t you?”

He shrugged, his eyes tracking back to the window that had probably given them access to her home. Her sanctuary.

“If it isn’t a warning,” she prodded, “what is it?”

“It’s exactly what I told you before.”

“I don’t understand?”

“A new way to get that rush. You know. The one that, before we stopped them, they used to get from setting fires.”

Seven

No fingerprints on the window or the basket. Other than yours.” Jace flipped the page, eyes scanning the report he’d received shortly before Lindsey arrived at his office this afternoon. She’d given him a key to her house last night so that he could get a crew out there this morning. “And no footprints in the ground under it.”

It was exactly what he’d expected. Actually it was almost satisfying, although he didn’t think Lindsey Sloan was going to see it that way.

“So what you’re saying is you have nothing.”

“There’s also no sign of forced entry, and this time they checked every inch of the place. So…”

“So? I don’t understand.”

“They were careful to leave no evidence.”

“You think I’m right.” She sounded surprised.

“I think you might be. And I owe you an apology for getting you involved.”

“If you were right, I was already involved.”

“Because they’re your students?”

“As hard as it is for me to believe. And even accepting that…” She stopped, shaking her head.

“It’s harder to believe that they’d invade your home and threaten your life.”

And what had occurred was nothing less, Jace thought. This had not been the action of some unthinking kid. It had been a well-planned attack, vicious and cold-blooded.

Although snake bites were rarely fatal when treatment was available, they were extremely painful and carried a danger of infection and tissue loss. If Lindsey’s students were as smart as they were represented to be, they would know that. Or they would have taken the trouble to find it out.

They hadn’t meant to kill her. If they had, they would have chosen some other method. So she was probably also right about the symbolism.

“It’s hard to explain the connection that exists between you and students you’ve taught for a couple of years,” she said. “You’ve mentored them. Disciplined them. Encouraged them. Loved them.”

“Loved them?” It sounded maudlin and emotional, and he hadn’t pegged her as either. Unless…

She laughed. “Not all of them. But certainly some.”

“That ever go beyond the classroom?”

“I’m sorry?”

She sounded at a loss about what he meant, but everybody had seen those stories on the news. Maybe there was something more to this than the fact that he’d tried to make her an ally.

Looking for a Get Out of Jail Free card, Nolan?

Maybe he was. Although he was usually able to put mistakes out of his head as being part of the process, he’d been feeling guilty since last night. This morning, he amended.

He didn’t relish the thought that there might have been something going on between her and a student, but it was an avenue he needed to explore. Not only because of what she’d just said, but because the attack had taken place at her home rather than at school or somewhere else. That made it personal.

“I’m talking about your relationship with your students. Has that ever gotten a little more than professional with any one of them?” He watched the realization of what he meant form in her eyes. Just before they grew cold.

“When I said that I loved them, lieutenant, I mean like a parent. I’ve never had an affair with a student, if that’s what you’re implying.”

Her indignation struck him as genuine. After more than fifteen years in this business, his radar was well-honed for cheats and liars. He didn’t believe Lindsey Sloan was either.

Just some innocent who got caught in your drive to explore every angle of those fires.

“It’s my job to ask the hard questions,” he said. “Consider that one asked and answered. And I guess I owe you another apology.”

“Right now I’m more concerned with where we go from here.”

“For one thing we’ll add your address to the list of regular patrols the deputies are making. Ever think about installing a security system?”

“I’ve never had to think about it. Not here.”

He let her words rest between them without a response.

After a moment, she turned her head, looking at the door to his office. “I guess all that’s changed now, hasn’t it?”

“It changed with the first fire. Randolph isn’t immune to the kinds of things that happen in other places. Those burned churches were proof of that.”

“Do you still think they’ll do something else?” she asked, meeting his eyes again.

“To you? I’m going to do everything in my power to see they don’t. If this was a reaction to your being seen with me, then they may well be satisfied with their warning. You might indicate somehow that you got the message.”

“Indicate that to the kids?”

“You’re the one who said people talk. Let it be known that you’re not going to talk to the police anymore.”

“You think that will convince them to leave me alone?”

“That and a patrol of your neighborhood.”

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes.”

“How will you know when that is?”

“When I know who they are.”

Jace had set up the patrol he’d promised, but despite that, he wasn’t comfortable with the situation. When Lindsey’s place was being searched, he had made sure there were no more unlocked windows and that the dead bolts were strong. All of which meant less than nothing if someone was determined to get in.

Which was why he was sitting in his car on the street behind her house. He was convinced that whoever had put the snake in Lindsey’s hamper had gotten in through that study window at the back. The front of the place was too exposed. You’d have to be an idiot to attempt a break-in there. And no matter what else he thought about the people involved in this, they were far from idiots.

He reached for the thermos he’d brought, pouring the last of the coffee into the plastic top. It was almost two. If these kids had parents who enforced curfews as he suspected, they wouldn’t be out at this time of night. He should go back to his apartment. Get some sleep like a human being for a change. Lack of rest wasn’t going to help him solve this case.

The kids had delivered their message. They were probably home in their beds, in that near-comatose state only teenage boys seemed able to achieve. And if he were smart—

He didn’t finish the thought. The same vague restlessness that had driven him to undertake this vigil wouldn’t let him abandon it. Call it cop’s intuition. Call it whatever the hell you wanted, something he needed to know about was going on.

He shifted in the seat, trying to get comfortable. The change of position didn’t relieve the ache in his spine. That was better at some times than others, but obviously this wasn’t going to be one of them.

As he brought his cup up to his mouth, his gaze lifted to scan the back of Lindsey’s house. Before the rim made contact with his lips, he straightened, his eyes narrowing as he focused on a faint light that moved waveringly behind Lindsey’s curtained windows.

He watched for perhaps five more seconds, verifying his initial impression, before he opened his door. He threw the coffee on the street and then pitched the plastic cup back onto the passenger’s seat.

By the time he was standing, he’d drawn his weapon. He eased his door closed, not bothering to fully shut or lock it. And then, staying low and taking advantage of the abundant cover the heavily planted yards provided, he skirted between the houses of Lindsey’s neighbors and slipped into her backyard.

The wavering light he’d seen from his car had disappeared. Maybe Lindsey had been watching television in the dark again. Maybe she was having trouble sleeping, too. If so, she probably wouldn’t mind a little company.

Providing she didn’t already have some.

After hours spent tossing and turning, Lindsey had finally decided she’d be better off up doing something productive. She certainly had enough that needed doing.