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Daniel smiled. “Yes and no. I’m working on a book, which I’m enjoying very much. But I won’t lie to you. There are times I miss the old adrenaline rush.
“However, that’s not the point. Because of Kathie, I said I’d teach one class. The first session was last night. But this morning my doctor phoned the house with the results of some tests taken last week. He said he wanted me to come in and have the surgery immediately.”
Gideon could see where this was headed.
“Tomorrow night’s the next class. The spring quarter runs for six weeks, and the classes are on Wednesday and Friday evenings from seven to nine. If all goes well, I’ll be able to finish up the last six classes or so. But I need someone to fill in for me for the rest of April and part of May. You’re the man I want to take my place.”
“I’m not a teacher, Daniel.”
“Neither am I,” Daniel said with a grin. “All you’d have to do is pretend you’re investigating a murder. Proceed as if you were in charge of the crime scene. Just verbalize the steps so they’ll know what you’re thinking and doing. Emphasize forensics—the class is particularly interested in that. That’s it!”
“Not quite. I’m not the legendary Daniel Mcfarlane.”
Daniel ignored that comment. “Before you say no, Gideon, hear me out. My daughter’s built me up to be some kind of paragon, which I’m not. However I do know a man who is, and that’s you.”
“Come on,” Gideon scoffed.
“It’s the truth. The day you resigned from the NYPD to move to San Diego and join the force was our good fortune. Right from the start you were the officer who stood out from the rest. Over the years you’ve distinguished yourself again and again. The way you helped bring down that Russian Mafia ring last fall was damned impressive.”
“Don’t give me the credit, Daniel. My friend Max Calder is the one who deserves it.”
“I agree it was a team effort. Nevertheless, because of your undercover work with the FBI, the powers that be were considering you to take my place. But they don’t like to promote any detective to that position until he’s at least forty-five.”
By now Gideon was on his feet. “I would never want your old job. Not only could no one else ever measure up, Kevin needs me around on a regular basis. Serving on that special task force took a year out of my life and made it difficult to spend enough time with him. He’s been much happier since I went back on regular assignment.”
“That’s the beauty of this class. If it’s Kevin’s night for visitation, he could go with you and do his homework at the back of the room.”
Gideon grunted. “You’re a sly old fox, Mcfarlane. Go on. I’m still listening.”
“You’d be teaching ten mystery writers, most of them women.”
His wink didn’t fool Gideon, who’d been divorced for ten years now. Daniel had been after him to get married again. But Gideon had his own ideas about that. His ex-wife’s betrayal had caused a lot of damage.
Finding out he wasn’t Kevin’s biological father until Fay asked him for a divorce had killed something inside Gideon. Though he eventually started dating again, he was content with his bachelor status. His son meant everything to him.
“A couple of these writers are already published,” Daniel explained. “Several seem to be on the verge. Kathie’s counting on me, so I want the best detective on the force teaching this group. How about it?”
There was no way Gideon could turn Daniel down. They’d been friends and colleagues for too long.
“I tell you what,” Gideon said. “I’ll check with the sergeant to make certain I’m free on those nights. When he hears that you’re the reason for the request, I’m sure I won’t have a problem. The important thing is for you to get well.”
“Thanks, Gideon. They’re a nice group. Tomorrow night they’ll be bringing their latest ideas for a mystery. I gave them an assignment. They’ll each have two minutes—no more—to present a synopsis they’ve been working on. I told them I’d pick the one that intrigued me the most, and we’d start there.”
“Where’s the class?”
“Mesa Junior High in Mission Beach.”
“I was there last year for one of Kevin’s soccer games.”
“Just go to the main office a few minutes before seven. Larry Johnson runs the adult-education classes. He’ll have an attendance roll and room key.”
“All right. I’ll take care of it. Now I’d better leave. The nurse told me to make this brief. I think I’ve already overstayed my welcome.”
The older man smiled his thanks. “I owe you for this. Naturally you’ll be compensated.” He sighed in obvious relief. “You have no idea how much I appreciate this.”
Gideon knew. This class might seem a minor obligation to most people, but Daniel took his commitments seriously. So did Gideon.
He got to his feet and grasped Daniel’s shoulder firmly. “I’m glad to help out. Take care and mind the doctor. I’ll check back with you tomorrow.”
The two men shook hands once more, and then Gideon left the room. Daniel’s wife was coming down the hall.
“Don’t worry about anything, Ellen. I told him I’d take over his class until he’s on his feet again.”
“Bless you,” she murmured as they hugged goodbye. “Daniel thinks the world of you. He wouldn’t even consider anyone else.”
“That’s nice to hear. Your husband’s tough. He’ll pull through this and he’ll be better than ever.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I know I am. I’ll call in the morning for an update.”
“Please do. His surgery is scheduled for 6:00 a.m.”
“Good. It’ll be over before you know it.”
Gideon left the hospital and headed for his house in Ocean Beach. En route he phoned his supervisor to see what could be arranged.
Since the divorce when Kevin was three, Wednesdays had been set aside for the boy’s midweek visitation with Gideon. The decree also allowed visitation every other weekend, every other holiday and six weeks every summer.
It had never been enough for Gideon, but Fay had remarried within months of their divorce. Because of her desire that Kevin bond with his new stepfather, she’d refused to deviate from the stipulations set by the court.
Not wanting to cause any more trauma to their son, Gideon had accepted the situation. He believed children needed their mothers. But now that Kevin was in eighth grade, he was begging to live with Gideon full-time.
Kevin didn’t dislike his stepfather, but he’d never developed any real affection for him. Of course, the boy loved his mother, but she and her husband were both busy stockbrokers. Kevin had been raised by a series of nannies until he started junior high. Then there’d been a string of baby-sitters.
That was the problem.
According to Gideon’s attorney, Kevin was now old enough to choose which parent he wanted to live with. But Fay would be impossible if Kevin moved in with Gideon. She would heap enough guilt on their son to traumatize him.
In the long run Gideon felt it was better to leave things as they were.
Gideon had explained all this to Kevin, who’d cried quietly, then clung to him, vowing that the day he turned eighteen he was going to come and live with his father.
They were father and son, no matter that Kevin’s biological father was some high-powered stockbroker from New York who had no idea he had a child.
Unbeknownst to Gideon, Fay had slept with her boss while she was engaged to Gideon. Afraid to tell him the truth, she’d passed the baby off as Gideon’s. After almost four years of marriage, she got involved with another stockbroker in San Diego and then asked Gideon for a divorce.
Though he’d known his wife was always striving for something he couldn’t seem to give her, he hadn’t realized she’d gone as far as to have an affair.
Shocked by her refusal to try to keep their marriage together through counseling, he sued for custody of Kevin. That was when he learned about her previous affair. A DNA test confirmed that Kevin wasn’t Gideon’s son.
When the judge heard the case, he decreed that Gideon was Kevin’s father in all the ways that mattered and granted him the most liberal visitation rights under the law.
Unless Fay softened, which would probably never happen, there was nothing to do but go on making the best of a situation Gideon would never have wished on an innocent child. He certainly wasn’t about to tell his son he was another man’s child. It wasn’t information Kevin needed to know. Gideon had consulted several counselors at the time of the divorce, and they all agreed.
There was a bright side to Daniel’s request for help. Gideon would take his suggestion and bring Kevin to class on the visitation nights. His son had always been curious about Gideon’s work. He could do his homework and listen at the same time. They’d have dinner either before class or after and make a special night of it.
Once school was out at the end of May, Kevin would be spending the first half of the summer with Gideon. This year they were going to vacation in Alaska for a couple of weeks and do some salmon fishing with Max and his wife, Gaby.
Since his marriage, Max had resigned from the FBI and was now a detective in the same division of the San Diego Police Department as Gideon. It was a little like the old days, when the two of them had been rookie cops together in New York. Only this was much better because those dark days of pain and lies were behind them both.
Fortunately Kevin had always been crazy about Max. Now he was equally crazy about Gaby, who was expecting a child in August. Already Gideon’s son had volunteered to baby-sit. Kevin’s happiness was all that mattered to Gideon these days.
BY FRIDAY MORNING Heidi had reached an all-time low. Mr. Cobb’s office had indicated that he was out of the country and wouldn’t return before Sunday night. On Thursday she’d taken a personal-leave day from school to spend time with her parents while they discussed what to do about Dana’s situation.
After much soul-searching, Heidi decided she’d have to wait until she could talk to Mr. Cobb before she asked her father to get hold of that other attorney. It was the only honorable thing to do. But it was hard to wait when she knew a week with no news was like a year to Dana.
When Heidi arrived at school on Friday morning, she felt emotionally exhausted. Without much enthusiasm, she went through the stack of mail and flyers that had accumulated in her teacher’s box over two days. After scanning each piece, she tossed most of them in the wastebasket, then hurried out of the main office to her room at the end of the west hall.
The first bell at Mesa Junior High in Mission Beach wouldn’t ring for half an hour. She breathed a sigh of relief to know she had thirty more minutes to get the room ready for class.
Six years of teaching had taught her to present new geography units to her ninth-graders on Thursdays. That way, the kids who thought the weekend started on Friday morning couldn’t use the excuse that they’d missed the initial presentation. But she’d had to make an exception and stay home yesterday because Dana’s problems had superceded anything else.
Now that fourth term of the school year had started, it was time to cover the Middle East, an area so foreign to most of her students they had no clue it wasn’t another neighborhood in San Diego.
Her classes included a pretty-equal mix of Asian, African-American, Hispanic and white students. Her goal was that by the time school was out, they could each, on a map of the world, place the oceans, continents, countries and major cities.
After she’d unlocked the door to her room, the first thing she noticed was the writing on the front board.
Rule 1. Never assume anything!
She frowned. The information she’d put on the board for the substitute had been erased. Why?
She glanced at her books and papers, which had been rearranged on top of her desk. That was odd. All the substitutes who’d ever taught for her had always left everything exactly as they’d found it.
Wondering what was going on, she rang the office, using the switch on the wall behind her desk. One of the secretaries answered.
“This is Sheila. What can I do for you?”
“Hi, Sheila. It’s Heidi. You wouldn’t happen to know who subbed for me yesterday, would you?”
“Yes. That huge teachers’ seminar in the district drained all the subs, so different teachers from our building took your classes on their free periods and let the kids do any homework they wanted. Is there a problem?”
“No, I was just surprised that my lesson plan was erased from the board.”
“That’s probably because the community school just started their adult classes. Mr. Johnson arranged the schedule. He’s put someone in your room on Wednesday and Friday nights from seven to eight-thirty. Just a sec and I’ll see who it is.
“Okay—found it. The teacher’s name is Mcfarlane. According to this, the class is an introduction to criminology.”
Criminology?
Her heart gave a strange thud.
“If you don’t want him in there, I’ll ask another teacher.”
“No! No—don’t do that!” Please, don’t do that. Maybe this is the answer to my prayers. “I’d forgotten about community school.” All the teachers had to take turns sharing their rooms.
“You’re sure it’s okay?”
“Positive.”
“Mr. Johnson says that if any of you have complaints, you should put a note in his box and he’ll talk to the person. They’ve been told to leave the rooms exactly as they find them. If you’re missing anything, I’ll send a student aide with the supplies you need.”
“Thanks, Sheila, but I’m fine. I just had to make sure I didn’t have a bunch of gremlins in here.”
The other woman snorted inelegantly. “Sometimes adults are worse than the kids.”
They both chuckled, but in reality it wasn’t very funny.
“Sheila, will you ask one of your aides to get me a list of the teachers who watched my classes yesterday? I want to thank them.”
“Sure thing.”
“Talk to you later.”
She shut off the switch, then wrote an outline of the material to be covered in the Middle East unit on the board. But the entire time she was writing, her mind dwelled on the words she’d just erased.
Rule 1. Never assume anything!
Heidi’s thoughts went back to that excruciatingly painful day in late August when she’d learned the dreadful news. Based on circumstantial evidence, the jury had assumed Dana was guilty of first-degree murder. The judge gave her a thirty-year prison sentence for killing Amy.
Ever since Heidi had found out that her friend had been convicted of a crime she didn’t commit, the joy had gone out of her life. Many times since that day, Heidi had talked with Dana’s parents about getting the case reopened, but there’d been no new evidence. Mr. Cobb’s hands were tied. Now Dana herself had lost all hope.
Heidi couldn’t blame her or her parents for feeling so utterly defeated. That was why someone outside the Turner family had to pursue other avenues for them. Heidi was that person.
She frequently wished she was an attorney who had the legal know-how to begin an investigation of her own. She’d give anything to find evidence that would prove her friend’s innocence.
If that criminology class could be of any help at all…
By the time she realized how far her tortured thoughts had wandered, the second bell had rung, and the student-body officers had already started announcements over the PA system.
“Hi, everybody. We want to congratulate our girls’ volleyball team for their great win yesterday against Clairemont. Way to go, Mesa! Let’s all get out and support our girls next week for their big game against Torrey Pines.
“This next announcement concerns the social-studies service project scheduled for today. Those students whose last names start with A to M, will go this morning. The buses will be outside the building in fifteen meetings. Teachers, please take attendance. We’ll call the students down when it’s time to board.”
That announcement affected about a third of Heidi’s class. She’d already signed all their permission slips to help plant trees at a new senior citizens’ facility. Unfortunately she’d forgotten.
If truth be known, she’d forgotten a lot of things. After her talk with Dana last Sunday, she’d come back so weighed down with pain for her friend it had been difficult to concentrate or feel enthusiasm for anything.
