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Ryan dismissed Ms. Miller, asking her to send back Ms. Tait and to round up the custodian. He turned his attention to Shandra as soon as the woman cleared the doorway. “What were you thinking keeping a crucial bit of information from me?”
“I didn’t want you jumping on Boyd as the only suspect. As we’ve seen so far there are many people connected to this school who could have killed Roger. Many with more passionate reasons than the senior basketball star.”
He peered into her golden eyes and could see she’d already set her mind to making sure the boy wasn’t the killer. She’d wedged her way into many of his investigations and most of the time her gut and her dreams had been correct. But he knew no one was right one hundred percent of the time.
“When I finish here, we are going to have a long talk about all of this over dinner.” He’d no sooner finished his sentence than a woman in her thirties with short brown hair and conservative skirt and sweater walked in.
“Ms. Tait, have a seat please.” Ryan went through who he was and why he wanted to speak with her. “When was the last time you saw the deceased?”
“I believe it was when I came to Shandra’s class to get Travis. We do a kind of debriefing of the day. Find out what he liked that day, what he didn’t...” She stopped and glanced at Shandra.
“I already know that Mr. Huntley was rude to the boy and his big brother stood up for him,” Ryan said, not giving away more than that.
“Travis was upset, more for his brother than what Roger said to him.”
“Why was he worried about his brother?” Ryan ignored Shandra’s intake of breath and leaned forward.
“I don’t know. He said, Boyd didn’t hurt him.”
“Hurt who?”
“I don’t know. I thought he might have meant Mr. Huntley.” Ms. Tait’s eyes widened. “No. Boyd would never...”
“Why did you turn in a complaint about Huntley to your principal?” He’d found that by catching the women off guard, they responded with the truth rather than talked around it.
“Because he was a filthy little man who said things that no grown man should say, and he would sneak up on me when no one was around and try to grope me.” She shivered. “And one day, I’m sure I saw him watching me while I watered the plants in my apartment window.”
Ryan was seeing a pattern to the man’s voyeurism. He not only made unwanted advances on the women at school but had made them feel violated at home as well. He had been one perverted piece of work.
“You were in the office when Ms. Miller came in to check her inbox. Do you remember if she appeared flustered or upset?”
“You mean before she found the body?” Ms. Tait asked.
“Yes. Before she returned to the quad and found the body.” Ryan could tell the woman was stalling.
“No. I don’t believe she appeared anymore flustered than usual. She always hurried into the office as if she had to get back to her class before chaos erupted.”
“She didn’t stop and talk with anyone?” Ryan pressed.
Ms. Tait shook her head. “Only ‘checking my box’ walked to the cubby holes, stared in, and left.”
“Thank you. Please send in Ms. Turpin.”
“That’s Mrs. Turpin,” Shandra corrected him.
“Mrs. as in married?”
“Widowed with two kids,” Ms. Tait answered.
The woman left.
“I can’t believe that man didn’t run into trouble before this, the way he harassed everyone,” Shandra said.
“Some have a talent for being undetected by authorities. He sounds like one of them. He had rich grandparents who no one wanted to cross and the women all seemed to have forgotten his advances when he moved on to someone else to harass.”
A short, ample bodied woman in her forties stood in the doorway. “Nancy said it was my turn?”
“Come in, Mrs. Turpin.” Ryan announced who he was and motioned to the seat all the interviewees had sat in.
When the woman was seated, he asked, “Did you see Mr. Huntley today?”
“No. I work in the math and science area of the school. It’s far from the Art Quad.”
The way she said it he had a feeling she had requested that area to work. “I see. Is there a reason you are far from the Art Quad? Could it have to do with your complaint against Mr. Huntley for harassment?”
Her face darkened in color. “When I started working here, I asked to work in the Art Quad because I had majored in art history in college before my marriage and two kids. But after having that arrogant little bastard corner me twice in his room and try...” She closed her eyes and straightened her back. “I submitted my complaint, and I was given the job of working where I am now.”
Shandra reached over and patted the woman’s hand. She understood wanting to get away from the man responsible for making her feel uncomfortable.
“Did anyone in your family know about the complaint?” Ryan asked.
Mrs. Turpin shook her head. “There was no one to tell other than the principal. I wouldn’t discuss that kind of thing with my children.”
The woman’s son and daughter went to school here.
Shandra studied the woman. “It is something you should discuss with your daughter. As you can see by the number of women Detective Greer has been talking to, this man violated many women’s security here at the school. You need to prepare your daughter for what could happen to her someday.”
“Everyone you’ve been calling in here filed a complaint against Mr. Huntley?” The woman’s face slackened and her eyes widened.
“Yes. Think what you all could have done if you’d known and banded together to thwart him.” If not for the woman’s complete surprise, she could have easily pieced together a scenario where the women had worked together to take care of the problem.
Mrs. Turpin’s eyes narrowed. “Was he also preying on the female students?”
“We know of one who submitted a complaint, but she graduated a few years ago,” Ryan said. “Have you noticed a difference in your daughter?”
“I wouldn’t allow her to take any art classes after I discovered the type of man Mr. Huntley was.” Mrs. Turpin smoothed the hem of the sweater she wore across her wide thighs.
Shandra was saddened that so many female faculty members knew about the man and had complained, yet he’d remained and probably directed his perverted ways onto the female students. So many adults who didn’t push to keep the students safe.
“And you didn’t see Mr. Huntley today?” Ryan asked one more time.
“No. I avoided him. I even took the late lunch schedule to avoid him.”
“You may go, please send in Mr. Shepard.”
Ryan stood, followed the woman to the door, and stopped, staring at a photo of the volleyball state champs from several years earlier. “Why didn’t someone get this man out of the school system? Who knows how many girls he groped and said things to.”
Shandra’s insides twisted. When all of this came out because of Mr. Huntley’s death, she was pretty sure there would be someone losing a job.