Dr. Morgan James
Rushed footsteps sounded on the other side of the door. Morgan’s mouth went dry. For as much of a brave face as he was putting on for Lila, dread filled him. His last conversation with the teacher hadn’t gone well, and he didn’t anticipate this one going much better. The only thing on their side was that Ms. Johnston might relax with Lila there.
Morgan took Lila’s hand in his and forced a smile.
The door flung open. Ms. Johnston stood there wearing a short floral romper dress and her hair in a messy bun. “Sorry to keep you…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes widened. “…waiting. What are you doing here, Mr. James?”
“Dr. James,” he corrected. “My wife Lila and I want to ask you a few questions about Atlas, if you don’t mind.”
Her expression twisted for a moment, but then she smiled. “Sure. Come on in. I don’t have a lot of time right now, but I’d be happy to help.”
They stepped inside the bright apartment with trendy furnishings. She led them to the living room and motioned for them to sit on the loveseat. She sat on a recliner.
Morgan realized he hadn’t actually introduced them, so he did. Then he got down to business. “We’re here because we have some additional questions about Atlas.”
Ms. Johnston nodded. “I really hope he’s found soon. I’m worried about him. I’ve never had anything like this happen to one of my students.” She glanced at his arm. “What happened? You didn’t have that yesterday.”
Nice deflection. He rubbed his arm. “I was shot, but that’s not why we’re here.”
“Shot?” The teacher’s eyes widened. “How did that happen?”
“It’s a long story, but that’s not important. Have you heard anything about Atlas and Emmett? Kids talking, or anything like that?”
She frowned and shook her head. “If they’re saying anything, it’s out of my earshot.”
Lila leaned forward. “Why aren’t you at work today?”
“My car’s having problems. It’s in the shop, and that’s actually why I don’t have a lot of time right now. Once the mechanic calls, I’ll have to run to the bus stop and take three buses to get there.”
“We could always take you,” Morgan said.
She gave him a double-take. “Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
“You’re not asking. I’m offering. You help us by answering our questions about Atlas, and we’ll drive you to the shop if we set you behind schedule.”
“Thanks.” She squirmed in the chair.
Lila cleared her throat. “Do you know Sawyer McLeary or Trevor Parkway?”
“Do you think they’re involved?”
“We have reason to believe they have motive, but there’s no way to know anything just yet.”
A strange look covered Ms. Johnston’s face. Was it relief? She sat up straight. “Trevor’s in one of my classes. He gets distracted easily and disrupts the lesson once in a while, but I don’t know if he’s friends with either Atlas or Emmett.
“He’s not.” Lila shook her head. “Have you heard him talking about the boys? Anything at all?”
“Not that I can recall. Almost everything out of his mouth is about some video game. That one all the kids are playing. I can’t think of the name. Last Knight or something?”
Morgan nodded. He couldn’t remember what it was called, either. Atlas had been playing it and watching online videos of other kids, mostly British, playing it, but Morgan had brushed it off as another soon-to-be forgotten fad.
“Nothing about Sawyer?” Lila asked.
She shook her head. “I’ve heard the name, but don’t know anything about him.”
Morgan and Lila exchanged a glance. He wanted her to ask if she was seeing Atlas.
Lila turned her attention back to Ms. Johnston. “You haven’t heard the kids saying anything about where the boys could be? Or anyone who they suspect?”
Morgan looked around the room while the teacher gave a long-winded answer, basically saying she hadn’t heard anything. The apartment was bright and cheery enough to make it feel bigger than it actually was. He hoped to find something of Atlas’s. Something to prove she had more of his things that she shouldn’t.
Something to get her talking. To finally tell them the truth.
“Do you want something to eat or drink?” Ms. Johnston asked. “Sorry I didn’t ask sooner. I wasn’t expecting company, so you kind of threw me for a loop.”
Morgan’s mouth was still parched. “I’d appreciate something to drink. I haven’t had anything since I left the hospital.”
“Sure.” She smiled and turned to Lila. “What about you?”
Lila shook her head. “No, thank you.”
As soon as Ms. Johnston disappeared around the corner, Morgan turned to Lila and whispered. “Look around and see if you can find anything of Atlas’s.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You really think she’s going to leave something like that lying around?”
“Yeah. She wasn’t expecting us to come over. This is her home turf, where she feels comfortable. I’m keeping an eye out, too.”
“I’ll look.”
Ms. Johnston returned with two peach-flavored sparkling waters. She handed one to Morgan, then turned to Lila. “Sure you don’t want anything?”
“Actually, those do look good. Thank you.”
“No problem.” She handed the other drink to Lila, then went back around the corner.
Morgan and Lila rose and studied the room. As soon as they heard her approaching, they both sat and opened the cans. The three of them sat in silence, sipping their drinks. He and Lila glanced around the room without being obvious.
Once he’d finished his drink, he set the can on the table and faced Ms. Johnston. “What did you think of that video?”
Her brows drew together. “What video?”
“You didn’t see the video?”
“No. What is it?”
Lila nearly dropped her drink. “Of Atlas begging for his life.”
Ms. Johnston’s face paled considerably. “He…? Where is he? What did he say? Is he okay?”
Morgan exchanged a glance with Lila. The teacher seemed genuinely shocked and concerned. Maybe a little too concerned.
Lila cleared her throat. “It was really dark. He basically just begged for us to save him.”
Ms. Johnston whipped out her phone. “Where’s the video?”
“Everywhere. It’s gone viral.”
She gasped and slid her finger around the screen until the sounds of the video played. She watched, wide-eyed and lips parted.
Lila sniffled and leaned against Morgan. He put his arm around her, but kept his attention on Ms. Johnston. She stiffened both at Atlas’s mention of a girlfriend and at wanting to go to the savanna.
That was all the confirmation Morgan needed. “What do you think?”
She looked up at him and spoke with a shaky voice. “How do we find him?”
Lila wiped her eyes. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out.”
Morgan sat up taller. “The only way we stand a chance at finding the boys is if we know the whole truth about everything. That’s why we’ve been questioning everyone they know—teachers, students, neighbors. Anyone.”
Ms. Johnston nodded, tears shining in her eyes. “I’ll do anything.”
Morgan leaned toward her. “Have you been seeing our son?”
She closed her eyes, spilling tears, and took a deep breath. Then she looked Morgan in the eyes. “We’ve spent a great deal of time together because I’ve been tutoring him. He was really struggling with the subject matter, but he was determined to learn it. I hate to see someone having such a hard time with math, so I offered my help before and after school.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. Are you having a relationship with Atlas?”
“He’s my student. We have a teacher-student relationship.”
“Nothing more?” Lila countered. “Morgan told me about you having his pens.”
Ms. Johnston set her can down and blinked several times. “Did he also tell you that I have a collection of students’ pens and pencils? Not to mention erasers, hair clips, and other items kids leave behind when eager to escape a classroom.”
“But two of his favorite prized pens?” Lila sat up taller.
“I didn’t realize they were special.” She pulled her hair out of the bun and slid the hair tie around her wrist. “Somehow one of them ended up in my drawer. I suppose I used it, then stuck it there without thinking.”
“When did you start tutoring Atlas?” Morgan asked.
“Last spring, when he transferred from another math class. Mr. Montgomery was worried about him failing and knew I’ve had good luck with struggling kids.”
Lila turned to Morgan. “I didn’t realize he was having so much trouble in math. Did you?”
Morgan shook his head no.
“Students don’t always like to admit these things to their parents. It makes them feel like failures.”
Morgan noticed that when she kept referring to other students as kids, but said students when referring to Atlas. He wanted to ask her about that, but decided to bring that up later. By itself, it wasn’t much to go on, but with everything else, it screamed of a cover-up. She had to be carefully hiding a truth.
Lila frowned. “Still, it seems like something the school should tell us.”
“We would have,” Ms. Johnston said. “But he improved enough to pass the class and move on to the next level this year.”
“Yet he still needs tutoring?” Morgan asked.
The teacher nodded. “It’s a real struggle for him.”
“What about the necklace?” Lila blurted out.
Ms. Johnston pressed her palm against her chest. “Pardon me?”
Morgan held her gaze, knowing she hadn’t forgotten already. “The necklace with an SJ charm in Atlas’s desk. It smells like a woman’s perfume.”
She cleared her throat. “I don’t know what to tell you about the necklace, but I lost a bottle of perfume from my classroom not long ago. I didn’t want to accuse any students, but I never could find it. I thought maybe a girl took it who didn’t have money to buy her own. I hadn’t thought of a boy taking it, but maybe Atlas did.”
“Why would he do that?”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t know. He probably didn’t realize it was mine. Maybe he was going to give it to his girlfriend.”
“His girlfriend?” Morgan asked. “Who is his girlfriend?”
Ms. Johnston frowned. “I really don’t know. I’m not that involved in my students’ lives. He’s popular, so I just assumed he had a girlfriend. But like I said, I don’t even know if he took my perfume. It went missing, and that’s all I really know.”
“You never reported it as stolen?” Lila took Morgan’s hand and squeezed.
She shook her head. “No, I really didn’t think it was a big deal. If it was expensive, I wouldn’t have brought it to school with me.”
Morgan didn’t buy it, but decided to play along. “But you were tutoring him? Wouldn’t it stand to reason that he would know it was your perfume? You had to have sat pretty close to him, right? And you spent a lot of time with him. He’d recognize the scent.”
She wrinkled her nose at him. “Yes, I had to sit near him. That’s how it works. And as for us spending a lot of time together, it was because he wasn’t making too much progress, and none of the other teachers had been able to help him understand the concepts.”
“Right.” Morgan made a mental note to contact the other math teachers to find out how much of the story was true. He’d had no idea his son, who was a whiz at computer programming, had so much trouble with math.
Ms. Johnston glanced at the clock. “I really should be going. I need to call about my car.”
“Big weekend plans?” Morgan asked.
She rose. “I do hope you find Atlas.”
Lila frowned at Morgan, then they followed Ms. Johnston to the door. She opened it for them. “I’d appreciate you calling me instead of showing up in the future.”
“Will do.” Morgan started to step outside, but froze as something caught his eye. “What’s that?”
“What?” Ms. Johnston looked at him with wide-eyed confusion.
Morgan yanked a familiar blue bomber jacket from her coat rack. “This. It’s Atlas’s.”
She clasped her throat. “No, it’s mine.”
He pulled on the bottom and pointed out a hole. “This is from when we were chopping firewood. He held the axe the wrong way and it ripped it right here.”
Ms. Johnston grabbed it from him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I got this from a consignment shop. You need to go. Now. And don’t contact me again. If I find anything out about the boys, I’ll let the police know.”