Oh God.
“Is Liam okay?” I say.
“He’s fine.” Her voice softens slightly. “But we don’t tolerate fighting on school property. I’m going to need you to come here right away.”
I don’t know how I’m going to manage that, but I can’t say no to Mrs. McMillan. “I’ll be right there.”
Jason has lowered the search warrant and is staring at me. So are the two detectives. I wish I didn’t have to have this conversation in front of the detectives. The timing couldn’t be worse.
“Liam got into a fight at school,” I say, trying to ignore the way Rivera is looking at me. “I need to go there to pick him up.”
“Jesus.” Jason frowns. “Okay. I… I’ll stay here and you go get Liam.”
I look behind the detectives at the team of people who are going to rip apart my home. I wish I could stay. I can’t deal with Liam fighting at school on top of everything. I’ve gotten a lot of calls about Liam over the years, but nothing like this. He’s never done anything to get his hands dirty before.
I grab my purse, but Detective Rivera stops me. “You can’t take the Toyota. We need to search it.”
“But I’ll just… I’ll be right back…”
“Take my Prius, Erika.” Jason grabs his keys off the hook on the wall where he keeps them and tosses them to me. “Send me a text after you talk to the principal, okay?”
I nod. It’s probably better anyway. I have a feeling this is not a conversation that will be quick.
Chapter 35
Erika
When I get inside the school, my daughter is waiting for me by the entrance. I’m sure she’s supposed to be in class, so I assume she’s skipping. But that’s the least of my problems right now. Hannah has red-rimmed eyes and her auburn hair is in disarray—even more than usual. She looks like somebody just died.
“Mom!” she cries. And she throws her arms around me, which is something she hasn’t done in public in a very long time. Although to be fair, I don’t think there’s anyone else in the hallway. “I saw the whole thing. It wasn’t Liam’s fault.”
I pull away from her. It’s hard for me to believe that anything that’s happening right now isn’t Liam’s fault. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!” She swipes at her eyes with the back of her hand. “Tyler jumped him out of nowhere. What was Liam supposed to do? Just stand there while Tyler beat him up?”
“Why did Tyler do it?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Hannah blinks at me. “Everyone thinks Liam is responsible for what happened to Olivia. But he isn’t. I know it.”
I’m not sure how Hannah knows it. I sure don’t.
“Tyler is telling everyone that Liam is some kind of psychopath,” Hannah says. “Tyler should be suspended. It wasn’t Liam’s fault.”
I have a bad feeling Mrs. McMillan won’t see it that way. And either way, Liam can’t go to school right now. That’s very obvious. Not until this whole thing blows over.
“I’ll see what I can do, Hannah,” I promise her. I don’t tell her about the police officers at our house, who are currently searching through her brother’s belongings. And my car. There’s no point in making her even more upset. “I’m going to go talk to the principal now. But you need to go back to class.”
But Hannah clearly has no intention of going back to her class. She follows me to the principal’s office and I don’t stop her. This is hard on her too.
When I get into the administration office, Jessica Martinson is already there. The last thing I want right now is to have a conversation with Jessica, but the principal’s door is shut, so I have no choice but to sit down next to her to wait. I still feel the burn of how she shunned me at the PTA meeting. After all those years, how could she do that to me?
“Hi, Erika,” Jessica says in an unreadable tone. “Quite a scuffle our boys had, didn’t they?”
“Yes,” I say vaguely. I don’t mention the fact that my daughter told me that her football player thug of a son jumped my kid. Somehow I suspect Liam will get the blame for all of this. “Boys fight, I guess.”
Jessica smiles tightly. “Yes. I’m sure they’re making too much of this. Hopefully, they’ll just get a warning and that will be the end of it.”
That’s impossible. They were fighting in school. There’s no way they won’t be punished severely. But I appreciate Jessica’s optimism.