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She could feel it; she knew it

4

Mrs Lila Newbury was a very thin and nervous wo as if she wanted to jus on her desk--a pencil, a stapler and a cup of paper clips She seemed entirely out of place; the office had been decorated and adorned for Halloween A carved pue of her desk while garlands in black and orange were strewn around the s A paper skeleton dangled froes of black cats were taped here and there, along with typical autumn cornucopia There were no witches, Sam noted, and he was sure that was because so the ten percent of the population that was Wiccan

Lila Newbury looked as if she had been plucked up froarden and thrown into it all

Sauidance counselor, many of the kids at the school would wind up like nervous terriers, running back and forth, afraid, and not even close to certain about what they wanted to do with their lives She hadn’t been there when he’d gone to the high school himself In fact, he hadn’t seen any of the teachers or office personnel he had known Sure, he had graduated fourteen years ago; people did move on Still, there had to be someone here he still knew He’d look into that later

"Mrs Newbury?" he pressed softly She hadn’t actually agreed to see hiirls had been trying to call and warn her that he was there

"Yes, yes, I’, of course She was thinking of a way to get rid of hiuely

"We have several hundred students here…I’ to recall…Malachi So His father--God rest his soul--had decided on ho"

"But I understand that was prompted by an incident at the school," Sam said

"Yes," she admitted uneasily

"Can you tell me what happened?" Sam asked

"He looked at a boy…and the boy was convinced that he had so at Sa to save her if she just watched the seconds tick by long enough

"I need to know exactly what happened," Sa forward He was an attorney with no power as far as law enforcement went, but he was pretty sure she didn’t understand the law at all and that he could bully her "You’re in danger of obstructing justice, Mrs Newbury You can and will be subpoenaed, and if you coation into the truth, you can be prosecuted yourself"

He was glad of his reputation even though it didn’t give him the power to arrest anyone Mrs Newbury didn’t seem to know the difference

"Teachers and counselors can’t be everywhere, you know!" she said, suddenly angry "The kid seeet Probably because he couldn’t be riled He was different, and trust me, Mr Hall, children can be very cruel They liked to throw food at hi food at him and he turned and looked at the boy…"

As she continued with the familiar evil-eye story he’d heard a couple of times now, he almost couldn’t wait for her to finish before he blurted out his next question: "And you believed this?" She flushed

She had!

"No, of course not But we had to call the parents in, and…"

"And?"

"Well, the boy was David Yates His father is one of our city councilmen," she said weakly

"And he asked that Malachi Sreed to it?" Saed

Lila Newbury shook her head vehemently "No! It never came to that Abraham Smith stormed his way in here He said that he wanted his son out of this horrible place I helped hi" A pencil suddenly snapped in her fingers "Look, Mr

Hall, I did it as much for Malachi as I did for anyone He was a sweet boy I liked him, personally But this is an understaffed facility, like most public venues of education I couldn’t protect hiet hurt Like I said, children can be cruel And, as we all know, they can be lethal, as well!"

"You just said that Malachi was a sweet boy Do you really believe that he could have killed anyone?" Saht that she didn’t believe it herself

But she was a woth of her own convictions She’d never stand up for anyone if it was contrary to public opinion