Foxe Hunt (26 page)

She looked at her watch and ticked her head. “I know, honey, but I just got done with my book group and I thought I’d swing over before going home. Your light was on so I figured you were correcting papers or something. I have that grapeseed oil you said you wanted. I was at Trader Joe’s earlier today so I picked up an extra one for you.”

She handed over a paper bag and Skyler took it. Cynthia turned to Keith. “I don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Skyler’s mother, Cynthia Foxe.” She held out a manicured hand with gold bangles on the wrist. Keith stepped forward, the pillow still in his hand over his groin.

“Keith Fletcher. A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Foxe.”

She glanced at Skyler and he supplied the answer to the question in her eyes. “Keith is a teacher at James Polk. We were just…uh…”

“We were just watching a football game. I’m new at the school, an assistant football coach, and Skyler was nice enough to invite me over.”

Cynthia folded her hands in front of her. “Skyler, when did you get interested in football?”

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When I met him
. But aloud he said, “Oh, recently. One of my students was having a bit of disciplinary problems until I got him on the team.”

She smiled and turned to Keith. “I knew he would be a wonderful teacher. He’s so great with people. He understands kids. Probably because he’s still one himself,” and she ruffled his hair.

“Mom!” Vainly, he tried to smooth the mussed locks.

“Yeah,” agreed Keith with a soft smile. “I hear great things from the other kids about Mr. Foxe.”

Skyler felt himself blush. This was too weird. He definitely needed to get rid of his mother. He took the few steps to the breakfast counter and left the grapeseed oil there before anxiously turning to her again. “Are you staying, Mom?”

“Oh, no. I just stopped by to see my favorite son and to drop that off. I know how you like to do your gourmet cooking.

Besides, it’s a school night and we all have to get up early for work.”

“She still thinks I’m a teenager,” he lamented.

“She’s right,” said Keith, slowly pulling his jacket from Skyler’s grasp and tossing the pillow back to the couch. “Not that you’re a teenager, but that I should be going.” Cynthia Foxe’s arrival had successfully dissolved Skyler’s hard-on, and also, so it seemed, Keith’s.

“Do you have to?” said Skyler, looking between Keith and his mother.

Keith smiled. “Yeah. It’s late.”

“Well I won’t keep you,” said Cynthia. She turned toward the door first. Keith started to follow, but Skyler stepped forward on his toes and said, “Oh, Keith, you can’t go until I show you the…

thing…with the thing.” He gestured wildly, making Keith’s smile broader. His eyes glittered with amusement.

“Oh the
thing
. But shouldn’t I walk your mother out?”

“Don’t be silly,” she said. “I’ll be fine.”

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215

“It’s no trouble, Mrs. Foxe. I was just leaving anyway. I’ll see you at school, Skyler.”

Skyler tried to mask his disappointment. “Okay. I’ll show you the…the thing some other time.”

“Looking forward to it,” he said, stifling a laugh.

Skyler embraced his mother and kissed her cheek. She kissed his and wiped the lipstick away with a thumb. “Teach well,” she said. “Goodnight, sweetie.”

“Goodnight, Mom, and thanks for the oil.”

“Cook me something nice with it sometime,” she said from the landing.

Keith poked his head back in as Cynthia made her way down the stairs. “Maybe
we
can do something with that oil sometime,”

he said huskily. “Goodnight, Skyler.”

Skyler leaned his forehead against the closed door and moaned.

§ § §

At school, all the new GSA flyers were now laminated or put behind glass bulletin boards. Skyler was pleased that nothing would happen to them, except that all week, the ones that weren’t behind glass were summarily taken down. Skyler noticed, too, that Heather and Amber began sitting at lunch with some of the kids that had showed up to the GSA meetings. He was glad to see the closing of the ranks.

Rick and Alex, of course, steered clear of them when they were with the GSA members, but Skyler did notice that the two boys started to hang out with Heather and Amber when they were alone. New friendships were forming. New adventures to conquer. Ah, adolescence.

At least there were no more swastikas or hateful diatribes written on flyers, and Skyler did a lot of extra patrolling in the corridors when he had a chance, just to make certain.

Friday, the night of the dance, finally rolled around, and Skyler was ready to rock. After he got home that night and had
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his dinner of grilled tilapia and mustard greens, he popped into the shower.

All week, even through the drama of the GSA, Skyler had also thought about Jeff. The man had a court date next Tuesday and Sidney had seemed no closer to arresting anyone else.

Under the spray of water, Skyler rubbed his chest and arms with the foamy bar of oatmeal soap. It seemed to him that the murder might have something to do with James Fischer. The man was violent, that much was certain. Maybe he should have pressed charges, after all. Maybe he should have just told Sidney about the whole thing. He was already in trouble with her. He might as well.

He shampooed, running the foam through his fingers and using his soapy hands to wash his torso. Ed Fallows kept giving him the stink eye all week, too. Skyler had wanted to fuck up his life by getting the orchid farm shut down but instead he’d made Sidney and himself look like fools. What the hell had happened?

Who tipped him off?

He rinsed himself off and applied conditioner, letting the hot water pound against his shoulder blades. It was still a puzzle, though, as to how Evan had found his friend Ed again. Jamie said that a person kept a business card because they wanted to do business. Illegal pot business? But how would he have known about that? Who told
him
? Not Jeff. They both hated drugs.

Maybe it was simpler than that. Maybe Evan just wanted a job.

Shit! Maybe there was an ad or something.

He quickly finished and toweled dry, and with his hair still wet and the towel still wrapped around his waist, he sat at his desk and opened his laptop. He got on the internet and looked on Craig’s List for jobs. He did a search and there it was, dated three weeks ago. “Redlands Orchid Farm seeks reliable clerk. Disabled and Vets welcome.” Evan had applied! He must have. He must have gone down there somehow without Jeff knowing and met up again with Ed Fallows. Did Ed tell him to go fuck himself or had he felt sorry for him and offered him a job?

Skyler Googled Redlands Orchid Farm and found the website.

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217

He clicked it and looked around again. Nothing new, nothing different. He scanned to the bottom of the page where it said “owner.” Sidney said the guy had been royally pissed at the raid and threatened to sue. Bastard. Skyler looked and read the name for the first time.

“Oh
shit
! Shit! Shitty shit
shit
!”

The owner was J. Fischer.

No, this was not happening! Fischer owned the freaking orchid farm? Maybe
that
was the connection. Maybe Fischer suggested Evan go to the farm to get a job… “But maybe
that
wasn’t the job they offered him!”

Skyler paced back and forth in his underwear, stocking feet slapping against the wood floor. Shit! Sidney said that sometimes these pot ringleaders recruited people to grow it in their houses.

It could be that
that
is what Fischer was harassing Evan about.

And Evan hadn’t wanted to. He wouldn’t have done anything illegal, especially if it brought any more shame down on Jeff ’s head.

It seemed to fit. And then Fischer got tired of hearing him say no. He came over when Evan was cleaning his gun, got all violent, and shoved it in his mouth…

He felt queasy and sat down at the kitchen table. “I have to call Sidney.” He grabbed his phone from the charging cradle and punched in her number.

Voice mail.

“Dammit. Isn’t she ever around when I need her?” The beep.

“Sid, it’s me. Now don’t get mad. But I think I’ve cracked the Jeff Dwyer case. Remember that guy who hit me? Well, what I didn’t tell you—and I know I should have—is that he’s some sort of counselor at the VA Center. I sort of accused him of killing Evan and he got all homophobic and medieval on me. I also met him sneaking around Jeff ’s place that night I went over to get his meds. I know I should have told you that, too. But get this: his name is
James Fischer
. Ring any bells? Yeah, it’s the guy who owns our friendly neighborhood orchid and pot farm. There was an ad on Craig’s List for a clerk at the farm and it said that
disabled
and
vets
were welcomed. The ad ran around the time that Evan could have seen it. Evan also went to college with one of the guys who works there, Ed Fallows who also happens to be a part
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time coach at James Polk High. Do you see a pattern forming?

God, I wish you were there.” He blew out a breath. “I have to get dressed. I’m chaperoning the school dance tonight. But call me when you get this.”

Skyler clicked off, stared at the floor and then looked up at the clock. Shit. He was going to be late.

§ § §

Skyler arrived on the dot, when the volunteers were supposed to get there, but many were already milling around hanging last minute decorations, probably had been for hours. He straightened his bow tie as he passed through the cafeteria’s double doors.

Amber and her crew had done an amazing job with their theme “Life in a Snow Globe,” and it looked pretty good. In the front by the stage was a miniature scene with a snow-covered cottage, pine trees, and a snowman. Twinkly lights were arranged along the walls and stage, where the DJ was doing a sound check. Giant snowflakes hung from the ceiling with spotlights on them, and there was even a projector shooting images of snow falling across the walls and dance floor.

He spotted Amber directing some kids on a ladder and he headed toward her. “Amber! This is fantastic!”

She blushed down her neck and bare shoulders. “Thank you, Mr. Foxe. Everyone really worked hard.”

“I can see that. I hope you’re getting lots of pictures.”

“We are.” She blinked at him shyly. “You look very nice, Mr.

Foxe.”

He smoothed down his lapels. “Oh, thanks. You look very nice, too.” He perused her lilac off the shoulder dress with its tulle skirt and her medium height pumps. Very tasteful.

Then he turned around and spotted Heather.

She was wearing shiny black combat boots under her long, slim red dress with a black leather bustier over the bodice.
I
guess those must be her formal combat boots.
The whole had a sort of vampire vibe. Her eye make-up was still dark and heavy around Foxe hunt
221

each eye, but she had opted for normal color on her lips, perhaps in deference to her date, not that they’d be kissing or anything.

And just where
was
her “date”? Ah!

Rick loped in and Skyler’s jaw dropped. He was wearing a Pronto Uomo white Nehru tux, its long jacket swishing around his hips. “Wow,” was all he could say.

Rick struck a pose. “‘Wow’ is right, Mr. Foxe. Am I stylin’ or am I stylin’?”

“You be stylin’, Rick, no question.” He high fived and Rick smacked his hand. He looked around. Kids were still setting up chairs along the walls. Tables with snowflake centerpieces sported bowls of chips and M&Ms. There was another table by the kitchen with a couple of punchbowls with a stack of clear plastic cups beside it along with a battalion of bottled water laid out in regimented rows.

Skyler smiled and felt a little thrill of excitement in his chest.

This was his first school dance as a teacher. He’d thought about this kind of thing for a long time and had been really looking forward to it. But it also gave him a pang of something else, of regret and of lost opportunities. He wished he could have gone with a boy to
his
school dances. Bringing your gay date to the prom seemed like the norm these days, but not at James Polk High. Skyler hadn’t had the nerve when he was in school. He had still been in the closet then. When he’d gone to dances, he always brought Sidney.

Amber, Rick, and Heather were here. Where was Alex? If the boy hadn’t been such a jock, Alex might have taken Rick to the dance, no problem, at least no problem to Alex. He guessed Rick still had issues at home. He empathized with that. He couldn’t imagine sitting down to tell his own mother. What the hell would he say? What would
she
say?

He spotted the Vice Principal, Alice Goodwin, earnestly talking to Amber, with Amber nodding her head vigorously and checking a clipboard sitting in the crook of her arm. Amber had only told him last month how she had had ambitions to run
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for student government, and when the position of sophomore secretary opened up, a hasty election got her in. She was in her element, all right.

Skyler walked over just as Amber scampered away to do whatever it was she was doing. “Hi, Alice,” he said. “You look lovely tonight.”

Her eyes traveled down at her long beige skirt and sparkly cropped jacket. It was the wrong color on her and in a style too old for her age. She looked like the mother of the bride. “Thank you, Skyler. And don’t you look elegant.”

He brushed his hand down his black jacket. “Thanks. We certainly clean up well.”

“I’m not expecting any trouble tonight, but that is why you are here. Just keep an eye on the corridors and check the boys’

bathroom periodically. Encourage the boys and girls to dance together. Go ahead and chat with the wallflowers. However, we certainly
don’t
encourage teachers to dance with students.” That was a relief, he thought, looking across the room at Amber. “You can take a break or two. Just switch off with Coach Fletcher and Coach Fallows.”