In Death 24 - Innocent in Death

and bodies?”
     
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    “Carrying protection is just that-carrying protection.” In a nonchalant move, he leaned back as he drank his coffee. “You have a weapon strapped on, but as far as I know, you haven’t stunned anyone in the building.”
    “Early days yet,” Eve said lightly. “What else I was thinking was how about those innocent minds. Those innocent bodies. Pretty little girls, so easily lured.”
    “Well, for Christ’s sake.” At this, he set down his coffee quickly, shoved out of his slouch against the counter. “That’s despicable and it’s disgusting. I’m not a pedophile.
    I’ve been a teacher for fourteen years, and have never touched a student in any way that could be considered inappropriate.”
    “By whose scale?” Eve wondered.
    “Listen. I don’t like girls. I like women. I like women a great deal.”
    Eve was more than willing to buy that claim. “Enough to bang them on school property?”
    “I don’t have to answer questions like this. Not without a lawyer.”
    “Fine, you can call one when we get downtown.”
    Shock replaced temper. “You’rearresting me?”
    “Do you want me to?”
    “Listen, listen. Jesus.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “So I’ve had a few encounters. It’s not a crime, but it is questionable behavior as far as my job is concerned.
    But those encounters were with consenting adults.”
    “Names.”
    He tried a little charm with a smile that asked for understanding. “Lieutenant, this can’t possibly have any bearing on why you’re here. And a couple of them are married.”
    “A couple of them.”
    “I like women.” That smile widened. “I like sex. It doesn’t hurt anyone.”
    “Craig ever notice you liking sex in the locker room?”
    “No.”
    He said it too quickly, and Eve saw the lie. “He was a straight arrow, wasn’t he? He comes across you having an encounter, he’s going to be shocked. Maybe pissed. He threaten to go to the principal?”
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    “I had no problem with Craig; he had no problem with me. Ask anyone.”
    “I will. We’ll talk again.”
    “Kind of slimy,” Peabody commented when he’d left.
    “Kind of a motive. He was lying about Craig knowing about his locker-room games.”
    She wandered as she spoke and brought the layout of the locker room back into her head.
    Lots and lots of places for nooky, she decided, if you wanted it that way.
    “Maybe he can’t talk Craig out of reporting it, or just fears he will at some point. Protects himself, his job, his lifestyle. He was out of his classroom while Craig was out of his.
    Opportunity. Puts him, at the moment, top of my list. Let’s take Hallywell.”
    “Do you want me to bring her in here?”
    “No, let’s try this one in her element.”
    Bells chimed as they stepped out of the lounge. Immediately kids poured out of classrooms to swarm the corridors, to send the noise level soaring. They looked and sounded, to Eve’s mind, the way she imagined locusts did when they swarmed over…whatever locusts swarmed over.
    Or like ants, Eve thought, scrambling out of their hill. Out of self-preservation, Eve would have ducked back into the lounge until the deluge passed, but one of the kids aimed straight for her.
    “Lieutenant Dallas. Excuse me, please.”
    Little blonde, Eve thought, sharp eyes. “Rayleen.”
    “Yes, ma’am. Was Mr. Foster murdered?”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because I looked you up on the computer, and that’s what you do. You investigate murders. You’ve done a lot of them. My father said you would have been here yesterday because it was a suspicious death. But that can mean accident, natural causes, or self-termination, too. Is that right?”
    “Yeah, that’d be right.”
    “But you’re here again today, and asking questions again today, and everyone’s talking about what maybe happened.”
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    Rayleen pushed at her long curls, held back today with a pair of white barrettes in the shape of unicorns. “A lot of people are asking me because I was the one who found him. I don’t want to tell them what isn’t true. So was Mr. Foster murdered?”
    “We’re looking into it.”
    “I don’t see how he could have been because he was too nice, and because this is a very safe school. Did you know it’s considered one of the top schools not only in the city, but in the state of New York?”
    “Imagine that.”
    “I’m the top of my class here.” With another of those prissy smiles that made Eve want to