Chapter 7
Brookie and I dashed back to the dorm. I was edgy from it all, and it didn’t help when I saw the other band members awkwardly standing around among the sports equipment and smelly gym shoes by the back door where the porch led into the building. Prakash wouldn’t meet our eyes as he silently slid sideways to let us in.
Brookie blinked his pale eyelashes in surprise. I stared back. This was not the “hail to the conquering heroes” welcome that I was expecting either. Everyone appeared to be listening with extreme care to Ms. Kent as she was talking to a police officer. Ms. Kent smiled a relieved smile and waved as she caught sight of us.
“Mac, I’m glad you’re here. Brookie and Mac, this is Officer Landers.” Ms. Kent gave me a quick thumbs-up before turning back to face Landers. The cop’s appraising gaze took a tour of me from head to toe. I returned the favor. He was a big guy with a salt-and-pepper buzz cut. His square, bland face didn’t look bright enough to find himself in the dark, much less find an enterprising art thief.
“Hey, sonny. So, you’re the one who phoned Ms. Kent?” he said to me, the tone of his voice skating on the edge of ridicule. “Who do you think you saw, this morning at the monastery?” He spoke with such a patronizing air that I could feel my hackles start to rise.
Ms. Kent took one look at my reddening face and interrupted my sputtering by putting a hand on my arm to give me time to calm down. Although I could see she was fuming mad at the cop for giving me short shrift, she remarked calmly, “Officer Landers, I gave these boys some old photos, so they could let me know if my ex-husband was still hanging around the campus. I’m sure they were able to recognize him when they saw him.” I don’t know how long she’d been talking to him, but Ms. Kent was obviously getting a little impatient with his attitude, too. But she was very polite. I was glad she was on our side.
“Ma’am, I’m sorry—without evidence, I can’t act against Mr. Bevison. Anyway, I really think this is a domestic dispute, not really a case of what I’d call trespassing.”
“I have two pictures. Is that good enough evidence?” I forgot my ire and eagerly grabbed Brookie’s cell phone out of his hand and browsed to the photos. “Here, see?” I handed Officer Landers the phone. He handed it right back with hardly a glance.
“It just looks like one of the monks to me.” He shrugged. “I know he is bothering you, ma’am, but you have to admit it sounds pretty ridiculous—your ex-husband in the monastery, dressed up as a monk? Sounds like an adolescent prank to me. That picture is of the side of his head and doesn’t even provide a good full-face shot of him. There is nothing I can do with this.”
My photo wasn’t good enough for him? I’d risked my neck for that picture. Now I felt myself starting to get really hot under the collar.
“We were . . . ,” I started to shout, when Brookie grabbed my arm. I struggled to get my elbow out of his grasp so I could take a swing at that policeman.
“Chill, man,” Brookie said very quietly in my ear, glancing up meaningfully at the officer. I looked at the smirking, moonlike face. Yeah, Brookie was right. The guy was smiling more and more as Ms. Kent and I got more aggravated. He wasn’t just dumb; he was enjoying the spectacle of me and Ms. Kent losing our cool. My sudden calm sent Ms. Kent looking around at our faces, too. Brookie and I must have been communicating a lot with our eyebrows, because she gave her head a quick nod, and a slight smile crossed her face as the light of understanding dawned.
Moving away from Officer Landers with a quirky smile on her face, she began briskly shutting the windows around the room, each slam seeming to give her a little more satisfaction. “Well, indeed, Officer Landers. How could two boys possibly have recognized a trespasser from my old photo? But I don’t think the boys were just having some fun with us, nor am I in the midst of delusions about a domestic dispute. We’ll get back with you when we’ve got more evidence.” She turned to Landers. “Of trespassing, of course,” she stressed, in a sarcastic tone, folding her arms across her chest. “And I will certainly let the Order of St. Rupert know about the impostor, in case it wasn’t a figment of someone’s imagination.”
He nodded, flipped his notebook shut, and walked out without even saying good-bye. How could he know he’d just dug his own grave? Ms. Kent was not going to let him get away with his arrogance.
“And I’ll be sure and let his superior know how very helpful he was.” She purred the last words in a dangerous voice. Why should he be suspicious of someone not even five feet tall? That was his mistake.
Ms. Kent waited just long enough for the door to slam shut behind him before exploding in a flurry of words.
“Okay, band. Officer Landers wouldn’t listen to us. We need some more action, guys. I happen to have something to lose here.” Her voice broke a little as she said that, but she was all business. Suddenly doing an about-face, she turned to Brookie and me. “You know what? I changed my mind. Go for it, you guys,” she said in a choked voice. “It’s not just about library research anymore. Get those full-face shots of Harley, if you see him again, and get my ex nailed so I can wipe that smirk off that jerk Landers’ face. That officer of the law needs to know that people really count around here at St. Rupert’s, including students.” She paused a moment, as if suddenly exhausted by the whole situation.
“And I need some peace of mind.” She took a deep breath and pulled herself up to her full four-feet-eight height. “See you later, guys, and thanks for everything, Brookie and Mac. I’ll be taking these photos to Father Dell’s offices, so that at least the administration knows that I’m not making up the trespassing. We’ll talk about this later when I get back.”
Ms. Kent pushed the screen door open and headed toward the faculty offices, striding away across the campus lawn on her short legs, swinging her arms hard, like she needed to work off her anger. We just eyed one another until she was out of earshot.
“Yes!” shouted Brookie, leaping into the air. There was amazement on everyone’s face. Brookie was grinning like an idiot. He was ready to take that bit in his teeth and run with it.