The Promise (18 page)

              As she sat there, she heard the door knock and opening it, she came face to face with the school’s headmaster, Dr. Morgan.

His face was splotchy and red. He looked like he had been crying. “Bree, I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing. Is everything okay with you?”

              Elie faintly smiled, “Yes, sir. I’m hanging in there. It was a pretty tough experience to go through. I know how close you and Dr. Oden were. I’m truly sorry.”

              “Yes, I am sorry to lose a fellow administrator and a friend. I did not get much sleep last night. We were very close.

Verna is taking it pretty hard, too. I was told she stayed up all night next to it crying. She worshipped Malcolm. It is going to take her a long time to reconcile what he did to himself. I am having a difficult time understanding, too. I knew Malcolm was not perfect, but, I never saw him as, uh, self-destructive.

You are lucky, Bree, to be alive. Evidently, when he saw those students who recognized him chasing you, he knew it was over. He chose to take his life over a life of ongoing shame. He was a very proud man. I guess he felt he could not live with the consequences of his actions. The Oden family is a proud family from the old country.”

              As soon as Elie heard the family name, she resisted the urge to ask the headmaster what Verna’s real name was. This was not the time to be an investigator. She let him continue talking.

              Dr. Morgan walked over to the window and paused. This was difficult for him.

“I did treasure my friendship with Malcolm. I was impressed with him the day I hired him and brought him into our family here at the Colony.”

Turning to face Elie he said, “I want to personally apologize to you for what happened. You should never have been exposed to such a horrible experience. I don’t know any of the details except for how it ended up, but, I am truly sorry for any pain he caused you that night.”

              Elie could feel her eyes filling up with tears. At that moment, Dr. Morgan reminded her of her own father. That was something she imagined him to say.

She walked quickly over to the headmaster and buried her face into his chest and started sobbing. Up until that moment, she had been stoic and in denial about how hurtful the night had been.

It was finally time for her to release her pent up emotions.

              Dr. Morgan holds her tight, “My dear child. I promise you that nothing like this will ever happen to you again under my watch. As long as you are one of our students, you will be safe. I am going to do everything in my power to protect you.

That is my promise.”

              The last word of that sentence sent a chill through Elie. Especially in the way that Dr. Morgan said it. It just sounded odd and strangely perverse in the tone of his voice.

Maybe Elie was overreacting, maybe she wasn’t trusting anyone at that moment. But, suddenly she felt creepy. She pulled away and looked up at Dr. Morgan.

He had a funny look on his face. He seemed to be measuring her. In Elie’s mind he looked like a hungry lion surveying a helpless fawn.

Elie took a step back and started feeling chills come over her. The mood in the room had abruptly changed. Elie wanted the headmaster out of her room as soon as possible.

              “Thank you, Dr. Morgan. I appreciate what you said. I am kinda tired. I think I need to rest. But, it means a lot for you to come by and see me.”

She moved to the door, opened it and stood there suggesting that he take the hint and move through it, but he continued to stand there staring at her. Elie could now feel the hairs on the back of her neck stabbing into her. Her mouth went dry with nervousness.

              “Bree, we are a family here. Many of the girls come from dysfunctional homes and it is here they find love and nurturing they do not always get from their own parents. We are a very close-knit group. We are extremely loyal to each other. When we make a promise to each other, we keep it.

It is not something we take lightly, this loyalty. It is something that is life or death to us. If someone does not take the promise seriously, there are consequences. Am I communicating, dear?”

              “
Oh my God”
Elie thought to herself. The Promise is headed up by none other than the Headmaster? Was she imagining his intent and choice of words or was she reading him clearly?

She didn’t know what to say in response to him. She just stood there at the door and watched her hands begin to shake.

              “You see, Bree, not everyone is capable of making promises they can keep. It is a very select group. But, once you are in that group, you have to take the ultimate responsibility to fulfill the requirements of what that group expects of you.

Because you are not only responsible for yourself, that is secondary, you are responsible for the rest of the group as well. Therefore, you cannot do or say anything that would compromise them in any way.”

              Elie was understanding him now. One phrase shot through her like a heat-seeking missile, “
ultimate responsibility to fulfill the requirements of what the group expects of you.”

What did that mean?

Ultimate sounds life-ending if you fail in your response to what is expected of you. And, what does the group expect of her or anyone involved in this strange sorority?

Was this an invitation into the core philosophy of what ended Allison Taylor’s life? Did Allison fail to live up to her ultimate responsibility? Is that why she is missing?

Did the group exact out it’s punishment on the poor girl?

              “Bree, do not be surprised if someone very special contacts you and asks you to be a part of something wonderful. Just hear her out and consider the proposal carefully. It may mean something very beneficial to you for the rest of your life.”

             
“Is he implying, the rest of my life or the end of my life!”
Elie reasons to herself.

With a pounding heart she calmly replies, “Thank you, Dr. Morgan, I’ll be open to any opportunities that may come my way. I like it here at the Colony School. I want to support it in any way I can.

As far as a lawsuit, I’m not going down that road. You are very kind. Thank you for coming to see me.”

As she smiles at the headmaster, her eyes notice a ring on his right hand. She sees something very familiar etched into it. She quickly looks away, so he won’t notice.

              As Dr. Morgan approaches the door, he smiles at Elie and cryptically says, “Nevermore, my dear.”

With that, he is gone leaving her to ponder what he means by that phrase. Elie recognizes it instantly as a quote from, “The Raven,” by Edgar Allen Poe. But, why would he say it to her? 

She sits on her bed and before long she is sleepy and feeling very safe from any more advances from the late and seriously flawed, Dr. Malcolm Oden.

                     But, just in case, she puts her revolver under the pillow and soon she is sound asleep.

Chapter Twenty-six
--A confrontation with Verna

             
Gallagher sat in his office tossing his lucky leprechaun in the air and catching him like a baseball. He was also working on his trivia.

”Okay Mick, name the only coach in history to win both the NCAA and the NBA basketball championship? Come on, you know that.

Larry Brown. Remember? He did it in college with Kansas in 1988 and then with the Pistons in 2004 when they swept the Lakers in the Finals How could you forget that?”

This was Gallagher’s way of relaxing. Other officers had a different version of this mental exercise.

Many of them thought their chief homicide detective was bordering not on mental sharpness, but on mental illness. They just shook their heads as they watched through the window of the office and saw the stuffed mascot being tossed up and down like an Emeril specialty salad.

One of the officers nodded at his colleague, “He’s playing with his mascot again.”

They both laughed but they couldn’t deny that Gallagher was as brilliant as he was goofy, an investigative genius.

             
“Okay, here’s an easy one, Mick!

Name the top grossing movies of the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and 2000’s. Give up?

I am disappointed in you, Mick. You should know these. You have watched them with me. In order of past decades,

’They are in order, ‘The Sound of Music,’ ‘Star Wars,’ ‘E.T.’, ‘Titanic’ and ’Avatar!’ I see you need a little memory work, buddy.

              At this point, he was interrupted by his partner who burst through the office door sobbing. Elie was visibly shaken.

              Gallagher quickly put down his mascot and stood up and embraced her. She was shaking so hard she couldn’t talk.

              “What in the world is wrong, Elie? Are you okay?”

              Between gasps of air, Elie tried to give an explanation but the words were all jumbled. So, Gallagher just held her gently until she was calm enough to talk. Finally, she sat down, still trembling and he brought her a glass of water and waited for her to tell him what had upset her so deeply.

              “I was attacked today, Gallagher…”

              Her partner looked sympathetically at her, “Attacked?” Gallagher’s face registered shock. He gently forced a smile and then tried to reassure her. “Take some time and tell me about it, Elie. Just try to breathe.”

              Elie drank another sip of water and began crying again. She accepted some Kleenex from Gallagher and blew her nose. Then, she told him the story of her encounter in her dorm room.

“It was Verna Oden. It was horrible. I was taking a nap when she got back from the funeral and we sat on the bed talking. At first, she seemed completely normal. I mean, she was upset because of the funeral, but we talked about her brother and she told me that she changed her name to Oden from Halverson because she wanted to have his same last name.

She said her father had been abusive and had done unspeakable things to both of them and then all of a sudden, she began accusing me of killing her brother.

I didn’t know what to say. She was hysterical. When she stopped yelling, she apologized and when I went to hug her she stood up and began screaming again. Then, she got a pair of scissors from her desk and came at me, Gallagher.

I ran out of there before she could kill me. As I raced across the yard to the parking lot she screamed out of the window, ‘You’re dead, Bree. I will get you for what you did. You will pay for this!’

I can’t go back there, Gallagher, ever!”

              The homicide detective was stunned. Elie’s cover had seemingly been compromised and, more importantly, her life may now be in danger.

Elie needed reassurance that the situation would be handled professionally and that she would be safe in the future. So, Gallagher just held her tight and soothed her. He didn’t say anything except, “I’ll take care of it. Don’t worry, okay?.”