you should be able to take care of this yourself

“Tammy Jones was a student here,” McGowan says.

“A student-to-be, yes.”

“Yes. About to be a freshman. Already making friends with girls much older on the basketball team.”

“I don’t know of any rivalries, jealousies, motives at all.”

McGowan looks to Coach Wanda, because it’s a little nuts, the way Principal Taylor just bulls through things. And if McGowan doesn’t look at someone else, she might say something she regrets.

At the same time, a fourteen-year-old was killed. Who has time for protocols?

“All right,” McGowan says. She thinks of Chuck’s voice in the cramped car, describing a basketball player killed in 1998. A senior named Belinda, who had been ostracized for going about town, talking about…Daphne. She was obsessed, Larson said, though nobody could rightly tell if the girl was enamored with the local legend or if she was scared. And if she was scared, how scared? And why? Larson suggested the girl was “troubled,” which McGowan recognized as conveniently dismissive.

But there was empathy in his voice. More than him simply feeling sorry for the girl. Almost like he had endured something in this story too.

“Do you have any reason to believe one of your male teachers was interested in any way in Tammy Jones?”

The question lands with a thud. Taylor looks to Wanda and holds her eyes for a solid few seconds before her face cracks into a faux smile.

“Excuse me, Detective?” She finally says. But McGowan holds her ground. She doesn’t repeat the question. And after adjusting her blazer, Janice Taylor speaks: “No. I have absolutely zero reason to believe one of our male…” She trails off, as if McGowan’s question is ultimately not worth answering.

“What happened to Tammy Jones was a brutality beyond anything I’ve ever seen in Samhattan,” McGowan says.

“Well, you should’ve been here during the Randy Scotts years.”

“I’m here now.”

“You sure are.”

“And if the coroner is telling me Tammy was killed with bare hands…I need to find a man strong enough to do that. I need to find one who might be connected to her in the first place. How soon are the students assigned counselors?”

“Not before school starts, if that’s what you mean. Bare hands?”

McGowan hesitates before responding. What does Principal Taylor know of bare hands? Something. Yes.

“Yes.”

“Well…no counselors before school starts.”

It’s clear what Taylor is saying: Tammy Jones wasn’t yet enrolled at Samhattan High. So, no counselor for her. And subtext: Tammy Jones wasn’t technically one of ours yet.

“I think possibly someone with an intimate relationship got into her bedroom,” McGowan says. She turns to Coach Wanda, “And no male assistants? Even a guest for a single practice?”

Wanda considers this.

“We’ve had parents come and watch practices from time to time. Tammy’s own did that.”

“Her father isn’t employed by Samhattan High School,” Principal Taylor says, not without triumph.