Spilled Blood

7

Chris dropped Olivia at Hannah’s house in St. Croix, and his daughter retreated to her room to sleep. He let her go without asking more questions. She wasn’t in any condition to talk, and he wanted to know more about Ashlynn and the feud before he confronted her again. Hannah promised to stay with her during the day. She also offered to make dinner for the three of them that evening. He was surprised, but he said yes. It was a tiny glimmer of what his life had been like in the old days, when they were a family in Minneapolis.

With that thought in his head, Chris drove back to Barron. He stopped at a shop on the main street to buy new clothes to replace what he had lost at the motel, and then he set out to find the local high school, which stood on a bluff above the river valley. The school drew students from the entire region, including St. Croix. The sprawling, one-story brick building was surrounded by acres of athletic fields that butted up against rutted rows of corn fields to the west and the tree-lined residential streets of Barron on the east. During the warmer months, the fields would be lush green, but the grass was brown and yellow now, flattened by snow and soggy from the early storms.

He parked in the crowded lot and went through the glass doors into the school lobby. Inside, he was surprised to find metal detectors and a uniformed security guard screening visitors. He gave his name, showed identification, and asked to see the school principal. He waited, smelling fried food in the cafeteria and hearing the thunder of basketballs in the gymnasium. Five minutes later, a middle-aged black woman arrived past the rows of red school lockers to greet him.

‘Mr. Hawk? I’m Maxine Valma. How can I help you?’

She was slender and tall, with graying hair cut in a short, practical bob and a dark ebony complexion to her skin. She wore a burgundy pants suit and heels, making her look even taller than she was.

‘I assume you know why I’m in town,’ Chris said.

‘I’m Olivia’s father.’

‘Of course.’

‘I’d like some information about the young people around here.’

Valma’s lips pursed with concern. ‘I’m not sure what I can tell you, Mr. Hawk. School records are private unless you get a court order, and I can’t let you talk to any of the students on campus unless you have parental permission.’

‘I understand. I’m not asking you to violate any privacy laws. I was just hoping to find out what’s going on in this town.’

‘I see. Well, I’ll share what I can. I feel terrible, not just for Ashlynn and her family, but for Olivia, too.’

She gestured for him to join her, and Chris accompanied her down the school corridor. Two teenagers passed them going the opposite direction, and he saw their eyes lock on his face and heard them whispering as they passed him. He heard Olivia’s name.

It was just as Marco Piva had told him: there were no secrets here.

‘I didn’t expect to find metal detectors,’ he told the principal.

Valma nodded. ‘Sad, isn’t it? I resisted for months, but the weapons problem was getting out of hand. We had knife fights. Students were bringing guns. I can’t keep the feud out of the school, but I can try to keep them safe while they’re here.’ She pointed at the freshly painted lockers. ‘We keep running to stay ahead of the graffiti. We no longer assign individual lockers, because too many were being vandalized.’

‘Hannah says it’s like gang violence.’

‘She’s right. Gangs give kids who have no future a sense of purpose, and that’s what the feud does here. It’s not about the cancer cluster or the litigation anymore. It’s about hatred, which has become the defining theme for the children in both towns.’

‘So how do you stop it?’

‘If I knew, we would have done it months ago.’ The principal shook her head. ‘I thought that Ashlynn’s death would be a shock to everyone’s senses. I hoped the kids would see that it’s gone too far. That doesn’t seem to be true. If anything, passions are even more inflamed.’

She led him into the school cafeteria, which was mostly empty in advance of the lunch crowd. White-uniformed workers cooked over hot grills behind the counters. The smell of burnt oil was pungent. He saw another security guard near the door.

‘Coffee?’ Valma asked.

‘Please.’

The principal poured two cups from a silver urn, and they sat across from each other at one of the long cafeteria tables. Her strong fingers curled around the foam cup, and her nails were painted red.

‘Have you been principal here for long?’ Chris asked.

Valma waited as steam curled out of her coffee. She blew on it, making an “o” with her lips. ‘Two years.’

‘Are you a native to the area?’

‘Do I look like a native?’ she asked.

‘Not really.’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘My husband got a job here, and I came with him. I’ve been in education my whole career, but I never imagined my experiences in the St. Louis schools would be quite as useful as they’ve turned out to be.’

‘What does your husband do?’

The principal hesitated. ‘George is a research scientist at Mondamin.’

‘What does he research?’

‘I could tell you,’ she said with a smile.

‘But then you’d have to kill me?’

‘Right.’ She added, ‘Seriously, Mr. Hawk, the employees all sign nondisclosure agreements. They don’t talk to anyone.’

‘It sounds like the company has something to hide.’

‘They do. It’s called intellectual property.’

Like anyone with a spouse in a secretive profession, Maxine Valma had mastered the art of politely saying nothing. ‘Does it cause problems for you at school, having a husband who works at Mondamin?’ he asked. ‘Students from St. Croix must see you as the enemy.’

‘Your daughter certainly did.’

‘Olivia?’

‘Yes, I worked hard to convince her that I was scrupulously neutral, but I’m not sure she believed me.’

‘This is an odd question,’ he said, ‘but what can you tell me about Olivia? We talk a lot, but it’s not the same when you don’t see each other every day. She’s changed. I need to get to know her all over again.’

Valma smiled with sincere warmth. ‘Olivia is smart. She’s booksmart, yes, but she’s people-smart, too, which is relatively rare for teenagers. She’s a natural leader. Outspoken. Passionate. Sometimes reckless.’

‘That’s her mother,’ he said.

‘I know. Hannah and I are good friends, despite what my husband does. The women’s center she runs is invaluable in this region. It’s a resource for children and adults who face some truly desperate situations. She is an angel, Mr. Hawk, or at least that’s how we feel about her.’

Chris said nothing. Hannah was an angel, but she’d flown away from him, leaving a hole in his heart. ‘What else can you tell me about my daughter?’

‘I’m afraid you can be smart and still be naïve. Olivia is young. It’s easy to take all that passion and have it misdirected.’

‘Meaning?’

‘Meaning she’s been one of the loudest voices against Barron and Mondamin. She’s convinced that a grievous injustice was committed, and she refuses to remain silent. That’s fine – commendable even – but Olivia doesn’t always understand the effect she has on others. She can be an instigator with her words, deliberately or not. Other kids look to her. They follow her. Sometimes they go too far.’

‘Like who?’

‘I’m not comfortable naming names, Mr. Hawk.’

‘Tanya Swenson?’

Valma sipped her coffee and considered her response. ‘Tanya looks up to Olivia. I think she’d do just about anything for her. They’re both children of divorce, although Tanya was left alone with Rollie at a young age.’

‘Tanya and her father live in Barron, don’t they?’

‘Yes, but the Barron teenagers have largely shunned her because of the lawsuit.’

‘Does she bear a grudge about that?’ he asked.

The principal’s brow knitted in annoyance. She leaned across the table and lowered her voice. ‘I know where you’re going, Mr. Hawk. In order to create reasonable doubt that Olivia shot Ashlynn, you need to create a cloud of suspicion around Tanya. That may be an unpleasant necessity of being a lawyer, but please don’t try to make me your co-conspirator.’

‘Olivia says she’s innocent.’

‘I’d like to believe that’s true, but it seems unlikely, doesn’t it?’

‘I think she’s telling the truth. That means someone else killed Ashlynn.’

‘Tanya? I don’t believe it.’

‘Anyone who can’t be ruled out has to be ruled in.’

‘I’ve said all I can say about Tanya,’ Valma replied. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Okay. Talk to me about Ashlynn.’

‘What about her?’

‘I’d like to know what was going on in her life.’

The principal held the coffee cup near her lips, and he saw the smear of her lipstick on the rim. She stared at him without saying anything. She was obviously deciding what information she could safely share.

‘Florian doesn’t need to know you’ve told me anything,’ Chris added. ‘I realize it’s awkward because of your husband’s job.’

‘Florian doesn’t scare me.’ She smiled. ‘If I were to be afraid of anyone, it’s Julia.’

‘Oh?’

‘She and Ashlynn were extremely close. If Julia thinks that Olivia is responsible for Ashlynn’s death, she’s likely to be a pit bull who wants to see her destroyed.’

‘Thank you for the warning.’

‘As for Ashlynn, there are certain young women who are obviously destined for great things. That was her. She was beautiful, confident, graceful, spiritual. It’s a tragedy to lose her.’

‘Was Ashlynn part of the Barron clique?’

Valma shook her head. ‘No, Ashlynn was disgusted with the feud. She avoided the other students from Barron.’

‘Who did she hang out with?’

‘She kept to herself a lot, particularly in the last few months. She seemed different, actually.’

‘How so?’

The principal tapped the table with her long fingernails. Like a lawyer, she picked her words carefully. ‘She was troubled. Upset. Her moods swung between highs and lows. That’s not uncommon with teenage girls, but Ashlynn had a seriousness about life that made it more worrisome. On some level, I suppose she took the guilt for the violence onto herself, simply because of her father. That’s nonsense, but try telling it to a teenage girl.’

‘Did she share any of her feelings with you?’ Chris asked.

‘No, I’m not sure she felt free to share her feelings with anyone. I felt bad, because it seemed to be getting worse.’

‘Worse?’

‘Yes, for the last month, she was very depressed. She looked like she was carrying the entire world on her shoulders. I saw her crying several times. I asked her about it, but she shrugged it off. I was concerned. Honestly, if you told me she’d committed suicide, I wouldn’t have been completely surprised, but I gather that’s not the case.’

‘No, that’s not what happened. You don’t know what was causing any of this?’

‘I’m sorry, no.’

‘Did you see her on Friday? The day she died?’

‘No, Ashlynn was out of school for most of the week. She wasn’t in classes after Tuesday.’

‘She’d been gone for three days? Do you know why?’

‘Well, she gave me a note from her mother saying that she was volunteering on a church project in Nebraska, but to be honest—’ She stopped.

‘What?’

‘To tell you the truth, I thought the note was forged.’

‘Did you talk to Florian or Julia?’

‘No. In retrospect I wish I had, but I didn’t want Ashlynn to feel that I didn’t trust her. For all I knew, the story was perfectly legitimate.’

Ashlynn told Olivia she’d been driving for hours, and she arrived in the ghost town from the south, which was the route she would have taken back from Nebraska. So maybe it was true.

Or maybe, like Olivia, Ashlynn was keeping secrets.

‘Do you know—’ he began, but he couldn’t finish his question.

Footsteps boomed on the cafeteria floor. A gangly teenager sprinted toward them and skidded to a stop, almost falling. He had a pile of schoolbooks under his arm, and two of them spilled to the ground. The boy struggled to catch his breath. The cafeteria guard, seeing the commotion, jogged in their direction.

Maxine Valma stood up. ‘David,’ she said to the boy. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

The teenager gestured toward the rear of the school. ‘There’s trouble outside.’

Thirty students gathered in a mean circle in the mud of the football field.

As Chris and the principal neared the crowd, with two security guards beside them, he heard shouted expletives hurled between teenage boys. Pushing and shoving erupted, throwing several boys to the wet ground. Others began throwing wild punches. A handful of girls watched in twos and threes from around the lawn. Some screamed encouragement, and others chewed their nails and stared nervously at the principal as she came closer.

One girl stood off by herself. She had a round face, with a mess of red curls on her head. She watched the fight from the shelter of a large oak tree, and she eyed the streets of Barron behind her, as if weighing whether she should run.

Through the tumult of bodies, they could see inside the circle, where two teenage boys confronted each other in a mess of blood and fists. The one with long hair tied in a ponytail was a stranger to Chris, but he recognized the other. It was Johan Magnus, the son of the minister in St. Croix, the boy he’d met at the motel. Johan, whose sister Kimberly was part of the cancer cluster and Olivia’s best friend.

He heard Maxine Valma mutter in dismay, spotting the other boy in the fight. ‘Kirk Watson.’

‘Who’s that?’

‘A Barron boy,’ she snapped. ‘One of the worst.’

They descended on the feuding pack, and Valma shouted at the students with a crisp air of anger and authority. ‘Stop this!’

Seeing them, several boys broke from the circle and escaped toward the school building. Many of the girls joined them. The others were still caught up in the fight, wrestling and exchanging blows. One by one, Chris and the security guards waded between the boys, shoving them aside and re-establishing a safe ground. The violence quieted, until only Kirk Watson and Johan Magnus were still entangled. Blood trickled from Johan’s nose. Kirk had a burgundy welt on his cheek bone. Their clothes and faces were black with dirt.

Chris took Kirk, and the larger of the security guards took Johan, and together they grabbed each boy by the shoulders and yanked them apart. Kirk shrugged off Chris’s grip and bolted toward Johan, but as he did, the other guard stepped in front of Johan and fired a blast of pepper spray toward Kirk’s face. The guard’s aim was bad, but even as Kirk twisted from the path of the spray, some of the fog seared his cheek and neck. He screamed and jerked backward, tumbling into Chris and taking them both to the ground.

Kirk clawed at his burning skin. His elbow landed hard on Chris’s chin, dizzying him and knocking his teeth together. The older boy was heavy on top of Chris’s body, and he fought unsuccessfully to dislodge him. Kirk’s breath was sour as he gagged from the pepper spray, and he stank of cigarettes. He swung, hammering the side of Chris’s skull and blinding him with an electric jolt of pain. As the guards closed in, Kirk blinked at Chris through tearing, bloodshot eyes.

‘D’you get my message, fucker?’ he hissed.

Chris knew what message Kirk meant. It had been scrawled on the wall of his motel room.

The guards laid their hands on Kirk’s shoulders and dragged him off Chris, but with the strength of a bear, Kirk kicked free of the guards. Before anyone could hold him, he broke through the line-up of teenagers. No one reacted; no one chased him. He sprinted toward a black pick-up parked on the border of the athletic field. When he was safely inside, the engine growled, and he sped away.

Chris stood up slowly. The ringing in his ears was as loud as a symphony. His neck and jaw felt stiff. His new dress shirt and pants were wet and torn. He felt someone put an arm around his waist and realized it was Maxine Valma.

‘Are you all right?’ the principal asked.

‘I’ve been better,’ Chris admitted, tasting blood in his mouth.

Valma snapped her fingers at the minister’s son, who stood on the edge of the circle with his hands in his jean pockets. Despite the smears of blood on his face and the mud in his blond hair, he looked in better shape than Chris.

‘Johan,’ Valma ordered him. ‘Get over here.’

The boy inched closer. He began to make excuses, but the principal silenced him.

‘Quiet! Listen to me. I’m very disappointed in you. You’re the one person in this school who has tried to stop the violence around here. And now I find you brawling with Kirk Watson? What were you thinking?’

‘It’s not what it looks like,’ Johan insisted.

‘Then what is it?’

‘I saw Kirk’s brother Lenny going outside with Tanya Swenson. I didn’t like it. I followed them, and I saw Kirk out here waiting for her.’

Valma took a long breath. ‘I see.’

‘Kirk and I got into it, and everyone else started piling in.’

‘Where is Lenny?’ she asked.

‘He bailed and ran when everything started.’

‘All right. Go back to my office, Johan. We need to share this with the police.’ Her soft voice turned sharp again. ‘The rest of you, I want you in the gymnasium with the guards. Right now. No talking. No fighting. You sit there and stare at your feet, is that understood? We’re all going to have a chat with you and your parents.’

The crowd of teenagers shuffled toward the school building. Chris remembered the girl who had stood off by herself near the trees, and he realized she wasn’t part of the group returning to the school. When he looked in the direction where he’d first seen her, he saw the girl running toward the residential neighborhood.

‘Who is that?’ he asked Valma.

The principal frowned. ‘It’s Tanya Swenson.’ She shouted after the girl. ‘Tanya! Come back!’

Tanya stopped long enough to look back over her shoulder, but then she turned and ran even faster, losing herself among the streets of Barron.