“Hold on, it’s Wendy’s school,” I said as I took the call on speaker. “Hello?”
“Constance, this is Judith at the school,” Judith, the principal, said. “There was an incident on the school playground a few moments ago. A man tried to take a few children.”
I gasped and stood up. “What?”
“The kids weren’t taken, but they were hurt. Wendy suffered a gash to the forehead and side. She’s bleeding pretty good, so we sent her to the hospital via ambulance.”
I was already moving, unaware of how I’d gotten to my car.
Odin shoved me into the passenger seat, ordered Peanut in, and slammed the door.
Peanut crawled over me to the back as Odin rounded the hood.
“What hospital?” he barked.
Judith didn’t argue with him as she answered, “The one closest to the school.”
Odin put the SUV into drive and was zooming down the main drag in Sawtooth moments later.
The last thing I saw as we raced away from The Mercantile was the uneaten turkey sandwich that was on the plate in the corner of the patio where we’d once been sitting. Not at the table with the half-eaten Reuben.
Twenty
Apparently when someone says “get a grip,” by the throat is not what they meant.
—Odin to Black
Odin
Anger coursed through me as I listened to the principal explain the incident to us more fully.
“We were outside for the final recess of the day. This is fairly normal as long as the weather is decent. All the kids had their jackets on, and we were heading outside. To get to the playground we kind of have to walk around the school because the back door is getting a new sensor put on it. There’s a brick wall on one side, and the metal slatted fence on the other. It’s narrow, about four feet. And this man came out of nowhere. Pulled up, got out, and reached for several kids before the teacher could react. He yanked the kids forward, slamming their little heads against the bars. I have a video if you want to see.”
Constance gave a single, jerky nod, and the principal pulled up her phone with shaky fingers.
Constance leaned forward so that she could see Judith’s phone once the principal had finally managed to get it out and the video pulled up.
We both watched as exactly what Judith had described had happened, happened.
A man wearing a face mask, dark clothes, and gloves got out of the truck, stalked to the kids, and yanked two of them by their jackets into the bars. Wendy and another kid.
When both kids sat stunned, the man let them go, muscled himself up half over the fence, and leaned down to pick them up.
That’s when the teacher kicked into gear and started fighting the man back.
The kids scrambled, and the guy left in frustration.
“Did the cameras pick up a better view of the truck?”
“Unfortunately, no.” Judith sounded pissed.
As she should be.
There was never any scenario that the cameras shouldn’t have picked this up. I’d say she was rightfully pissed off. That was a huge fuck-up in the security. Probably one that would get fixed quickly, too, if I had to guess.
“This angle is all that we have of the vehicle. And the teacher was way too frazzled to really get a good look at the truck. She was worried about all the blood.”
I could see that.
