AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Seventeen
The table buzzed from the incoming text on her cell phone.
Hannah scrambled to grab it, hoping it was another message from her friend Sam at the school.
Nope, just her mom checking in on her. She typed back a quick reply and sighed.
With another hour until she had to meet Eric and James, she’d run out of things to research. She was literally just hanging out, praying Sam’s friend would call.
The woman would be a gold mine of info. She was a former kindergarten teacher at the school who had quit a couple of years ago and no one had thought much of it, but Sam had pointed out it was the same year Wentworth’s son had been in the woman’s kindergarten class.
Sam had been friends with the teacher and had maintained that friendship on social media, which now was under a fake name and apparently locked down like Fort Knox.
Which had set off alarm bells for both Hannah and Sam when they’d put two and two together. So, Sam had sent the woman a message with Hannah’s phone number, asking her to call.
“Please call me.” Hannah pushed her chair away from her desk so she could rise and pace. “I just know you’ll have some answers.”
It was still early in the day, and it drove her a bit crazy not being at school.
What were her students thinking? They probably missed her.
And, oh lord, what must the other teachers be thinking?
Her stomach twisted. Would they think her capable of hurting a student? Not anyone who truly knew her.
Shortly before noon, she grabbed her purse and keys to head out to meet Eric and James for lunch. Thinking about the heavy conversation to come sent a wave of apprehension through her, but she pushed it aside. This needed to be done. Rip the Band-Aid off, so to speak, so they could all heal.
She exited the building and made her way to her car. Before she could climb inside, her cell rang. The number on the screen was unfamiliar. She hit the button to answer the call.
“This is Hannah.”
“Hi, Hannah. This is Jeannie.” The female voice sounded soft. Wary. “Sam gave me your number.”
The kindergarten teacher who’d gone MIA.
“Oh my goodness! Hello.” Hannah climbed into her car and closed the door. “Thank you so much for calling me, Jeannie. I was hoping you could shed some light on Stoddard Wentworth—”
“He’s dangerous, Hannah. I’m so sorry he’s turned his attention to you. I don’t know how bad it’s gotten with him, but be careful.”
“It’s pretty bad. He’s leaving me flowers with gross notes calling me a whore.”
“Ah, the flowers bit. I remember that.” Jeannie’s laugh was bitter. “It started out with that, which in hindsight was pretty tame.”
So, he’d also stalked her. And the flowers were tame?
“So you had a problem with him too?”
“Yes. He’s pure evil. The things he did...” There was a pause. “He tried to get me fired.”
“Same.” She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel and shook her head. “Actually, that’s the current stage I’m at with him.”
“He’s escalating quickly then.” Jeannie’s voice turned somber. “He tried to assault me. I went to the police and they pretty much blew me off. I swear he has connections everywhere.”
Which had been her thoughts too. A chill swept through her.
“I did so much research on him,” Jeannie continued. “And I can’t quite prove it, but I’m pretty sure he killed his wife.”
“I found that article, too, and I had those same thoughts.”
