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“You should both know—and I’m not trying to burst any bubbles of yours or anything, Al—but there were a number of rumors that Mr. Williams wasn’t as big-hearted—” Meredith stopped abruptly and touched her fingers to her lips.
Allie barely stopped herself from rolling her eyes.
“As?” Sam prompted.
“Maybe big-hearted’s not the right word,” Meredith went on. “He wasn’t as…shall we say, paternal as some people thought. I know of one girl who transferred rather abruptly during the previous school year because of something that happened between them. I’m sure you can imagine what that might have been.”
Allie told herself not to get offended or bristle at Meredith’s comments. She knew all too well how reliable some of those “rumors” were.
“Who are we talking about?” Sam asked casually.
“Can’t you imagine? I always thought the two of you were pretty tight at one time. Tiffany Sawyer. You guys went out a few times if I’m remembering right.”
Allie had no clue who they were talking about, but Sam seemed to register some recognition at the name. He sat forward a little more earnestly. “You’re saying Tiffany and Mr. Williams were having some sort of affair, and when it went south, she transferred?”
Meredith leaned in, too, with a conspiratorial air. “It went a lot more than south. I was on the junior varsity cheerleading team at the time, and there hadn’t been any reason for us to be modest back then. Especially Tiffany Sawyer. Most of the other girls would have killed for her breasts,” she said. But not her, of course. “Anyway, she started to show signs she was carrying on a lot more than just a relationship with Mr. Williams.”
That little bomb earned a moment of dead silence.
“You’re saying she was pregnant? With Mr. Williams’s baby?” Allie couldn’t hide the shock and disbelief from her voice. She shot to her feet. Impossible. No way he would have done something like that. Mr. Williams may have been a lot of things but he—
Actually, Allie didn’t know any more. She paced over to them and said less certainly, “Okay, I could buy the possibility Tiffany was pregnant. That she transferred because she wanted to avoid the rumors—”
“Or wanted to save herself the humiliation of being expelled,” Meredith said smugly. “Come on, Al. Do you remember there ever being a pregnant student at St. Andrew’s?”
Come to think if it, she couldn’t. “That still doesn’t mean she was having an affair with Mr. Williams. What proof do you have?”
Meredith laughed. “I don’t have proof. Jesus, Al. We’re not at trial. But with cheerleading practice, I was frequently here pretty late with the rest of the squad. Jess, Mandy, and I all saw them together one night. In his classroom. Tiffany was crying, and he was hugging her. They looked pretty intimate to me. And within a month, she was gone. Problem solved for Mr. Williams.”
That scenario could have taken place for a hundred different reasons. There was no way that explanation could be true.
“When did all this take place?” Sam asked. He didn’t seem at all surprised or disturbed by the revelation. Still just getting the facts. It was his job, after all, she reminded herself.
“Let’s see…it was around Halloween. The night we saw them together, we were practicing for the last football game of the season. And when we returned to school after Christmas break, Tiffany was gone. Ironic considering Mr. Williams disappeared just a few months later.”
Allie exhaled, remembering why she’d wanted to speak with Meredith in the first place. And Tiffany didn’t start with an E. “Did you have any reason to believe Mr. Williams was seeing someone else, other than Tiffany?”
Meredith waved her hand. “Lord. I saw him flirting with so many different women, I couldn’t tell you who he actually dated. Let’s just say, Mr. Williams was a popular guy.”
“Anyone in particular?” Allie persisted.
“None that come to mind.” Knowing Meredith, Allie was certain if she had a name, she wouldn’t hesitate to drop it.
“Thanks for coming by today,” Sam said, rising to shut off the camera. “This has been very enlightening.”
“Don’t be so hasty, Sam.” Meredith fluttered her eyelashes. “A moment…outside?” She tilted her head in direction of the hall. Sam followed her.
He shut the door behind them, and the classroom was strangely silent.
Allie’s heart sank as she thought about her certainty that Mr. Williams couldn’t have done what Señora Sanchez had alleged—have an affair with a married woman.
She’d been wrong about that.
Could she be wrong again? Could there be some truth in Meredith’s claim?
Allie really didn’t want to believe it.
She remembered the day Jackson Williams had changed her life. Hours after hearing Meredith’s devastating news about her hook-up with Sam, Allie had been crying in the bathroom until school ended. When she was sure everyone was gone, she had headed to the Crimson Press room because she couldn’t make herself go home to face Peg and all her questions just yet. And that’s where she was, barely suppressing her sobs, when Mr. Williams had arrived.
