Which made him want to employ his other abilities in the most effective manner: to catch whoever wanted Silver Valley High School to stop supporting its teen LGBT club.
* * *
“I’m ready for whatever you need me to do. I haven’t done any long-term undercover before, nothing more than a few weeks. But I know I can do this.” Nika sat in a government-issue office chair at the Silver Valley Police Department and watched the team leader for the Rainbow Hater case at Silver Valley High School, Detective Bryce Campbell. “I have to ask, though, why me? Why not one of our younger officers?”
Bryce blew out a long breath. “There’s more to it, Nika. We think the hate crimes against the Rainbows club and teacher Mitch Everlock are somehow connected to the True Believers.”
“I saw the morning report. Leonard Wise is out and free to live here if he wants to.” Wise had been the leader of the True Believers in Upstate New York two decades ago. His prison term was up, and several of his former cult members had been released from prison, too.
“Zora feels horrible about all of this.” Bryce looked as miserable as Nika knew his fiancée was feeling.
“It has nothing to do with her. Wise is sick and would have set up somewhere again. He found her first, so he settled on Silver Valley.”
“Yeah, but...you know.”
Bryce didn’t have to elaborate. Nika did know—when Bryce’s fiancée had been only twelve she’d been a potential victim of the cult. She’d reported the cult, and Wise in particular, saving herself and many other girls. Zora had been moved to Silver Valley and started a new life with her adoptive family. But last year Wise had tracked her down and sent Zora’s mother to Silver Valley to go after the daughter she’d betrayed. Bryce, Zora and SVPD had worked together last Christmas to stop a serial killer who’d targeted Silver Valley’s female ministers. Nika wasn’t privy to all of the details but Zora had somehow worked in disguise to catch the Female Preacher Killer. She’d drawn her biological mother out and was instrumental in having her committed to a mental hospital, where she should have been when Zora was a young girl—before the True Believers Cult had held Zora and her mother hostage.
“How is Zora? This Christmas is going to be a lot different for you two.”
Bryce grunted. “We’re doing the minimum for Christmas as it’s the last week before our wedding. You have a date yet?” He shot her a collegial grin.
She grimaced. “No. Every time you ask, my answer will still be the same, Bryce.”
“Right. Well, you’ve got a few weeks to find a date. So, back to the Silver Valley High case. We’ve got someone who’s got a hard-on for the LGBT club and Mitch Everlock in particular. You go in there without your usual makeup, your hair plain, the right clothes, you’ll pass for a high schooler. Have you seen some of those girls? They’re like cover models. They all look twenty-five, whether they’re freshmen or seniors.”
“I doubt they all look that mature, but go on.”
“There’s a student whose mother is really into the meetings that the cult is holding, over in the trailer park.” The trailer park on the edge of Silver Valley had been purchased by Leonard Wise last year and occupied by his fellow former True Believers founders. “This mother is the only one we have a concrete connection to.”
“What’s the student’s name?”
“Rachel Boyle. You need to get in there and see what you can find out. I’m not saying become her best friend, because from what Mit—Mr. Everlock—has told us, she’s pretty withdrawn. At least, over the past semester she’s withdrawn.”
“That doesn’t mean she’s the Rainbow Hater, Bryce.” She didn’t call him on the fact that he’d referred to Everlock by his first name. It was obvious he and the science teacher must know one another outside of the case. “We don’t even know for sure if the Rainbow Hater is attached to the cult.”
“No, we don’t. But it’s the best lead we’ve got right now, Nika.”
* * *
Three days after having his life threatened by the latest bloody message, Mitch took a long look at his first-period class. He made sure he made eye contact with each of the twenty students. He hoped they each knew that he was here for them, whether it was about chemistry or personal matters. Especially if they were being coerced by the True Believers Cult members to commit a crime.
“Who can give me the resulting compound, given the variables we introduced into our lab experiment?” Mitch switched on the SMART Board, scrubbed clean of the tape goo from the hate message. As the digital whiteboard booted up he took another chance to peruse his smartest group of students. Period one, Monday through Friday: high school seniors, all but one or two destined for the top universities in the state. Many would go out of state, maybe one or two to an Ivy League. Acceptances hadn’t been sent out yet, but he’d seen enough seniors to have a good feel for where each would end up. He felt so damned privileged to be teaching the best of the best.
The thought of any of them being involved in the hate crimes left the taste of bile in his mouth.
“Anyone? What did you do this weekend that’s making you so tired on this fine Monday morning, folks?”
A raised hand. Amy Donovan, the class favorite. Not a teacher’s pet, but the class’s go-to girl on how to keep the labs safe and accurate. She was also the senior class president and a cheerleader. Silver Valley High’s all-American girl.
“Amy.”
“It’d be ammonia.”
“That’s right. Anyone else want to add your observations from last week’s lab? Neel, I remember you had several questions about the Bunsen burner.” The roll of laughter didn’t embarrass the first-generation Indian American who sat straighter and flashed a bright white smile.
“Jeffrey helped me with that just fine, Mr. Everlock.”
More laughter. Neel had accidentally singed his eyebrows with a Bunsen burner at the beginning of his junior year.
Had it been almost two years with this group already? They’d been the best Mitch had ever taught.
“I’m going to miss you losers over the holiday break. But we’ve still got three more units to get through in our textbook. Let’s keep the discussion going.” They all grumbled over their laughter at his teasing. They knew they were cherished, he suspected.
Mitch never got enough of the youthful energy. This class more than the others was special to him because they all wanted to be here, to go wherever their brains could take them. Which, for a good portion of them, would be very, very far.
Hopefully not as far as a war in Iraq or Afghanistan, where he’d been.
Using the techniques he’d learned through therapy sessions with his counselor, Zora, he took a deep breath and let go of the images of smoke and blood that filled his head as he was transported back to his time in the Middle East. The harrowing memories wanted all his attention—but he had a class to teach.
I’m in Silver Valley, Pennsylvania. I am safe. Today is Monday and it’s a B day on the school schedule.
The practiced reminder of reality settled him.
“Mr. Everlock?” Bright blue eyes reflected no notice of Mitch’s brief return to what had been his hell on earth.
“Shoot, Gabi.” Gabriella Boland had that line between her carefully shaped eyebrows, the line that meant he’d better pay attention. The straight-A student and senior class homecoming queen was as formidable in chemistry class as she was on the basketball court, where she hoped to lead her team to the state championships as she had last season.
“When are we going to get into how we can use chemistry to help the environment instead of making compounds that harm it?” Her face was innocent enough, her question valid,