But Tori was a good kid. An excellent student. She wouldn’t lie or cause any sort of trouble. Ever.
“Don’t give me that shit, Sykes.” Kerri wasn’t letting him off the hook so easily. “She’s a kid. Easy to manipulate. That’s the reason we have rules and procedures. You know as well as I do that anything she has said to you up to the point where I’m in the room is inadmissible.”
“Yeah, yeah, come on.” He started moving again. Paused two doors up and on the other side of the corridor.
The counselor’s office.
Kerri knew the counselor, Anna Leary, fairly well. If she was with Tori, Kerri had nothing to worry about. Leary would never permit a child to be manipulated or badgered. For now, Kerri breathed a little easier.
The secretary wasn’t in the small waiting room, so Sykes went straight to the door of the counselor’s office and knocked before opening it.
Kerri’s gaze landed on Tori, seated in one of two chairs in front of Leary’s desk. She took in the red, swollen eyes and the tearstained cheeks. A new burst of fury ignited inside Kerri. The counselor sat behind her desk, and Peterson stood next to her chair. He hadn’t taken a seat, a blatant demonstration of authority. He stood on the counselor’s side of the desk. Two against one. He glanced at Kerri, then to his partner. Visibly attempted to gauge just how much trouble Kerri was about to start.
“She hasn’t threatened to shoot you yet,” Sykes said with an attempt at lightheartedness.
Peterson shifted his attention to Kerri again. “You would’ve done the same if it had been my kid.”
“Get out,” Kerri said to the man, who knew better than to pretend he hadn’t crossed a line. “My daughter and I need the room.”
“We’ll talk later,” Leary said to Kerri as she stood. “Let me know if you need me or want to discuss the past twenty minutes.”
Twenty minutes. Peterson had been grilling Tori for twenty damned minutes.
Kerri gave the counselor a nod and waited until the three had left the room before she allowed herself to really look at Tori.
Her fourteen-year-old daughter appeared inordinately small in the upholstered wing chair. Her thin arms were crossed over her still mostly flat chest, and her face revealed exactly how terrified she was. Before Kerri could speak, Tori launched out of the chair into her mother’s arms and started to sob.
For a long while, Kerri held her and whispered soothing words. Her own tears flowed down her cheeks. Whatever had happened, Tori was not responsible. She would never purposely hurt anyone. Kerri realized that most parents would believe as much when it came to their offspring, but she didn’t just believe it—she knew it. Like the rest of the family, Tori was still struggling with her cousin’s murder. This child didn’t have it in her to hurt anyone.
When Tori’s shoulders had stopped shaking and her hard sobs had diminished, Kerri ushered her back into her chair and took the one next to her. “Tell me what happened.”
Tori stared at the floor. “I’m . . . I’m not sure.”
Kerri’s heart twisted. Tori’s inability to meet her mother’s gaze warned this was not entirely accurate. “Take your time,” she said softly. “Who was with you, besides Brendal?”
Tori’s thin body jerked at the mention of Brendal’s name. “Is she going to be all right?”
Kerri gave it to her straight. “I don’t know. Sykes said she was critically injured. We’ll have to wait and see what the doctors say.”
Tori swiped at her eyes, then met her mother’s gaze. “Sarah, Alice, and I were coming down the stairs, headed to our next class, when we ran into Brendal on the landing. She was going upstairs for science.”
The ceilings were high in this historic building, which made the staircase from the first floor to the second a double set. At the midway point there was a landing with windows that overlooked the center courtyard.
“What happened then?” Kerri coaxed.
“The same thing Brendal always does.” Tori bit down on her lower lip to stop its quivering. “She makes fun of everyone. She’s a serious bully.” She shrugged. “I mean, I wouldn’t have wanted her to get hurt in a million years, but she’s so mean to anyone she feels is beneath her—which is most of the other girls in our class. She’s always been that way, but she’s worse now.”
Kerri and Tori had talked about bullies at length many times. Whenever there was an incident at a school anywhere, they had the talk. There was so much more that needed to be done to stop this sort of thing, but Kerri wasn’t going to pretend to have the answer. It was an ugly problem without an easy or quick resolution.
“Was Brendal bullying you?” Kerri couldn’t help holding her breath. Though Tori hadn’t mentioned anything of the sort, she might be less inclined to share with her mom, being a full-fledged teenager now. Adolescents didn’t always share everything with their parents during this often-difficult phase in their lives.
“She treated me no differently than she did everyone else.” Tori let go a long breath. “Lately, it was Sarah she really went after.”
This was news to Kerri. Sarah Talley had been Tori’s best friend since kindergarten. Sarah was shy and quiet. Never got into trouble. Always an honor student, like Tori. Kerri was surprised Sarah’s mother hadn’t tried to intervene.
But then maybe Sarah hadn’t told her mother.
Before Kerri asked the really painful question, she ventured into less delicate territory. “Alice is the new girl who started Brighton this semester? The one you spent the night with a couple of times?”
Tori nodded. “Alice Cortez. Remember she moved from Mexico last year, like August, I think. Her parents died, and an uncle took her in. She went to another school before this one, but it didn’t work out.”
Kerri remembered Tori coming home all upset and sharing the sad story the first day of school right after the semester break. She’d taken it upon herself to befriend the new girl when others weren’t so quick to do so.
“Was Brendal bullying Alice too?”
Tori shook her head. “Alice ignored her. It was mostly Sarah she’d been hounding really hard lately.” Tori averted her gaze, stared at her hands. “That’s all I know.”
Kerri recognized the lack of truth in her daughter’s final statement. Tori wasn’t a very good liar. Or maybe Kerri’s skills at spotting an untruth were just particularly well honed. Either way, there was more.
“I understand this is difficult,” Kerri assured her. “I also know how it feels to want to protect someone you care about. But sometimes you can’t do that. Protecting someone is different from covering for them. Which girl are you trying to protect?”
Tori clasped her hands together in her lap. When she finally lifted her gaze to Kerri’s, more tears flowed in little salty rivers. “I swear I don’t know if anyone pushed her. I know I didn’t, but I was so focused on how Brendal was lashing out that I can’t be sure who did what. It all happened really fast.”
Kerri nodded slowly. “All right. If you didn’t see what happened, I can understand your hesitation to hazard a guess.”
Tori peered up at her again. “I swear I can’t be sure.” She glanced around the room before meeting Kerri’s gaze once more. “I wouldn’t want to get anyone in trouble unless I’m certain.”