Page 41 of Innocence

“Faith, I swear to God if I were single, I’d steal you from Ian. But thankfully, I’m not, and my Rose is amazing.”

“How is her quest coming with changing the Medicare healthcare laws?”

“Slow. Painfully slow, and it’s like she’s beating her head against the wall. She’s making headway, but it’s as if everyone thinks she wants to change the locks on the vault. She’s not asking for anything unreasonable.”

“Some things are harder to get changed, Baptiste. Come on. Everyone else went home. It’s just you and me.”

“Lucky me. How about pie and coffee? On me.” She laughed, shaking her head.

“It’s free, Baptiste, but it sounds wonderful.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

None of them were surprised to see the others at the café partaking in a pre-meal cup of coffee and slice of pie. The ladies in the café were really testing new flavor combinations and exciting ways to make pies not look like pies.

Today, their special was hand-held pies. The flaky, lightly browned crusts held amazing treats inside. Chocolate-chocolate chip silk, lemon-ginger meringue, blueberry cream, and an all-time favorite praline.

“I could sit here and eat another two pies,” said Ian, shaking his head.

“Same,” nodded Baptiste.

“Baptiste actually had a young man ask about his workout routine in class today,” smiled Faith. “I appreciated that you were honest about your diet. I think a lot of these kids are diet or workout obsessed.”

“I agree. I just want them to have realistic expectations. We were all blessed by our parents and hard work,” he smiled. “But it’s important to keep perspective.”

“Anyone have any breakthroughs today?” asked Angel.

“Maybe,” frowned Mary. “I had a few interesting questions, but I can’t be sure. Noah was there as well.”

“I agree with Mary. There were some interesting questions but nothing that would have made me point a finger at someone. But there is something going on in that classroom.”

“Maybe we should cross-reference the students in our classes,” said Baptiste. “If we have common students, we focus on them.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” said Ian. He tapped his comms piece. “Comms? Did you read that?”

“Read and following up. We’ll let you know what we find.”

“I think some of my students were a bit freaked out about Gifford’s death,” said Baptiste. “They mentioned that it had been a rough week for them. I have to assume, based on what we know about him, that a lot of these kids knew him. UNO isn’t that big.”

“Hey, guys,” smiled Ashley and Bree walking in the back door. “What are you doing?”

“Pie and coffee. And counting our blessing that we don’t have to teach all the time,” smirked Ian. “I enjoy it as a break, but damn. I do not want to do this all the time. Kudos to all the teachers out there.”

“I know what you mean,” smiled Bree. “Having a tough time on this one?”

“We all think that this has to do with the psych class that Mary and Noah took over. It’s focusing on fears and phobias and how to overcome those,” said Faith.

“Do we think it’s something like what happened with that guy Shaw? You know, the one who was tattooing the kids and placing them in their worst fears and letting them go again,” asked Ashley.

“It’s a good thought, but I don’t think so,” said Ian. “Whoever is doing this is finding out their true phobia and fear, then killing them using it against them. I cannot imagine how horrible that would be for someone.”

“One of the students asked me what my fear was,” said Mary. They all quieted, looking at her. “I honestly had a hard time thinking of something, so all I said was losing my family or something terrible happening to my family.”

“That won’t happen, baby,” said Angel.

“I know. But just saying it made my stomach hurt. I know there’s no way for anyone to get to any of you, but it still felt wrong to even say it out loud.”

“I can see how you would feel that way,” said Bree. “Just know that this person can’t get to us and most likely can’t get to you either. We’re talking about an individual or individuals who are early twenties, at most. They have unrealistic expectations of what the world holds for them. They all believe that they’re prepared for whatever comes at them, but they probably are not.”

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