Page 71 of Promises We Meant to Keep

“Eighteen years ago they could have,” Yara added, dropping her gaze to the table in front of her.

Had that been why Elia had kept that relationship so under wraps? It would be a very good guess, especially at an all-girls boarding school. At least it had been all girls then. Kamryn eyed Yara carefully. “Yes, eighteen years ago, we could have fired her for that. But you can’t now. And if you’re looking to fire Elia Sharpe for something, you’re going to have to come up with a far more egregious error on her part.”

“Perhaps a personal relationship with the Head of School.”

Ah, so that was going to come back and bite her in the ass. Kamryn dropped her pen onto the notepad. “I have a personal relationship with all of the faculty. It’s impossible not to when you work closely with them and when you live on the same campus as most. And it’s unlikely that I wouldn’t have a personal relationship with Dr. Sharpe, or any of the other four faculty members who were teaching here when I was a student. I’ve known them for more than half my life at this rate. You can’t require complete objectivity. It’s impossible.”

The lines around Yara’s mouth were prominent when she frowned. She didn’t like Kamryn’s response, but she also didn’t fight her on it. Probably because she didn’t hear enough of the conversation in Kamryn’s office to really know anything.

“What happened eighteen years ago?” Kamryn brought them back around.

“Do you remember Rylann Fowler?” Heather asked, looking solemn for the first time since she and Kamryn had been reintroduced. “Her older sister is Lucia.”

“Okay, vaguely. She’s a few years younger than me, right?”

“Four. She was in eighth grade when you graduated.” Heather seemed so forlorn now. She absolutely believed what she was about to say. Kamryn had no doubts about it. “When she was a sophomore, she filed a complaint against Elia Sharpe for sexual harassment. She was on the Speech team, and she said that Elia harassed her not only in the classroom but also on the overnight trips that they took.”

“Only harassment?” Kamryn asked, writingsexual harassmentonto her yellow pad. She was finally getting somewhere with answers.

“Yes.”

“No,” Yara interjected. “Rylann also accused Elia of sexual advances and coercion, but she dropped that part of her complaint after the pressure from the school became too much.”

Kamryn wrote that down as well. She was going to need to dig deep into the school archives for as much information as she could possibly find about the details. Surely, they had to be somewhere. At the very least, Mrs. Caldera should remember everything. She always did.

“Was Rylann the only student who complained?”

“She was,” Susy jumped into the conversation. “At least about anything sexual. Elia had other complaints about being too hard on the students, expecting too much.”

That would be Elia. Kamryn had those same complaints when she’d been a student, but Elia had never expected more than what her students could handle. She just held them to high standards, and now, twenty years later, Kamryn was glad Elia had done that. It helped her to raise the bar on herself several times over the years.

“So in the following eighteen years, disregarding this one situation, there were no other complaints filed against Elia about sexual harassment, sexual coercion, sexual assault, rape, or anything of that nature?” Kamryn was ready to hear it all,even if it devastated her in the end. She needed to know who she was dealing with—who she was falling head over heels in love with.

“Not as far as I know,” Yara answered.

Both Heather and Susy shook their heads.

“But if the personnel file has been wiped of any incriminating reports, then we have no way of knowing tonight if there were other complaints filed against her,” Kamryn added.

“We don’t,” Susy responded.

“And you couldn’t tell me all of this before? When I suggested Elia for this team? When you hired me and told me that this team was top priority for the board?” Kamryn dropped her pen onto her notepad. “Because this is relevant information to how I run this school and protect the children we house and teach here. Without all the information, I can’t do that. In my view, you’re as liable as Elia right now, and as liable as whoever cleaned out her files.”

Heather looked an odd shade of gray. Susy looked as though she’d just been scolded. Yara, however, seemed pleased as punch. Kamryn couldn’t figure the three of them out. But at least they seemed to take what she’d said to heart.

“Let’s do this…” Kamryn started with a sigh. “Let’s meet again, soon. And in the meantime, Yara and I will begin to work through the files in the school and see if we can find the missing records. All of them, even if Elia’s weren’t the only ones. We need to make sure that they were or weren’t. And then we’re going to figure out who did it.”

“Sounds good,” Yara answered.

Of course she would be happy with this answer. She was basically getting what she wanted for now. And thefor nowpart was what Kamryn had to remember.

“Heather, Susy—I want you to report back to the board about the missing records. Without disclosing the details of whoserecords are missing unless Yara and I find more information out before the next board meeting.” Kamryn wrote each of these action items down, so that everyone was on the same page when they got back together. “In the meantime, we’ll implementsomeof Yara’s restrictions on Elia, but not all of them.”

“What?” Yara’s eyes widened in shock.

Kamryn shook her head, holding her ground on this one. “Those restrictions went away for a reason, and what you’re asking for is over and above what would be required unless a new complaint was filed. And there hasn’t been. I’ll speak with Elia about supervision during classes and office hours and ask that she restrict her time in the main part of campus. Since I’m co-leading the Speech team, she’ll be supervised by me on those trips and during practices.”

“And you don’t see that as a conflict?” Yara pushed.

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